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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. September 8, 1937
   Law, policy or court · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Professor W. B. Sanders urges President Graham to give the Black janitors paid vacations

   Sanders wrote that the university preached fair dealing on race while giving its janitors no vacation at all, and proposed two weeks with pay. By 1940 the Janitors' Association counted a paid week of vacation among its gains.

3. April 1940
   Publication, speech or performance · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The Janitors' Association puts out the first issue of its newsletter

   The Voice of the Janitors' Association set out the group's aims and history and listed officers elected on April 2, 1940. It also reported banquets held at the Orange County Training School and gifts to that school and to Sedalia.

4. August 5, 1942
   Protest or organizing · University Laundry, Chapel Hill University laundry workers reject a piece-work plan and demand a wage increase

   Meeting by shifts, the laundry workers turned down the university's offer of piece rates with no assured raise. Their union wrote that it would take the matter to President Graham within a week if nothing changed.

5. July 26, 1943
   Protest or organizing · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill CIO Local 403 demands vacations for janitors and equal pay for women campus workers

   The union protested a ruling that cut vacations for hourly janitors and asked for ten days of sick leave for laundry workers. It also asked that women in campus buildings be paid the same as men for nearly the same work.

6. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

7. March 1945
   Protest or organizing · University Laundry, Chapel Hill Black laundry workers take complaints of racial pay discrimination to the Fair Employment Practice Committee

   Press operators Bessie Hargraves and Etta Guthrie said white folders earned more because of race. At President Graham's request the personnel officer investigated, and his memo denied that race set the pay.

8. September 30, 1946
   Protest or organizing · University Laundry, Chapel Hill University laundry workers stage a sit-down strike

   The workers, some earning thirty-five cents an hour, stopped work on their own and set a further strike for October 14. Student Martin Watkins reported it to President Graham and to trustee Josephus Daniels.

9. October 15, 1954
   Law, policy or court · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The State Personnel Department begins classifying the university's lowest-paid jobs

   Under the State Personnel Act of 1949, the survey started with the lowest-paid categories. The chancellor and business manager told supervisors to head off rumors and fears among workers and to hold back raises until it was done.

10. March 1960
    Statistic or record · South Building, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The university counts its Black employees after federal contracts bar job discrimination

    Asked by the chancellor and business manager, the personnel office surveyed each department and found 853 Black workers, most of them in low-paid unskilled jobs.

11. February 25, 1965
    Protest or organizing · Kenan Dormitory, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Faculty members press Chancellor Sharp after a pellet is fired into Kenan Dormitory

    The shot came on the day of a campus rally, and the campus police chief called it minor. The professors asked whether the university's hiring and admissions practices favored white people and whether fraternities had discriminatory clauses.

12. July 8, 1965
    Protest or organizing · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill A Committee of Janitors asks the university for a hearing on treatment by supervisors

    The janitors said they did not mind the work but wanted supervisors to speak to them with respect, and they listed grievances over leave and vacations. In late June Professor H. M. Blaylock had written Chancellor Paul F. Sharp about poor treatment, low pay and blocked promotions for Black employees.

13. 1969
    Law, policy or court · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The university puts its hourly workers on a forty-hour week

    Business officers had warned in 1957 that the change would come. The packet says the university finally made it in 1969.

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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 4, 2026.