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Local figure

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in Chapel Hill in May 1960. He addressed church groups at University Baptist Church, took questions in two UNC sociology classes, and gave a talk on the struggle for racial justice to an overflow crowd in Hill Hall, where he received two standing ovations.

Source: DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 10, 1960, page 1

Also found in catalogs as Martin Luther King.

1929–1968 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

7 works about Martin Luther King Jr. are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Chapel Hill Invited by campus religious groups and the Carolina Forum, King spoke at University Baptist Church on May 8, 1960, visited two UNC sociology classes, and addressed an overflow crowd in Hill Hall on May 9 on the struggle for racial justice. People: Martin Luther King Jr.The Daily Tar Heel: coverage of King's Hill Hall and University Baptist Church talks, May 10, 1960
  2. Black students march through downtown Chapel Hill the day after Martin Luther King Jr. is killed Led by Preston Dobbins of the Black Student Movement, Black students marched through the downtown stores in sympathy for King and in protest of his assassination. The march ended with the burning of several Confederate flags on Franklin Street and outside the Kappa Alpha house. People: Preston DobbinsSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 6, 1968, p. 1
  3. Chapel Hill holds a memorial march and two services for Martin Luther King Jr. About 600 people, Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson and President William C. Friday among them, marched from Y Court to First Baptist Church on Roberson Street, where some 600 townspeople had gathered for a community service. The next day about 2,000 students and faculty attended a second service in Memorial Hall, with 11 o'clock classes called off. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, C. Hugh HolmanSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 9, 1968, p. 1
  4. Black Student Movement calls on Black students and university workers to stay away in mourning for King The Black Student Movement handed sheets to Black university employees asking them to stay home on April 9 in mourning for Martin Luther King Jr., saying the university had done too little to honor him. Chancellor Sitterson let non-academic employees who wished it take a half day off. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Preston DobbinsSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 9, 1968, p. 1
  5. Chapel Hill makes Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a town holiday On Council member Bill Thorpe's initiative, Chapel Hill made the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. an official town holiday, the first town in North Carolina and one of the first municipalities in the nation to do so. People: Martin Luther King Jr.Search the index · The Carrboro Citizen: Chapel Hill council member Bill Thorpe dies (October 2, 2008)
  6. Chapel Hill renames Airport Road as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard At a ceremony beginning outside Town Hall, Airport Road became Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the small Martin Luther King Street became Jackie Robinson Street. Fred Battle, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, had led the push for the change after noticing that the only public facilities named for Black people were in Black neighborhoods. People: Bill Thorpe, Martin Luther King Jr.Search the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 29, 2005, p. 6 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, June 24, 2005, p. 21

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Martin Luther King 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 Martin Luther King Jr.. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Oral history interview with Sam Holton, March 28, 2001: interview K-0206, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Holton, Samuel M. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Samuel M. Holton (1922-2010) sat on Chapel Hill's school board during desegregation. Elected in 1968 after a term as PTA president, he took office as racial tension rose after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Talking with Jenny Matthews in March 2001, he describes the board's decisions on integrating the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and the conflicts that came with them. Runs about eighty minutes; electronic edition issued by the UNC library in 2007 through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Cardinal UNC

Faith, Grace and Heresy

Pryor, Mark · 2002 · Writer's Showcase

Mark Pryor's biography of the Rev. Charles M. Jones (1906-1993), minister of the Presbyterian church in Chapel Hill. It explores his life in relation to civil rights work, race relations and the religious response to racism in the town. Published by Writer's Showcase, San Jose, in 2002, xii and 398 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

UNC Duke Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

The Free Men

Ehle, Jr., John Marsden · 1965

John Ehle's account of the civil rights demonstrations in Chapel Hill in 1963 and 1964 and the young people who led them, first published by Harper & Row in 1965. This reprint from Lewisville, North Carolina adds an afterword by Wayne King. Civil rights and race relations in Chapel Hill are its subjects. 340 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 323.4 EHL NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress UNCSA CH Historical Society

Town of Chapel Hill Invites the Community to the Dedication Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard/Historic Airport Road

Chapel Hill (N.C.)

A DVD from the Town of Chapel Hill recording the dedication of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, the street the town renamed from Airport Road.

Included because: Its title names this person.

Chapel Hill PL

SR 1733 (Weaver Dairy Road) improvements from NC 86 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard) to SR 1734 (Erwin Road), Chapel Hill, Orange County, WBS element 34913.1.1, federal project number STP-1733(11), state project number 8.2501601, TIP project number U-3306 : finding of no significant impact

Kluchar, Bryan D. · 2006 · Project Development and Environmental Analysis Branch, NCDOT

Bryan D. Kluchar's finding of no significant impact for improvements to Weaver Dairy Road in Chapel Hill, SR 1733 from NC 86 to Erwin Road, dated February 2006 as project U-3306. Prepared for the Project Development and Environmental Analysis Branch of the North Carolina Department of Transportation with the Federal Highway Administration. One volume of various foliations with color maps and folded plans, covering a corridor in Orange County.

Included because: Its title names this person.

NC Cardinal Duke NC State NCCU UNC

Letter from Alton Lennon to citizen in Carrboro responding to concerns about the Civil Rights Bill, with letter from citizen attached

Lennon, Alton A. · 1968

Two-page reply of 13 April 1968 from U.S. Representative Alton Lennon to a Carrboro resident worried about the civil rights bill then before Congress, with the constituent's undated letter attached. The writer's letter refers to the death of Martin Luther King Jr. earlier that month.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

DPLA
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Lester J. Levine collection, 1964-1994

Levine, Lester J., 1946- · 1964

Material gathered by Lester J. Levine, born 1946, between 1964 and 1994, in the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC, collection 70166-z. Subjects include Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Martin Luther King, Jr. alongside Jubilee at Chapel Hill and students at the University of North Carolina, which places the material with campus music and student life of those decades.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.

UNC

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.

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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 Martin Luther King Jr. 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

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Books about Martin Luther King Jr.

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

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