Storyline
How Chapel Hill hard-surfaced most of its streets in 1934 with Civil Works and then relief labor: the start in January, the restored program, the state’s paving of East Franklin Street, the bond ordinances, the finished mileage and its cost, and the tax rate that paid for it.
In briefFederal work-relief labor hard-surfaced Chapel Hill's streets in 1934, adding about three and a quarter miles of paved streets. By April 20 relief officials had approved surfacing 76,500 square yards with tar and crushed stone. The government paid about three fourths of the cost; because the Local Government Commission would not let the town borrow for its share, the aldermen raised the tax rate from $1.04 to $1.32. In January 1935, after the Weekly wrote that Black residents had not been fairly treated in the care of streets, the town widened and graveled Church Street, the main street of the Black section. On February 13 an order from Raleigh stopped the relief work.
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On January 25, 1934 a force of 26 Civil Works men under Charles Martindale began grading, draining and resurfacing Chapel Hill's sidewalks, while W. C. Coker directed the pruning of street trees. The tar-and-crushed-stone surfacing of 76,500 square yards of streets waited on stone from new crushers, and the end of the Civil Works program cut the plan to 30,000 square yards. Early in April a state highway force, with federal Public Works money, began paving East Franklin Street from curb to curb from the President's House to the town's eastern limits. By April 20 state and county relief officials had approved the full 76,500 square yards with 84 relief workers in two shifts, starting with North Columbia Street.
On June 4 the aldermen passed ordinances for up to $10,000 in street bonds and $32,000 in sewer bonds. By July the relief program had covered 68,796 square yards and added about three and a quarter miles of paved streets, for a town total of seven and a half. It would have cost $41,277 by contract; the government paid about three fourths and the town about $10,000. Because the Local Government Commission, the state body that must approve local borrowing, would not let the town borrow for its share, on August 1 the aldermen put about $9,000 for it into one year's budget, raising the tax rate from $1.04 to $1.32.
By late December 1934 relief crews had nearly finished grading Rosemary Lane from Church Street west to Carrboro, a stretch Col. Joseph Hyde Pratt of the FERA (the Federal Emergency Relief Administration) had urged the aldermen to include, and the ERA meant to surface it with tar and crushed stone. In January 1935 the town widened Church Street, the main street of the Black section, by several feet, laid a gravel surface and provided drainage after the Consolidated Service Plants moved electric poles and hydrants six to eight feet east; the week before, the Weekly had written that Black residents had not been fairly treated in the care of streets in the northwest part of town. On February 13 an order from Raleigh stopped every Emergency Relief Administration work project in Orange County because relief money had run out while Congress debated a new appropriation; the Chapel Hill streets were one of only three projects then under way.
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →
Background reading on Politics & Government. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Willis P. Whichard's biography of David Lowry Swain, governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835 and president of the University of North Carolina from 1835 until his death in 1868. The subtitle ties Swain, nineteenth-century North Carolina and the university together, and the book belongs with the lives of college presidents and governors. Published in 2022.
Stewart E. Dunaway's life of Edmund Fanning (1739-1818), the colonial officeholder in Hillsborough whom the Regulators singled out and who left North Carolina as a loyalist, together with the Fanning family's genealogy. Self-published through Lulu in 2011, 223 pages with illustrations, facsimiles, genealogical tables and maps. Topics include American loyalists and Hillsborough and Orange County biography and 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.
Howard N. Lee (born 1934) tells his own story, from a farm childhood in Lithonia, Georgia, through college, army service in Korea at Camp Casey and the move from Savannah that planted him in Chapel Hill, to his election as mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969 and his later run for Congress and years in the state legislature. Published by Cotton Patch Press of Chapel Hill in 2008, 199 pages with plates.
A longer Southern Oral History Program interview with Presbyterian minister Charles M. Jones (1906-1993), recorded November 8, 1976, by Joseph A. Herzenberg. Jones traces his civil rights work in Chapel Hill from the 1930s into the 1960s. He characterizes town and university leaders, Frank Porter Graham among them, as cautiously liberal on race, willing to allow a little integration at performances and student activities, and describes the church's place in the town's social conflicts. Published online in 2008 in Documenting the American South.
Seventh of nine Southern Oral History Program interviews with Daniel H. Pollitt, a professor at the UNC School of Law. Recorded April 5, 1991, by Ann McColl, this session of just under an hour is devoted to the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 act of the General Assembly that barred Communists and certain other speakers from state campuses, and to the fight over it at Chapel Hill in the mid-1960s, in which Pollitt took part. Published online in 2008 in Documenting the American South.
Race, sports and student protest at UNC are the subjects of this fourth interview with law professor Daniel H. Pollitt, recorded February 15, 1991, by Ann McColl for the Southern Oral History Program. Pollitt discusses the integration of Carolina athletics, including basketball player Charlie Scott, the university's first Black scholarship athlete, the discrimination Black athletes met, student activism from the late 1950s through the 1960s, and the Campus Y. Published online in 2008 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Pat Cusick, a civil rights worker in Chapel Hill during the 1960s, was interviewed by Pamela Dean in June 1989. He explains how his schooling and military service changed his thinking about race, his frustration with campus liberalism at UNC, and his turn to civil disobedience as a student organizer in the town. Topics include civil rights workers, college student political activity and race relations in Chapel Hill. About two and a half hours; electronic edition issued by the UNC library in 2008 through Documenting the American South.
Quinton E. Baker, a Black gay man who took part in the Chapel Hill civil rights protests of the 1960s, was interviewed by Chris McGinnis in February 2002. He describes growing up under segregation with little contact with white people, an early awareness of his sexuality, and the way race and sexual identity together shaped his activism as a college student. About two and a half hours; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2008, through Documenting the American South.
Catalog of an exhibit mounted by the Manuscripts Department of Wilson Library from January 23 to May 31, 2007, on student protest in Chapel Hill during the 1960s. Topics include civil rights demonstrations, the Speaker Ban Law, the Black Student Movement, restaurant strikes and Vietnam War protests at the university. Compiled by Biff Hollingsworth, 59 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, published by the university library.
Second of two Southern Oral History Program interviews with Anne Queen (1911-2005), who came to Chapel Hill after years as an industrial worker and went on to direct the Campus YWCA-YMCA, a center of student activism. Recorded November 22, 1976, by Joseph Herzenberg, this hour-long conversation covers how Queen saw politics in the South and the nation change through the mid-twentieth century, and student political activity at UNC. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Ashley Davis, who entered UNC in 1968 and joined the Black Student Movement, recalls the 1969 strike by the university's cafeteria workers and the BSM's decision to stand with them when the workers asked. Recorded April 12, 1974, by Russell Rymer for the Southern Oral History Program, the hour-and-a-half interview touches on Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, the Southern Student Organizing Committee and race relations among students on campus. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
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