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1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

2. July 1, 1954
   Chapel Hill Charles E. Rush retires as the university's director of libraries

   Rush retired as librarian on July 1, 1954, after thirteen years. Andrew H. Horn, associate librarian at the University of California at Los Angeles, was chosen to succeed him as director of libraries.

3. August 1954
   Statistic or record · 108 Noble Street, Chapel Hill Two forgotten graves in a Noble Street backyard come to light

   A neighbor noticed two weathered, unlettered tombstones under oak trees in the backyard of 108 Noble Street, and the News Leader could not learn whose graves they were. Alice Noble recalled the land as the old Castlebury place and a log cabin that once stood nearby.

4. July 1955
   Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill High School, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill Memorial Fund has a bronze tablet made for the town's World War II dead

   Trustees of the Chapel Hill Memorial Fund had a bronze tablet cast with the names of 26 men of the Chapel Hill community who died in the armed services in World War II, to stand on a stone base in front of Chapel Hill High School. The fund, raised by public gifts in 1946, also endowed a memorial book collection in the school library.

5. August 15, 1955
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill school board pledges to comply with Brown "to the best of our ability"

   Under chairman Carl Smith, the Chapel Hill school board unanimously resolved to comply with the Supreme Court's integration ruling to the best of its ability while operating its schools under the state's school laws, keeping existing assignment practices for 1955-56.

6. September 1, 1955
   Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Hilliard Caldwell writes the Negro Community news column for the Chapel Hill News Leader

   Caldwell was named as correspondent at the head of the column, which carried news of Black Chapel Hill and asked Lincoln High School graduates to send in their college addresses for the next week's issue.

7. May 1956
   Construction or physical change · 515 Dogwood Drive, Chapel Hill Dr. Sidney and Christine Chipman move into their new house on Dogwood Drive

   Dr. Sidney S. Chipman, who headed UNC's Department of Maternal and Child Health, and his wife Christine moved into a new house at 515 Dogwood Drive in May 1956. Archie Davis of Durham drew the plan and Parker and Elliot of Chapel Hill built it.

8. December 20, 1956
   Closing or ending · Carl Smith Building, North Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Gooch's Café serves its last meal and becomes Green's Cafe

   Gooch's Café, a Chapel Hill fixture for more than half a century and owned since the 1940s by Clarence Simmons, served its last meal under that name. The next morning Charles T. Green of Durham took it over as Green's Cafe.

9. August 29, 1957
   Statistic or record · Chapel Hill Lincoln High prepares to open with sixteen teachers and about four hundred pupils

   In the Chapel Hill News Leader's back to school report, Principal C. A. McDougle said Lincoln High School would have sixteen teachers and that enrollment would probably reach 400, against 381 on the first day of the previous year. Two of the teachers were new that year.

10. November 1958
    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Ruth Faison Shaw brings her finger-painting case histories to the University

    The Chapel Hill News Leader reported that Shaw, recently of Chapel Hill, was giving the University more than a thousand case histories on personality diagnosis through finger painting and was working as its consultant in therapy.

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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.