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Local figure

George Watts Hill Jr.

George Watts Hill Jr. served on the board of visitors of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, carried on his family's giving to the university, and died at his Chapel Hill home in 2002. A Durham banker and legislator, he chaired Durham's desegregation committees from 1963 to 1966 and the State Board of Higher Education from 1965 to 1969.

Source: UNC Libraries, Southern Historical Collection: George Watts Hill Jr. Papers, 1941-1999 (#05162)

Also found in catalogs as George Watts Hill.

1926–2002 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

2 works about George Watts Hill Jr. are indexed here, as is one work by Hill.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineUNC, HEW and the desegregation consent decree, 1970–19881970–1988 · 48 events · HEW pressed UNC from 1970 to do more than open its doors to Black students. The university system's desegregation plan was returned in 1973, and HEW approved a revised plan in June 1974 with a goal of raising Black enrollment at Chapel Hill to 7.1 percent. The Black Student Movement opened its membership to all students that fall, and in 1978 the Board of Governors ratified an agreement with HEW to strengthen the five historically Black campuses. Federal court rulings in 1977 had called for tougher requirements, and HEW rejected the system's plan in 1978 and again in 1979; the Board of Governors sued to block a cutoff of federal funds, and a 1981 consent decree ended the 11-year dispute. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund appealed the decree until the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 1984, and in 1987, with the decree's enrollment goal for the mostly white campuses unmet, the Board of Governors extended it two years. Chapel Hill's Black enrollment kept falling, to 7.48 percent in 1987, and the extended decree expired at the end of 1988 with minority enrollment at the mostly white campuses at about 8.5 percent.

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

  1. George Watts Hill Jr. is tapped as an honorary member of the Order of the Golden Fleece At a ceremony in Memorial Hall, the university's Order of the Golden Fleece tapped George Watts Hill Jr., Dean Maurice Lee and Dr. Daniel Patterson, all of Chapel Hill, as honorary members along with eighteen new student members. People: Daniel W. Patterson Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Maurice Lee, Daniel Patterson · Also mentions: Memorial HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 1, 1968, p. 1
  2. Chapel Hill aldermen take up a historic district ordinance and adopt it after a year of review After a crowded public hearing on January 12, 1976, the Board of Aldermen sent two ordinances to the Planning Board for further review; the Daily Tar Heel first reported them adopted and corrected itself the next day. The first would set up a 131-acre Historic Conservation District around East Rosemary, East Franklin, Hillsborough, Boundary and North streets, with a commission to approve exterior changes and delay demolitions. George Watts Hill Jr. spoke for the ordinances and faulted the university for keeping its campus out. After more hearings the aldermen approved the conservation ordinance in concept on October 11, 1976 and sent it to the state Division of Archives and History, which approved it on November 9. The final vote was set for December 13, and a 1979 account says the aldermen established the Historic District Commission in January 1977. People: Jonathan Howes Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 14, 1976, p. 1 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, January 15, 1976, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, September 2, 1976, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 13, 1976, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, November 22, 1976, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, June 21, 1979, p. 8
  3. Neighbors oppose the university's request to rezone the former Baity land At a Board of Aldermen hearing, Elizabeth C. Baity and nearby residents opposed putting 36 acres of the land she had sold the university in 1974 under University A zoning, amid rumors of a sports coliseum. George Watts Hill Jr. asked the aldermen to take time to study University A zoning, and they sent the request to the planning board. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Elizabeth Chesley BaitySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 27, 1978, p. 1
  4. A federal hearing opens on cutting off U.S. funds to the UNC system over desegregation An administrative law hearing before Judge John Mathias opened in Washington to decide whether the Department of Education could end federal funding, about $90 million a year, to the 16-campus UNC system for failing to dismantle its dual system of higher education. Early government witnesses included Chapel Hill businessman George Watts Hill Jr., former chairman of the state Board of Higher Education, who blamed the Board of Governors for slowing desegregation and underfunding the five historically Black campuses. People: George Watts Hill Jr., William C. Friday Place: Federal hearing room, Washington, D.C. (UNC system case) · Also named: John Mathias · Also mentions: UNC systemSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, August 26, 1980, p. 1

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as George Watts Hill Jr., 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 George Watts Hill Jr.. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By George Watts Hill Jr.

George Watts Hill Jr. papers, 1941-1999.

Hill, George Watts, Jr., 1926-2002 · 1941

Twenty eight linear feet and roughly 26,000 items of George Watts Hill Jr. (1926-2002) papers, 1941 to 1999, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5162. Topics include higher education governance: the Speaker Ban Law, the North Carolina Board of Higher Education, the General Assembly, the UNC System Board of Governors and the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with the Durham Committee on Community Relations also named.

UNC

About George Watts Hill Jr.

Selection of correspondence to Paul M. Gross, Vice-President of Duke University, regarding the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology.

Sanford, Terry, 1917-1998 · 1963

Letters, reports and meeting minutes sent to Duke vice president Paul M. Gross in 1963 about creating the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology and paying for a building. Governor Terry Sanford, George Watts Hill, William O. Baker of Bell Telephone Laboratories and the Research Triangle Institute figure in the papers. 42 images.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

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