Key local figure
Rebecca Clark (about 1915–2009) moved to Chapel Hill in 1932 and worked in the University Laundry, where as shop steward from 1942 she won raises and safer conditions for laundry workers. She became a nurse at the university hospital in 1953 and was known for bringing voters to the polls, including for Howard Lee's 1969 mayoral election.
Source: UNC, Names in Brick and Stone: Cheek-Clark Building
5 indexed records are connected with this person, and the index includes one work by Rebecca Clark.
Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.
Rebecca Clark recalls living and working in segregated North Carolina. She finished her schooling in all-black schools, so the bulk of her experience with white people in a segregated context took place in the work worl…
… 5 photographs in the Society's People A-O binder: At work as a nurse; 3 photos; Posed with sign of Kennon Cheek-Rebecca Clark Building, UNC building named for her and Kennon Cheek; Portrait with granddaughters; Portrait with grandsons.
… Folder in the Carrboro & Orange County series of the Society's vertical files (box 30): newspaper clippings; Copies of published materials; Instruction manual (guidelines), interview with Rebecca Clark about the Strayhorn house.
1 photograph in the Society's People A-O binder: Candid of grandchildren of Rebecca Clark playing outside.
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See the whole chronology →
Clark, born around 1915 in Chatham County, moved to Chapel Hill in 1932 to live with a relative on Church Street. She went to work in the home of professor Vernon Howell while enrolled at the Orange County Training School.
The Janitors' Association became Local 403-P of the State, County and Municipal Workers of America, a CIO union. Minutes of July 2, 1942 name pay as the most important matter, and laundry worker Rebecca Clark became a shop steward.
People: Rebecca Clark
After the legislature approved a 20 percent raise for state employees and the university dropped a wartime bonus, Local 403 workers circulated petitions and flyers asking students for support. Under shop steward Rebecca Clark laundry workers won wage increases, safer workspaces and better schedules.
People: Rebecca Clark
In 1953 Clark left the University Laundry for the newly built university hospital, where she spent the rest of her working years as a nurse. UNC's Employee Forum says she was the first licensed practical nurse in the campus infirmary and retired in 1979.
Clark worked on Howard Lee's campaign for mayor, sending her son's Greyhound bus street to street to take voters to the polls, and helped count ballots by hand on election night. Lee won the May 6, 1969 election.
On January 28, 1998 the trustees voted to rename the 1920s University Laundry for Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark, who led campus housekeepers in the 1930s and 1940s. The building was rededicated on September 17, 1998.
People: Rebecca Clark · Kennon Cheek
Clark, Yonni Chapman, the Rev. Charles M. Jones and Dan Pollitt were honored after their deaths for their work for civil rights, social justice and equality in Chapel Hill. Their names were added to the plaque at Peace and Justice Plaza, in front of the historic post office on Franklin Street.
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.
People: Rebecca Clark · Kennon Cheek
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Held in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection. Selected because their titles or catalog subjects provide wider historical context for this person; they may not discuss the Orange County person directly.
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