Skip to content

Local figure

Marian Cheek Jackson

Marian Cheek Jackson (1925–2017) was the historian of St. Joseph C.M.E. Church in Chapel Hill from the early 1950s. The daughter of Kennon Cheek, who founded the university's Janitorial Association in 1939, she graduated from St. Augustine's College in 1946. Her interviews in the Northside oral history partnership that St. Joseph and UNC began in 2007 led to the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History, which carries her name.

Source: Marian Cheek Jackson Center: Our Namesake: Mrs. Marian Cheek Jackson

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Marian Cheek Jackson. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Marian Cheek Jackson’s life and work.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Kennon Cheek helps negotiate the land swap that brought Hackney's school to Northside Cheek's daughter Marian Cheek Jackson said he was instrumental in negotiating the 1924 land swap that moved Hackney's Educational and Industrial School from South Merritt Mill Road into the Northside community. People: Kennon Cheek, Marian Cheek Jackson Place: Northside, Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Names in Brick and Stone: Cheek Clark Building
  2. St. Joseph CME Church and UNC begin the Northside oral history partnership Rev. Troy Harrison and UNC professor Della Pollock began collecting oral histories in Northside, the project that grew into the Marian Cheek Jackson Center. People: Marian Cheek Jackson Place: Northside, Chapel Hill · Also named: Troy Harrison, Della PollockMarian Cheek Jackson Center: Our Story
  3. Marian Cheek Jackson Center opens at St. Joseph CME Church The Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History held its ribbon cutting on the second floor of the H.W. Baldwin Fellowship Hall at St. Joseph C.M.E. Church. It is named for Marian Cheek Jackson, the church historian and lifelong Pine Knolls resident. People: Marian Cheek Jackson Place: St. Joseph C.M.E. Church, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Pine KnollsMarian Cheek Jackson Center: Saint Joseph Christian Methodist Episcopal Church historical sketch (2016)

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.

All places and the county map →

Background on Northside, Pine Knolls, and Tin Top

Background reading on Northside, Pine Knolls, and Tin Top. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Marian Cheek Jackson. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Histories of home : a walk with Northside neighbors

Jackson Center for Saving & Making History · 2021 · Marian Cheek Jackson Center

A folded walking tour map of Northside, the historically African American neighborhood near downtown Chapel Hill, produced by Alexander Stephens for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History in 2021. One illustrated sheet, 43 by 28 centimeters, folded to pocket size. The walk introduces the neighborhood through its residents' own histories of home.

UNC

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.

Significance report : the Northside Neighborhood, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Mary L. Reeb, consultant · 1989 · Town of Chapel Hill

Consultant Mary L. Reeb's April 1989 report for the Town of Chapel Hill on the significance of the Northside Neighborhood, the historically Black neighborhood north of downtown. Topics include the neighborhood's buildings and dwellings and real estate development in Chapel Hill. Prepared as a working document for the town, it runs to 34 leaves with maps and a two-page bibliography.

UNC

Announcing: the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History

2009

Announcement issued in Chapel Hill in 2009 for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History, a community history organization in the town's Northside neighborhood.

UNC

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.

Northside neighborhood, Chapel Hill, Orange County : an action-oriented community diagnosis : findings and next steps of action

2005 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A community diagnosis of the Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill, dated the twelfth of May 2005 and published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Findings on health status and socioeconomic conditions are followed by proposed next steps for action. Topics include community health services for town and county. Appendices A and D are missing from the copy described, and the bibliography sits on leaf 41.

UNC
Show 6 more

Pine Knolls, Chapel Hill and Carr Court, Carrboro, Orange County community diagnosis

1997

A 1997 community diagnosis of two neighborhoods, Pine Knolls in Chapel Hill and Carr Court in Carrboro, dated the tenth of May. Topics include community health services, health status, socioeconomic factors and public opinion in the county. Bound in with it are a list of health services for Orange County and a 1995 guide to services for county parents and young children.

UNC

A small business incubator for a disadvantaged community : is it the answer for Northside

Chanin, Douglas · 1995 · University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Douglas Chanin's 1995 study weighing a small business incubator as a tool for the Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill. Forty-seven leaves, filmed on a single microfilm reel by the university library. Topics include African American business enterprises in North Carolina, small business in Chapel Hill and the town's economic conditions, which places the work with local community development research.

UNC

Newsletter, Pine Knolls-Northside communities

1988

Neighborhood newsletter for the Pine Knolls and Northside communities of Chapel Hill, starting in 1988. Issued in volumes at 36 centimeters, the large format of a folded news sheet.

UNC

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.

Chapel Hill - Carrboro : report of a survey conducted by a group participating in a workshop on neighborhood centers.

1966 · Institute of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Report of a survey of Chapel Hill and Carrboro made in 1966 by a group at a workshop on neighborhood centers, sponsored jointly by the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers and the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina. Subjects include the Hargraves Community Center and the Northside neighborhood, and the topic is community center planning and social conditions in the town. Forty-six leaves.

UNC

Northside news.

Jackson Center

Community paper for the Northside neighborhoods of Chapel Hill, issued by the Jackson Center and described beneath its title as a print link for the neighborhoods of Northside. Volumes with color illustrations at 36 centimeters.

UNC

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.

Background

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Marian Cheek Jackson 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

Local help

Search further

Search other catalogs and collections for this name. Results may include other people with the same name and have not been reviewed by the Friends.

Books about Marian Cheek Jackson

Find copies at other libraries

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

These searches use Marian Cheek Jackson’s name without birth or death dates, so results may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026