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Community centers and organizations

Marian Cheek Jackson Center

In Chapel Hill. 8 dated events, 2007–2017.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

People in its history

Indexed works

Books, articles, records and pictures in the index about Marian Cheek Jackson Center, found by its names in titles, catalog subjects and the index’s descriptions, and read one by one. Those held at OCPL come first.

About the site

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

Saving and Sustaining Community History One Block at a Time: A Case Study on the Marian Cheek Jackson Center and the Convergence of Public History, Community Informatics, and Digital Archives

Rhonda Jones · 2015

A 2015 library science master's paper on how the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, St. Joseph's C.M.E. Church and UNC's Southern Oral History Program gathered oral histories of the Northside and Pine Knolls neighborhoods into a community archive.

Marian Cheek Jackson Center (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

A brochure and pamphlets from the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, the Northside neighborhood center in Chapel Hill, gathered in box 12 of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection. Undated.

Published by or for it

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

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around

Ms. Murray's first grade class · 2016

A 2016 picture book by Ms. Murray's first grade class at Northside Elementary School in Chapel Hill. The story draws on civil rights and Clementine Self, through work with the Jackson Center Oral History Trust.

Mr. Bynum Weaver Opens A Store

Ms. McGruder's first grade class · 2016

A 2016 picture book by Ms. McGruder's first grade class at Northside Elementary School in Chapel Hill. The story concerns Bynum Weaver, a store and generosity, and is associated with the Jackson Center Oral History Trust.

Ms. Janie Goes to School

Ms. Miller's first grade class · 2016

A 2016 picture book by Ms. Miller's first grade class at Northside Elementary School in Chapel Hill. This fictional school story centers on Janie Alston and is associated with the Jackson Center Oral History Trust.

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

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Marian Cheek Jackson 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Marian Cheek Jackson 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

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Council freezes building in Northside and Pine Knolls for six months The council voted 7-0 for a six-month development moratorium in Northside and Pine Knolls, backdated to May 23, 2011, while a community plan was drafted. Jackson Center staff helped organize residents in support.
    4. Neighbors form the Rogers Road Community Unity Board The Community Unity Board brought together leaders from every sub-neighborhood of Rogers-Eubanks, among them Historic Rogers Road, Billabong, TallyHo, Meadow Run, Phoenix Place and Sandberg, for continuing talks about the area's future. RENA and the Jackson Center reconvened it in 2015 for the planning work the three governments had asked for. People: Robert Campbell
    5. RENA and the Jackson Center produced the Historic and Vibrant Rogers Road report The Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association and the Marian Cheek Jackson Center put together survey analysis and community feedback on the neighborhood's future. Two years later the same partners ran the planning process behind Mapping our Community's Future.
    6. UNC, Self-Help, the Jackson Center and the town launch the Northside neighborhood initiative UNC-Chapel Hill committed a $3 million, 10-year, no-interest loan to Self-Help to buy Northside homes as they came on the market and hold them in a land bank for affordable resale or rental. The Jackson Center and the Town of Chapel Hill were partners. People: Mark Kleinschmidt, Carol L. Folt
    7. RENA and the Jackson Center published the Rogers Road community plan commissioned by the three governments In July 2015 Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro asked the Marian Cheek Jackson Center and RENA to run a community-first planning process as sewer design advanced. The resulting report, built from nine Unity Board sessions and two rounds of interviews, set four priorities for the neighborhood and became the reference document for the later zoning districts and Greene Tract resolutions. People: Robert Campbell, David Caldwell Jr.
    8. A stone gateway honoring Northside's freedom fighters was opened at Rosemary and Roberson streets The gateway of Chatham stone carries eight black granite slabs with civil rights images and quotations from oral history interviews. It was opened with a ribbon cutting at the first Northside Festival, as the Jackson Center renamed its annual celebration. People: Hilliard Caldwell

    Open these in the chronology →

    Research sources

    Background context 7

    Background from selected state and local sources

    Show all 7

    Ask locally 6

    Local organizations that preserve the story and can help you go further

    Additional research sources

    Other sources to search and local organizations that can help.

    Nearby

    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