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Storyline · 1935–1939

Chapel Hill women's peace organizing, 1935–1939

In September 1939, with war in Europe, Chapel Hill women organized to keep the United States out of it. The Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, founded in 1935 by Charlotte Adams, sent Congressman Carl Durham a letter urging him to keep the arms embargo, put basic war materials on a cash-and-carry basis and hold war trade to peacetime levels, answering his statement that most people he had talked with favored repeal. That month other Chapel Hill women formed Mothers for Peace, with no dues, political aims or affiliations, and called on women across the country to write the President and their members of Congress and to fight war propaganda.

1935–1939 Filed under Women's Lives & History 3 dated events

In 1935 Charlotte Adams founded a Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the branch now called WILPF Triangle. On September 19, 1939 the branch's executive committee authorized a letter, signed by legislative chairman Dorothy Bonnell, urging Congressman Carl Durham to keep the arms embargo, put basic war materials on a cash-and-carry basis and hold war trade to peacetime levels. The letter answered Durham's statement that 95 percent of the people he had talked with favored repeal. That September a group of Chapel Hill women also formed Mothers for Peace, with no dues, political aims or affiliations. They called on women across the country to write the President and their senators and representatives to keep the United States out of the European war and to fight war propaganda on the radio and in print. They hoped it would grow into a national movement, with headquarters at 519 Hooper Lane.

Towns
Chapel Hill
People with pages
2

The events, date by date

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

  1. A Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is founded Charlotte Adams founded a Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The branch is now called WILPF Triangle. People: Charlotte Adams Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Civil Rights Digital Library: Adams, Charlotte, 1903?-2005
  2. Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League writes Congressman Durham against repealing the arms embargo On September 19, 1939, the executive committee of the Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom authorized a letter, signed by legislative chairman Dorothy Bonnell, urging Congressman Carl Durham to keep the arms embargo, put basic war materials on a cash-and-carry basis and hold war trade to peacetime levels. The letter answered Durham's statement that 95 percent of the people he had talked with favored repeal. People: Carl T. Durham Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Dorothy BonnellSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 22, 1939, p. 2
  3. Chapel Hill women organize Mothers for Peace In September 1939 a group of Chapel Hill women formed Mothers for Peace, with no dues, political aims or affiliations, and called on women across the country to write the President and their senators and representatives to keep the United States out of the European war and to fight war propaganda on the radio and in print. They hoped it would grow into a national movement, with headquarters at 519 Hooper Lane. Place: 519 Hooper Lane, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Hooper LaneSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 29, 1939, p. 1

People in this storyline

People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.

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 Women's Lives & History · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it

To Free A Family

Nathans, Sydney · 2012 · Harvard University Press

Sydney Nathans's biography of Mary Walker, an enslaved woman from Orange County who escaped to the North in the mid nineteenth century and spent the following decades in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working to free the family she had left behind. Chapter titles trace her flight, her years among Northern friends, a rescue plot, a long silence, and the reunion that gives the book its close. Published 2012 by Harvard University Press, 330 pages with 20 pages of plates, illustrations and maps.

Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (2012), Civil War Book Review (2012).

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO WALKER NAT NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Davidson Methodist Wingate UNCSA

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.

✓ Held at OCPL NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson Methodist CH Historical Society

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).

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU Wingate CH Historical Society Library of Congress

Selected Papers of Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Spencer, Cornelia Phillips · 1953

Selected writings of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), the Chapel Hill writer who campaigned for the university's reopening after Reconstruction, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953. The 753 pages touch on Chapel Hill life, education and the university in the nineteenth century.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).

NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU CH Historical Society Library of Congress

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).

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO MURRAY ROS Duke NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL
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Well worth a shindy : the architectural and philosophical history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Madry, Sarah Brandes · 2003 · iUniverse

Sarah Brandes Madry's history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, treating both its architecture and the ideas attached to it. It takes in drinking fountains and water use in Chapel Hill and the university's history, with a chapter on Edwin Anderson Alderman, the president under whom the well took its present form in 1897, and one on water at the university. Published by iUniverse in 2003, 399 pages with illustrations.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave

Fleischner, Jennifer · 2003 · Broadway Books

Jennifer Fleischner's double biography of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, the dressmaker who had been enslaved, including years in Hillsborough, before buying her freedom and becoming the First Lady's confidante. Published by Broadway Books in New York in 2003, 372 pages with illustrations and a map. Topics include enslaved women in Hillsborough and the United States, dressmakers and women's friendships in the nineteenth century.

✓ Held at OCPL · 973.7 FLEISCHN NC Cardinal Library of Congress UNC

The Book of Burwell Students

Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979 · Historic Hillsborough Commission

Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 371.82 ENG NC Cardinal UNC Durham

The last ninety days of the war in North-Carolina

Spencer, Cornelia Phillips · 2005 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Cornelia Phillips Spencer's account of the closing weeks of the Civil War in North Carolina, reissued in 2005 as an electronic edition by the University Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. Topics include the 1865 campaigns, Sherman's march through the Carolinas, Stoneman's raid, and the history of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century, where Spencer, 1825 to 1908, spent her working life.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham

More than petticoats

Cohn, Scotti · 2000 · TwoDot

Scotti Cohn's short biographies of notable North Carolina women, including Harriet Jacobs, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Annie Lowrie Alexander and Cornelia Phillips Spencer of Chapel Hill. Published by Twodot in 2000, 198 pages with illustrations.

NC Cardinal CH Historical Society Library of Congress

First Women of Orange County

1994 · Orange County Women's History Month Committee

A Women's History Month project of 1993 and 1994 from the Orange County Women's History Month Committee, profiling women who were firsts in the county. Published in Chapel Hill in 1994, 13 pages plus unnumbered leaves with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 305.409 FIR UNC Durham

Research this storyline

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Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Chapel Hill women's peace organizing, 1935–1939.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/womens-peace-organizing-storyline-1935/. Accessed October 22, 2026.

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