He pastored several churches, contributed articles and poems to newspapers around the United States, and was named by Governor R. Gregg Cherry as the first North Carolina Poet Laureate in 1948.
[1] He contributed columns to The Charlotte Observer as well as newspapers around the country including Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, New York and Philadelphia.
[7] He ran for United States House of Representatives in 1928 as an anti-Al Smith candidate, losing in the Democratic primary to incumbent Alfred L.
[8] A member of the Ku Klux Klan, Abernethy vowed in 1922 that a million American Klansmen were set to invade Canada to bring Matthew Bullock, a black North Carolinian whose brother had been lynched the prior year, back to the state.
Bullock, who had been allowed to remain in Canada after entering the country illegally, went into hiding as a result of threats from Abernethy and other white supremacists.
"[10] That same year, Governor Clyde R. Hoey declared Abernethy to be an honorary citizen for life of Charlotte, Hickory, Asheville, and Valdese, North Carolina.
[5] Abernethy was close friends with North Carolina Governor R. Gregg Cherry who appointed him to the poet laureate position in November 1948.