Storyline · 1972–1984
In 1972 Orange County voters elected Flo Garrett, the first woman elected to the Board of Commissioners, and Richard E. Whitted, its first Black member. After the 1974 election the board chose Garrett as chairman and Whitted as vice chairman and replaced the county attorney, and in 1976 Whitted became the board's first Black chair. That year voters returned Whitted and elected Donald Willhoit, who had won a Democratic runoff. Whitted and Willhoit were re-elected in 1980, and Whitted left the board in 1984 after 12 years.
On November 7, 1972 Democrats Flo Garrett and Richard E. Whitted won the two open seats on the Orange County Board of Commissioners, carrying all 28 precincts. The Daily Tar Heel reported that Garrett, a former member of the county elections board, was the first woman ever elected to the board, and Whitted, born in Hillsborough, became its first Black member. In November 1974 voters returned chairman Norman Walker and elected Norm Gustaveson and Jan Pinney, who had campaigned against routing Interstate 40 through the county and for stricter zoning. At its December 2 meeting the reorganized board chose Garrett, then 32, as chairman and Whitted as vice chairman, fired county attorney Lucius Cheshire and hired the firm of Winston, Coleman and Bernholz as county counsel. In the Democratic primary of August 17, 1976 Whitted won one of the two seats outright with 5,444 votes, and since no Republicans ran, the primary settled them. Donald Willhoit, UNC's director of health and safety and a Carrboro planning board member running for office for the first time, fell about 50 votes short of a majority, and on September 14 he defeated former commissioner William C. Ray in a runoff, about 58 to 42 percent, with strong student support. On November 2 Willhoit and Whitted were elected unopposed, as Orange gave Jimmy Carter 15,753 votes to Gerald Ford's 9,329 and Jim Hunt 16,514 to David Flaherty's 7,338 for governor. In 1976 Whitted became the first Black chair of the commissioners.
On April 21, 1980 the South Orange Black Caucus, chaired by Moses Carey Jr., endorsed Whitted and Willhoit over two challengers for the May 6 primary, along with Governor Jim Hunt and Senator Edward Kennedy for president; Carey said the caucus chose those who would best serve the Black community of southern Orange County. On November 4 Whitted, the board's chairman, and Willhoit were re-elected with about 15,950 votes each to 7,044 for Republican Josephine Barbour, who had campaigned against five straight years of county tax increases; county registration had reached a record of about 41,500 voters. Whitted did not seek re-election in 1984 and left the board in early December after 12 years, and the commissioners and county employees arranged a Christmas party in his honor for December 12 at the Big Barn Convention Center in Hillsborough.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are the most widely held histories of the theme it is filed under, so they may not discuss it. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
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.
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.
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).
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).
Ruth Blackwelder's study of political and intellectual leadership in Orange County and North Carolina from 1752 to 1861, published in Charlotte by W. Loftin in 1961. Topics include state politics and government, intellectual life before the Civil War, and county genealogy. It runs 216 pages with illustrations and a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.
Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.
Howard E. Covington Jr.'s biography of Albert Coates (1896-1989), the law professor who founded the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina and led it through its early years. Topics include Coates as a law teacher and the institute's history as a center for the study of public administration in Chapel Hill. Published in 2010 by the University Library at Chapel Hill, 322 pages with 32 pages of plates.
Warren Ashby's biography of Frank Porter Graham (1886-1972), president of the University of North Carolina from 1930 to 1949 and later a United States senator. Published by Blair in 1981, x and 386 pages with sixteen leaves of plates and a bibliography.
Reviewed in The American Historical Review (1981), Journal of American History (1981).
Hugh Talmage Lefler and Paul W. Wager's history of Orange County across its first two centuries, 1752 to 1952, prepared for the county's bicentennial. It covers government and politics, biography and the county's families, and doubles as a genealogical reference. Published in Chapel Hill by the Orange Printshop in 1953, 389 pages with illustrations and an index; this copy is a later reprint.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).
Michael Thomas Smith's biography of Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick, the University of North Carolina chemistry professor dismissed in 1856 after he declared support for the antislavery presidential candidate John C. Fremont. Published by University of Delaware Press in 2003, 216 pages with illustrations. Topics include abolitionists and dissenters in North Carolina, the antislavery movement in the state, and the university's biography before 1962.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2005).
The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1951), Journal of American History (1951), The Journal of Southern History (1953), Journal of American History (1953), The Journal of Southern History (1954), The Journal of Southern History (1955), The Journal of Southern History (1957), Journal of American History (1957), The American Historical Review (1957).
Address by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough on 24 August 1924, marking the parish's hundredth anniversary. Printed in Durham in 1925 at the vestry's order, with a foreword by the rector. Cheshire discusses George Micklejohn, William Mercer Green and Moses Ashley Curtis.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Flora Garrett, Richard Whitted and the county board, 1972–1984.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/garrett-whitted-county-board-storyline-1972/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
