Storyline · 1916–1975
Chapel Hill's aldermen let drug stores keep set Sunday hours in 1916, and in April 1923 they closed the town's stores on Sunday, leaving cafes and drug stores two short windows to sell drinks and tobacco, soon lengthened. In 1924 the Carrboro aldermen turned down the Methodist and Baptist churches' call to stop all Sunday trade and set Sunday hours instead, after more than half the town's voters petitioned against it. In 1928 Chapel Hill's mayor heard charges against druggists who had sold cigarettes during church hours, and in 1933 the aldermen ordered the grocery stores closed on Sundays. Chapel Hill stopped late-night beer sales in 1942, and the county banned Sunday beer sales in 1946. Both towns repealed their Sunday bans on beer and wine in 1971, but Carrboro restored its ban in 1974, and a court dismissed merchants' suit against it. In December 1975 a newly elected Carrboro board repealed it again.
In October 1916 the Chapel Hill aldermen let drug stores open on Sundays from 8 to 9:45 in the morning and 3 to 5 in the afternoon and sell drinks in those hours, and The News objected to soft drinks, cigars and cigarettes being sold on the Sabbath. On April 10, 1923 the aldermen adopted an ordinance that closed stores on Sunday and let cafes and drug stores sell soft drinks, cigars and cigarettes only from 9 to 10:45 a.m. and 4 to 5 p.m. The News called it the town's blue law and said church attendance was larger than usual on its first Sunday, and within two weeks a special meeting of the aldermen lengthened the Sunday hours to before 11 a.m. and from 2 to 6 p.m. On May 19, 1924, asked by the Carrboro Methodist and Baptist churches to stop all Sunday trade, the Carrboro aldermen instead held the drugstore soda fountain and the garages to two hours each Sunday morning and afternoon, barred Sunday repair work and left the Sparrows' swimming pool open on Sunday afternoons. Dr. B. B. Lloyd had presented a counter-petition from 104 citizens, more than half the town's voters, and Mayor Mann said the board had followed the majority. On May 23, 1928 Mayor Zeb Council of Chapel Hill, sitting as magistrate, heard charges that drugstores had sold cigarettes during church hours, brought after one druggist sent an employee to buy from his rivals. He dismissed the first charge, dropped the rest and urged all merchants to obey. On July 12, 1933 the aldermen ordered Chapel Hill's grocery stores not to open on Sundays, ending the two Sunday-morning hours the Model Market had kept. From April 10, 1942 the Chapel Hill aldermen barred beer and wine sales after midnight, after the police chief traced much misconduct to late-night drinking. At the request of two ministers the county commissioners ordered all beer retailers in the county to stop selling on Sundays from October 1, 1946, and that December superior court revoked a tavern's license in the first case under the ban. In 1971 the Chapel Hill aldermen repealed the town's ban on beer and wine sales from 1 p.m. Sunday, leaving sales to state law, and the Carrboro board did the same on a split vote. In March 1974 the Carrboro aldermen voted 3 to 1 to ban Sunday beer and wine sales again, with Braxton Foushee against, and that November superior court dismissed five convenience-store merchants' suit against the ban. On December 9, 1975, at its first meeting, the newly elected Carrboro board repealed the ban 5 to 1; all the new aldermen had promised to vote against it, and John Boone cast the only vote to keep it.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first.
People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
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. “Sunday closing and Sunday beer sales in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1916–1975.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/sunday-closing-storyline-1916/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
