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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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7 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–7.Back to highlights

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7 dated events
1963Civil rights era
  1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  2. Floyd McKissick sends organizers to Chapel Hill and defends arrested demonstrators

    Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill

    As head of CORE's Durham office, McKissick sent organizer Quinton Baker to Chapel Hill in 1963 to teach nonviolence and demonstration tactics, and he acted as attorney for many demonstrators arrested there. Letters to him in 1964 include one written from the Orange County jail.

    Part of Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1964 · 35 events

    People: John Dunne

  3. John Dunne gives up his Morehead scholarship to work in the Chapel Hill movement

    Chapel Hill

    By December 1963 John Dunne had stopped pretending to finish school, gave up his Morehead scholarship and devoted his time to the Freedom Movement in Chapel Hill. He joined the Congress of Racial Equality and led protests at segregated restaurants.

  4. Sit-in demonstrators at the Rock Pile are doused with ammonia

    Protest or organizing · Rock Pile, Durham Road (1501 East Franklin Street), Chapel Hill

    Around New Year's Day 1964, sit-in demonstrators at the Rock Pile, Carlton Mize's segregated grocery on the Durham Road, were doused with ammonia and bleach water. Seven were treated for burns, among them NAACP youth leader Quinton Baker; four were arrested, and thirteen more were arrested at a second sit-in there the next day, when five more needed treatment.

    Part of Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1964 · 35 events

    People: John Dunne

    Subject: The Rock Pile

  5. The Holy Week fast began on the Franklin Street post office lawn

    Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill

    At sunrise on Palm Sunday, Freedom Committee members John Dunne, Pat Cusick, James Foushee and the Rev. LeVert Taylor began an eight-day, water-only fast on the grounds of the Chapel Hill post office, planned to last through Easter. The fast was aimed at the Board of Aldermen, and a fifth faster joined within two days.

    Part of Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1964 · 35 events

    People: John Dunne

    Subject: Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza

  6. The Holy Week fast ends on Easter Sunday and the Rev. LaVert Taylor is hospitalized

    Closing or ending · Chapel Hill

    The five fasters finished their eight-day water-only fast in front of the post office on Easter Sunday. The Rev. LaVert Taylor of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was admitted to Memorial Hospital with an upset stomach afterward; James Foushee had been treated there during the fast and released.

    Part of Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1964 · 35 events

    People: Pat Cusick · John Dunne

    Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital)

  7. Judge Mallard sentences fasters Pat Cusick and John Dunne to a year in jail

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    In Orange County Superior Court at Hillsborough, Judge Raymond B. Mallard gave Pat Cusick a year in jail on April 23 and John Dunne twelve months on April 24 for the February street-blocking demonstrations, among a dozen active sentences and about 100 suspended ones that stripped the Chapel Hill movement of its leaders four weeks after the fast.

    Part of Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1964 · 35 events

    People: Pat Cusick · John Dunne

  8. Harper and Row publishes John Ehle's The Free Men, an account of the Chapel Hill protests

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    Ehle's nonfiction book traced the 1963–1964 civil rights campaign in Chapel Hill through three of its leaders, John Dunne, Pat Cusick and Quinton Baker, from the first pickets at a cafe to mass arrests and long prison sentences.

    People: Pat Cusick · John Dunne

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

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.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026