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Storyline · 1927–1945

The University's Human Relations Institutes, 1927–1945

A weeklong institute in March 1927, arranged by Harry F. Comer of the YMCA, brought James Weldon Johnson, executive secretary of the NAACP, and other speakers on race, labor and world affairs to the University. History chair J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton walked out when Howard Odum introduced Johnson as 'Mister Johnson' and protested to Chase, while a Tar Heel editorial welcomed the visit. The third quadrennial Human Relations Institute, in 1935, brought a week of lectures on government, industry, race and religion, and the Weekly called it a great success. Comer's 1945 institute took the theme 'The Prices of Peace,' with Senator J. William Fulbright giving the Weil lectures on America and world organization.

1927–1945 Filed under UNC & Campus Life 3 dated events

In the latter half of March 1927 a weeklong institute arranged by Harry F. Comer of the YMCA, approved by Chase, brought speakers on race, labor and world affairs to the University. James Weldon Johnson, executive secretary of the NAACP, spoke in Memorial Hall and met classes. History chair J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton walked out when Howard Odum introduced him as 'Mister Johnson' and protested to Chase, while a Tar Heel editorial by David Donald Carroll welcomed the visit. The third quadrennial Human Relations Institute, from March 31 to April 6, 1935, brought a week of lectures and seminars on government, industry, race and religion to Memorial Hall. Its speakers included James M. Landis of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congressman Hamilton Fish, textile manufacturer Donald Comer and Norman Thomas, and the Weekly called it a great success. The biennial institute of April 4 to 10, 1945, arranged by Comer as YMCA secretary with student and faculty committees, took the theme 'The Prices of Peace.' It opened with Eduard Heimann of the New School for Social Research and Assistant Attorney General Wendell Berge; Morris Ernst of the American Civil Liberties Union spoke on prejudice, and Senator J. William Fulbright gave the Weil lectures on America and world organization.

Towns
Chapel Hill
Sites
2
People with pages
4

The events, date by date

Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.

  1. James Weldon Johnson speaks at the YMCA's Institute of Human Relations Harry F. Comer's weeklong institute, approved by Chase, brought speakers on race, labor and world affairs. Johnson, NAACP executive secretary, spoke in Memorial Hall and met classes. History chair J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton walked out when Howard Odum introduced him as 'Mister Johnson' and protested to Chase, while a Tar Heel editorial by David Donald Carroll welcomed the visit. People: Howard W. Odum, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Harry F. Comer Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: James Weldon Johnson, David Donald CarrollSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 362-364
  2. University holds its third Human Relations Institute The University's third quadrennial Human Relations Institute brought a week of lectures and seminars on government, industry, race and religion to Memorial Hall, with speakers including James M. Landis of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congressman Hamilton Fish, textile manufacturer Donald Comer, Sanford Bates of the federal prisons bureau, Everett Dean Martin and Norman Thomas. The Weekly reported large audiences of students, faculty, townspeople and visitors and called the Institute a great success. People: Norman Thomas Place: Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: James M. Landis, Hamilton Fish, Donald Comer, Sanford Bates, Everett Dean MartinSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 5, 1935, p. 1
  3. The biennial Human Relations Institute opens at the University The University's biennial Human Relations Institute, arranged by YMCA secretary Harry F. Comer with student and faculty committees, opened with Eduard Heimann of the New School for Social Research and Assistant Attorney General Wendell Berge. Under the theme 'The Prices of Peace' it ran through April 10, with Morris Ernst of the American Civil Liberties Union speaking on prejudice and Senator J. William Fulbright giving the Weil lectures on America and world organization. People: Harry F. Comer Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: YMCASearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 5, 1945, p. 1

Places in this storyline

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

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.

  • University YMCA University schools and programs · Chapel Hill · 2 events here
  • Memorial Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

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People in this storyline

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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.

About University YMCA · named in 2 of this story’s entries

Oral history interview with Anne Queen, April 30, 1976 interview G-0049-1, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Queen, Anne · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Anne Queen (1911-2005), director of the Campus Y at UNC, interviewed by Joseph Herzenberg on April 30, 1976 for the Southern Oral History Program. Queen grew up in Canton, North Carolina, in a working family, finished school in 1930 and spent ten years with Champion Paper and Fibre, where she came to identify with the New Deal Democrats and took an interest in labor. She also discusses Berea College, Yale Divinity School, and student political activity and civil rights work at Chapel Hill. Two hours thirty-eight minutes.

Oral history interview with Anne Queen, November 22, 1976: interview G-0049-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Queen, Anne · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Second of two Southern Oral History Program interviews with Anne Queen (1911-2005), who came to Chapel Hill after years as an industrial worker and went on to direct the Campus YWCA-YMCA, a center of student activism. Recorded November 22, 1976, by Joseph Herzenberg, this hour-long conversation covers how Queen saw politics in the South and the nation change through the mid-twentieth century, and student political activity at UNC. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, November 19, 1990: interview L-0048, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Law professor Daniel H. Pollitt remembers Anne Queen (1911-2005), director of UNC's Campus Y, in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded November 19, 1990, by Cindy Cheatham. Queen's commitment to social justice matched Pollitt's own work for racial equality and support of student activists, and he describes her Campus Y as the place where students concerned with civil rights in segregated Chapel Hill gathered and learned to organize. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, December 18, 1990: interview L-0049, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Friday, William C. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

William C. Friday, UNC system president from 1957 until 1986, was interviewed by Cindy Cheatham in December 1990 about Anne Queen (1911-2005). Queen came to the campus YWCA as associate director in 1956 and led the merged YMCA-YWCA from 1964 to 1975. Friday recalls working with her through the years of student political activity in Chapel Hill and reflects on the place of the Y in university life. About forty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

About Memorial Hall · named in one of this story’s entries

The Carolina Union Proudly Presents: Memories of the Tech Crew of Memorial Hall

Madry, Scott · 2021

Scott Madry's recollections of the student tech crew at Memorial Hall, the University of North Carolina's auditorium in Chapel Hill, presented under the banner of the Carolina Union, the campus student union. Published in Chapel Hill in 2021.

UNC

The transformation of Memorial Hall, 2002-2005 : the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : limited edition prints from the photographic documentary

Carter, Catharine · 2005 · The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Catharine Carter photographed the rebuilding of Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina between 2002 and 2005, and twelve of the images were issued in 2005 as limited edition lithographic prints, numbered and signed by her, in a portfolio with text and illustrations.

UNC

A guide to the tablets of Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Wooten, Patrick S. · 1992

Patrick S. Wooten's 1992 guide to the memorial tablets in Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, identifying the people commemorated there. Subjects include university biography, alumni and Confederate rosters, so the volume doubles as a name list for anyone tracing individuals honored on the walls. One volume in various foliations with illustrations.

UNC

Memorial Hall : its tablets and memories : acceptance of tablets memorializing Col. Robert Bingham, Ambassador Robert Worth Bingham and Senator Matt W. Ransom

Winston, Robert W. (Robert Watson), 1860-1944 · 1939

Robert W. Winston's 1939 address on Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina and the memorial tablets set in its walls, given when tablets honoring Colonel Robert Bingham, Ambassador Robert Worth Bingham and Senator Matt W. Ransom were accepted. Printed at Chapel Hill, it records how those tablets came to be placed in the hall.

UNC
Wider background: UNC & Campus Life · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it

Carolina Basketball: A Century of Excellence

Lucas, Adam · 2010 · University of North Carolina Press

Adam Lucas marks one hundred years of basketball at the University of North Carolina in this illustrated history, published by UNC Press in 2010 in association with the athletics department. Chapters follow the program from the game's arrival on campus and the 'White Phantoms' of the Southern Conference through the founding of the ACC, the 1957 season, Dean Smith's changes to the game and the title seasons of 1982, 1993, 2005 and 2009, closing with a century of statistics. 289 pages.

The Blue Divide: Duke, North Carolina, and the Battle on Tobacco Road

Moore, Johnny; Chansky, Art · 2014 · Triumph Books

The Duke and North Carolina basketball rivalry written together by Johnny Moore and Art Chansky, the latter a sports reporter who has followed it since his student days at UNC. The book opens with the 2014 season and moves through recruiting battles old and new, 'Black and Blue Sunday', 'Blood and Roses', and chapters on the rivalry's heroes, leaders and teachers, with a foreword by Jay Bilas and a photo gallery. Published by Triumph Books in 2014, 289 pages.

Miss Mary's Money

Jones, H. G. · 2014 · McFarland & Co.

H. G. Jones follows the fortune of Mary Ruffin Smith (1814-1885), the unmarried heiress whose Orange and Chatham County lands passed at her death to the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Church. Chapters profile her grandfather Francis Jones, then trace the bequest through a quarrel among Episcopalians over Price Creek, the Chapel of the Cross and the university's buildings. A December 1885 New York Times report called the gift money; Jones shows it was land. Published by McFarland in 2014, 231 pages.

The Chronicles of the Bicentennial Observance of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tepper, Steven J. · 1998

Steven J. Tepper's chronicle of how the University of North Carolina marked its bicentennial in 1993 and 1994. An appendix reprints the University Day speeches of October 12, 1993, given by Paul Hardin, James B. Hunt Jr., C.D. Spangler, William C. Friday, Charles Kuralt and President Bill Clinton, plus bicentennial addresses by Li Lu, Francis S. Collins and Richard J. Richardson. Published by the university in Chapel Hill, 1998; 284 pages.

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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.

Chapel Hill in Plain Sight

Athas, Daphne · 2010 · Eno Publishers

Twelve essays by novelist Daphne Athas (1923-2020) on the Chapel Hill she knew across the twentieth century. Subjects include Carrboro as 'the Paris of the Piedmont', philosopher Horace Williams, Betty Smith writing in Chapel Hill, Junius Scales, Ab Abernethy and the Intimate Bookshop, Richard Wright's visit, and a set of Chapel Hill murders. Published 2010, 243 pages with illustrations.

What it means to be a Tar Heel: Roy Williams and North Carolina's greatest players

Fowler, Scott · 2010 · Triumph Books

Scott Fowler gathers recollections from Carolina basketball players, decade by decade from the 1950s to the 2000s, organized around Roy Williams and the question in the title. Contributors include Lennie Rosenbluth, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham, Charlie Scott, Phil Ford, James Worthy, Brad Daugherty, Eric Montross, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Raymond Felton and Sean May, each entry giving position and playing years. Published 2010 by Triumph Books of Chicago, 270 pages, here as an e-book.

The Campus of the First State University

Henderson, Archibald · 1949

Archibald Henderson's history of the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, its buildings and grounds from the founding in the 1790s onward. Henderson, a professor of mathematics and a prolific historian of the university, wrote it in the years around the university's sesquicentennial. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 412 pages with illustrations and bibliographical footnotes.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1949), South Atlantic Quarterly (1950).

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).

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Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “The University's Human Relations Institutes, 1927–1945.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/human-relations-institutes-storyline-1927/. Accessed October 22, 2026.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026