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The Chapel Hill News

The Chapel Hill News Leader was a semiweekly Chapel Hill newspaper that in 1955 carried Hilliard Caldwell's Negro Community news column and that suspended publication in January 1959 after going into receivership.

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People in its history

People named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.

Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

Books, articles, records, and images about The Chapel Hill News. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

About the site

Historical notes, 1978-1987 : the Chapel Hill newspaper

Watkins, Ralph M., 1895-1987 · 2001

A gathered volume of Ralph M. Watkins's historical notes from The Chapel Hill Newspaper, pieces written between 1978 and 1987 on the town's people and past. Watkins (1895-1987) wrote them in his eighties, and the collection was issued in 2001, apparently by the Chapel Hill Historical Society. One illustrated volume on Chapel Hill and Orange County history and biography.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

Chapel Hill news.

2017 · Chapel Hill News (Chapel Hill, N.C.)

Chapel Hill News in its digital form, issued by the paper itself and described as an online resource with a 2017 date. It concerns Chapel Hill and Orange County newspapers, covering town government, schools, business and community events at the southern end of the county.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

UNC

The Chapel Hill News 75th anniversary : a diamond celebration.

1998 · The Chapel Hill News

Seventy-five years of the Chapel Hill News gathered in a forty page illustrated anniversary issue from 1998, printed at 34 centimeters. Topics include the newspaper itself and Chapel Hill history, so the retrospective is a survey of the town's twentieth century as the paper reported it. Useful both for the paper's own history and for the town news it carried.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

UNC

Talk by Ted Vaden, 1998 (Chapel Hill Historical Society cassette)

1998

Ted Vaden addressed the Chapel Hill Historical Society on 5 April 1998 on the 75th anniversary of the Chapel Hill News. Cassette recording of the talk, from the Society's Audiovisual Materials Collection.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

The Chapel Hill Newspaper Collection (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1923

Bound volumes of Chapel Hill's hometown papers, the Chapel Hill Weekly and the Chapel Hill News, running from 1923 to 2011. Collection CHHS.003 of the Chapel Hill Historical Society.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

Published by or for this institution

Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro (and Research Triangle Park).

Chapel Hill Publishing Co · 1980 · Chapel Hill newspaper

Color map of Chapel Hill and Carrboro published in September 1980 by the Chapel Hill Newspaper as a supplement to volume VIII of Gown and Town. Color-coded areas set out the two towns, the University and Research Triangle Park, with rivers, streets, schools and landmarks, a locating grid and a street index. The back adds maps of the campus and the Park.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and vicinity

Printers, Piedmont · 1984

The 1984 map of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and vicinity, published by the Chapel Hill Newspaper for Town & Gown with Central Carolina Bank and printed by Piedmont Printers. School district lines are drawn on the face, and the verso holds maps of the University of North Carolina campus, the Triangle and Research Triangle Park with a building index. One color map, 63 x 46 cm.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

Footsteps on Franklin St. : a bicentennial celebration of life on the hill.

2003 · Chapel Hill news

Franklin Street through two centuries, gathered in a 24 page illustrated supplement the Chapel Hill News published on April 10, 1994 for the town's bicentennial. Topics include the street itself, town history and social life and customs. It belongs with the other bicentennial publications of 1993 and 1994 that treat the commercial center of Chapel Hill.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

UNC

25th anniversary 1991 National TAC Junior Olympics, Chapel Hill, N.C., July 23-28, 1991.

1991 · Chapel Hill Newspaper

Souvenir program for the National TAC Junior Olympics, the twenty fifth running of the youth athletics meet, staged in Chapel Hill from July 23 to 28, 1991. Issued as a supplement to the Chapel Hill Newspaper on July 21 of that year, 36 pages with illustrations and a map.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

UNC

The North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill : celebrating our 30th year

North Carolina Memorial Hospital; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of Medicine · 1982 · North Carolina Memorial Hospital

A thirtieth anniversary publication from North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, the teaching hospital of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, issued in 1982. The cover identifies it as a supplement to The Chapel Hill Newspaper for September 1982. Counting thirty years back from that date puts the hospital's opening in 1952.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

UNC

60's plus : a supplement to the Chapel Hill newspaper.

1979 · Chapel Hill Pub. Co.

Twenty page illustrated supplement to the Chapel Hill Newspaper, published March 16, 1979 by the Chapel Hill Publishing Company and looking back at the 1960s. Topics include the history of Chapel Hill, race relations in the town and the history of the University of North Carolina, which points to coverage of the desegregation years and campus change in that decade.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

UNC

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

In the chronology

  1. Newspaperman W. B. Thompson dies at Chapel Hill W. B. Thompson, 75, who had edited the Chapel Hill News for 49 years and the Hillsboro News for seven, died at his home on McCauley Street. A native of Yanceyville, he had sold his paper to J. Roy Parker, whose company published The News of Orange County. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 22, 1946, p. 1
  2. Hilliard Caldwell writes the Negro Community news column for the Chapel Hill News Leader Caldwell was named as correspondent at the head of the column, which carried news of Black Chapel Hill and asked Lincoln High School graduates to send in their college addresses for the next week's issue. DigitalNC, Chapel Hill News Leader, September 1, 1955, page 6
  3. A Superior Court jury rules for two stockholders in the fight over the Chapel Hill News Leader In a suit by stockholders L. M. Hollander and Phillips Russell against fellow stockholders Roland Giduz and Edwin J. Hamlin, The News, Inc., and the News Leader Company, a jury under Judge Hoyle Sink found that the parties had agreed to form the company with four stockholders, that the defendants had wrongfully taken control by issuing stock to The News, Inc., and that the company was insolvent. The defendants appealed to the state Supreme Court; the News of Orange County, itself owned by The News, Inc., reported the verdict. People: Phillips Russell, Roland Giduz The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 22, 1959, p. 1
  4. The Chapel Hill News Leader suspends publication The semiweekly Chapel Hill News Leader announced in its January 29, 1959 issue that it was stopping publication. The paper had gone into receivership. The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 2, 1959, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 27, 1959, p. 3
  5. The Chapel Hill Weekly becomes a daily, the Chapel Hill Newspaper On September 5 publisher Orville Campbell replaced the Chapel Hill Weekly, founded by Louis Graves in 1923 and published twice a week for about 15 years, with the Chapel Hill Newspaper, an afternoon paper out Tuesday through Friday and on Sunday mornings. Campbell doubled the news staff, added wire services and expected a daily press run of about 10,000 while keeping the paper's emphasis on local news. The Daily Tar Heel, September 5, 1972, p. 1
  6. The Chapel Hill Newspaper files a complaint over closed UNC trustee committee meetings North Carolina Press Association attorney William Lassiter, for the Chapel Hill Newspaper, wrote to UNC President William C. Friday complaining that its reporter had been asked to leave meetings of the trustees' utilities and public affairs committees, both chaired by Ralph Strayhorn, without the vote the open meetings law required. Friday forwarded the complaint to Chancellor Taylor and trustees chairperson Walter Davis. People: William C. Friday The Daily Tar Heel, January 14, 1976, p. 1
  7. Ottaway Newspapers buys The Chapel Hill Newspaper Ottaway Newspapers Inc., the community newspaper division of Dow Jones & Co., bought The Chapel Hill Newspaper for an undisclosed price, the sale to take effect Jan. 1, 1988. Publisher Orville Campbell, who had run the paper since 1954, kept Colonial Printing Co. and agreed to stay on as a consultant; the paper, begun in 1923 as The Chapel Hill Weekly and a daily since 1973, had about 5,300 daily subscribers and 55 employees. The Daily Tar Heel, November 9, 1987, p. 2 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, June 8, 1989, p. 6; The Daily Tar Heel, July 15, 1993, p. 3
  8. The Chapel Hill Newspaper ends its weekly shopper and starts free delivery to nonsubscribers In what its circulation manager called a newspaper war with the Chapel Hill Herald, the Raleigh News and Observer and the Village Advocate, The Chapel Hill Newspaper printed the last issue of The Picture, its weekly shopper begun about ten months earlier, on March 1, started a weekly entertainment supplement, Cue Magazine, on March 2, and from March 5 began delivering free Sunday and Wednesday papers to about 19,000 nonsubscribing homes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. It had brought out a more colorful format with larger type on February 16. The Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1989, p. 7
  9. Ottaway Newspapers puts The Chapel Hill Newspaper up for sale Citing falling earnings in the recession, Ottaway, which had bought the paper in late 1987, filed contracts in early December 1990 to sell The Chapel Hill Newspaper, at first in a package with the Village Advocate, and by February 1991 had no firm offer. The paper, founded in 1923 and a daily since 1972, sold about 5,635 copies a day against about 12,000 for The Chapel Hill Herald, which the Durham Herald Company had started in June 1988 in answer to Ottaway's purchase. The Daily Tar Heel, February 11, 1991, p. 3
  10. The Chapel Hill Newspaper drops its Monday edition and Cue magazine On September 20, 1991, The Chapel Hill Newspaper announced it would end its Monday edition after September 30, stop its weekly Cue entertainment magazine, end free Wednesday delivery of more than 20,000 papers and cut the equivalent of eight full-time jobs. Owner Ottaway Newspapers had put the paper up for sale early in the year and withdrew it after four months without a competitive offer. The Daily Tar Heel, September 24, 1991, p. 3
  11. The News & Observer agrees to buy The Chapel Hill News On July 8, 1993 Ottaway Newspapers, the Dow Jones subsidiary that owned The Chapel Hill News, announced the paper's sale to The News & Observer Publishing Co. of Raleigh, effective July 30. All of the News' more than 40 employees were to be laid off and some rehired, and the new owner planned to publish twice a week from the News office at 505 W. Franklin St. The Daily Tar Heel, July 15, 1993, p. 3

Open these in the chronology →

Research sources

Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.

Records of the time 13

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Collections and databases

Local help 6

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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