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The movement for a freestanding Black Cultural Center, 1991–1993

Students, faculty, staff, and athletes campaigned for a building of its own, the struggle that led to the Sonja Haynes Stone Center.

27 works about The movement for a freestanding Black Cultural Center, 1991–1993 are indexed here.

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The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

In the chronology

Chronology entries for this event, in date order. See these 38 dated events in the chronology →

  1. A planning committee for a Black Cultural Center holds its first meeting A Black Cultural Center Planning Committee, formed in April 1984 with the help of Vice Chancellor Donald Boulton and including BSM members, administrators and faculty, held its first meeting in the Carolina Union on April 19, 1984. It issued its first proposal for a center in 1985.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), August 31, 1992, p. 3
  2. UNC trustees pass a resolution supporting the Black Cultural Center The Board of Trustees voted 11 to 0 to recognize the successful beginning of the Black Cultural Center and encouraged its Facility Planning Committee to plan adequate space. In 1992 the BSM president held up the resolution against the chancellor's refusal of a freestanding building.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 18, 1992, p. 10
  3. The BSM's Umoja series takes up the need for a Black Cultural Center The third Umoja program of the year, part of a Black Student Movement series meant to build unity among Black students, faculty and staff, was given to the case for a real Black Cultural Center. Director Margo Crawford, also co-chair of the National Association of Black Cultural Centers, argued that the center should be a place where anyone could learn about Black culture, and Black Ink contrasted that goal with a mere "Black Cultural Closet."Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 19, 1990, p. 11
  4. Students campaign for a freestanding Black Cultural Center After Sonja Haynes Stone died in 1991, students, faculty and Black athletes at UNC pressed for a freestanding Black Cultural Center named for her. Following marches in September 1992, Chancellor Paul Hardin endorsed a freestanding building on October 15, 1992, and the trustees approved a site in 1993. People: Sonja Haynes StoneUNC University Archives (For the Record): Student Protests in Support of the Black Cultural Center, 1992
  5. Professor Sonja Haynes Stone dies Sonja Haynes Stone, associate professor of African and Afro-American studies, died at Duke University Medical Center at 52, four days after she was found unconscious at her Durham home with a brain aneurysm. Students and colleagues remembered her as UNC's activist professor, an adviser to Black student groups and a leader of the drives for a freestanding Black Cultural Center and for department status for African and Afro-American studies. People: Sonja Haynes StoneBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), August 26, 1991, p. 2
  6. Students hold a two-week celebration of Sonja Haynes Stone's life and legacy A two-week program honored Stone with workshops at the Black Cultural Center on her as an activist professor, student activism in the civil rights years and the 1990s, and the future of Black studies, opening with a press conference at the center. The schedule also listed a salute to Stone by Amiri Baraka in the Hanes Art Center on August 28 and a memorial celebration in Memorial Hall on September 5. People: Sonja Haynes StoneBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), August 26, 1991, p. 8
  7. The BSM president receives threats over the campaign to honor Sonja Stone The president of the Black Student Movement said he received repeated profane, threatening telephone calls in his Mangum Residence Hall room and the BSM office warning him to drop the drive to name the Black Cultural Center for Stone, endow a chair in her name and win department status for Afro-American studies. Early on August 31 people pounded on his door and threw rocks at his window; campus police were called, but those responsible got away.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 28, 1991, p. 5
  8. The BSM keeps Black Cultural Center programs in the center's cramped Union office to press for a building To show that the Black Cultural Center, opened three years earlier in the Student Union as a temporary space, was really an office seating about 25, the Black Student Movement asked director Margo Crawford to hold all center programs there. The university's 1991 Guide to Physical Development left a center building in Category III, and Vice Chancellor Donald Boulton said Chancellor Hardin had made no decision on any freestanding building, though Hardin seemed to support renaming the center for Sonja Stone.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 1, 1991, p. 5
  9. The Sonja Stone Task Force holds silent protests at the bicentennial opening and University Day As UNC opened its bicentennial celebration, about 30 members of the Sonja Stone Task Force stood silently in front of South Building to press three demands: naming the Black Cultural Center for Stone, an endowed chair in her name and department status for African and Afro-American studies. The next morning ten members attended the University Day observance in Memorial Hall. Three Styrofoam "stones" at South Building stood for the demands. People: Sonja Haynes StoneBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 28, 1991, p. 8
  10. UNC trustees rename the Black Cultural Center for Sonja Haynes Stone Meeting at the Carolina Inn, the Board of Trustees voted in closed session, with one member opposed, to name the Black Cultural Center for the late professor Sonja Haynes Stone, while about 50 members of the Sonja Stone Task Force waited in silence holding posters of her. Chancellor Paul Hardin told the board the students had his support, and Student Body President Matt Heyd spoke for the change. The marchers then went to South Building, removed the first of three Styrofoam "stones" standing for their demands and held a reception at the renamed center. People: Sonja Haynes StoneBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 28, 1991, p. 5
  11. Student coalition presents demands to Chancellor Hardin for a freestanding Black Cultural Center A coalition of the Black Student Movement, the Campus Y and student government sent Chancellor Paul Hardin demands for a freestanding Black Cultural Center, higher pay for the housekeepers and an endowed chair for the late Sonja Haynes Stone, with a March 11 deadline. Hardin and Dean of Student Affairs Donald Boulton met coalition leaders, among them BSM president Amie Epps, on February 27.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), March 31, 1992, p. 8
  12. UNC sets aside $500,000 to renovate an existing building for the Black Cultural Center The university announced that $500,000 from its bicentennial would go toward renovating an existing building for the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center. Students seeking a freestanding center were dissatisfied.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 18, 1992, p. 3
Show all 38 dated events
  1. Students rally at South Building for the Black Cultural Center, the housekeepers and a Stone chair At 12:15 p.m. on March 12, 1992, students rallied in front of South Building for the housekeepers, an endowed chair honoring Sonja Haynes Stone and a freestanding Black Cultural Center. A Black Ink writer complained that most of the crowd was not Black.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), March 31, 1992, p. 4
  2. Chancellor Hardin says he does not support a freestanding Black Cultural Center In a public statement answering the coalition, Chancellor Paul Hardin said he opposed a freestanding center, calling for a forum rather than a fortress, and asked Dean Donald Boulton to form a working group on the center's space, with short-term space possibly in Chase. He urged students to raise the $500,000 set aside in the Bicentennial campaign and said UNC already started housekeepers 5 percent above the standard state entry wage and could legally do no more.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), March 31, 1992, p. 8
  3. UNC holds the naming ceremony for the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center More than 120 people crowded the center's room in the Student Union for its official naming for the late professor Sonja Haynes Stone. Speakers included education professor Frank Brown, Stone's pastor Lorenzo Lynch of White Rock Baptist Church in Durham and Deloris Jordan, and Chancellor Paul Hardin said the center would keep Stone's name wherever it went, while student speakers pressed for a freestanding building.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), March 31, 1992, p. 3
  4. The Black Cultural Center starts Communiversity, a Saturday school for local children The Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center began Communiversity, a Saturday program run by students and community volunteers to teach local Black children about African and African American heritage. Its pilot sessions were held in spring 1992.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), March 24, 1992, p. 4
  5. Black UNC football players found the Black Awareness Council Four Black football players founded the Black Awareness Council in the first summer session of 1992 to raise awareness among African American students. Open only to Black students, it backed a freestanding Black Cultural Center, an African American Studies department, better pay for housekeepers and a minority advisory board, and claimed about 100 prospective members by summer's end.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), August 31, 1992, p. 5
  6. The Black Cultural Center coalition holds speak-outs and a symbolic groundbreaking During the second summer session of 1992, the Coalition for a Free-Standing Black Cultural Center held two speak-outs on the center and on racism at UNC, a Black Cultural Expo and a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for the building. The new Black Awareness Council helped the Sonja Haynes Stone Task Force run the speak-outs.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), August 31, 1992, p. 6
  7. Chancellor Hardin proposes clearing the back of the Carolina Union for the Black Cultural Center Over the summer of 1992 the administration offered a plan to clear and renovate space at the rear of the Carolina Union for the Black Cultural Center, moving The Daily Tar Heel and Yackety Yack offices to new space above Daniels Bookstore or Chase Hall. Coalition members rejected it and pledged to pay for a separate building with outside money.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), August 31, 1992, p. 6
  8. The Black Cultural Center wins a Z. Smith Reynolds grant for its Cross Cultural Communications Institute Over the summer of 1992 the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center received a Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation grant to make its cross-cultural communication workshops a standing, student-run Cross Cultural Communications Institute. Its first six-week session ran from October 5 to November 16, 1992.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 5, 1992, p. 7
  9. About 500 students march at night to Chancellor Hardin's house for a freestanding Black Cultural Center After a speak-out in the Pit on September 3, 1992, about thirty students still there gathered some 500 people for an impromptu march to Chancellor Paul Hardin's house at 11:20 p.m. to demand a freestanding Black Cultural Center. Black Ink reported no citations and no arrests.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), September 16, 1992, p. 6
  10. Students march on South Building and give Chancellor Hardin a November 13 deadline Hundreds of students marched from the Pit to South Building on September 10, 1992, filling its steps, while leaders handed Chancellor Paul Hardin a letter giving him until November 13 to bring the trustees a concrete plan for a freestanding Black Cultural Center or face further direct action. Hardin said the march had not changed his position.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), September 16, 1992, p. 6
  11. Spike Lee speaks to more than 7,000 at a Black Cultural Center rally in the Smith Center Filmmaker Spike Lee, who had called the BSM after reading of Black football players leading the campaign, spoke at a coalition rally for a freestanding Black Cultural Center in the Dean E. Smith Center, before a crowd Black Ink put at more than 7,000. Nation of Islam minister Khalid Muhammad also spoke, and his remarks drew wide complaint that they drove away white supporters.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 5, 1992, p. 2
  12. B-GLAD joins the campaign for a freestanding Black Cultural Center B-GLAD joined the Black Student Movement and other groups in the campaign for a freestanding Black Cultural Center on campus. Its co-chair wrote that the group opposed discrimination in all forms and hoped joining would also win allies for B-GLAD.Lambda (Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association, UNC), January 1993, p. 11 · Also: Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 5, 1992, p. 5
  13. Student Congress votes 13 to 8 to back a freestanding Black Cultural Center Student Congress voted 13 to 8 in support of a freestanding Black Cultural Center in early September 1992.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 5, 1992, p. 18
  14. Jim Gardner criticizes the Black Cultural Center plan at Republican headquarters in Chapel Hill In the last weeks of his 1992 campaign for governor, Republican Jim Gardner told about 50 supporters at the party's Chapel Hill headquarters that a freestanding Black Cultural Center would undo twenty years of work toward racial integration.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 22, 1993, p. 6
  15. Dinesh D'Souza debates at UNC and calls a freestanding Black Cultural Center separatist Author Dinesh D'Souza spoke in a debate at UNC on March 30, 1993, and said a freestanding center for Black culture would be an act of Black separatism.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 22, 1993, p. 6
  16. Jesse Jackson comes to Chapel Hill during the Black Cultural Center sit-in Jesse Jackson came to Chapel Hill while students occupied South Building for a free-standing Black Cultural Center, met first with Chancellor Hardin and urged him to call a special trustees' meeting, which Hardin refused. Sixteen students and a Chapel Hill resident were arrested that day.Search the index · Reclaiming the University of the People: The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
  17. UNC Trustees approve a freestanding Black Cultural Center on the Coker site On July 23, 1993, the UNC Board of Trustees approved building a freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center on the Coker Woods site between Coker Hall and the Bell Tower. Supporters had wanted the Wilson-Dey site on the main quad, and student leaders accepted the Coker site that November. People: Sonja Haynes StoneThe Daily Tar Heel, July 29, 1993, p. 1: BOT approves BCC on Coker site
  18. Former trustee John W. Pope runs a newspaper ad against the Black Cultural Center After the trustees approved a freestanding center, former UNC trustee John W. Pope took out a full-page ad in The Chapel Hill News calling on residents, parents and students to oppose the project as a monument to racial separatism.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 22, 1993, p. 6
  19. UNC's development office begins planning a $7 million drive for the Stone Center building After the trustees approved a building on the Coker Woods site between Coker Hall and the Bell Tower in July 1993, UNC's development office began seeking volunteer leaders and lead gifts for a center estimated at $7 million. Associate vice chancellor Matt Kupec said Bicentennial campaign funds could not be shifted to it and the drive would likely take several years.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 1, 1993, p. 5
  20. Gerald Horne becomes director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center Historian Gerald Horne of the University of California at Santa Barbara took over the center at the start of 1996, succeeding Margo Crawford, after an 18-member search committee chose him and the provost offered him the post in August 1995. His main charge was raising the rest of the money for a freestanding building.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 19, 1996, p. 6
  21. The Black Publishers of North Carolina pledge $100,000 toward a freestanding Black Cultural Center New director Gerald Horne reported a $100,000 pledge from the Black Publishers of North Carolina toward the $7.5 million freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 19, 1996, p. 6
  22. A Clayton estate bequest completes the money for a freestanding Stone Center UNC announced a $28.6 million gift from the estate of alumnus David Benjamin Clayton. Under allocations Chancellor Michael Hooker set before his death in June, interest on $11 million, about $250,000 a year, went to the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center, which the BSM president said completed the funding for a freestanding building between the Bell Tower and Coker Hall. People: Michael HookerBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 1999, p. 11
  23. UNC trustees approve the freestanding Stone Center building The Board of Trustees approved the freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center, a three-story, 36,000-square-foot building on South Road with a library, auditorium, art gallery, dance studio and offices for BSM subgroups, Upward Bound and the Institute of African-American Research.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), May 2001, p. 6
  24. Ground is broken for the freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center The university broke ground for the freestanding Stone Center in the Bell Tower parking lot, nearly ten years after students began campaigning for it. It would be the first campus building named only for an African-American woman.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 2001, p. 5
  25. Joseph Jordan becomes director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center Joseph Jordan, former head of Atlanta's Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture, was appointed director of the center, succeeding Harry Amana, a journalism professor who had served as interim director since 1999.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 2001, p. 4
  26. The Sonja Haynes Stone Center celebrates its grand opening After more than a decade of organizing, the freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History opened in Coker Woods with a four-day celebration. A Friday candlelight procession from the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery preceded Saturday's dedication by Chancellor James Moeser before more than 500 guests. People: Sonja Haynes Stone, James MoeserThe Daily Tar Heel: Set in Stone, August 23, 2004, p. 1

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Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Periodicals 5Histories 4Interviews 1

Period

20th century 221st century 1

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 11Chapel Hill 6Orange County 6

Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film : our diaspora : where every life is an epic story

Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film (2017 : Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History) · 2017 · UNC, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

Program calendar for the 2017 Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film, presented in the fall by the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at Chapel Hill and tied to the campus Arts Everywhere initiative. Topics include film festivals in Chapel Hill and Black people in the motion picture industry, so the leaflet records what the festival screened that season.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film (2017 : Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History).

UNC

Milestones

Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center · 2004 · Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center

Milestones is the newsletter of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published by the center and dated 2004. African American students in Chapel Hill and the center itself are its subject. As a serial it carries programs, speakers and news of Black student life on campus.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center.

UNC

Program guide

2004 · Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center

The program guide of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at Chapel Hill, issued in illustrated volumes and recorded from 2004, with the 2000 to 2001 issue lacking that title.It concerns African American students and their societies and clubs. Volumes range from 18 to 26 cm.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center.

UNC

Sauti mpya : the literary magazine of The Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center.

2004 · The Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center

Literary magazine of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published from 2004. Topics include American literature by African American authors in North Carolina and student periodicals in Chapel Hill, so the issues carry student poetry and prose. Volumes with illustrations, 22 to 28 cm.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

University Day and the installation of James Moeser as Chancellor : commemorating the laying of the cornerstone of Old East on October 12, 1793 : presentation of distinguished alumna and alumnus awards : the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : October twelfth, two thousand, Polk Place, eleven o'clock.

2000 · The University

The printed program for University Day at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on October 12, 2000, when James Moeser was installed as chancellor and the distinguished alumna and alumnus awards were presented on Polk Place at eleven o'clock. University Day marks the laying of the Old East cornerstone in 1793. Sixteen unnumbered pages with illustrations.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Don't believe the hype : the misrepresentation of the facts by the media concerning the construction of the Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone free-standing BCC

Merritt, David · 1994

David Merritt's 1994 production argues that press coverage misrepresented the facts of the campaign for a free standing Black Cultural Center named for Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It runs about 52 minutes and is accompanied by a text of sixteen leaves with five preliminary pages. Topics include African American students at the university and race relations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center.

UNC Duke
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The Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center : the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center · 1994 · The Center

A sixteen page illustrated booklet on the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, issued by the center in 1994. Topics include African American college students in Chapel Hill, their societies and clubs and the services provided for them. Twenty two centimeters, printed by the center itself.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center.

UNC

Milestones

Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History · UNC Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

Serial publication of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, issued by the center itself. It is a periodical about the center and about African American students at Chapel Hill, so the issues serve anyone following Black student life and programming on that campus.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History -- Periodicals.

UNC

Milestones : the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History grand opening celebration, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : August 20-23, 2004.

Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History · 2004 · UNC, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

Four days of events, from 20 to 23 August 2004, marked the grand opening of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at Chapel Hill, and this twenty six page illustrated program lays them out. The center issued it.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History : the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Office of University Development · 2003 · Office of University Development

A promotional sheet on the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, issued in 2003 by the Office of University Development at Chapel Hill. One folded sheet of three unnumbered pages with illustrations, 28 by 44 centimeters. Topics include the center itself and the buildings of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History -- Description and travel.

UNC

North Carolina people with William Friday. Dr. James Moeser.

2001 · UNC Center for Public Television

An episode of the interview program North Carolina People with William Friday, recorded with James Moeser and broadcast on February 9, 2001. Episode 3032 runs about twenty seven minutes on videocassette, produced by the UNC Center for Public Television in Research Triangle Park. The conversation concerns the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Carolina stands 'at the precipice of a golden age,' newly installed chancellor says.

2000 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, News Services

A University News Services release from 2000 reporting the installation of James Moeser as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and carrying his remarks at the ceremony. Eight unnumbered pages, numbered 536 in the news release series. Topics include the university's inaugurations, celebrations and addresses.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

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Related themes

UNC & Campus Life →Schools & Education →Black Life & Civil Rights →UNC housekeepers’ movement, 1991–1996 →UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 →

Picture: The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. CC0. Photograph by Mx. Granger; via Wikimedia Commons

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