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Community centers and organizations

Hargraves Community Center

The Hargraves Community Center, at 216 North Roberson Street in Chapel Hill, began in 1941 as the stone Negro Community Center, built with labor donated by Black workers. The Navy finished it as quarters for its Black B-1 Band in World War II; it opened to the community in 1945 and was renamed for William M. Hargraves in 1973.

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.

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.

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Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

Books, articles, records, and images about Hargraves Community Center. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

About the site

Experience, image, knowledge, power--an approach from many angles : the Literacy Through Photography program

Ungemah, Lori Diane · 1997

Lori Diane Ungemah's 1997 undergraduate honors thesis in cultural studies at the University of North Carolina, on the Literacy Through Photography program. The work concerns the Hargraves Center and African American neighborhoods in Chapel Hill, which places the program among the town's Black communities. The essay was also submitted to the Program in Interdisciplinary Studies.

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

UNC

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.

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

UNC

The Negro Community Center of Chapel Hill, North Carolina : a study of the processes of community organization

Mason, Mittie Frank · 1943

Mittie Frank Mason's 1943 study of the Negro Community Center in Chapel Hill, treating the center as a case in community organization and describing social conditions for Black residents of the town. It runs 107 leaves with illustrations and a map at 29 cm and closes with a bibliography.

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

UNC

Black Community Center: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1940

Two 1940 photographs of Chapel Hill's Black community center: the outside of the building with two people on the porch, and an interior room where Black band members lived. From the Chapel Hill Life: General binder of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

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

CH Historical Society

Hargraves Center (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Undated folder on the Hargraves Center, the community center in the Northside neighborhood of Chapel Hill, from the Carrboro and Orange County series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection (CHHS.001).

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

CH Historical Society

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Hargraves Community Center alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.

The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 1795-1975

Little-Stokes, Margaret Ruth · 2006

Margaret Ruth Little-Stokes's survey of Chapel Hill's town and campus buildings from 1795 to 1975, published by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill in 2006. Chapters run from the first campus buildings through David Swain's romantic campus to midcentury modernism, followed by area surveys of the campus, east and west Chapel Hill, downtown, Northside and the suburbs.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress CH Historical Society

The town and gown architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975

Little, M. Ruth · 2004 · Preservation Society of Chapel Hill

M. Ruth Little's 2004 architectural history of Chapel Hill and the university campus from 1795 to 1975, written for the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. A 99-page survey with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

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

Chapel Hill historic sites survey : final report.

Gatza, M. B. · 1992 · Chapel Hill Planning Department

M. B. Gatza's final report of the 1992 Chapel Hill historic sites survey for the town Planning Department, with contributions by Beverly C. Kawalec and Catherine Bishir. It covers historic buildings and districts in Chapel Hill in 80 pages.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

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

Chapel Hill township survey final report

Lally, Kelly A. · 1992

Kelly A. Lally's October 1992 final report on the architectural survey of Chapel Hill township, including Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Besides the report and a bibliography, most of its 56 pages form an annotated index of the historic buildings surveyed.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

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

Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina at 5-Year Intervals, 1793-1998

Bryant, Bernard Lee · 1999 · Chapel Hill Historical Society

Bernard Lee Bryant's compilation of who occupied each structure on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill at five-year intervals from 1793 to 1998, issued by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1999 as a photocopy of his original computer printout on cotton paper. 191 leaves.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina.

1925

Sanborn Map Company fire insurance map of Chapel Hill, June 1925, on eleven sheets, with Carrboro also drawn. Sanborn maps recorded the outline, construction and use of each building for fire insurers, so the set shows both towns block by block in the mid 1920s.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Show 2 more surveys and maps

Map of Chapel Hill & vicinity.

1933

Street and property map of Chapel Hill and the surrounding country, revised to 1 January 1933 and printed in the town. Topics include streets, real property and the historical geography of Chapel Hill along with maps of the University of North Carolina in its 1793 to 1962 period. A useful sheet for tracing lot lines and street names as they stood at the start of the 1930s.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Map of African-American Neighborhoods in 1944, Chapel Hill

1944

An appendix map from 1944 marking Chapel Hill's African American neighborhoods: Potters Field, Sunset, Tintop, Knolls and South West Lane. A proposed park north of town, possibly Umstead Park, is also shown.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

DigitalNC DPLA

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

Start at OCPL

    Where to look on the shelf

    These books don’t necessarily mention Hargraves Community Center, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.

    Histories of the town and county

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 STO Chapel Hill: A Pictorial History Stolpen, Steven · 1978

      Steven Stolpen's pictorial history of Chapel Hill, one of the Donning Company's photographic town histories, published in Norfolk, Virginia in 1978. Photographs and portraits carry the story of the town and the university, including references to Thomas Wolfe's years as a student at Carolina. 156 pages with illustrations.

    • Foundational · 975.656 RYAN Orange County Trio: Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, North Carolina, Histories and Tour Guides Ryan, Elizabeth Shreve · 2004

      Elizabeth Shreve Ryan's combined histories and tour guides for Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the three towns of Orange County, with the University of North Carolina treated alongside Chapel Hill. Each town gets a narrative history and a tour of its streets and buildings. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2004, 369 pages with illustrations and maps.

    Buildings and surveys

    • Foundational · NC 720.975 BIS A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina Bishir, Catherine W. · 2003

      Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.

    • Foundational · NC 917.56 HIS Historic Buildings and Landmarks of Chapel Hill, N.C Chapel Hill Historical Society · 1973

      A pocket-sized guide to the historic buildings and landmarks of Chapel Hill, prepared by the Chapel Hill Historical Society and printed by Creative Printers in 1973. Forty pages with illustrations and maps, 14 by 22 cm. Topics include architecture, historic buildings and historic districts in Chapel Hill, and the guide is useful for a walking tour of the older parts of town.

    Land, family and burial records

    • Foundational · NC 333.3 DUNAWAY Chapel Hill, N.C. History of Town Lots (1790-1930s) Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2014

      Deed transcripts for the town lots of Chapel Hill and adjoining land from 1790 to the 1930s, compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway. Each transcript keeps only the working facts: grantor and grantee, price, acreage and the metes and bounds of the parcel. Self-published in 2014 as Issue 1G, 702 pages with maps and facsimiles.

    In the chronology

    Storyline about this site, with a page of its own:

    1. Racial violence erupts in western Chapel Hill and Carrboro Late on Saturday, August 21, 1937, a white filling-station attendant struck Tom Atwater, a Black man, with a bottle near West Franklin Street. An angry crowd gathered, some throwing stones and firing guns, and armed white men from Carrboro fired on them from a barricaded truck. Four men were shot before Durham police with tear gas restored calm. The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 27, 1937, p. 1 (editorial on the clash and Judge Phipps's charge)
    2. Citizens buy land for a Negro Community Center Ten Chapel Hill men, among them Louis Graves, R. B. House and Paul Wager, signed a $1,500 note at the Bank of Chapel Hill to buy about five acres of the old Craig place at the west end of Rosemary Lane for a Black community center. The project grew out of concerns raised by the Negro Civic Club. People: William Chambers Coker, Louis Graves, R. B. House The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 6, 1939, p. 2 (People of Both Races Combine Efforts to Establish a Community Center for Negroes)
    3. Chapel Hill aldermen vote to take title to the Negro Community Center land and sponsor the project The board voted to accept title to the five-acre tract on the old Craig place at the west end of Rosemary Lane, bought with $1,500 given by citizens, and to sponsor an application to the WPA for building aid. Under a state act Mayor John M. Foushee was to name a five-member recreational commission, with staggered terms, to run the center. People: Joseph Hyde Pratt, Charles C. Craig, John M. Foushee The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 10, 1940, p. 1
    4. Black residents hold a mass meeting to back the Negro Community Center At a mass meeting at the Black Methodist church, after songs by the Black high school's boys' and girls' choruses, Col. Joseph Hyde Pratt, Negro Civic League president Charles Craig and Kenneth Jones spoke and Hubert Robinson presided, and pledge cards for gifts of money or work were handed out. Pratt said the stone center, expected to cost $12,000 to $16,000, would be paid one-fourth locally, with Black residents giving the labor, and three-fourths by the WPA. People: Hubert Robinson, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Charles C. Craig, Kenneth Jones The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 17, 1940, p. 1
    5. Community Center land is deeded to Chapel Hill The trustees holding the five-acre community-center site deeded it to the Town of Chapel Hill, whose aldermen had voted in May to accept the title and sponsor the project, since the WPA required government ownership. The deed limited the land to a community center and recreation for Black residents. UNC Libraries Digital Repository: History of Hargraves Center compiled by a Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation intern (late 1980s) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 10, 1940, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 30, 1940, p. 1; Open Orange: Hargraves Community Center; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 7, 1941, p. 1
    6. Charles Craig draws the plans for Chapel Hill's Negro Community Center, and the state WPA approves them Charles Craig, whom the Weekly called one of Chapel Hill's leading Black citizens, drew the plans and specifications for the Negro Community Center building on the site in the northwest part of town bought with citizens' gifts and deeded to the town, and the state WPA office in Raleigh approved them. Craig, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Roy M. Brown and George H. Lawrence were working out construction details and costs with WPA officials. People: Joseph Hyde Pratt, George H. Lawrence, Charles C. Craig The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 30, 1940, p. 1
    7. President Roosevelt approves a WPA grant for the Negro Community Center in Chapel Hill Congressman Carl Durham learned that President Roosevelt had signed approval of a $12,300 WPA grant for the Negro Community Center, to be built on five acres of the old Craig place bought with $1,500 from a group of citizens. Black masons, carpenters and other skilled workers offered labor in place of money, and Charles Craig drew the plans. People: Carl T. Durham, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Charles C. Craig The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 15, 1940, p. 1
    8. Construction begins on the Negro Community Center Work on the Negro Community Center began on January 9, 1941, with Clarence Webb directing a crew of 20 and Charles Craig, the Black architect and contractor who drew the plans, helping supervise. A WPA grant paid most of the cost, and Black masons, carpenters and other workers donated their labor. People: Charles C. Craig The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 10, 1941, p. 1 (Work Begun on Negro Community Center)
    9. Black citizens of Chapel Hill campaign for funds and labor for the Negro Community Center Eight committees from Black social, church, lodge and labor groups began a house-to-house canvass for the Negro Community Center, taking pledges in cash or in work to be done when needed, and set a report meeting at the Orange County Training School for March 4. A white citizens' committee published a plan to raise the remaining $9,000 of the $26,000 project. People: Joseph Hyde Pratt, Paul W. Wager, Charles C. Craig, Harold M. Holmes The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 21, 1941, p. 1
    10. Black citizens' committee raises money to finish the Negro Community Center With W.P.A. stonework up to the first floor and about $9,000 still needed toward the $27,000 center, volunteers canvassed Chapel Hill for gifts from mid-April, and a committee of Bessie Edwards, Agnes Rankins, and Callie Strowd led a drive among Black residents, thanking donors in the Weekly and calling it very successful. A meeting for the center was held May 18 at the Rock Hill Baptist church on West Franklin Street. People: Joseph Hyde Pratt, Dudley Dewitt Carroll The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 16, 1941, p. 8
    11. Black volunteers plaster the main hall of the Negro Community Center Four Black plasterers gave their skill and labor, working nights, to plaster the main room of the unfinished Negro Community Center near the west end of Rosemary Lane so that it could be used as an auditorium and day nursery before the building was done, while Black women served suppers to the workers. A week earlier Louis Graves had reported the stone building roofed with a bank loan and credit, about $24,200 having gone into it, $16,000 from the WPA and $5,950 from local givers, with $2,250 still owed. People: Louis Graves, Paul W. Wager The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 6, 1942, p. 2
    12. The Navy B-1 Band lives in the Community Center With the community center unfinished for lack of funds, the town lent it on May 22, 1942 to the Navy as quarters for the B-1 Band, the Black musicians of the Pre-Flight School. The Navy, not the band, finished and equipped the building. The band, trained at Norfolk, arrived on July 31, 1942 and lived there until the town regained it on October 24, 1945. The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 13, 1942, p. 1 (open house at the Negro Community Center) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 22, 1942, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, July 31, 1942, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 7, 1942, p. 1
    Show all 46 dated events
    1. The Navy B-1 Band serves at Chapel Hill The B-1 Band, 44 Black musicians sworn in at Raleigh on May 27, 1942 as the first African Americans to serve in the Navy at general rank, played for the Navy Pre-Flight School at UNC from July 1942 to April 1944. Barred from campus housing, they lived in the new Black community center on Roberson Street, now the Hargraves Center. UNC-Chapel Hill: Pioneers of integration (May 25, 2017) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 7, 1942, p. 1
    2. The Pre-Flight School's Black Navy band holds a formal party at its community center quarters The Pre-Flight School gave its 44-man band, the first all-Black Navy band of the war, a formal banquet and dance at its quarters, the stone building begun as a community center for Chapel Hill's Black residents, with guests brought by Navy bus from the Black colleges in Durham and Greensboro. Commander and Mrs. Kessing sat at the tables with the bandsmen, and Kessing gave the band the next day off. People: Oliver Owen Kessing Cloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), October 24, 1942, p. 4
    3. Navy Pre-Flight band holds open house at the community center for Black residents The Navy Pre-Flight School band, made up of Black men enlisted in North Carolina, showed white residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro through its quarters in the Negro Community Center, which the Navy had finished and enlarged in lieu of rent. The Weekly reported that the building would become the social and recreational center for Black residents of both towns after the war. People: Harold D. Meyer, John P. Graff The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 13, 1942, p. 1
    4. Navy Pre-Flight band gives a Christmas party for Black children at the community center The Navy Pre-Flight School band gave a Christmas party, with a tree, gifts and refreshments, for the Black children of Chapel Hill and Carrboro at the Negro Community Center. The Weekly noted that the band opened the center to the public every afternoon, showed free movies on Friday evenings, let boys use the playground and drill field, and had given two concerts at the Orange County Training School. The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 24, 1942, p. 4
    5. The Negro Community Center opens for community use After the Navy Pre-Flight School wound down, the community center returned to town control on October 24, 1945 and opened to Black residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. By December a nursery school filled the basement, and an all-Black board chaired by Hubert Roberson ran the building under the Town Recreation Commission. The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 7, 1945, p. 1 (Nursery School in Negro Center) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 9, 1943, p. 1
    6. The Chapel Hill Recreation Commission sets up the Negro Community Center after the Navy band leaves Leaders met to open and run the Community Center the Navy band had just vacated. The nursery school took the lower floor, Henry Edwards became superintendent of the building, and Melvin J. Scales was named program director, with the center open five days a week. People: Hubert Robinson, Harold D. Meyer The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 6, 1945, p. 5
    7. Chapel Hill's Black community celebrates Emancipation Day at the Community Center The Negro Community Center held an Emancipation Day program with a reading of the proclamation and an address by Dr. C. E. Boulware of North Carolina College on 'The Building of a Great People.' Pioneer citizens and club leaders were recognized. People: Hubert Robinson The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 10, 1946, p. 3
    8. Chapel Hill's Community Health Club holds its second annual spring clean-up Block leaders of the Community Health Club in Chapel Hill's Black community, with Boy and Girl Scouts, visited every home to enlist residents in the second annual clean-up, with prizes for the most improved and best kept yards. Extended two weeks because of weather, it closed with inspection by judges from Hillsboro on April 27 and a mass meeting at the Community Center on April 28. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 28, 1946, p. 5
    9. Chapel Hill's Black community holds a week's drive for its Community Center and nursery school With all government money for its nursery school withdrawn, Chapel Hill's Black community held Community Center and Nursery School Week to pay for the school, more auditorium chairs and painting, closing with a rally where Chancellor R. B. House spoke. The week raised $643.47, well short of the goal. People: R. B. House, Kenneth Jones The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 11, 1946, p. 7
    10. Chapel Hill NAACP holds its first meeting at the Community Center In October 1947 local organizers held the first meeting of the Chapel Hill branch of the NAACP, a milestone for the Negro Community Center, now the Hargraves Center. By late November the chapter was meeting at the center, where it re-elected Adolphus Clark as president. The branch marked 75 years in 2022. NC African American Heritage Commission: Hargraves Community Center (1942), NC Civil Rights Trail · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 28, 1947, p. 5; Open Orange: Hargraves Community Center; The Daily Tar Heel, March 1, 1994, p. 3
    11. Kenneth Jones heads the Community Chest drive among Chapel Hill's Black residents In Chapel Hill's fall 1948 Community Chest drive, run from headquarters in the Strowd Motor Company building, Kenneth Jones headed the canvass among the town's Black residents. The Chest supported eight service groups, among them the Negro Community Center. People: Collier Cobb Jr. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 14, 1948, p. 1
    12. A youth council of the Chapel Hill NAACP is organized A Youth Council was organized as a branch of the Chapel Hill chapter of the NAACP at a meeting in the Negro Community Center, with Nat Bond, president of the state conference of youth councils and college chapters, as speaker. Membership was open to anyone of any race aged 12 to 25, and the council elected Leon Peace its president a week later. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 27, 1949, p. 4
    13. Lucille Caldwell becomes the Negro Community Center's first paid director Lucille Caldwell was hired in February 1951 as the first paid director of Chapel Hill's Negro Community Center on Roberson Street, now the Hargraves Center. A town history calls her North Carolina's first Black professional recreation administrator. She led the center for twelve years and resigned in 1963. UNC Libraries Digital Repository: History of Hargraves Center compiled by a Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation intern (late 1980s) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 4, 1951, p. 5; Open Orange: Hargraves Community Center / Roberson Street Center / Negro Community Center
    14. A hearing on the Chapel Hill recreation district turns to Carrboro's school tax and integration About 60 people attended the county commissioners' hearing in the Chapel Hill Town Hall on the proposed recreation district, where the Rev. Charles Hubbard led the supporters and Carrboro residents asked to be left out lest the recreation tax defeat their planned school tax. Grady Pritchard opposed the plan, citing the school integration trouble at Clinton, Tennessee, while Black PTA leader Lattice Vickers said integration should weigh heavily and asked what Black residents would get; backers proposed improving the Negro Community Center and building a new white recreation center. People: Dwight Ray, Charles S. Hubbard The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 10, 1957, p. 6
    15. Chapel Hill's Human Relations Commission renews the push for a swimming pool at the Negro Community Center The commission told the aldermen it would revive the long-stalled campaign for a pool for Black residents, calling next summer's need critical because the University, whose pool townspeople had used, said it would close the pool to all but students if any Black person applied. A committee chaired by community center director Mrs. Lucille Caldwell set out to form a Chapel Hill-Carrboro swimming pool corporation, pick a site, estimate costs and draft a budget. People: Lucille Caldwell The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 5, 1959, p. 13
    16. An anonymous donor offers $40,000 for a swimming pool for Chapel Hill's Black community An unnamed donor offered the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Swimming Pool Association $40,000 to build a pool for the town's Black community. The association asked to build it on town land at the Negro Community Center and then turn it over to the town to run, and the aldermen began checking the cost and the town's liability. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 21, 1960, p. 13
    17. Cornelia S. Love is named as the donor of the pool at Chapel Hill's Negro Community Center Leaders of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Swimming Pool Corporation announced that Cornelia S. Love was the until-then anonymous donor of the $37,000 swimming pool being built on the grounds of the town-owned Negro Community Center on North Roberson Street. She made the gift in stock. People: Cornelia Spencer Love, Lucille Caldwell The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 18, 1960, p. 1
    18. Sandy McClamroch is elected mayor of Chapel Hill without opposition McClamroch, an alderman, ran unopposed for mayor in the town election of May 2, 1961 and received 1,030 votes, succeeding the retiring mayor, O. K. Cornwell. Before the vote he took questions from residents at a public meeting at the Negro Community Center sponsored by the Chapel Hill Fellowship for School Integration and the Civic Club, and on a WUNC radio panel, saying he wanted to improve the town's public relations and would discuss merging Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 20, 1961, p. 1 (McClamroch In As Mayor; Seven Running For Board) · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 4, 1961, p. 3
    19. A.D. Clark Pool opens Chapel Hill's swimming pool for Black residents, at the Roberson Street community center and now the A.D. Clark Pool, was dedicated on June 15, 1961. Cornelia Spencer Love gave $40,000 to build it, Black residents supplied labor and raised money for the bath house, and Adolphus D. Clark led the pool association. People: Cornelia Spencer Love Chapel Hill Weekly (June 19, 1961): pool dedication report
    20. Fred Battle directs the Hargraves Center Fred Battle, a Lincoln High graduate of 1962, directed Chapel Hill's Hargraves Center, the former Negro Community Center on Roberson Street, from 1970 to 1987. Chapelboro: Renaming of Gym, Basketball Court Honors Chapel Hill Community Leaders
    21. Black residents question the police handling of the Cates killing Black residents met at the Roberson Street Center to discuss how police handled the stabbing, young Black residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro asked the Justice Department to investigate the campus police, and a fund was started to hire extra counsel for the prosecution. Vice Chancellor Joseph Eagles and Assistant Chancellor Claiborne Jones began reviewing the campus police response. The Daily Tar Heel, December 1, 1970, p. 1
    22. Aldermen release bond money for a Roberson Street ball field and a Northside-Knolls recreation plan The Board of Aldermen granted the Recreation Commission money from the 1968 bond issue to begin a baseball field, estimated at $16,000, and to hire a professional planner for a recreation master plan for the Northside and Knolls areas, after commission members asked to start programs at the Roberson Street Center before summer. The Daily Tar Heel, April 19, 1972, p. 2
    23. The Community Center is renamed for William M. Hargraves Chapel Hill's Roberson Street Center, built in the 1940s as the town's segregated Negro Community Center, was renamed in 1973 the William M. Hargraves Recreation Center. Hargraves, a Black resident who had served on the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Commission, had died in an automobile accident. UNC Libraries Digital Repository: History of Hargraves Center compiled by a Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation intern
    24. Binkley takes over the Ridgefield daycare and renames it the Binkley Child Care Center When the Community Church and the Housing Authority withdrew in 1976, Binkley took on the whole daycare operation and renamed it the Binkley Child Care Center, serving the same families. The church history says Binkley housed it at the church; Black Ink, visiting in December 1977, found the Binkley Child Care Center at the Hargraves Recreation Center. The summer day camp the church had hosted moved to the Ridgefield center that year. Courtland Smith and John L. Humber, Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church: A Twenty Year View, 1958-1978 (1978), scan p. 7 · Also: Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 1, 1977, p. 4
    25. Chapel Hill aldermen vote to build a community center on Plant Road and enlarge the Hargraves Center The Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen voted to begin construction of a new community center on Plant Road, with a six-lane indoor pool, a gymnasium and a meeting room for teenagers, at about $1.4 million. It also approved renovating the Hargraves Recreation Center on Henderson Street, including its pool and a 1,500-square-foot addition, at about $690,500. The Daily Tar Heel, October 12, 1978, p. 2
    26. A second story is added to the Hargraves Center's lower stone wing In 1980 the one-story stone wing at the lower east side of the Hargraves Community Center on North Roberson Street was enlarged with a frame second story clad in horizontal siding. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Jeter and Ethel Neville House, National Register nomination (OR3151), p. 23
    27. Alpha Kappa Alpha's Theta Pi chapter holds a Halloween carnival at the Hargraves Center More than 70 children came to a Halloween carnival with a haunted house at the Hargraves Center on October 28, 1980, sponsored by the Theta Pi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. The Daily Tar Heel, October 30, 1980, p. 1
    28. The Hargraves Community Center holds its third annual Black History Month celebration The Hargraves Community Center on Roberson Street held its third Black History Month program, with dancing by its Soul Strutters group and a talk by a local pastor on the past and future of Black Americans. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 24, 1981, p. 3
    29. Concerned Black Citizens ask Chapel Hill to hire Black lifeguards at the A.D. Clark pool Five days after a five-year-old Black boy from Hillsborough drowned at the A.D. Clark Swimming Pool while two white lifeguards were on duty, the group Concerned Black Citizens wrote to the town charging negligence and asking it to recruit Black lifeguards for the pool at the Hargraves center, offer certification courses and make the jobs attractive. The Daily Tar Heel reported that the group still had no answer a month later; town officials said none of the pool and day camp's four Black employees that summer was a lifeguard and no Black applicants had come forward. The Daily Tar Heel, September 22, 1987, p. 1
    30. Black town workers and UNC housekeepers march down Franklin Street on Labor Day More than 150 supporters of the Black Public Works Association and the UNC Housekeepers Association rallied on the steps of the post office and courthouse and marched down Franklin Street to the Hargraves Center. NAACP branch president Fred Battle opened the day; speakers raised pay, privatized hiring and training. People: Fred Battle, Alan McSurely Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), September 1995, p. 5
    31. Northside Gymnasium opens at Hargraves Park Chapel Hill's Northside Gymnasium at William H. Hargraves Park, beside the Hargraves Center on North Roberson Street, opened to the public on June 15, 1998. Construction began April 21, 1997, paid for in part with parks bonds voters approved in November 1996, and the gym was dedicated on September 16, 1998. The Daily Tar Heel, September 17, 1998, p. 2: Northside Celebrates Gym Opening
    32. Family and community march to remember James Cates on the 50th anniversary A candlelit march went from Hargraves Community Center to St. Joseph CME Church and down Franklin Street to Peace and Justice Plaza, where the Town of Chapel Hill invited residents to leave flowers and messages for the Cates family. Mayor Pam Hemminger pledged to work with the family and UNC to investigate the killing. People: Danita Mason-Hogans, James L. Cates Jr., Pam Hemminger Chapelboro: Family, Community Members March to Remember James Cates 50 Years Later
    33. Gaps in vaccination among Black and Hispanic residents reported Chapelboro reported that Black residents were 12.4 percent of Orange County's population but 9 percent of those vaccinated, and Hispanic residents 8.6 percent and 5.5 percent. The county was working with church leaders and advocates in a Human Services Consulting Group and had held clinics at the Hargraves Community Center and in Cedar Grove. People: Renée Price Chapelboro: Orange County's Efforts To Equitably Vaccinate Minority Communities Show Early Success
    34. Chapel Hill names the Hargraves Center gym for Nate Davis The Town Council unanimously approved naming the Northside Gym at the Hargraves Community Center for Davis, the center's director for more than three decades, and its indoor court for Fred Battle, director from 1970 to 1987. People: Fred Battle Chapelboro: Renaming of Gym, Basketball Court Honors Chapel Hill Community Leaders

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