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Harold Foster
Harold Foster was a leader of Chapel Hill's civil rights movement. His sister Esphur Foster recalled that he started the 1960 sit-in, which he and his friends planned at a rock wall near the family's Cotton Street home, and that he was at the forefront of the marches that followed and was arrested.
Source: Marian Cheek Jackson Center, From the Rock Wall: Harold Foster
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Harold Foster. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Harold Foster’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.
Life and Orange County connections
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
- The Chapel Hill Nine sit-in Nine Black young men held Chapel Hill’s first sit-in at Colonial Drug. People: Harold Foster, William Cureton, John Farrington, Earl Geer, David Mason Jr., Clarence Merritt Jr., James Merritt, Douglas Perry, Albert WilliamsTown of Chapel Hill
- Lincoln High students picket Colonial Drug and sit in at the Bus Station Cafe The day after the sit-in, nearly 100 Black high school students picketed Colonial Drug after manager John Carswell roped off its booths, while others filled the counter at the Bus Station Cafe until proprietor Leo Eliadis closed it and were served standing at the Long Meadow Dairy Bar. People: Harold Foster, Hilliard CaldwellDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1960, p. 1
- The Chapel Hill sit-in movement forms an executive committee and retains counsel At a Tuesday night meeting the Lincoln High demonstrators and their adult supporters organized, set up an executive committee to coordinate the lunch-counter protests and acquired legal counsel. People: Harold Foster, Hilliard CaldwellDigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 10, 1960, p. 1
- The Chapel Hill CORE Committee rejects a second truce and resumes picketing as 27 ministers back the protests After a week-long pause the students' 12-member executive committee, led by Harold Foster, declined the Human Relations Committee's request for a second truce and resumed afternoon picketing at Colonial Drug and Long Meadow Dairy. Twenty-seven Chapel Hill ministers issued a statement commending the peaceful, non-violent picketing. People: Harold Foster, Dudley Dewitt CarrollDigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 21, 1960, p. 1
- Police carry out demonstrators sitting in at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Merchants Association office Members of the Committee for Open Business sat in and sang in the Merchants Association office on West Franklin Street to press merchants to desegregate. Police carried out 27 on trespass warrants signed by director Joe Augustine, and 34 were arrested that day in all. People: Harold Foster, Pat CusickDigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 21, 1963, p. 3
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 and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
- Orange County Training School / Lincoln High School Schools and academies · Chapel Hill · 2 events here
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Books about Harold Foster
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- Chapel Hill Public Library (opens in a new tab) Public library in Chapel Hill
- Durham County Library (opens in a new tab) Public library next door in Durham
- UNC Libraries (opens in a new tab) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Duke Libraries (opens in a new tab) Duke University, Durham
- NC Cardinal (opens in a new tab) The State Library of North Carolina and public libraries across the state
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Research sources
Background context 4
Background from selected state and local sources
- Marker: The Chapel Hill Nine Historical Marker Database (HMdb.org)
- Chapel Hill Nine Memorial, Chapel Hill Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina (UNC)
- Legacies of Lincoln: Part III INDY Week Part of a series on Lincoln High School graduates; one section covers Harold Foster.
- Historical Marker Honoring Chapel Hill Nine to be Added to Franklin Street Chapelboro (97.9 WCHL)
Additional research sources
Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.
- Read contemporary evidence: DigitalNC newspapers: 151 Orange County pages naming Harold Foster DigitalNC Searchable pages from historic Orange County newspapers
- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Harold Foster NC LIVE An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
- Ask locally: Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection (OCPL) The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Ask locally: Local History Help Hours and request form OCPL Local History Liaison The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
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