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Local figure

Nate Davis

Nate Davis grew up in Chapel Hill and is the retired longtime director of the town's Hargraves Community Center. A first cousin of James Cates, he was working at the UNC Student Union snack bar on November 21, 1970, the night Cates was stabbed at the Union.

Source: The Assembly: Say His Name: James Cates

Library of Congress authority record ↗

2 works about Nate Davis are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

Search these 2 works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Nate Davis moves from Northside Elementary to Chapel Hill Junior High In 1962, after sixth grade at Northside Elementary, Davis went to Chapel Hill Junior High School on Franklin Street as one of the first Black students in the town's formerly white schools. Harassment kept him out of school for two or three months, and he later attended the new Chapel Hill High School when it opened.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Oral History Interview with Nate Davis, February 6, 2001 (K-0538), transcript
  2. 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. People: Nate Davis, Valerie Foushee, Danita Mason-Hogans, James L. Cates Jr.Daily Tar Heel: 'This was a life': UNC community gathers for memorial to honor James Cates
  3. 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. People: Nate Davis, Valerie FousheeINDY Week: The Department of Justice Has Finally Opened an Investigation into the 1970 Murder of James Lewis Cates Jr.
  4. 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. People: Fred BattleSearch the index · Chapelboro: Renaming of Gym, Basketball Court Honors Chapel Hill Community Leaders

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Nate Davis, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by Nate Davis. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties

Bolduc, Jean · 2016

Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Davis, Nate, 1951?- -- Interviews.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 BOLDUC Duke

African Americans of Durham and Orange counties : an oral history

Bolduc, Jean · 2016 · The History Press

Jean Bolduc's collection of oral history interviews with Black residents of Durham and Orange counties, published by The History Press in 2016, 125 pages with photographs and portraits. The narrators are the poet Jaki Shelton Green, civil rights lawyer Floyd McKissick, Walter Jackson, Nate Davis, Brenda Stephens, Diane Wright, Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle Johnson, and a closing chapter deals with the Ku Klux Klan. The interviews document Black life and race relations in the two counties across the twentieth century.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Davis, Nate, 1951?-.

NC Cardinal Duke Durham Wake Forest CH Historical Society UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Foundational · NC 975.656 BOLDUC African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History Bolduc, Jean · 2016

    Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Research sources

Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Nate Davis Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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Books about Nate Davis

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Catalog searches use the Library of Congress name heading: Davis, Nate, 1951?-. Historical-record searches use the person’s name and may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

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