Storyline
Chapel Hill’s first year under a town manager, E. M. Knox: the 1922 improvement bonds, new sidewalks, sewers and street trees, the aldermen’s ordinances on bicycles, chickens and Sunday closing, the Town Club’s call for a town plan, and the books balanced in 1923.
In briefChapel Hill hired E. M. Knox as its first town manager in 1922, and the Weekly later credited him with paved streets, sewer extensions, a disposal plant, a health department and better fire protection, all without a higher tax rate. In June 1928 the aldermen adopted the town's first zoning ordinance, and Knox resigned to become city manager of High Point; his engineering assistant, John Foushee, succeeded him. In 1931 the aldermen sought a charter amendment letting them choose the mayor as town manager, amid talk of saving the manager's salary, but said they had no plan to drop the manager system.
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On January 1, 1922 Chapel Hill issued $23,000 in bonds for curb and gutter, a fire engine and a fire station. That year the town hired E. M. Knox as its first town manager, and in his first year it laid about 1,500 feet of sidewalk, extended its sewers by about 2,000 feet and planted more than a hundred street trees. In November the aldermen banned bicycle riding on the sidewalks and ordered a traffic light for a Columbia Street intersection. The Men's Town Club's planning committee, in a report by Howard W. Odum, urged a full town plan and a charter revision on the city manager plan.
In January 1923 the aldermen forbade chickens to run at large. In April the town dug a sewer line along Rosemary Street and the aldermen authorized up to $750 in sewer bonds. A Sunday closing ordinance, which the News called the town's blue law, took effect on April 22, and on May 10 the board ordered a cemetery survey and burial permits. Knox reported that the town had paid $3,314.41 in old bills and closed the year on May 31 with $1,632.27 in the general fund, while about four homes in ten still lacked water and sewer connections. In October a postal inspector approved house-to-house mail delivery.
In June 1928 the aldermen unanimously adopted the town's first zoning ordinance, with two residence zones, two business zones and a board of adjustment, and on June 21, after Knox resigned to become city manager of High Point, they chose John Foushee, his engineering assistant for two years, to succeed him. The Weekly credited Knox with paved streets, sewer extensions, a disposal plant, a health department and better fire protection, all without a higher tax rate.
On January 28, 1931, after a report on economies by Alderman P. L. Burch and town attorney Bonner Sawyer, the aldermen voted to ask the legislature for a charter amendment letting them choose the mayor as town manager. The Weekly reported talk that the aim was to save the $2,700 manager's salary, and on February 11, when about a dozen citizens questioned the change, the aldermen said they had no plan to drop the manager system.
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 16 dated events in the chronology →
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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.
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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