On May 30, 1922 voters of the Chapel Hill Graded School District approved $40,000 in bonds to build and equip school buildings and buy a site, 319 of the 514 registered voting for them. By January 1925 the school board had bought a plot of the Wallace Patterson place next to the school grounds. In June 1925, with a county education deficit of about $40,000, the county board of education cut the school's allowance from about $24,500 to $18,100. The board cut its teachers from 21 to 18 but went on teaching children from outside its tax district free. That September the teachers gave up their raises and the commissioners added to the appropriation, saving home economics, agriculture and music.
In August 1928 the board raised tuition for outside pupils beyond the six-month term, though a state ruling stopped its collection that fall. An audit that September showed a net deficit of $23,218, teachers' pay months in arrears and $16,500 in bank notes the board members had endorsed personally. On September 26 citizens agreed to endorse notes so the bank could lend about $7,500 and the teachers be paid at once. In February 1929 the legislature authorized a bond election, and on April 23 voters carried two $7,500 issues, 266 to 165 and 273 to 158, to pay off the building notes and the operating deficit.
On June 25, 1929 the district sold the $15,000 in bonds to the Hanchett Bond Company of Chicago at 5 1/2 percent, and by early July the Chapel Hill and Carrboro school boards had made C. A. Hoyle, principal of the Carrboro school, supervising principal of both schools, so that Carrboro children could attend the Chapel Hill high school without paying extra tuition. That fall, with the elementary grades crowded, Hoyle told the parents of more than 30 children from the White Cross, Damascus, Blackwood, Andrews and Smith Level districts that they must withdraw, and the board confirmed the exclusion.
In May 1930 the board brought teachers' pay nearer the state scale, and on May 17 voters approved taking the territory around Chapel Hill into the district and its special school tax, 99 to 4, ending tuition for children from outside the old district and bringing in the Orange County Training School; at commencement in June Hoyle reported a term of 180 days against 170 the year before.
In May 1932, after Hoyle resigned to return to teaching, the board unanimously chose J. Minor Gwynn, an assistant professor of education, as principal of both the high school and the elementary school, dropping the title of superintendent, and on May 24 the board, chaired by W. S. Roberson, told six teachers and the school secretary they would not be re-elected.
In March 1937 Gwynn, who had taught there since 1927, decided to leave at the end of the session to teach full time in the University; school board chairman R. E. Coker credited him with the planning of the new high school and a new building at the Orange County Training School. Allison W. Honeycutt, superintendent at Hendersonville for thirteen years and at Lexington from 1932, came that year as superintendent of the town schools through his ties to the University's education department, and in the fall of 1944, with wartime staff short, he took on the principal's duties at Chapel Hill High School as well.
Reading on the places and people in this storyline
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
More than a mentoring program : attacking institutional racism
Meyer, Graig M. · 2018 · Information Age Publishing
Graig M. Meyer's 2018 account, written with George Noblit, of a youth mentoring program in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools that set out to attack institutional racism and close racial achievement gaps. Chapters lay out an antiracist mentoring model, racial identity development, advocacy at the system level, staffing and leadership, and a culture of continuous improvement. Published by Information Age Publishing, 211 pages, online.
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.
Oral history interview with Edwin Caldwell, March 2, 2001: interview K-0202, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Caldwell, Edwin · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Edwin Caldwell, Jr. reviews a life in Chapel Hill politics in a three-hour Southern Oral History Program interview recorded March 2, 2001, by Oliver White. A skilled organizer, Caldwell worked in the campaign that made Howard Lee the town's first Black mayor in 1969, ran for office more than once without winning, and became a local political power. The conversation also covers race relations, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board and the Church of Reconciliation. Published online in 2006 in Documenting the American South.
The effects of desegregation on selected variables in the Chapel Hill city school system
Prichard, Paul Newton, 1935- · 1969
Paul Newton Prichard's 1969 study of what desegregation changed in the Chapel Hill city school system, measured against academic achievement and other selected variables. Topics include school integration and achievement in the town, and a bibliography runs to page 115. Written during the district's own desegregation years, which makes it a contemporary source as well as a study.
Oral history interview with Barbara Lorie, February 26, 2001 interview K-0211, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
Lorie, Barbara · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Barbara Lorie, interviewed by Melissa Froemming for the Southern Oral History Program on February 26, 2001, recalls her career as a teacher and civil rights worker in Chapel Hill. After a year at Durham Academy she was hired by principal May Marshbanks to teach literature at the newly integrated Chapel Hill High School, where she tried unconventional classroom methods to bridge racial divisions among students. The interview runs one hour fifteen minutes. Electronic edition 2007, Documenting the American South.
Oral history interview with Burnis Hackney, February 5, 2001: interview K-0547, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Hackney, Burnis · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Burnis Hackney entered Chapel Hill High School, newly integrated, in 1966, one of the first Black students there after Lincoln High School closed. In this Southern Oral History Program interview, recorded February 5, 2001, by Bob Gilgor, Hackney weighs his conviction that integration was right against what was lost when Lincoln's traditions were set aside, and how the merger played out for students. About an hour and a half. Published online in 2006 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Oral history interview with Gloria Register Jeter, December 23, 2000: interview K-0549, Southern Oral History Program (#4007)
Jeter, Gloria Register · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Gloria Register Jeter (born 1952) attended both segregated and integrated public schools of Chapel Hill and offers a critical view of how desegregation was carried out, in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded December 23, 2000, by Bob Gilgor. Jeter argues that the merger of Lincoln High School into Chapel Hill High School cost the Black community its school traditions and institutions, and describes the student protests that followed. Published online in 2006 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Oral history interview with Joanne Peerman, February 24, 2001: interview K-0557, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Peerman, Joanne · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Joanne Peerman, a Chapel Hill native and the daughter of a well-known coach, was in one of the first classes to integrate Chapel Hill High School. In this Southern Oral History Program interview, recorded by Bob Gilgor in February 2001, she describes her schooling under segregation and after it, the last years of Lincoln High School, and the civil rights demonstrations that accompanied school integration. About an hour and a half; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2006, through Documenting the American South.
About N. W. Walker · named in 2 of this story’s entries
Patterson's General Store Ledger
Store, Patterson's General · 1910
Account ledger of Patterson's General Store in Chapel Hill for 1910 to 1911, recording what customers owed. Accounts run from townspeople and the university Athletic Association to figures such as Kemp Plummer Battle, Edward Kidder Graham, Collier Cobb, Horace Williams and Louis Round Wilson, and firms including the Bank of Chapel Hill, Odell Hardware, Standard Oil and the Southern Railway. Part of North Carolina Memory.
Edgar Wallace Knight papers, 1915-1953
Knight, Edgar Wallace, 1886-1953 · 1915
Papers of Edgar Wallace Knight (1886-1953), 1915 to 1953, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3904. His subjects include teachers in North Carolina, rural education and the folk high schools of Denmark, and the Social Science Research Council. The material also concerns twentieth century intellectual life in Orange County.
Collier Cobb Photographic Collection, circa 1890s-1920s
Cobb, Collier, 1862-1934 · 1894
Collier Cobb (1862-1934) taught at the University of North Carolina and made photographs there from the 1890s into the 1920s. Approximately 500 items in seven linear feet, P0013 in the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives at UNC. Subjects include campus buildings, the Old Well, alumni, employees, and faculty, with portraits including Wilson Caldwell, Harry Woodburn Chase, R. D. W. Connor, and Frederick H. Koch.
Wider background: Schools & Education · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it
William Friday
Link, William A. · 1995
Biography of William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina system, by historian William A. Link, published by UNC Press in 1995 with the subtitle power, purpose, and American higher education. It covers Friday's career and the history of the university at Chapel Hill and statewide. Part of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.
The Woman Who Rang the Bell: The Story of Cornelia Spencer Phillips
Russell, Charles Phillips · 1949
Charles Phillips Russell's biography of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908), the Chapel Hill writer remembered for ringing the bell of South Building when the university reopened in 1875 after its closure during Reconstruction. It doubles as a history of Chapel Hill and the university. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 293 pages with illustrations.
Reviewed in Journal of American History (1949).
Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices
Barefoot, Daniel W. · 2008
Daniel W. Barefoot arranges first-hand recollections of the University of North Carolina by decade, from the 'infant university' of the 1790s through the Civil War years when promise turned to despair, the rebuilding of the 1870s, the 'frosh' life of the 1880s, wartime fame in the 1940s, the controversies of the 1960s and the bicentennial of the 1990s. Thomas Wolfe's student years appear among the voices. Published by John F. Blair of Winston-Salem in 2008, 257 pages.
The Story of the Institute of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Coates, Albert McKinley · 1981
Albert Coates's own account of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina, which he founded, subtitled 'out of a classroom in Chapel Hill' and published in 1981. The 303 pages trace the institute's history and its role in educating North Carolina's public officials.
Blood on the Old Well
Emery, Sarah Watson · 1963
Sarah Watson Emery's 1963 book on the University of North Carolina, concerned with communism on the Chapel Hill campus and with academic freedom in 1960 and 1961. Published by Prospect House in Dallas, 240 pages with illustrations.
Horace Williams
Winston, Sr., Robert Watson · 1942 · The University of North Carolina press
Robert Watson Winston's biography of Henry Horace Williams (1858-1940), who taught philosophy at the University of North Carolina for half a century, subtitled gadfly of Chapel Hill. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1942, 309 pages with frontispiece and portraits; this copy is autographed. Topics include educators in Chapel Hill and the university's history.
Reviewed in Social Forces (1943).
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To Drink from the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation’s Oldest University
Kapur, Geeta · 2021
Geeta Kapur's history of race at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from the enslaved labor that built the campus through desegregation and the Black student protests that followed. Twelve chapters, with a foreword by William Barber II, move from the founding era and the Great Depression controversies to the state's response to integration and the turmoil of later decades; North Carolina Central University also figures. Published 2021 by Blair in Durham.
Communists on Campus
Billingsley, William J. · 1999 · University of Georgia Press
William J. Billingsley's history of the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 North Carolina statute that barred known Communists from speaking on state campuses, and the fight over it at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The subtitle sets the scope: race, politics and the public university in sixties North Carolina. It treats academic freedom, anti-communist movements and free speech in the state. University of Georgia Press, 1999, 308 pages with eight pages of plates.
Reviewed in Academe (2000), The American Historical Review (2001), The Journal of Southern History (2001), Journal of American History (2001), The Journal of Politics (2001).
Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina
Pleasants, Julian M.; Burns, Augustus M., III · 1990 · UNC Press
Julian M. Pleasants and Augustus M. Burns III on the 1950 Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina, in which Frank Porter Graham, the former president of the University of North Carolina, lost to Willis Smith after a campaign marked by race-baiting. Primaries, elections and race relations in the state are its subjects. Published by UNC Press in 1990, 356 pages with illustrations.
Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (1991), The American Historical Review (1991), Journal of American History (1991), The Journal of Southern History (1992).
Francis Preston Venable of the University of North Carolina
Bursey, Maurice M. · 1989 · Chapel Hill Historical Society
Maurice M. Bursey's biography of Francis Preston Venable (1856 to 1934), chemist and president of the University of North Carolina, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1989. It also covers the history of the university's chemistry department. Illustrated, 111 pages, with bibliographies.
Reviewed in Isis (1992).
Old Days in Chapel Hill
Chamberlain, G. Hope Summerell · 1926
Hope Summerell Chamberlain's life and letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), published in 1926, which doubles as a picture of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century. It runs 325 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase
Covington, Jr., Howard E. · 2018
Howard E. Covington Jr.'s history of how the University of North Carolina took shape under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham (1876 to 1918) and Harry Woodburn Chase (1883 to 1955), published by the University Library in 2018. The 528-page account covers campus history in the early twentieth century and includes portraits.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2020).
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
