Chapel Hill NC history

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• Chapel Hill Historical Society
  Founded in 1966 to research and document the history of Chapel Hill and the surrounding communities, to encourage and assist in the study of local history, and to provide public programs and publications related to the heritage and traditions of the area. Virtual tour of Franklin Street
  See also the Orange County (NC) Historical Society
• Looking Back, Moving Forward: Why Stories Matter
  Photographer and curator Barbara Tyroler, a lifelong Chapel Hill resident and daughter of Prof. H.A. Tyroler, has spent years documenting the places where the community's memories still linger. Her exhibition "Looking Back: Where Memory Takes Root" opens at Chapel Hill's Robert and Pearl Seymour Center on August 29, 2026.
• Fire Side Chat with Howard Lee, Braxton Foushee, and Gerry Cohen 2025
  As part of Chapel Hill Transit's 50th Anniversary Celebration, and with respect to Black History Month, leaders from our past and present were brought together for a special conversation, our Fireside Chat. The event focused on how we started our public transit system, how important it is for civil rights and equality, and the legacy we still carry today.
  Panelists (left-to-right):
  Braxton Foushee, Carrboro Board of Alderman (1969)
  Howard Lee, Mayor of Chapel Hill (1969-1975)
  Gerry Cohen, Chapel Hill Board of Alderman (1974)
  Brian Litchfield, Chapel Hill Transit Director (2013- )
  (includes AI transcript)
• Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition
  formed organically in the summer of 2018, in response to the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, AL. A group of friends and colleagues in Orange County, NC, convened a meeting to talk about the pressing need to recognize the sufferings and sacrifices of our foremothers and forefathers in ways that would respect them and their descendants, as well as the affected communities, past and present.
• Chapel Hill's Community History (with podcast)
  In September, 2017 Mayor Pam Hemminger charged the Historic Civil Rights Commemorations (HCRC) Task Force with the creation of a timeline that identifies people, places and events “significant in the town’s Civil Rights struggle so that they may be commemorated in historical context by the Town, including the sit-in at the Colonial Drugstore and the Lincoln High Students (‘Chapel Hill Nine’) whose actions ignited the integration movement in Chapel Hill.” This initiative created a model for ongoing community engagement in collaboration with local government.
  
  Taskforce Members:
  James Britt
  Ken Broun
  Sally Greene
  Reginald Hildebrand
  Dianne Jackson
  Danita Mason-Hogans
  OJ McGee
  Mae McLendon
  Jim Merritt
  Cecelia Moore
  Clyde Perry
  Megan Stanley
  Albert Williams
  William Sturkey.
  
  Includes a two-season podcast
• 'One fantastic school': Lincoln High School's decades-long legacy of Black education
  By Sarah Clements Assistant City & State Editor, Daily Tar Heel, Feb. 17, 2026
  "Chapel Hill's first Black school, known as the Freedman School, was established in the late 1860s in a three-room building adjacent to the current St. Paul AME Church, originally functioning as a school for former slaves. After a decade of operation, Orange County began to provide public funds to the school, and, in 1890, the Quaker Free School opened to serve Black students in the first through seventh grades."
• CHCCS honors Stan Vickers after 60th anniversary of desegregation efforts
  By Kelli Rainer, Daily Tar Heel, August 29, 2021
  "When he was 10 years old, Stan Vickers' family filed a lawsuit against the Chapel Hill City Board of Education to gain entry into Carrboro Elementary School where, at the time, only white students were allowed to attend.
  "...
  "Speaking in a video CHCCS released to honor the anniversary, Vickers talked about the experience he and his family had in desegregating the local school system." [As of 2/18/2026 the link to the video no longer works.]
• James Cates | Remembering and Reckoning
  Center for the Study of the American South, November 18, 2020
  This Re/Collecting Chapel Hill podcast episode shares the story of James Cates. The episode features Mike Ogle’s research and the voices of community members who knew Cates, including those with him when he died.
• Remembering Chapel Hill: The Twentieth Century as We Lived it
  Valarie Schwartz · 2009. The History Press, Charleston SC
• Chapel Hill Public Library community history website
  Chapel Hill Community History staff work with local people to document and share untold, ignored, and erased stories from Chapel Hill's history. Our work is an intentional, collaborative co-creation with history makers, historians, local government, and community members. Together we initiate, design, and share public history projects, programs, and exhibits.
• Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection
  at the Orange County Public Library (NC) contains historical reference items from the local area, including books, journals, magazines, maps, microfilm, and online resources, plus a list of area historic sites and additional online resources provided by the UNC at Chapel Hill, the State of North Carolina, and others.
• History of UNC at Chapel Hill
  (More history links on EpiVic's website)
• North Carolina history
  (More history links on EpiVic's website)