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Recent decades · 1976–2026
- 2010s
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Michael Jordan expands the Jordan Brand partnership with UNC athletics
Jordan announced an expansion of his Jordan Brand partnership with North Carolina Tar Heels athletics in March 2017, saying that it is always great to come home.
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UNC men’s basketball wins the 2017 NCAA national championship
UNC defeated Gonzaga, 71–65, to win the national title.
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Chapel Hill is selected for a Building Integrated Communities partnership
The Latino Migration Project chose Chapel Hill, along with Siler City, for two years of community planning support to help the town work with foreign-born residents. Town manager Roger Stancil said the town already had policies meant to make the community inclusive.
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Ground was broken on the sewer extension to the historic Rogers Road area
Orange County, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, OWASA and RENA held a groundbreaking at the RENA Community Center on Edgar Street after the sanitary sewer design was finished and a contractor hired. Construction was to begin in July 2017 and run 10 to 12 months.
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Orange County's library branches are merged into one catalog
Preparing for the Southern Branch, the library merged the holdings of the Main Library, the Carrboro branch at McDougle School and the Cybrary into a single catalog during the 2017–18 fiscal year and added the Cedar Grove kiosk's items. Staff reported an immediate rise in circulation at all three branches and in items sent between locations by courier.
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Tremaine Royster becomes the fourth pastor of Jones Grove
Tremaine Royster became Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church's fourth pastor; the church, which owns Ridge Road School, also runs a food bank.
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The Hillsborough survey proposes the Ja-Max Motor Lodge for the state Study List
The survey report recommended the 1952 motel on US 70 for North Carolina's National Register Study List as one of the town's few surviving mid-century motels. It cited the eleven rooms, each with its own bath and parking at the door, the lamp-lined drive, and Ranch-house features rarely used on a commercial building, and proposed a 2.87-acre boundary. The National Register Advisory Committee added the motel to the Study List on October 12, 2017.
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The survey proposes adding the Military Academy dining hall and grounds to the Commandant's House listing
The report recommended the academy's surviving frame dining hall on Barracks Road, left out of the Commandant's House nomination, for the Study List as an expansion of that listing, with about 21.5 acres over three parcels. The land keeps the barracks foundation, old tree lines and a daffodil-lined path, and the Office of State Archaeology judged it likely to hold remains of the school. The National Register Advisory Committee added the dining hall and site to the Study List on October 12, 2017.
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UNC's Noteworthy Firsts program honors Karen Parker
At a reception in Kenan Stadium, UNC honored Parker among 21 people whose names were given to need-based undergraduate awards and graduate fellowships in its Noteworthy Firsts initiative, begun by Chancellor Carol Folt in 2016.
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The Rocks in Chapel Hill and Cedar Grove School join the Study List
Among nine central and southeastern public requests approved on October 12, 2017 were William C. Coker's house, The Rocks, in Chapel Hill and the Cedar Grove School north of Hillsborough. The same meeting placed the Hillsborough survey's Ja-Max Motor Lodge and Military Academy dining hall site on the list.
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The Arthur C. and Mary S.A. Nash House is listed in the National Register
On October 26, 2017 the National Park Service listed the Arthur C. and Mary S.A. Nash House in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.
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Patrick Dougherty builds Step Right Up at the Ackland Art Museum
The Ackland commissioned five stickwork vessels for its front lawn, built by Dougherty with 188 volunteers from maple and gum saplings harvested in Duke Forest and on Triangle Land Conservancy land.
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Bona Fide Sandwich Co. closes on North Churton Street
The owners announced on October 3, 2017 that that week's lunches would be the shop's last, about a year and a half after it opened. They began serving lunch at the Wooden Nickel Pub instead.
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John Blackfeather Jeffries gives his Occaneechi collection to UNC's Southern Historical Collection
Jeffries gave the Wilson Library about 5,000 items, including photographs of Occaneechi powwows and of the replica village's construction in Hillsborough, recordings of Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo songs, and the band's petition for state acknowledgment of tribal status.
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Barbara Foushee is elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen
Foushee, who announced her candidacy in March 2017 saying she wanted a seat at the table where changes were made, won a seat in the 2017 municipal election. She served on the town's governing board for six years before being elected mayor.
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Quintana Stewart becomes Orange County's health director
After a nationwide search, the Orange County Board of Health chose Stewart, then assistant health director at the Forsyth County Department of Public Health. She started on December 18, 2017, succeeding Colleen Bridger, who had left in February 2017 for a post in San Antonio.
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Burwell School Historic Site marks the bicentennial of Elizabeth Keckly
Through 2018 the Burwell School Historic Site in Hillsborough marked the 200th anniversary of Keckly's birth with an exhibition that included an original copy of her memoir and a replica of a purple velvet dress she made, sewn by local seamstress Karen DeSombre.
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Carrboro broke ground on the Rogers Road sidewalk and bus stop project
A $1.37 million project put a five-foot sidewalk from the west side of Rogers Road to Meadow Run Court, together with a new bus pad and shelter. Ground was broken in late June 2018 and construction began that fall. The project traced back to a New Horizons task force created in 2005.
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Mark Kleinschmidt is elected Orange County clerk of superior court
Kleinschmidt was first elected clerk of superior court in 2018 and has held the office since. The state judicial branch says that in the post he has worked to strengthen court services and the administration of guardianship matters.
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Penny Rich chairs the Orange County Board of Commissioners
Rich was vice chair of the county commissioners from 2016 to 2018 and chair from 2018 to 2020, and she led the board through the start of the county's COVID-19 response.
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The North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls is listed in the National Register
On January 25, 2018 the National Park Service listed the North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls near Efland in the National Register of Historic Places.
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University Archives publishes the names of 119 enslaved people who built and worked at the university
Drawing on research by archivists, historians and students in Jim Leloudis's fall 2017 History 398 class, the archives listed 119 enslaved people who built and labored at the university from 1795 to 1865, including November Caldwell and David Barham.
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Bacon's Meat Market passes to new owners and becomes Steve's Garden Market
Justin and Meagan Long of Steve's Garden Market in Graham took over Bacon's Meat Market, planning to take in the laundromat next door and add produce, seafood, beer and wine while keeping the sandwich counter. The store was to reopen under the new name on May 7.
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Horace Williams Airport closes
UNC closed Horace Williams Airport on May 15, 2018, under a November 2017 trustees resolution, citing money lost running the field and at least $1 million in needed runway repairs. The airfield dated to 1928 and had trained Navy pre-flight cadets during World War II; the Carolina North campus once planned for the site had stalled.
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Chapel Hill residents walk and sing in memory of Mama Dip
The day before Mildred Council's funeral at Chapel Hill Bible Church, William Thorpe of UNC Walk For Health led a walk through Chapel Hill in her memory, with people singing "This Little Light of Mine" from porches along the way.
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Danita Mason-Hogans presents Chapel Hill's civil rights timeline to the town council
The Historic Civil Rights Commemorations Task Force, created by Mayor Pam Hemminger in the fall of 2017, gave the council a timeline of people, places and events in the town's civil rights struggle. Mason-Hogans, one of its leaders, told the council that who tells the history matters as much as the history itself.
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Carrboro created a zoning overlay district to protect the Lloyd-Broad neighborhood
At residents' request the Board of Aldermen set square-footage and parking limits and a cap of four unrelated occupants per household for the historically African American neighborhood, which had seen more student rentals and larger replacement houses. New building had to comply at once and existing houses were given three years.
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The Wooden Nickel pub reopens two doors up in the former bank at 113 North Churton Street
After closing its 975-square-foot home at 105 North Churton Street on July 1, the Wooden Nickel opened in the former Bank of America space at 113 North Churton, more than twice the size.
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Silent Sam is toppled
On the evening of August 20, 2018, the eve of fall classes, about 250 protesters pulled UNC's Confederate monument in McCorkle Place from its pedestal at around 9:20 p.m. The toppling followed a year of campaigning for removal after the 2017 Charlottesville rally, and campus authorities took the statue to an undisclosed location.
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The Smith Center floor is dedicated as Roy Williams Court
UNC announced on August 2, 2018 that it would name the Dean E. Smith Center playing floor for Williams, and the floor was dedicated on August 24.
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The UNC Board of Governors gives Chapel Hill until November 15 to propose a 'lawful and lasting' plan for the monument
Eight days after the toppling, the Board of Governors met for nearly two hours in closed session and adopted a resolution directing Chancellor Folt and the trustees to present by November 15 a plan offering 'a lawful and lasting path that protects public safety, preserves the monument and its history'. Thom Goolsby cast the lone no vote, and the board ordered an outside review of the University's handling of the August 20 protest. The trustees met the same day.
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Ground is broken for the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center
Aziz and Gwen Sancar broke ground at 1609 East Franklin Street on a 1.7-acre center with a 9,700-square-foot community hall and a two-story guesthouse for Turkish students and scholars.
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Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities assessment documents the refugee community from Burma
The Town of Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities assessment reported about 1,200 refugees living in Orange County, roughly 90 percent from Burma. Of 74 refugees surveyed through Transplanting Traditions and the Refugee Support Center, 57 were from Burma and spoke Karenic languages.
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New Hope Elementary starts a Spanish dual-language program in Orange County Schools
After a year and a half of planning, New Hope Elementary opened a 50-50 Spanish-English dual-language program for 48 kindergarten students at the start of the 2018-19 school year, taught on alternating days in English and Spanish. The principal described it as a way for Latino students to take pride in their heritage and keep the Spanish they use with their families.
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UNC names its new field hockey stadium for Karen Shelton
The university announced that its field hockey facility would be called Karen Shelton Stadium, the first UNC playing field named in honor of a woman. The team had moved in at the start of preseason that August, and the stadium holds about 1,000 spectators.
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William J. Barber II is named a MacArthur Fellow
The MacArthur Foundation named William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, a 2018 MacArthur Fellow.
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Schley Grange Hall near Hurdle Mills joins the Study List
Staff proposed the grange hall as eligible for its place in the social history of the area. With no questions from members or the audience, the committee approved it by a 7-0 roll call vote on October 11, 2018.
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UNC moves Kenan Stadium's honor from William R. Kenan Sr. to his son
Chancellor Carol Folt announced that, after talking with the family, the university would change the stadium plaques to remove the honor to William R. Kenan Sr., who led a white supremacist unit in the 1898 Wilmington massacre, and focus instead on the donor, William R. Kenan Jr.
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Chapel Hill voters approve a $10 million affordable housing bond
About 72 percent of voters approved $10 million in general obligation bonds toward the town's goal of 400 new and 300 preserved affordable units over five years, including public housing redevelopment.
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Self-Help buys the Neville House for the Northside land bank
On November 8, 2018, Self-Help Ventures Fund bought the vacant Neville House through the Northside Neighborhood Initiative land bank, which uses a $3 million no-interest UNC loan to keep homes in Northside, Tin Top and Pine Knolls from becoming student rentals.
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UNC field hockey wins the 2018 NCAA national championship
UNC won the 2018 NCAA field hockey title.
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Chapel Hill's council accepts the task force plan for a Chapel Hill Nine marker
The council voted unanimously to accept the recommendations for a marker in front of 450 West Franklin Street, where Colonial Drug stood, and sent the plans to the town manager. Mason-Hogans, a task force member, said the marker and the learning around it mattered for young people.
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UNC trustees vote to house the monument in a new $5.3 million University History and Education Center
At a special meeting the Board of Trustees approved a four-part plan for the Board of Governors: relocate the statue and tablets into a new free-standing building at the former Odum Village site on south campus, add a McCorkle Place gateway with plaques, and continue contextualizing campus history. The center was priced at $5.3 million with $800,000 a year to operate; Folt said police advised that the statue could not safely return to McCorkle Place.
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The Board of Governors rejects the history center and appoints a task force with a March 15 deadline
After a nearly three-hour closed session the Board of Governors declined the trustees' $5.3 million history center, citing cost and public safety, and named five of its members to work with Folt and the trustees on a new proposal by March 15, 2019. Folt said the plan 'hasn't satisfied anyone' and that the campus would now look at off-campus options.
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Snow collapses the dome of the Riverwalk stickwork sculpture
Winter Storm Diego brought down the dome of A Sight to Behold after about three years on the Riverwalk, and the Hillsborough Arts Council planned a send-off during its Solstice Lantern Walk on December 21.
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Chapel Hill adopts a Building Integrated Communities action plan
Following the 2018 community assessment, the town produced a 34-point plan covering public transportation, relations with law enforcement, resident leadership, housing access and communication in other languages. The town went on to translate documents into Spanish, Mandarin, Karen and Burmese and to add interpretation at meetings.
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Chapel Hill adopts a Language Access Plan covering Karen and Burmese
The Chapel Hill Town Council adopted a Language Access Plan in 2019, following the Building Integrated Communities process in which immigrant and refugee residents named language access as a key need. The town has since translated hundreds of documents into Karen and Burmese as well as Spanish and Mandarin.
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Folt orders the Silent Sam pedestal removed and announces she will step down
Folt ordered the removal on the Monday and announced in a campuswide email that she would resign, saying the remaining parts of the monument threatened the safety of the community. The university said at 1 a.m. on Tuesday that removal had begun, and by 2:40 a.m. a crew had taken the last of the base from the quad.
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Hillsborough holds a celebration of Billy Strayhorn
A day of events called A Celebration of Billy Strayhorn began at the historical marker on South Churton Street and ran on at the Orange County Main Library and the Burwell School Historic Site. Mayor Tom Stevens, the musician Yahyah Corbett, the choreographer David Rousseve, the Duke professor Thomas DeFrantz and the puppeteer Jeghetto took part.
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The Chapel Hill Nine marker site is dedicated on the 59th anniversary of the sit-in
The town dedicated the marker site at 5 p.m. in front of the West End Wine Bar, where Colonial Drug had stood, and a march to First Baptist Church followed for a community celebration. Mason-Hogans, a main proponent of the marker, spoke about the task force's work.
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Joal Broun is elected chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board
The board elected Broun chair by unanimous vote after chair Margaret Samuels resigned during a recall push over the Glenwood Elementary dual language magnet decision. Mary Ann Wolf took the vice chair seat Broun had held.
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Durham–Orange light rail project ends
On March 27, 2019, the GoTriangle board voted unanimously to stop planning the 18-mile Durham-Orange light rail line between Chapel Hill and Durham after Duke University declined to sign needed agreements. Orange County commissioners voted unanimously on April 2 to end the county's work on it.
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The West Chapel Hill Historic District is enlarged in the National Register
On May 9, 2019 the National Park Service listed a boundary increase for the West Chapel Hill Historic District, enlarging the district in the National Register of Historic Places.
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Chapel Hill and Carrboro created Historic Rogers Road zoning districts
The Chapel Hill Town Council closed its public hearing on May 22, 2019 and enacted Land Use Management Ordinance amendments establishing new zoning districts for the Historic Rogers Road Neighborhood. Carrboro added Section 15-136.1 to its Land Use Ordinance on June 18, 2019, creating the HR-R and HR-CC districts expressly to carry out the Mapping Our Community's Future plan.
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The Rogers Road sewer extension was placed in service
OWASA put the extension into service on June 27, 2019 after the state accepted the as-built certification, ending a wait that residents traced to the 1972 landfill agreement. About 3.5 miles of sewer had been laid, and the neighborhood held a celebration at the community center on June 3. Individual owners still had to pay to connect their homes.
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Merge Records holds its 30th anniversary festival at Cat's Cradle and in Durham
More than 30 acts from the label's roster played MRG30 over four days. The Carrboro nights were at Cat's Cradle, where Superchunk closed the Thursday bill at midnight, and the opening night and after party were in Durham. Fans held a potluck and kickball game at Wilson Park in Carrboro on the Friday.
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Fire collapses the roof of the old ABC building at 122 US 70 in Hillsborough
A fire found about 12:30 a.m. brought down the roof of Triangle Environmental Services at 122 US 70 and damaged the meat market next door. The building was empty and one minor injury was reported.
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A mural for Billy Strayhorn is painted on South Churton Street
Max Dowdle painted an eleven by thirty five foot mural called Take the A Train on the side of 226 South Churton Street, the building that houses the record store and bar Volume. Volume's owner Tony Lopez proposed it, the Tourism Development Authority paid for it, and the Arts Council and the Historic District Commission approved it.
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EPA closed the Rogers Road civil rights complaint as moot
The EPA External Civil Rights Compliance Office told the Orange County attorney that Complaint No. 13R-07-R4 was closed because interlocal agreements to which the county was a party had produced a completed water and sewer extension, and because OWASA is bound by those agreements to serve Rogers Road residents who connect. The letter found no systemic issues left to investigate and made no finding of discrimination.
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UNC dedicates Dorrance Field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium
The university dedicated the field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium to Dorrance before the women's game against Notre Dame, in his 43rd year of coaching at Carolina.
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Carrboro's Board of Aldermen votes to rename itself the Town Council
After 50 years as the Board of Aldermen, a name the General Assembly approved in 1969, Carrboro's governing board passed a resolution changing its title to Town Council as part of making the town code gender neutral. It had tentatively approved the change after a public hearing on November 12. Randee Haven-O'Donnell said members who had sat on the board had felt the pinch of being called aldermen.
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UNC field hockey wins the 2019 NCAA national championship
UNC won the 2019 NCAA field hockey title.
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The UNC System gives Silent Sam to the Sons of Confederate Veterans with a $2.5 million trust in a same-day consent judgment
The North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the UNC System and Board of Governors over the monument and a consent judgment was entered the same day in Orange County Superior Court. The System handed over the statue, to be kept outside the fourteen counties with a System campus, and endowed a $2.5 million charitable trust from non-state funds for its care and display. Board chair Randy Ramsey said the deal let the University 'move forward'.
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Chapel Hill creates a poet laureate post and names CJ Suitt the first
The Chapel Hill Town Council voted to launch a poet laureate program, initiated by council members Rachel Schaevitz and Allen Buansi, and appointed CJ Suitt as the first. He took up the role in January 2020, and the town stretched the two-year term to three because of the pandemic.
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The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition collects soil at the site of Manly McCauley's lynching
On a Saturday morning on Carl Drive, McCauley family members, clergy and coalition members gathered at the spot where he is believed to have been hanged; elders of Hickory Grove Missionary Baptist Church blessed soil that was jarred for the family. A program with the Equal Justice Initiative followed at the church.
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Kevin M. Guskiewicz is named UNC-Chapel Hill's twelfth chancellor
The UNC System Board of Governors voted to make Guskiewicz chancellor, effective that day. He had been interim chancellor since February 6, 2019, was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from January 2016 and had taught at Chapel Hill since 1995. He marked the start with a $5 million investment for the university to study its past.
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Cat's Cradle marks 50 years with an anniversary concert series
The "Cat's Cradle Turns 50" series put 50 acts on stage over six nights at the Carrboro club.
- 2020s
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2020 census counts the Hispanic or Latino population of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill
The 2020 census counted 15,812 Hispanic or Latino residents in Orange County, 4,734 in Chapel Hill and 2,723 in Carrboro, from the 2020 redistricting data as compiled in the NC Office of State Budget and Management's LINC database.
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Renaming of Hamilton Hall is recommended
After a reevaluation of Hamilton's career, the building housing UNC's History Department was recommended for a name change. Critics pointed to his white supremacist Reconstruction scholarship and to a manuscript collection gathered from white families.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom joins the faculty of UNC’s School of Information and Library Science
Sociologist and author Tressie McMillan Cottom joined the UNC School of Information and Library Science as an associate professor and became a senior faculty researcher in the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life.
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Judge Allen Baddour voids the Silent Sam settlement in Hillsborough for lack of standing
At a hearing in Hillsborough, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans had no standing to bring the suit and set aside the consent judgment and the $2.5 million trust. Five UNC students and a faculty member represented by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law had sought to intervene; their motion was denied but the judge took up the standing question they raised.
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David Zucchino discusses Wilmington's Lie in UNC's Nelson Benton Lecture
David Zucchino, a UNC journalism alumnus and former lecturer at the school, spoke about his book Wilmington's Lie, on the 1898 Wilmington coup, in the Carroll Hall auditorium.
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The Town of Chapel Hill unveils the Chapel Hill Nine marker at the Colonial Drug site
On the sixtieth anniversary of the sit-in the town dedicated sculptor Stephen Hayes's stone-based marker at 450 West Franklin Street, naming the nine students; four of them, Dave Mason Jr., James Merritt, Douglas Perry and Albert Williams, attended the unveiling.
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Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz formally charges the Commission on History, Race and a Way Forward
The commission, formed in 2019 and co-chaired by Jim Leloudis and Patricia Parker, was charged with researching the university's history with race and recommending how to reckon with it.
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Exhibit honoring housekeeping and facilities staff opens in the renovated Cheek-Clark Building
A lobby exhibit in the renovated Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark Building presents the lives of Cheek, Clark and groundskeeper William Hubbard with a timeline of the university's housekeeping and facilities work.
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Cat's Cradle plays its last shows before the pandemic shutdown
Destroyer played the main room at 300 East Main Street on March 11, 2020, and Songs From the Road Band played the Back Room on March 13, the club's last shows before COVID-19 closed it. Heath said he began rescheduling on the night of March 11, when the NBA suspended its season, and the March 14 shows were cancelled.
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COVID-19 transforms Orange County
Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency on March 13, 2020, and the county and its three towns ordered residents to stay home from March 27. UNC moved undergraduate classes online in August 2020 after campus clusters. The county emergency, extended more than a dozen times, expired on May 1, 2022.
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Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools launches Food for Students meal distribution
CHCCS, the Town of Chapel Hill, PORCH and volunteers began handing out free meals to students as schools closed, starting from about 20 sites. By December 21, 2020 the program had distributed more than 900,000 meals from 37 sites.
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Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declare a COVID-19 state of emergency
Orange County government and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency to prepare for COVID-19, allowing emergency procedures and funding. The county declaration, extended more than a dozen times, stayed in force until May 1, 2022.
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Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools close under a statewide order
Governor Roy Cooper closed all North Carolina public schools for at least two weeks from Monday, March 16, 2020, shutting both Orange County districts. CHCCS then began online classes for grades 6-12 and sent learning packets home for grades K-5 at the end of March while serving meals to students.
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Orange County Public Library closes its buildings and sets out a free book shelf
With its buildings closed, the library kept the Hillsborough and Carrboro book drops and phone reference running, stopped charging late fees, and from March 18 set out a free book and DVD shelf outside the Main Library in Hillsborough.
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Orange County Health Department identifies the county's first COVID-19 cases
The health department announced that Orange County residents had tested positive for COVID-19 at the State Laboratory of Public Health and were isolating at home. Health Director Quintana Stewart said the response was shifting from containment to mitigation.
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Orange County and its three towns issue a joint stay-at-home order
Orange County, with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, ordered residents to stay home except for essential needs from 6 p.m. on March 27, 2020, three days before the statewide order took effect. Set to run until April 30, it was extended to May 8 to match the state order.
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Governor Cooper's statewide stay-at-home order takes effect
Executive Order 121, signed March 27, 2020, took effect at 5 p.m. on March 30 and ordered North Carolinians to stay home except for essential work and activities, capping gatherings at 10 people. Orange County's joint order had begun three days earlier.
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COVID-19 in Orange County
From the first cases in March 2020 to the last emergency measures in 2022: closures, remote school, the health department's response, mutual aid, and the pandemic's unequal weight.
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Mutual Aid Carrboro opens a COVID-19 solidarity fund for workers
Mutual Aid Carrboro partnered with NC Piedmont DSA to raise money for workers sent home without pay, running a solidarity fund for emergencies such as evictions and utility shutoffs. Applications were offered in Spanish, English and Chinese, with interpreter lines for Karen, Burmese and Kinyarwanda speakers.
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Orange County reports its first COVID-19 death
The health department reported that a resident in their 70s under hospice care at PruittHealth-Carolina Point, one of two long-term care facilities with outbreaks, had died of COVID-19 complications. The county then had 104 confirmed cases, and PruittHealth had at least 86 positive cases among residents and staff.
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Cedar Grove School is listed in the National Register
On April 23, 2020 the National Park Service listed Cedar Grove School near Cedar Grove in the National Register of Historic Places.
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The Schley Grange Hall is listed in the National Register
On April 23, 2020 the National Park Service listed the Schley Grange Hall near Schley in the National Register of Historic Places.
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Orange County and the towns launch a Housing Helpline for emergency rental aid
Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough opened a Housing Helpline in April 2020 to connect residents with emergency rent, utility and deposit assistance. The county's Emergency Housing Assistance program paid out $2.5 million to 1,005 residents in 2020, and an Eviction Diversion Program followed in July 2020.
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Drive-through food distribution at Chapel Hill Public Library serves 576 households
PORCH, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and the Town of Chapel Hill ran a drive-through food distribution in the Chapel Hill Public Library's lower parking lot, serving 576 households, or 2,391 people, with about 40 volunteers.
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Orange County requires face coverings
Orange County and its towns extended the local state of emergency through August 31, 2020 and required face coverings from 5 p.m. on June 12 when people could not keep six feet apart.
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Orange County Commissioners adopt a countywide Language Access policy
The Board of County Commissioners approved a policy requiring free interpretation and translation for residents with limited English across all county services, and directing each county department to keep a language access plan and train its staff.
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A car crash sets fire to the Farm & Garden Center on NC 86
Early on June 17, 2020, a speeding car hit the gas pumps at the Farm & Garden Center, a gas station, country store and produce stand on NC 86 near Walnut Grove Church Road. The car and the store caught fire and the canopy collapsed; the two young people in the car were hurt.
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Orange County Schools votes to open the school year online
The Orange County Schools board voted unanimously to begin the 2020-21 year with remote-only classes for at least the first four weeks, on the recommendation of Superintendent Monique Felder.
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Daphne Athas dies in Chapel Hill
Athas died in Chapel Hill on July 28, 2020. She had long lived in Carrboro in a small cabin she built with friends and into her late 80s was a familiar sight biking across town.
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UNC trustees vote to remove Josephus Daniels’s name from the student stores building
On July 29, 2020 the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted 11 to 2 to remove four names from campus buildings, among them Josephus Daniels. The Daniels Building became UNC Student Stores, and the names of Charles Brantley Aycock, Julian Shakespeare Carr and Thomas Ruffin Sr. were removed at the same meeting.
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Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools extends online-only classes into
The CHCCS board unanimously accepted interim Superintendent Jim Causby's recommendation to keep classes virtual through at least January 15, 2021. On December 18, 2020 the board kept remote learning in place through at least February.
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North Carolina musicians release Cover Charge to benefit the Cat's Cradle
Twenty-five North Carolina acts, among them Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, Tift Merritt and Iron and Wine, recorded cover songs for an album to raise money for the closed Carrboro club. Musician and UNC professor Florence Dore organized it, and Heath said presales were running better than expected.
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Mike Fox retires as UNC head baseball coach
Fox retired after 22 seasons leading the Tar Heels, with a 948-406-1 record at UNC and seven College World Series trips. His longtime assistant Scott Forbes was named the program's 25th head coach.
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UNC reopening produces a COVID-19 outbreak
UNC-Chapel Hill began in-person classes on August 10, 2020, reported four COVID-19 clusters in residence halls, private student housing and a fraternity within days, and on August 17 announced that undergraduate classes would move online from August 19. Campus test positivity rose from 2.8 percent to 13.6 percent in one week.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom wins a MacArthur Fellowship
The MacArthur Foundation named McMillan Cottom a 2020 fellow for her work as a sociologist, writer and public scholar on race, gender, education and digital technology, including her books Lower Ed and Thick. She was an associate professor at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science.
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UNC School of Law dedicates a portrait of Charles E. Daye
The law school held a virtual dedication for a commissioned portrait of Professor Emeritus Charles E. Daye by the Durham artist William Paul Thomas, attended by close to 300 people. The portrait hangs on the fifth floor of Van Hecke-Wettach Hall.
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African, African American, and Diaspora Studies faculty ask the university to take Battle's name off Battle Hall
Faculty of the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, whose offices are in Battle Hall, petitioned to remove Kemp Plummer Battle's name, citing his enslaving of people, his support for secession and his promotion of white supremacy. The university's Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward endorsed the request.
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Family and community march to remember James Cates on the 50th anniversary
A candlelit march went from Hargraves Community Center to St. Joseph CME Church and down Franklin Street to Peace and Justice Plaza, where the Town of Chapel Hill invited residents to leave flowers and messages for the Cates family. Mayor Pam Hemminger pledged to work with the family and UNC to investigate the killing.
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Community Home Trust marks 30 years with 332 permanently affordable homes
At its 30th anniversary the Home Trust held 332 permanently affordable homes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, up from about 100 in 2005.
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County budget closes the McDougle branch and consolidates Carrboro service at the Cybrary
Orange County's FY 2021–22 budget closed the Carrboro branch library at McDougle School, moved its staff to the Cybrary and lengthened Cybrary hours from 44 to 54 a week to match the Main Library, whose hours were cut from 68 to 54. The two changes together saved $143,083, and the same budget ended support for the Cedar Grove library kiosk.
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James Cates Remembrance Coalition proposes naming Student Stores for Cates
A coalition of Cates's family, historian Danita Mason-Hogans and community members proposed renaming UNC's Student Stores building in his honor. The building had not been renamed as of 2024.
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Sartin School, a 1930s school for Black children, is taken apart and removed
The frame Sartin School, built as a one-room school by R. J. Forrest in 1932 and given a second room in 1935, was dismantled and carried off its site in 2021, leaving Ridge Road among the very few such schools still standing in the county.
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Stewart receives the Chapel Hill-Carrboro chamber's citizenship and service award
The Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce gave Stewart its Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award in 2021, during the county's COVID-19 vaccination campaign. She later received the Ron Levine Public Health Legacy Award in 2022 and a National Association of Counties award in 2025.
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UNC-Chapel Hill awards William E. Leuchtenburg an honorary degree
UNC-Chapel Hill conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters on Leuchtenburg, its Kenan professor emeritus of history, in 2021.
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UNC Health opens a large vaccination clinic at the Friday Center
UNC Health opened its largest appointment-only COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, starting with people 75 and older. Staff expected about 600 patients a day in the first week and up to 1,500 a day at full capacity.
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Carrboro Town Council adopts a nondiscrimination ordinance covering sexual orientation and gender identity
Six weeks after the state's moratorium on local employment and public accommodation ordinances expired on December 1, 2020, the Council unanimously adopted Ordinance No. 10/20-21, adding to Chapter 8 of the Town Code a ban on discrimination in employment and places of public accommodation that covers sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. The ordinance took effect on adoption and cited the town's March 26, 2016 pledge to seek such protections.
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Orange County commissioners proclaim Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett Day
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously proclaimed Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett Day, honoring the county native who grew up in Cedar Grove and attended Orange County Schools; she accepted by Zoom.
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IFC Commons opens in Carrboro
The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service opened IFC Commons at 110 West Main Street in Carrboro, a $6 million building that put its community kitchen, food market and other non-shelter programs under one roof. Its virtual grand opening was held January 21, 2021.
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Orange County Schools students return to classrooms
Kindergarten and first-grade students returned for hybrid in-person classes on January 25, 2021. Students in grades 2-12 followed in two rotating cohorts on March 8 and March 15, a month earlier than planned, after Senate Bill 37 required districts to offer in-person instruction.
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Carrboro proclaims Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett Day
Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle proclaimed January 26, 2021 Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett Day, after Hillsborough and Orange County had honored the Orange High graduate for her COVID-19 vaccine work.
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Health department vaccinates its first recipients at drive-through clinics
By early January 2021 the Orange County Health Department had vaccinated about 1,000 Phase 1a personnel at drive-through clinics in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill and opened sign-ups for residents 75 and older, more than 4,200 of whom registered.
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Hillsborough proclaims Dr. Kizzmekia "Kizzy" Corbett Day
At an online meeting, Mayor Jenn Weaver read the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners' proclamation naming January 12, 2021 for Corbett, a Hillsborough native who helped develop the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine; Corbett thanked the board and urged residents to get vaccinated.
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Orange County Health Department launches a health equity website
The health department launched a health equity webpage to stay accountable to residents on racial equity, citing the county commissioners' June 16, 2020 declaration of structural racism as a public health crisis.
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Hillsborough renames Thomas Ruffin Street as Lydia Lane
The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to rename the street for Lydia, the enslaved woman shot by John Mann in the case Thomas Ruffin decided. All twelve households on the street had petitioned for a new name and had first proposed Hope Lane; Commissioner Mark Bell suggested using Lydia's name, and Commissioner Kathleen Ferguson made the motion to approve.
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Gaps in vaccination among Black and Hispanic residents reported
Chapelboro reported that Black residents were 12.4 percent of Orange County's population but 9 percent of those vaccinated, and Hispanic residents 8.6 percent and 5.5 percent. The county was working with church leaders and advocates in a Human Services Consulting Group and had held clinics at the Hargraves Community Center and in Cedar Grove.
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Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students return for hybrid classes
The CHCCS board voted unanimously on March 4, 2021 to begin hybrid in-person instruction on March 22, nearly a month before the April 19 start it had approved in February. Students attended in cohorts two days a week, and roughly half could remain fully remote.
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Roy Williams announces his retirement at the Smith Center
Williams, 70, announced his retirement at a Smith Center news conference after 33 seasons as a college head coach, with 903 wins and three NCAA titles at UNC.
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House bill to clarify Occaneechi recognition filed but not enacted
House Bill 600 proposed amending G.S. 71A-7.2 to clarify the Occaneechi Band's recognition and its eligibility for federal Indian programs. Its last recorded action was referral to the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations on May 13, 2021.
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The three governments adopted an interlocal agreement on the future of the Greene Tract
The agreement required Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro to act jointly in hiring consultants, entering development agreements and taking public input, put the mayors, chair and managers in a working group to negotiate the ultimate uses, and stated an initial intent covering mixed use and affordable housing, a school site with recreation, a joint preserve and connectivity. A November 2021 resolution then approved the recombination plat and the conceptual plan for the 60-acre county tract and the 107-acre joint tract.
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Pop-up vaccine clinic held at the Rogers Road Community Center
The Orange County Health Department held a pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Rogers Road Community Center for Hispanic and Asian American residents, many of whom do not speak English, after local volunteers asked for one and printed flyers in several languages.
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UNC field hockey wins the 2020 NCAA national championship
UNC won the 2020 NCAA field hockey title. The postponed 2020 championship was played in spring 2021.
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Lydia Lavelle announces she will not seek a fifth term as Carrboro mayor
After four terms as mayor and fourteen years in town office, Lavelle said she would not run again, saying that to everything there is a season and that she looked forward to what came next.
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Jenny Levy is elected to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame
UNC announced that Levy had been chosen for the 2021 class of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in her 26th season at Carolina, with a record of 373 wins and 117 losses and two NCAA titles at that point.
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Panciuto reopens after its pandemic closure, now sharing space with the Hillsborough Bakeshop
Panciuto reopened with a pared-down service model and no tipping, paying staff at least $15.40 an hour. The Hillsborough Bakeshop, begun as a stopgap during the shutdown, now runs in the same space.
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Crook's Corner announces its closure
On June 9, 2021, the owners of Crook's Corner told customers the West Franklin Street restaurant was closing, saying the COVID-19 crisis had made their position untenable. Gene Hamer and chef Bill Neal opened it in 1982, Bill Smith later led the kitchen, and the James Beard Foundation named it an America's Classic in 2011.
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David Zucchino wins the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
UNC alumnus David Zucchino won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. It was his second Pulitzer.
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Governor Cooper appoints Joal Broun a district court judge for Orange and Chatham counties
Broun was appointed to the District 15B seat vacated by Judge Beverly Scarlett. She was then director of the lobbying compliance division at the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State.
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Orange County Public Library reopens its Main Library building
After more than a year of closure and appointment-only curbside pickup, the Main Library reopened with distancing measures under the county's plan to reopen facilities through July 2021. In Carrboro the branch at McDougle School closed on June 13 and the Cybrary opened for browsing on August 6.
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Joal Broun is sworn in as a district court judge
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall administered the oath to Broun, who left her post as the department's lobbying compliance division director and gave up her school board seat to take the judgeship.
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Orange County Public Library adds Spanish-language classes and bilingual storytimes
Beginning in the 2021–22 fiscal year the library offered Spanish-language computer basics classes with the Family Success Alliance and UNC's Community Workshop Series. By 2023–24 it held storytimes in English and Spanish at Carrboro's Century Center, added Spanish interpretation to free computer classes and ran a health series for Spanish speakers with El Centro Hispano, and in 2024–25 it added bilingual storytimes at the Carrboro Farmers' Market and monthly conversational Spanish programs.
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Carrboro unveils a truth plaque naming Green Cordal and Benjamin Craig
The Town of Carrboro unveiled its second truth plaque at the former freedmen's school site on North Merritt Mill Road, next to St. Paul AME Church. The text reads that Green Cordal and Benjamin Craig, freed from bondage, purchased this land for a Freedman School and church, and that with funds from the Society of Friends they built a schoolhouse that served hundreds of free Black children and adults.
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Orange County reinstates an indoor mask mandate
As the delta variant spread, Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough required masks inside buildings and businesses from 5 p.m. on August 11, 2021.
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Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board honors Stanley Vickers and his family on the 60th anniversary of his court victory
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board passed a resolution recognizing the Vickers family's work to integrate the schools. Vickers, then in his 70s, attended and recalled eating lunch and going to gym alone as one of the first Black students at the junior high.
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The history and race commission holds a public webinar on the Unsung Founders Memorial
The Commission on History, Race and a Way Forward opened a two-part webinar series, Unsung Founders Memorial: Past and Present, with members of the Class of 2002 committee and statements from artist Do Ho Suh.
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Orange County Public Library ends overdue fines
Orange County commissioners approved a fine-free model for the county library, and overdue fines ended the next day. Library staff had found that fines fell hardest on residents facing economic hardship; charges for lost or damaged items continued.
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Chapel Hill Public Library webinar marks the 51st anniversary of the Cates killing
The Chapel Hill Public Library hosted a webinar in which family and friends, including state Senator Valerie Foushee, a first cousin of Cates, reflected on his life and on the failures that followed his death.
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UNC renames Aycock Residence Hall for Hortense McClinton
On the chancellor's recommendation the trustees voted to put McClinton's name on the residence hall that had carried Governor Charles B. Aycock's name until it was removed in July 2020. The Carr Building became the Henry Owl Building the same day.
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Carrboro honors Jacquelyn Gist after 32 years on its governing board
Gist, who lost her seat in the 2021 municipal election, was honored by the council for more than three decades of service. Kept away by COVID-19 concerns, she sent a recorded statement saying she had spent 32 years working so that everyone who came to Carrboro would feel the same sense of place and home she had found there.
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Carrboro honors Lydia Lavelle as Damon Seils is sworn in as mayor
At the council's meeting the town honored Lavelle for her four terms as mayor, and state senator Valerie Foushee administered the oath of office to her successor, Damon Seils. Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Barbara Foushee and Danny Nowell began council terms at the same meeting.
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Census counts 36 migrant workers on Orange County farms
The 2022 Census of Agriculture found 174 Orange County farms employing 597 hired workers, including 36 migrant workers on seven farms. Between 2017 and 2022 the number of tobacco farms in the county fell by 60 percent.
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Hsar Ree Ree Wei becomes executive director of Transplanting Traditions
Founder Kelly Owensby stepped back in spring 2022 and Hsar Ree Ree Wei, who was born in a Thai refugee camp and joined the farm as a youth intern in 2012, became executive director.
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Northside land bank passes 41 properties
By mid-2022 the initiative had bought more than 41 Northside properties with the UNC loan, and 51 families with 50 children had moved into the neighborhood through its housing work.
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Self-Help begins rehabilitating the Neville House for sale to a homeowner
In 2022 Self-Help began a full rehabilitation of the Neville House, to be sold with a deed restriction keeping it owner-occupied. Code work meant gutting the interior, and the stone mantel, the one original inside piece of the masons' work, was lost when the fireplace was removed.
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UNC names its athletics media center for Woody Durham
UNC Athletics and the Rams Club named the media and communications center beside the Dean E. Smith Center the Woody Durham Media and Communications Center, with trustee approval, and recognized his family at halftime of the February 16 men's basketball game against Pittsburgh.
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Walter R. Mears dies in Chapel Hill
Walter R. Mears, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press political reporter, died at his Chapel Hill apartment on March 3, 2022. He had made his home in Chapel Hill after retiring in 2001 and had taught journalism at UNC for a time. A memorial service was held in Chapel Hill on March 24.
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Orange County lifts its indoor mask mandate
Orange County and its three towns ended the indoor mask requirement on March 7, 2022. UNC-Chapel Hill lifted its campus mandate the same day, and Orange County Schools planned to make masks optional on March 10.
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Chapel Hill's new visitor welcome center opens with a recorded welcome from James Taylor
The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau opened its welcome center at 308 West Franklin Street with a 10-foot LED screen showing a nine-minute video in which James Taylor talks about "Carolina in My Mind" and performs it.
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Justice Department opens a cold-case investigation into the Cates killing
The U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the killing under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act and its cold-case initiative for racially motivated killings before 1980. Cates's cousins Nate Davis and Valerie Foushee welcomed the review.
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Reconstructed Occaneechi Village is rededicated
The Occaneechi replica village in River Park was rededicated after about five years of work by tribal members, volunteers, town and county staff and the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough. It includes a palisade, four huts, a work arbor, fire pit, lean-to and cooking table.
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Danita Mason-Hogans receives a national fellowship for a critical oral history of Chapel Hill and UNC
The Oral History Association named her one of eleven year-long fellows funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Her project is a critical oral history of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina.
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Orange County's COVID-19 state of emergency expires
The county's COVID-19 emergency declaration, in force since March 13, 2020 and extended more than a dozen times, expired at 5 p.m. on May 1, 2022, making it the longest-running state of emergency in county history.
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Ground is broken for the Southern Branch Library in Carrboro
Carrboro and Orange County broke ground at 203 South Greensboro Street for the Orange County Southern Branch Library and civic building known as The 203 Project, after both boards gave final approval on March 15, 2022. Mayor Damon Seils led the program, with remarks by commissioners' chair Renee Price, County Manager Bonnie Hammersley, Town Manager Richard J. White III and Nerys Levy of the Friends of the Southern Branch Library.
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Hortense McClinton Residence Hall is dedicated
UNC dedicated Hortense McClinton Residence Hall and the Henry Owl Building in a ceremony, and the School of Social Work held a dinner for McClinton, then 103, that launched a legacy scholarship in her name.
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UNC women’s lacrosse wins the 2022 NCAA national championship
UNC won the 2022 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship.
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Journey of Reconciliation convictions are vacated
On June 17, 2022, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour vacated the disorderly conduct convictions of Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Andrew Johnson and Joseph Felmet. The four Journey of Reconciliation riders had been arrested in Chapel Hill in April 1947 for refusing to leave the front of an interstate bus.
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A Blue Cross NC Foundation grant expands Building Integrated Communities
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation awarded $1.55 million to the program, with further money to community partners, naming Gill as principal investigator. Chapel Hill received a separate three-year grant of $375,000 from the same foundation for its own immigrant and refugee work.
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Erin Sapienza is named director of the Orange County Public Library
County Manager Bonnie Hammersley named Erin Sapienza library director after she had served as interim director since October 2021, when director Lucinda Munger resigned. Sapienza joined the library in June 2013 as a branch manager, became community services librarian in October 2015 and assistant director in March 2020.
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UNC announces a permanent memorial to James Cates in the Pit
Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz announced that a permanent memorial to Cates would be installed in the Pit later in 2022, developed with students, faculty, staff and the Cates family, approved by the Board of Trustees and supported by the Town of Chapel Hill.
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Chapel Hill names the Hargraves Center gym for Nate Davis
The Town Council unanimously approved naming the Northside Gym at the Hargraves Community Center for Davis, the center's director for more than three decades, and its indoor court for Fred Battle, director from 1970 to 1987.
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UNC field hockey wins the 2022 NCAA national championship
UNC won the 2022 NCAA field hockey title.
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UNC dedicates the James L. Cates Jr. Memorial in the Pit
On the 52nd anniversary of his death, UNC dedicated a black lectern-style marker near the spot where Cates was stabbed, with an inscription from the University and the Town of Chapel Hill. Speakers included Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Congresswoman-elect Valerie Foushee for the family, student body president Taliajah Vann and BSM president Julia Clark.
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Karen Shelton announces her retirement as UNC field hockey coach
Shelton retired after 42 seasons with a record of 745 wins, 172 losses and 9 ties and 10 NCAA championships, the last won by an unbeaten 2022 team. She is the winningest coach in the sport's history.
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Daniel Wallace gives UNC's Winter Commencement address
Novelist and English professor Daniel Wallace was the speaker at UNC's Winter Commencement in the Dean E. Smith Center.
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UNC raises housekeepers' pay by 90 cents an hour
Guskiewicz told the campus by email that housekeeping salaries would rise, with the amount set by position and experience and back pay to November 21, 2022. Housekeepers, who had asked for $20 an hour and an end to parking fees, called the raise a slap in the face and rallied outside South Building in February 2023.
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David Zucchino teaches International Reporting at UNC as an adjunct instructor
Two-time Pulitzer winner David Zucchino returned to UNC as an adjunct instructor to teach a course in international reporting, run as a working newsroom.
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John Blackfeather Jeffries dies, and state flags are lowered in his honor
Jeffries, a Hillsborough resident and Occaneechi tribal elder, died on January 24, 2023. Governor Roy Cooper ordered state flags lowered to half-staff on February 1, 2023 in his honor.
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Erin Matson succeeds Karen Shelton as UNC field hockey coach
UNC named Matson, who had graduated a month earlier after playing on four championship teams, the fifth head coach in program history and only the second since the early 1980s.
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Jenny Levy wins her 400th game at Dorrance Field
UNC beat Boston College 16 to 5 at Dorrance Field for Levy's 400th career victory, all of them at Carolina, in her 28th season. She was the sixth head coach in any division of the sport to reach 400 wins.
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Hillsborough tribute remembers John Blackfeather Jeffries
The Occaneechi Band, the arts group Spirit Freedom and the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau held a tribute to Jeffries at the Passmore Center in Hillsborough. Speakers included former mayor Tom Stevens and tribal chair Tony Hayes.
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Lee Smith launches her novel Silver Alert at the Main Library in Hillsborough
The Orange County Public Library held a reading and signing at its Main Library on West Margaret Lane to launch Lee Smith's novel Silver Alert.
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Soil collection ceremony at the Orange County courthouse honors Cyrus Guy and four other 1869 lynching victims
The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition held a soil collection ceremony for Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Daniel Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Cyrus Guy, all lynched in 1869. One jar for each man was to go to the Equal Justice Initiative's memorial collection in Montgomery, Alabama, and a second jar was to stay in Orange County.
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UNC awards Alexander Julian an honorary Doctor of Arts
At Spring Commencement, UNC-Chapel Hill gave Alexander Julian, a Chapel Hill native who entered with the Class of 1969 and designed the argyle basketball uniforms, an honorary Doctor of Arts, one of six honorary degrees that year.
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UNC women’s tennis wins the 2023 NCAA national championship
UNC won the NCAA women’s team tennis championship.
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Latino residents press for Spanish-language mental health care at a Chapel Hill assembly
At a public accountability assembly at St. Thomas More Catholic Church organized by Orange County Justice United and the North Carolina Congress of Latino Organizations, residents called for more mental health services in Spanish. That month Alliance Health announced $500,000 for El Futuro's services and programs in Orange County.
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Sammy Slade announces he will not seek reelection to the Carrboro Town Council
As candidate filing opened, Slade said he would step back after fourteen years, writing that he had believed local action was where representation could happen most authentically but that local government, operating within the same system, was no longer where he could help mitigate climate change.
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Orange County Main Library begins sensory-friendly browsing hours
After staff training with the Autism Society of North Carolina, the library started a Sensory Friendly Browsing Hour during the 2023–24 fiscal year. In 2024–25 it installed sensory-friendly furnishings in the Youth Services area and held monthly sensory-friendly browsing hours for families.
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The Jeter and Ethel Neville House is listed in the National Register
On August 1, 2023 the National Park Service listed the Jeter and Ethel Neville House in Carrboro in the National Register of Historic Places.
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The ArtsCenter moves to Roberson Street
The ArtsCenter opened its new home at 400 Roberson Street in downtown Carrboro with a parade and ribbon-cutting on August 26, 2023, after moving from 300 East Main Street. The renovated former office building, nearly 18,000 square feet, added a larger ceramics studio, maker spaces, a black-box theater and a youth education center.
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Zijie Yan, a UNC professor, is killed on campus
On August 28, 2023, Zijie Yan, an associate professor, was shot and killed in UNC's Caudill Labs, and the campus locked down for about three hours. Graduate student Tailei Qi was arrested that afternoon and charged with first-degree murder; the case had not come to trial by March 2026.
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UNC's Faculty Council adopts a resolution in memory of Zijie Yan
At its first meeting of the year the Faculty Council held a moment of silence for Zijie Yan and adopted Resolution 2023-5 in his memory by unanimous consent, after it was read aloud in English and in Mandarin. The resolution was sent to his family.
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EMPOWERment broke ground on PEACH apartments at the former Pine Knolls Community Center
The nonprofit began building 10 debt-free apartments for households earning 30 percent or less of area median income at 107 Johnson Street, where Ted Parrish had run the independent Pine Knolls Community Center. It had raised $3.5 million for the project.
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UNC field hockey wins the 2023 NCAA national championship
UNC won the 2023 NCAA field hockey title.
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Orange County Public Library starts DELIVEReads home delivery
The library and Orange County Transportation Services began delivering library materials to residents unable to visit because of illness, disability, physical limitations or transportation problems, with up to ten items a month and staff selections on request. The service made 180 deliveries in its first fiscal year and later extended to caregivers.
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Barbara Foushee is sworn in as Carrboro's first Black woman mayor
Barbara Foushee, a council member since 2017, won the November 2023 mayoral election unopposed and took office as the first Black woman mayor of Carrboro and its second Black mayor after Robert Drakeford. She was re-elected in November 2025.
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Ridge Road School is listed in the National Register
On December 12, 2023 the National Park Service listed Ridge Road School near Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
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UNC Libraries endows the Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Fellowship
An endowment from John Powell created a UNC University Libraries fellowship in Hall's name for graduate students researching the American South, with preference for projects using oral history sources.
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El Futuro launches Mentes Fuertes, a Spanish-language mental health program in Orange County
Four Spanish-speaking community health workers began leading free ten-session psychoeducation groups at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, St. Thomas More and Holy Family Catholic Church. By March 2024, 48 participants had enrolled.
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Merge Records marks 35 years with four shows at Cat's Cradle
Merge celebrated its 35th anniversary with four shows at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, the club that had held its earlier anniversary festivals, in the same year the label was named to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
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Guskiewicz leaves the Chapel Hill chancellorship
He announced on December 8, 2023 that he would step down after nearly five years leading the campus, and January 12, 2024 was his last day. He became president of Michigan State University on March 4, 2024.
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The News of Orange merges with the Mebane Enterprise
Womack Publishing announced on January 3, 2024, that its weeklies The News of Orange County and the Mebane Enterprise would merge at the end of January. The combined paper, with a section for Mebane, covers Mebane, Hillsborough and Efland from the News of Orange office in Hillsborough, and the Mebane office closed.
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Carrboro unveils a marker honoring Manly McCauley
On February 18, 2024, the Town of Carrboro, the Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition and the Equal Justice Initiative unveiled a historical marker beside Carrboro Town Hall for Manly McCauley. McCauley, an 18-year-old Black farmhand, was lynched by a white mob in 1898 near Hatch Road and Old Greensboro Road, west of Carrboro.
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Carrboro backs a study of turning the old University Railroad line into a greenway
The Town Council unanimously approved an agreement to study converting the 11-mile rail corridor, which still carries coal to UNC's cogeneration plant, into a multi-use trail once the plant stops using coal.
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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.
