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Storyline · 1972–1982

Sickle cell screening and care at UNC, 1972–1982

The Black Student Movement held a sickle cell conference with free screening in 1972. In 1980 UNC's Student Health Service began free trait testing, and in 1981 North Carolina Memorial Hospital started a weekly sickle cell clinic, whose doctors began a drug trial for sickle cell crises in 1982.

1972–1982 Filed under Health, Medicine & Care 4 dated events

On April 14 and 15, 1972 the Black Student Movement held a two-day sickle cell anemia conference and benefit at which Dr. James Bryan of the UNC Medical School spoke and Black medical students gave free screening tests to about 200 people. Julius Cornell of the Winston-Salem Black Panther Party spoke in Memorial Hall on the disease's politics, and a talent show raised $115.16 for the Panthers' sickle cell research foundation. In March 1980, as part of a statewide program of the N.C. Division of Health Services, UNC's Student Health Service began free, voluntary sickle cell trait testing and counseling for students and faculty; the Daily Tar Heel noted that about one Black American in 12 carries the trait. In November 1981 Dr. Eugene Orringer and Dr. Lee Berkowitz began a sickle cell program at North Carolina Memorial Hospital, with a weekly clinic for adults and children, a team of two adult hematologists, a pediatric hematologist and a social worker, and free testing for the disease and the trait. By February 1982 doctors led by Orringer had begun a double-blind trial of the drug cetiedil to shorten the painful crises of sickle cell disease, treating patients in the hospital's Clinical Research Unit.

Towns
Chapel Hill
Sites
3

The events, date by date

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

  1. The BSM holds a sickle cell conference and tests about 200 people The Black Student Movement's two-day sickle cell anemia conference and benefit heard Dr. James Bryan of the UNC Medical School, and Black medical students gave free screening tests to about 200 people. Julius Cornell of the Winston-Salem Black Panther Party spoke in Memorial Hall on the disease's politics, and a talent show raised $115.16 for the Panthers' sickle cell research foundation. Place: Carolina Union and Memorial Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: James Bryan, Julius Cornell · Also mentions: Memorial HallSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), April 1972, p. 7
  2. UNC's Student Health Service begins free sickle cell trait testing As part of a statewide sickle cell trait program of the N.C. Division of Health Services, the Student Health Service began free, voluntary testing and counseling for students and faculty on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The paper noted that about one Black American in 12 carries the trait. Place: Student Health Service, University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 31, 1980, p. 1
  3. North Carolina Memorial Hospital starts a sickle cell program and weekly clinic Dr. Eugene Orringer, associate professor of medicine, and Dr. Lee Berkowitz began a sickle cell program and clinic at North Carolina Memorial Hospital, meeting weekly for adults and children with a team of two adult hematologists, a pediatric hematologist and a social worker, and offering free testing for the disease and the trait. Place: North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill · Also named: Eugene Orringer, Lee BerkowitzSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 7, 1982, p. 1
  4. UNC physicians begin clinical trials of cetiedil for sickle cell crises Doctors at UNC led by Eugene Orringer began a double-blind trial of the drug cetiedil to shorten the painful crises of sickle cell disease, with patients treated in North Carolina Memorial Hospital's Clinical Research Unit. A UNC sickle cell clinic had opened in 1980. Place: North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill · Also named: Eugene P. Orringer, Eugene OrringerSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 23, 1982, p. 5

Places in this storyline

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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.

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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 UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital) · named in 2 of this story’s entries

To whom it may concern: an experience in the North Carolina Memorial Hospital

Coates, Albert · 1968

Albert Coates's personal narrative of his stay in North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill after a stroke, published by the University of North Carolina in 1968. Topics include cerebrovascular disease patients and their rehabilitation, hospital care in Chapel Hill and Coates himself, the founder of the university's Institute of Government. 30 pages; also titled What the NC Memorial Hospital Meant to Me.

Jubilee: a 50-year illustrated retrospective, North Carolina Memorial Hospital, UNC School of Medicine

Broom, Dick · 2002

Illustrated look back at fifty years of North Carolina Memorial Hospital and the UNC School of Medicine, with stories by Dick Broom edited by Lynn Wooten. Published by the Medical Foundation of N.C. in 2002, 93 pages with color illustrations and portraits.

EDP application controls audit report, UNC Hospitals, payroll and patient accounting systems

North Carolina · 1998 · The Office

A 19-page audit report issued in Raleigh in January 1998 by a North Carolina state office, reviewing the electronic data processing controls of the payroll and patient accounting systems at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. Subjects include evaluation of the hospitals and of electronic data processing departments in Chapel Hill. A slim government document for those tracking the hospital's administration in the 1990s.

Caring stories from the University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill.

1993 · The Hospitals

Anecdotes from the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, gathered in an unpaged illustrated volume whose colophon is dated September 1993. The pieces are short recollections of care given and received. Issued by the hospitals, 22 cm.

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.

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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.

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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.

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Wider background: Health, Medicine & Care · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it

Medicine at Chapel Hill

McLendon, William Woodard · 2012 · Dept. of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina

History of the Department of Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, compiled by William W. McLendon and published by the department in 2012. After a section of historical perspective, the book covers the deans, founding faculty and department chairs, then the subspecialty divisions, offshoot departments, teaching and research, with appendices. Much of it is biographical, profiling the physicians who built clinical medicine in Chapel Hill. 478 pages with illustrations.

The School of Pharmacy of the University of North Carolina

Noble, Alice · 1961

Alice Noble's history of the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1961. It runs 237 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Legends and Legacies

Kagarise, Mary Jane · 1997 · Dept. of Surgery, UNC School of Medicine

Mary Jane Kagarise's history of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill across its first four decades, 1952 to 1993, with biographies of the surgeons on its faculty. Published by the department in 1997 in a first edition of 461 pages with illustrations, some in color. Topics include surgery and medical colleges in Chapel Hill and biography of the department's faculty.

Reviewed in The American Journal of Surgery (1998).

Dreaming of a time: the School of Public Health : the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989

Korstad, Robert Rodgers · 1990

Robert Korstad's history of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina over its first fifty years, 1939 to 1989, published by the university in 1990. It runs 192 pages with illustrations.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Norma Berryhill Lectures

Blythe, William Brevard ; Denny, Jr., Floyd W. ; McLendon, William Woodard · 2000 · Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc.

Two volumes collecting the Norma Berryhill Lectures, an annual address at the UNC School of Medicine named for the wife of its long-serving dean, W. Reece Berryhill. Volume one gathers the lectures from 1985 to 1999, edited by Floyd W. Denny, Jr., William B. Blythe and William W. McLendon; volume two, edited by McLendon and Elizabeth B. Dreesen, continues through 2008. Published by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina, with illustrations and portraits.

Obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : the first half century

2000

Departmental history of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill covering its first fifty years, published by the department in 2000. The history covers medical schools, medical education and the teaching of obstetrics in North Carolina. First edition, xvii and 366 pages with illustrations and portraits.

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A record of the war activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919

Cameron, Annie Sutton · 2002 · Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Annie Sutton Cameron compiled this account of Orange County's part in the First World War in 1919 as historian for the county's Council of Defense, at the request of its chairman J.S. Webb. It covers the Council and the Home Guard, drives for war bonds and overseas relief, Red Cross work, patriotic observances, the influenza epidemic and women's war work, with registers of the county's soldiers. Published online in 2002 by the UNC library in Documenting the American South's North Carolinians and the Great War.

Self-study summary report

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · 1975

Summary of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's twelve-volume institutional self-study, edited by C. Hugh Holman and dated January 15, 1974, issued in 1975. Topics include the university's accreditation, history and statistics, including the School of Public Health. ix and 546 pages with charts, some folded.

The University of North Carolina School of Public Health relates to the needs of a changing society : a selective and interpretive account with emphasis on the decade of the sixties

Mayes, William Fred · 1975 · University of North Carolina, School of Public Health

William Fred Mayes traces the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and its response to a changing society, with emphasis on the 1960s. The title page describes the account as selective and interpretive rather than complete. Published by the school in 1975, 68 pages with illustrations. Topics include schools of public health in Chapel Hill and their history.

The good doctor and other selections from the essays and addresses of William de Berniere MacNider

MacNider, William de Berniere, 1881-1951 · 1953

Selections from the essays and addresses of William de Berniere MacNider, pharmacologist and physician at the University of North Carolina, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953, two years after his death. Includes a portrait and a list of his publications.

Carolina Nursing through the decades: a historic timeline

2025 · The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing

An illustrated online timeline of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, issued by the school in 2025. One page with portraits.

Progress and protests : UNC-Chapel Hill leaders during "the Long Sixties" (1957-1972) : covering chancellors William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp, and J. Carlyle Sitterson

Roundtree, Lynn · 2024 · Lynn Roundtree

Lynn Roundtree covers the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1957 and 1972 through its three chancellors, William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp and J. Carlyle Sitterson, set against the student movements of those years. Part of the Coates university leadership series, published by the author in 2024 and running to 926 pages. It is twentieth century campus history.

UNC

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Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Sickle cell screening and care at UNC, 1972–1982.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/sickle-cell-storyline-1972/. Accessed October 22, 2026.

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