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Key local figure

Louis H. Hackney

Louis H. Hackney (1854–1937), a Chatham County native and Baptist minister in Chapel Hill by 1880, was pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church and principal of the town's Quaker school from 1898 to 1912. In 1913 he and his wife, Lara Edwards Hackney, founded Hackney's Educational and Industrial School.

Source: Open Orange: Louis H. Hackney

Also found in catalogs as Louis Henry Hackney.

1854–1937 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 work about Louis H. Hackney is indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Select a title to open its page or chronology entry.

Rock Hill Baptist Church, 1877–19531877–1953 · Louis H. Hackney became pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church on Franklin Street in January 1877, when he was barely twenty-two, and held the pastorate for sixty years. The congregation celebrated the end of his fiftieth year in 1927 and honored him again in 1934. In the spring of 1937 a rift divided the church, partly over salary owed to Hackney: he retired, and a group following the assistant pastor, Rev. John Jones, bought a lot for a church of its own. Hackney died that December. Under the Rev. J. R. Manley the congregation began a brick church on North Roberson Street in 1952, held its first services there in 1953 and took the name First Baptist Church. Prohibition and the liquor question, 1879–18921879–1892 · Between 1879 and 1892 the sale of liquor in Orange County was argued over in the legislature, at the polls, before town and county boards and in court. In 1879 the legislature widened the ban on selling liquor around the university to four miles. Before the 1881 statewide prohibition vote, supporters organized the county under Rev. N. H. Cobb, with every minister, white and Black, a vice president. In 1882 Anderson Hill ran for the House as an Independent Prohibition candidate. Hillsborough's town board refused liquor licenses in 1890 and 1891, but the county commissioners licensed John U. Smith, and the town's suit against him was compromised and dismissed in 1892. Orange County’s Black high schools: the Training School, Lincoln and Central1916-1968 · 193 events · In 1916 the county board of education bought Louis H. Hackney's private school campus in Chapel Hill, helped by $3,000 raised by Black citizens, to house the Orange County Training School, which took the name Lincoln High School in 1949. Hillsborough's school for Black students was built in 1936 and became Central High School in 1943. Lincoln High merged with Chapel Hill High School in 1966. In 1968, a year of student walkouts against a phased desegregation plan, Central graduated its last high school class, and its high school students then went to Orange High School.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 12 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Louis H. Hackney becomes pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church Louis H. Hackney, who had spent six years at Shaw University in the early 1870s and then taught school, became pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church on Franklin Street in January 1877, when he was barely twenty-two. He held the pastorate for sixty years, until his death in 1937. He and his wife had married in 1876.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 13, 1926, p. 4 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 29, 1927, p. 6; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 22, 1926, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 24, 1937, p. 6; Open Orange: Louis H. Hackney
  2. A. S. Merrimon and Lisbon Berry speak for prohibition at the courthouse Former U.S. senator A. S. Merrimon spoke for two hours in favor of prohibition to a good crowd at the Hillsborough courthouse. After him two Black speakers, Rev. L. H. Hackney of Chapel Hill and Lisbon Berry of Hillsborough, also spoke for prohibition. People: Louis H. HackneySearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), July 16, 1881, p. 3
  3. Louis H. Hackney opens a school for Black students in Chapel Hill Louis H. Hackney, minister of Rock Hill Baptist Church, opened Hackney's Industrial and Educational Institute, a private school for Black students on Merritt Mill Road in Chapel Hill. People: Louis H. HackneyNC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School National Register nomination (2023), sec. 8 p. 8 · Also: Open Orange: Louis H. Hackney
  4. Hackney's school on Merritt Mill Road is bought for a public training school Louis Hackney had opened his school for Black students on Merritt Mill Road in 1912. In 1916 the property was bought for a public training school for Black students, after Black residents raised $3,000 toward the purchase. People: Louis H. HackneyNC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School National Register nomination (2023), sec. 8 p. 8 · Also: Open Orange: Orange County Training School
  5. Black businessmen of Chapel Hill incorporate the Progressive Manufacturing Company The Secretary of State incorporated the Progressive Manufacturing Company of Chapel Hill with $50,000 of authorized capital, $25,000 of it subscribed by three Black men of Chapel Hill, among them L. H. Hackney, the News reported. By August 1921 the company was burning brick at Chapel Hill and advertising it for sale. People: Louis H. HackneySearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), February 26, 1920, p. 5
  6. Black citizens of Chapel Hill organize a Community Fair Association to support the Orange County Training School About thirty Black citizens met in the Training School auditorium, organized the Community Fair Association to help the school and through it the county's farmers, and elected Johnson Merritt and Charles Craig presidents. Committees were named to raise money for the auditorium platform, floors, the farm shop and library, light fixtures and water spigots, to report by Labor Day. People: Kennon Cheek, Louis H. Hackney, Charles C. CraigThe Chapel Hill Weekly, June 26, 1925, p. 3
  7. Rock Hill Baptist Church marks Rev. L. H. Hackney's fiftieth year as pastor The congregation celebrated the end of Rev. L. H. Hackney's fiftieth year as its pastor. Noting his 73rd birthday on July 27, the Weekly added that he also served New Bethel in West Durham, Mt. Zion in Chatham County and two rural Durham County churches, and was one of the few Black residents left from the early days of the reopened University.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 29, 1927, p. 6
  8. Black Chapel Hill committee organizes to pay its share of the nurse's salary Leading Black citizens formed a committee, with Kennon Cheek as president, to raise their $300 share of the $1,200 salary of the nurse who worked among Black residents; the town and the Community Club each gave $450. They planned a benefit concert of spirituals at the Rock Hill Baptist Church on West Franklin Street. People: Kennon Cheek, Louis H. HackneyThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 26, 1929, p. 1
  9. Rock Hill Baptist church marks Louis H. Hackney's 58 years as its pastor Rock Hill Baptist church, Chapel Hill's Black Baptist congregation, honored Rev. L. H. Hackney on 58 years as its pastor with an anniversary program that packed the church. Speakers included the University's M. C. S. Noble, his friend of many years, the president of Shaw University and the pastors of the town's Black churches. People: M. C. S. NobleSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 12, 1934, p. 1
  10. L. H. Hackney retires as pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church Rev. L. H. Hackney, pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church for more than half a century, had retired, and a student from Shaw University was conducting the services. The Weekly reported that his supporters wanted his unpaid back salary settled and a retirement stipend before he was superseded, which the followers of the assistant pastor refused.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 14, 1937, p. 6
  11. Seceding members of Rock Hill Baptist Church buy a lot for a new church A rift in Rock Hill Baptist, Chapel Hill's oldest Black church, led a group following Rev. John Jones, who had come from Durham as assistant pastor, to buy a lot on Graham Avenue near Franklin Street for about $400 and plan a church costing $1,000 to $2,000. The Weekly reported that the new church was not recognized by the New Hope Association and that the dispute turned partly on salary owed to the longtime pastor, L. H. Hackney. People: Louis H. HackneySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 14, 1937, p. 1
  12. Louis H. Hackney dies in Chapel Hill Louis H. Hackney, pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church for sixty years, a teacher who had kept a school on West Franklin Street, and founder in 1912 of the private school on Merritt Mill Road that became Orange County Training School, died at his home in Chapel Hill on December 19, 1937, at 83. He was buried in a Black section of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 24, 1937, p. 6 · Also: NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination; Cemetery Census: Chapel Hill Cemetery [Old], Black sections A-B; Open Orange: Louis H. Hackney

People named in the same events

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Indexed works

Works about or by Louis H. Hackney. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Let the record show, the Hackneys : two early, prominent Black families of Chatham and Orange Counties, NC : a history and genealogy of Charles H. & Antoinette Stone Hackney and Louis Henry and Laura Edwards Hackney

1987 · The Associates

A history and genealogy of two Black families of Chatham and Orange counties, tracing the households of Charles H. Hackney and Antoinette Stone Hackney and of Louis Henry Hackney and Laura Edwards Hackney. Published in 1987 by The Associates, it sets out the family lines from the nineteenth century forward.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Hackney, Louis Henry, 1854-1937 -- Family.

Library of Congress

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