Eugene Gore’s Flat Top Inn 635 Jabbertown Rd.

During the week, the Flat Top Inn was a workshop where Eugene Gore repaired radios and televisions. On the weekends it transformed into a nightclub where the community could gather and socialize. Just like his multi-purpose business, Eugene Gore was a man who wore many hats in his lifetime. Besides owning the repair shop, he also provided affordable rental housing in Southport. As a young man he worked as a kitchen boy and eventually worked his way up to becoming one of the first African American captains of a menhaden fishing boat. He later captained a deep-sea commercial fishing vessel and the Southport- Ft. Fisher ferry. He was the president of the Southport NAACP for over twenty years. He was a member of the Dosher Memorial Hospital Board, the Southport Planning Board and Commissioner of the Battleship USS North Carolina. Born into a period of segregation, discrimination and oppressed voting rights, Eugene was a lifelong proponent of civil rights. In his lifetime he was fortunate to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak, to meet Jimmy Carter at the White House, and to see the election of the first African American President of the United States.