Museum celebrates Roberta Flack

The Swannanoa Valley Museum and History Center celebrates Roberta Flack, a native of Black Mountain, North Carolina, with a permanent museum exhibition.

“This is the first time a celebrity of international fame has been featured in the museum,” said museum director LeAnne Johnson.

With a professional music career dating back to 1968, Flack has earned world renown and multiple awards, including 13 Grammy nominations, five Grammy wins — including a lifetime achievement award — and an American Music Award.

Black Mountain boasts other musical artists, but none hold Flack’s global prominence, Johnson said.

A mural with Flack’s image, installed in 2020, looms prominently off Broadway Avenue on the Black Mountain Brewing building.

Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for record of the year in two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won in 1973 and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won in 1974.

She is known for her No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” "Killing Me Softly with His Song,” "Feel Like Makin' Love,” "Where Is the Love,” and "The Closer I Get to You.” Flack was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Flack’s family left Black Mountain when she was a child. “My ‘mountain years’ were pre-Civil Rights Movement. When potential landlords saw my mother’s dark skin, we were refused decent housing,” she has said. “Our voices were spoken with our tongues and mom and dad’s feet — as they left for a better life for us all.”

The Swannanoa Valley Museum and History Center is located at 223 West State Street, Black Mountain.