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Key local figure

Barbara Foushee

Foushee is mayor of Carrboro, the first Black woman in the office and the second Black person to hold it. She was elected to the town council in 2017 and won a second term as mayor in November 2025. She works as a senior technologist in a molecular oncology laboratory.

Source: Town of Carrboro: Mayor Barbara Foushee

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Barbara Foushee. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Barbara Foushee’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, earliest first. Each has its own page.

Carrboro’s Black political firsts1969–2024 · 14 events · Braxton Foushee became Carrboro’s first Black alderman in 1969 and Robert Drakeford its first Black mayor in 1977, followed by Richard Knight Jr. as town manager, Hilliard Caldwell and Joal Hall Broun on the board, and Walter Horton as police chief in 2013. Barbara Foushee was sworn in as the first Black woman mayor in 2023, and the town named the Drakeford Library Complex in 2024.

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Barbara Foushee receives the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP's Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award The branch gave Foushee its Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award for work promoting diversity and social justice. She was then the branch's secretary.Search the index · INDY Week: Barbara Foushee, Carrboro Town Council candidate questionnaire
  2. Barbara Foushee is elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen Foushee, who announced her candidacy in March 2017 saying she wanted a seat at the table where changes were made, won a seat in the 2017 municipal election. She served on the town's governing board for six years before being elected mayor.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Mayor Barbara Foushee
  3. Carrboro Town Council adopts a nondiscrimination ordinance covering sexual orientation and gender identity Six weeks after the state's moratorium on local employment and public accommodation ordinances expired on December 1, 2020, the Council unanimously adopted Ordinance No. 10/20-21, adding to Chapter 8 of the Town Code a ban on discrimination in employment and places of public accommodation that covers sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. The ordinance took effect on adoption and cited the town's March 26, 2016 pledge to seek such protections. People: Lydia Lavelle, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Sammy Slade, Barbara Foushee, Damon SeilsTown of Carrboro: Town Council minutes, January 12, 2021
  4. Carrboro honors Lydia Lavelle as Damon Seils is sworn in as mayor At the council's meeting the town honored Lavelle for her four terms as mayor, and state senator Valerie Foushee administered the oath of office to her successor, Damon Seils. Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Barbara Foushee and Danny Nowell began council terms at the same meeting. People: Valerie Foushee, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Barbara Foushee, Damon SeilsSearch the index · Chapelboro: Carrboro Town Council Swears In New Mayor, Council Members
  5. Barbara Foushee is sworn in as Carrboro's first Black woman mayor Barbara Foushee, a council member since 2017, won the November 2023 mayoral election unopposed and took office as the first Black woman mayor of Carrboro and its second Black mayor after Robert Drakeford. She was re-elected in November 2025. People: Barbara FousheeChapelboro: Carrboro Swears In Mayor Foushee, 2 New Council Members; Sets Special Election for Open Seat (December 7, 2023)
  6. Hilliard Caldwell dies at 88 Caldwell, who advised the Lincoln High School students who held Chapel Hill's first sit-in in 1960 and later served on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, died on September 6, 2025. The town issued a statement remembering his service and courage. People: Barbara FousheeSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel: Civil rights activist and former Carrboro Alderman Hilliard Caldwell dies at 88 years old
  7. Carrboro Town Council reaffirms support for immigrant communities and its 4th Amendment status The Town Council passed a resolution by council members Eliazar Posada-Orozco and Cristóbal Palmer condemning discriminatory actions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and reaffirming Carrboro's status as a 4th Amendment town. The council had voted unanimously for that designation on May 20, 2025. People: Barbara FousheeTown of Carrboro: Carrboro This Week, Nov. 20, 2025

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Barbara Foushee, 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.

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Background

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Barbara Foushee Library card 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
  • 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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