In May 1989 On the Hill, a dance club open to those 18 and older, opened in the space above Four Corners on East Franklin Street that the Down Under club had used. On September 26 its bouncers were told to enforce an unwritten dress code that a former bouncer said was meant to keep out gay men and people in alternative dress. After protests and fliers calling for a boycott, the code was not enforced on October 3. By October 10 the bar had posted a written code barring black clothing; the owner said bouncers would turn away people who dressed 'differently,' and the manager said the codes were for business reasons, not to exclude homosexuals. On November 1 Student Congress voted 20 to 1 for a resolution urging the University community not to patronize the club, whose code its sponsors said was unevenly enforced. The Panhellenic Council backed the boycott, and Town Council member Joe Herzenberg said a similar town resolution might follow.
On the Hill closed in 1989, and on January 12, 1990 Club Zen opened in its space at 175 East Franklin Street under a new owner and format, with no dress code and no restrictions on entry. By September 12, 1991 the owner of The Club, a dance club above the Four Corners restaurant, said the building's owner would not renew his lease because he objected to the club's many gay and Black patrons; the building owner denied it and called it a business decision. Herzenberg, whom the Daily Tar Heel called the first openly gay elected official in North Carolina, called the matter an abomination. The Club closed when its lease was not renewed, and the chairman of the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association called the decision discriminatory. In June 1992 the Last Call bar opened upstairs on East Franklin Street in The Club's former space.
Further reading
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.
Background on LGBTQ+ Life & Activism · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray
Rosenberg, Rosalind · 2017
Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2018).
Lightning Brown papers,
Brown, Lightning · 1983
Papers of Lightning Brown, a Chapel Hill activist for gay rights who was also the first openly gay person in North Carolina to run for public office. Most of the 1,500 items concern the 1984 elections: letters to and from public officials, articles and studies reflecting his work in the Democratic Party, on national legislation and on gay rights.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill records, 1975-2014.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Center · 1975
Records of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Center at UNC, 1975 to 2014, about 900 items in 2 linear feet, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40433. Student groups represented include the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association, B-GLAD, and the Women's Forum of the Association of Women Students, with student housing at Chapel Hill also covered.
William Ruthrauff Amberson papers, 1919-1968; 1971
Amberson, William Ruthrauff, 1894- · 1915
William Ruthrauff Amberson, born 1894, left papers spanning 1919 to 1968 with a small run from 1971. The papers concern the University of Tennessee at Memphis and southern farm politics: the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, the Delta Cooperative Farm and Providence Plantation in Mississippi, the Socialist Party, and figures such as Norman Thomas, Howard Kester and Pauli Murray. Part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3862.
Michael R. Nelson papers, circa 1890-2012
Nelson, Michael R., 1963- · 1890
Roughly 2,000 items in 6.5 linear feet kept as the papers of Michael R. Nelson, born 1963, dated from about 1890 to 2012, collection 70140 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Topics include politics and government in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County, campaign paraphernalia, and gay activists and politicians in North Carolina, naming Joseph A. Herzenberg, 1941 to 2007.
Joseph A. Herzenberg papers 1883-2006.
Herzenberg, Joseph A., 1941-2007 · 1883
Twenty linear feet of papers from Joseph A. Herzenberg, 1941 to 2007, about 2,500 items dated 1883 to 2006 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5367. Diaries are among the formats. The work describes a historian and political activist in Chapel Hill, campaign paraphernalia and Democratic Party politics, and gay activists and gay politicians in North Carolina.
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John Seelye papers,
Seelye, John · 1862
Papers of John Seelye (1931 to 2015), literary scholar and Penguin Classics editor, who taught American literature at Berkeley, Connecticut, UNC Chapel Hill, Dartmouth and Florida. The 26,100 items (46.7 linear feet) run from 1862 to 2015, mostly 1955 to 2007, in series of correspondence and contracts, academic files, research files, writings and personal papers, with Melville and Mark Twain among his subjects.
