Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Theme

Newcomers & Changing Communities

Immigration and migration to the county: who came, why, where they lived, and what they built.

In briefMigration has remade the county more than once: Latino families settling in Carrboro and Chapel Hill from the 1990s, Burmese and Karen refugees arriving from 2006, and the immigrant communities whose health care and daily life the storylines follow, including the 2015 killings of Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha.

66 works about Newcomers & Changing Communities are indexed here. 2 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
A log house near Hillsborough, 1939.

Events and storylines

Named events and storylines the index follows in detail. Each has its own page.

Latino migration to Carrboro and Chapel HillThe arrival of Latin American families from the 1990s, the neighborhoods and workplaces that received them, and the institutions they built Burmese and Karen refugee communitiesRefugee families resettled in Chapel Hill and Carrboro from the 2000s, and the schools, gardens, and congregations that grew with them Health care across language and immigrationClinics, interpreters, traditional medicine, and the barriers between newcomers and care Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha, 2015Three students killed at their Chapel Hill home on February 10, 2015, and how the university and town remembered them

More storylines

Other storylines that include this theme, in date order. Each has its own page.

Farm labor in rural Orange County1859–2022 · 29 events · Tobacco spread from Washington Duke’s turn to the crop in 1859, and after emancipation many freedpeople worked the land as tenants and sharecroppers; the 1930 census counted tenants on about a third of the county’s farms. Farm Security Administration loans reached Black farmers from 1938, tenancy fell sharply in the 1950s, and by 2022 the census counted 36 migrant workers on the county’s farms.

Indexed works

Works about Newcomers & Changing Communities from library and archive catalogs. The most widely held appear first; novels are not shown here. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

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

Histories 25Letters & correspondence 6Biography 4Personal narratives 4Fiction 3other types 11

Period

17th century 218th century 12Revolution (1775–1783) 419th century 21Civil War (1861–1865) 9Reconstruction (1865–1877) 120th century 1021st century 1

Place

Chapel Hill 31North Carolina (statewide) 30Orange County 21Hillsborough 10Carrboro 6Alamance County (neighboring) 3

Widely held

Papa D

Danziger, Edward G. · 1967

Edward G. Danziger's memoir of love and cooking, published by J. F. Blair in 1967. Danziger (1893 to 1972) ran Danziger's Old World Restaurant in Chapel Hill, and the book tells his life as a restaurateur in the town.

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

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO DANZIGER DAN UNC Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

A college town in black and white : the color line and Fumiko Seki's days in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1955-1957

Yamanaka, Mishio · 2023 · Historical Research Office, Office of Archives and History

Mishio Yamanaka's article on Fumiko Seki, a Japanese woman in Chapel Hill from 1955 to 1957, and where the color line placed her there. Published in Raleigh in 2023 by the Historical Research Office, 28 pages with illustrations, a facsimile, a map and portraits.

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

UNC

They fled Hitler's Germany and found refuge in North Carolina

1996 · Academic Affairs Library, Center for the Study of the American South, IRSS Faculty Working Group in Southern Studies

Biographical accounts of German Jewish refugees who left Nazi Germany and settled in North Carolina, university faculty among them. Issued in spring 1996 by the Academic Affairs Library with the Center for the Study of the American South and an IRSS faculty working group, 139 pages with illustrations. Topics include twentieth century Chapel Hill biography and history.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Jewish refugees.

UNC

Nancy Dunnagan papers,

Dunnagan, Nancy · 1846

Twenty-six letters and papers, 1846 to 1880, sent to Nancy Dunnagan of Orange County by children and grandchildren who had moved to Union and Webster counties in Kentucky. They write about family news and farming, and the estate papers of her husband, Timothy Dunnagan, are included. The Nancy Dunnagan papers are a small collection in Duke's Rubenstein Library.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Migration, Internal.

Duke DPLA

Joint Standing Committees: Committee to examine governor's message and to bring public bills: reports and papers Apr 20-May 21

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1784

Papers of the joint committee named in 1784 to answer the governor's message and bring in public bills, 20 April to 21 May, in 80 images. It reported on court fines and forfeitures, on Governor Alexander Martin's address, on a remonstrance of Patrick Saint-Lawrence and on a fairer way to levy taxes. Topics include the 1783 peace treaty, copyright, roads, Quakers and Hillsborough.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Emigration and immigration.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Apr.-May, 1782 Jt. Select Comm., Reports and Papers (petitions, messages, etc.) April. 17-27

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1782

Joint select committee reports and papers of the 1782 General Assembly at Hillsborough, covering 16 to 27 April. They answer the governor's messages and resolves of the Continental Congress and take up a petition from Wilmington inhabitants. Names include Alexander Martin, Abner Nash, Henry Pattillo, William Sharpe and John Springer; Quakers, slavery, soldiers' wages and the Continental Navy also appear. 116 pages.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Emigration and immigration.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Show 2 more

El Pueblo Inc. records,

El Pueblo, Inc · 1994

Files of El Pueblo Inc., the Latino advocacy nonprofit founded in Chapel Hill in 1994 by Andrea Bazán-Manson, Florence M. Simán and others, which moved to Raleigh in 2004. Series cover photographs, clippings, events, advocacy, administration, programs and youth work, including La Fiesta del Pueblo, the annual festival that launched the group. 21 linear feet plus 265 gigabytes of electronic files.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Immigrants -- North Carolina.

Duke

Roy Watterson Black papers, 1814-1949.

Black, Roy Watterson, 1896-1973 · 1949

Papers collected by Roy Watterson Black (1896-1973) covering 1814 to 1949, about fifty items in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3021-z, in part microfilm of typed transcriptions made in 1954. Topics include Confederate service with the 13th Tennessee Infantry, soldier diaries, internal migration across the South, farming in Texas, and economic and social conditions in Orange County, North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Migration, Internal.

UNC

Recently indexed: The effectiveness of UNC Medical School curriculum in cultivating physicians to effectively treat Latino patients through knowledge of cultural competency (2000) · 36 seconds : portrait of a hate crime (2023) · Acculturation, self-esteem and social comparison among Hispanics (2001) · Increasing practitioners' knowledge of Latino traditions and practices in an effort to reduce health disparities (2006) · Mental health treatment retention in Latinos (2009) · Mezcla

Search all 66 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.

  • Start here · 362.85 GILL Going to Carolina Del Norte: Narrating Mexican Migrant Experiences Gill, Hannah · 2006

    Stories of Mexican migrants told through a collaboration of the anthropologist Hannah Gill, the artist Todd Drake and migrant communities in Carrboro and Celaya, Guanajuato, subtitled narrating Mexican migrant experiences. It deals with migrant labor and Mexican workers in Carrboro and emigration from Celaya. Published by the University Center for International Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2006, 78 pages with color illustrations.

  • Foundational · NC 304.837 ANDREWS North Carolina's Demographic Transformation: The Impact of Race and Immigration Andrews, Louis · 2004

    Louis Andrews and George McDaniel examine how immigration and race were changing North Carolina's population in this 66-page paper with maps, charts and references, the fourth of the occasional papers of Representative Government Press of Raleigh, 2004.

  • Wider context · NC 975.6 BLETHEN From Ulster to Carolina: The Migration of the Scotch-Irish to Southwestern North Carolina Blethen, Tyler · 2013

    H. Tyler Blethen and Curtis W. Wood Jr. trace the migration of Ulster's Scotch-Irish to southwestern North Carolina. First published in 1983, the study was revised in 1998 by the state's Division of Archives and History with the Appalachian Consortium of Boone; this printing of the revised edition, dated about 2013, has 82 pages with illustrations, maps, a bibliography and an index.

Show 6 more
  • Wider context · NC 929.308 REC Records of Emigrants From England and Scotland to North Carolina, 1774-1775 1989

    Lists of emigrants who sailed from English and Scottish ports for North Carolina in 1774 and 1775, edited by A. R. Newsome and first printed in the North Carolina Historical Review in January and April 1934. The state Division of Archives and History later reissued them as a 30-page pamphlet; this is the 1989 second printing. Bibliographies of ship passenger lists include it, and histories of the Highland Scots cite it.

  • Wider context · NC 929.3 LAWSON An Index of African Americans Identified in Selected Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Lawson, Jacqueline E. A. · 2008

    Jacqueline A. Lawson's three indexes to freedpeople named in Freedmen's Bureau correspondence of 1865 to 1872: those named in individual letters, with date, place, a note on the contents and where to find the original; those on longer lists such as petitions, reports and affidavits; and nearly 1,200 people sent from Washington, D.C., to jobs under Bureau contracts, with age, wage and destination. First published in 1995; reprinted in 2008.

  • Wider context · NC 929.375 PEDEN More Marylanders to Carolina: Migration of Marylanders to North Carolina and South Carolina Prior to 1800 Peden, Henry C. · 2006

    Henry C. Peden Jr.'s sequel to his Marylanders to Carolina of 1994, adding Maryland families he had found since then who moved to North and South Carolina before 1800. It belongs to his series on Maryland migrants to other states. First published in 1999 and reprinted by Heritage Books in 2006; 158 pages with an index.

  • Wider context · NC 331.627 FIN The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South Fink, Leon · 2003

    Historian Leon Fink, with research help from Alvis E. Dunn, tells how Guatemalan Maya came to work at the Case Farms poultry plant in Morganton, the Burke County seat, and how a strike in the early 1990s grew into a union campaign lasting a decade. Maya refugees, Mexican workers, local allies and the Laborers union stood against the company. The University of North Carolina Press published it in 2003 with notes and an index.

  • Wider context · NC 929.375 PED Marylanders to Carolina: Migration of Marylanders to North Carolina and South Carolina Prior to 1800 Peden, Henry C. · 1994

    Marylanders who moved to North and South Carolina before 1800, identified by Henry C. Peden Jr. from a range of sources set out in his bibliography, with an index. Family Line Publications of Westminster, Maryland, issued it in 1994 in 225 pages, and Peden followed it with a sequel, 'More Marylanders to Carolina', in 1999.

  • Wider context · NC 929.107 TEP American Passenger Arrival Records: A Guide to the Records of Immigrants Arriving at American Ports by Sail and Steam Tepper, Michael · 1993

    Michael Tepper's guide to records of immigrant arrivals at American ports, from the scattered traces left by early colonists to the detailed passenger lists of the age of sail and steam. First published in 1988, it appeared in this updated and enlarged edition from Genealogical Publishing Company in 1993; 142 pages, the last ten a bibliography.

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this theme, in date order. See these 108 dated events in the chronology →

  1. A newspaper correspondent puts Orange County's taxables at four thousand Writing from Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1768 to the South Carolina and American General Gazette, a correspondent held up Orange as proof of how fast the back country was filling: twenty years earlier, he wrote, there were not twenty taxable people within the county's limits, and now there were four thousand. Connor reckoned that meant about 16,000 people, most of them Scotch-Irish with a large share of Germans.Search the index · Internet Archive: R. D. W. Connor, William K. Boyd and J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, History of North Carolina (1919), vol. 1, p. 177
  2. Washington Duke turns from cotton to tobacco on his Orange County farm After a failed cotton crop, Washington Duke began growing tobacco in 1859 on his farm, then in Orange County, following favorable publicity among Orange County farmers. The farm used the labor of an enslaved girl, Caroline, bought in 1855, and later a leased enslaved man, Jim, who worked in tobacco. People: Washington DukeNC Historic Sites: Washington Duke the Farmer
  3. Census counts more than 5,000 enslaved people in Orange County The 1860 census recorded more than 5,000 enslaved people in Orange County, whose labor sustained the county's farms. At emancipation they made up roughly a third of the county's population.NC Historic Sites: Enslavement at Duke Homestead
  4. Jim, an enslaved tobacco worker leased to Washington Duke, flees toward Union lines Jim, an enslaved man whose labor Washington Duke leased to grow and cure tobacco, ran away with three others in June 1863 trying to reach Union lines. After the war he took the surname Cox and became a tobacco sharecropper in the Durham area. People: Washington DukeNC Historic Sites: Enslavement at Duke Homestead
  5. Emancipation frees about 6,000 people in Orange County, many of whom become tenants and sharecroppers About 6,000 enslaved people in Orange County were freed at the end of the Civil War. Many Black families left for Durham and other towns, while some stayed on the land as tenant farmers or sharecroppers.Orange County Courthouse Mural: Orange County Growth & Development
  6. The Hillsborough Bureau office approves 62 labor contracts The office's tally of labor contracts made and approved totals 62 from November 1866 to August 1867, most in the winter hiring season: 9 in November, 13 in December, 7 in January and 14 in February, then 4 in March, 8 in May, 4 in June and one each in July and August. In June 1867 Porter wrote that his orders kept him out of contract disputes unless a Bureau officer or agent had witnessed or approved the contract.Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Letters and Endorsements Sent and Received, Vol. 128, transcription p. 120
  7. The Hillsborough Bureau office hears about twenty freedpeople's claims for wages and crops Between November 1866 and August 1867 Porter's office settled four claims over crop shares and rent by umpire and sent about fourteen claims for wages, crop shares and small debts, from $2.40 to $70, to the civil authorities. It also held hearings of its own, dismissing a wage claim in November 1866 after the employer's books showed payment, and in February 1867 ordering a deputy sheriff to release hay that a freedman claimed as his share under a contract approved by an earlier Bureau officer, Lt. N. N. Crockett, a case dismissed when the freedman did not appear.Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Letters and Endorsements Sent and Received, Vol. 128, transcription p. 109
  8. Agent Whittemore makes a planter divide a crop with two freedmen after two former Confederate officers vouch for them In his first case, agent Charles B. Whittemore heard two freedmen's claims to shares of a crop raised on a planter's farm about twelve miles from Hillsborough. Robert Bingham and Maj. William B. Lynch, who told him they had been Confederate officers with no love for Yankees, came with the freedmen and said they were faithful and industrious men about to be robbed of their dues. Whittemore ordered the crop held, on March 24 awarded one freedman 920 sticks of tobacco and 50 bushels of corn, and on April 17 sent Deputy Sheriff J. M. Blackwood to weigh and divide the rest. People: Robert Bingham, W. B. (William Bingham) LynchFreedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Letters Sent, Vol. 130, July 1867–Dec. 1868, transcription p. 77
  9. Agent Whittemore summons Orange County employers in more than thirty claims brought by freedpeople Between early March and mid-May 1868 Whittemore wrote more than thirty letters ordering white employers and neighbors to settle claims brought by freedpeople, mostly for unpaid wages or withheld shares of the 1867 crop, and a few over cows, a horse and land, or to appear at his office and explain. He threatened to send an officer to seize crops, told one debtor that bankruptcy did not cancel a wage claim, and ordered another to answer a girl's complaint that he had whipped her and kept her clothes.Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Letters Sent, Vol. 130, July 1867–Dec. 1868, transcription p. 81
  10. The Bureau agent orders a Mebaneville landowner to pay Jordan White for railroad cordwood On April 24, 1868, Whittemore settled Jordan White's complaint against Addison E. Wilson, on whose land near the North Carolina Railroad White had cleared ground and cut wood, by ordering Wilson to pay him for 22 cords and a dollar a cord on 27 more and to let him stay and work his part of the place until November 1. Wilson asked for a new hearing on April 27, and Benjamin F. Mebane, William Bingham and Robert Bingham signed a statement that the custom of giving the wood to whoever cleared the land did not hold along the railroad, where wood had a cash value. White wrote to Gen. Nelson A. Miles on June 10 that the ruling had been turned against him at a hearing he was not called to; the case went to Lt. Thomas H. Hay and was closed on October 30 with a $7.50 judgment from a justice of the peace. People: Benjamin Franklin Mebane, William Bingham (1835-1873), Robert BinghamFreedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Records Relating to Cases Tried & Destitute Freedmen, Part 1, transcription p. 84
  11. The Hillsborough Bureau office dockets about sixty complaints in the summer of 1868 From May 14 to October 16, 1868, the office's complaint docket recorded about 60 cases, some 50 of them from Orange and the rest from Person, most of them claims by freedpeople for wages, crop shares or small debts from 1867, which agents Manchester W. Weld, Charles B. Whittemore and Thomas H. Hay usually settled with awards of a few dollars, a few bushels of corn or a lien on the tobacco crop. The office also told a magistrate to recall warrants against a freedman, had the sheriff enforce an agent's order, and from late July sent more cases to the new justices of the peace, among them William F. Strayhorn.Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Register of Complaints, Vol. 132, May–Oct. 1868, transcription p. 5
  12. Freedmen around Hillsborough ask about railroad work near Raleigh Lt. Thomas H. Hay asked headquarters on November 23, 1868 about a report among local freedmen that many hands were wanted on a railroad near Raleigh, saying many would go for better wages. The reply said the president of the Chatham Railroad wanted 60 or 70 hands at once and 1,000 more before Christmas, at $10 a month and rations. On December 15 Hay asked the road's superintendent for terms for several white and Black applicants.Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Register of Letters Received, Vol. 129, July 1867–Dec. 1868, transcription p. 11
Show all 108 dated events
  1. Pennsylvania families settle near Hillsborough Several Pennsylvania families arrived to settle in the Hillsborough area, with more expected, after buyers from Pennsylvania had looked over Orange lands that winter.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 5, 1878, p. 3
  2. Tenant farmer Jessa Buttler mortgages his horse and crop to landowner C. R. Miller Orange County tenant Jessa Buttler signed a chattel mortgage pledging his horse and his entire crop of corn, wheat, oats and tobacco to landowner C. R. Miller for a debt of $88.20. By October 1890 the debt stood at $106.04 despite partial payments.ANCHOR (State Library of NC): The Struggles of a Tenant Farmer
  3. Most Orange County farmers are renters, sharecroppers or hired hands In 1890, 58 percent of the county's farmers did not own their farms. Among Black farmers over half were field hands, a third sharecroppers and a tenth owners; more than a third of white farmers owned no land.NC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 38
  4. Nearly four in ten Orange farmers are sharecroppers, and cotton covers 5,000 acres At the turn of the century close to 40 percent of the county's farmers were sharecroppers working 20 to 60 acres, and about 5,000 acres went to cotton, mostly in the southern townships.NC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 38
  5. Tobacco farmer Ira Rogers builds tenant housing in upper Orange County In the early 1900s Ira Rogers built many frame and log houses for the tenants who worked his tobacco land. One that survives has two stories, a chimney in the middle and two front doors, which suggests it housed two families.NC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 48
  6. George Livas and James Gust go into partnership at the Carolina Confectionary George Livas formed a partnership with James Gust in 1929 and began operating the Carolina Confectionary as a restaurant as well; it became the Carolina Coffee Shop.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly: George Livas Dies Unexpectedly Sunday, February 14, 1956, p. 1
  7. Census counts tenants on about a third of Orange County farms Tenants operated 643 of 1,870 Orange County farms in 1930 (34.4 percent), 718 of 1,956 in 1935 (36.7 percent) and 687 of 2,043 in 1940 (33.6 percent). Of the 1940 tenants, 514 were share tenants and croppers.US Census of Agriculture 1940: North Carolina County Table II, farms by tenure of operator
  8. The Dubose estate builds Colonial Revival tenant houses near the Durham County line In the 1930s the Dubose estate put up several Colonial Revival tenant houses along NC 54 Business just inside Orange County, joining older tenant dwellings from about 1910 and the late 1800s. St. Pierre DuBose bought the land, 308 acres from W. C. Coker just this side of the county line, in the spring of 1931, so the estate's building there dates from after that; he let the contract for a stock barn and a farmer's cottage that September.NC Digital Collections: Kelly Lally and Ruth Little, Chapel Hill Township Survey Final Report (1992), p. 14 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 8, 1931, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 18, 1931, p. 5
  9. John Parker becomes the first Black Orange County farmer to get a Farm Security Administration purchase loan Under the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, John Parker borrowed $3,915 through the Farm Security Administration to buy a 145-acre farm, the first such loan to a Black farmer in Orange County. He paid it off in about six years on a 40-year note.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 25, 1945, p. 1
  10. Greek businessmen meet in Chapel Hill to form a state branch of the Adelphia Benevolent Association About 25 Greek businessmen of the region met in the Graham Memorial, with George Loizon in the chair and A. R. Newsome as speaker, to plan a statewide branch of the Adelphia Benevolent Association. They agreed to give the University library books on Greek history and culture and to set up a trust fund for American-born Greek students at the University. People: Albert Ray NewsomeSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 11, 1939, p. 4
  11. Edward Danziger opens a candy kitchen on Franklin Street Edward G. Danziger, a candy maker whose family name was well known in Vienna, opened a candy kitchen with a tea-and-coffee room in the Munch building on Franklin Street, where Gooch's restaurant had been. He sold candy and ice cream with fresh fruit and planned to add Viennese and Turkish coffee, tea and pastries. The family business later included Danziger's Old World Gift Shop.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 22, 1939, p. 6 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 28, 1939, p. 1; Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan; NC State Historic Preservation Office: Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, National Register nomin; Open Orange: Danziger's Old World Candy Shop / Danziger's Old World Restaurant / Danziger's Old World Gift Shop
  12. Chapel Hill raises money for Greek war relief, led by its Greek-born residents Nineteen Greek-born residents of Chapel Hill met and gave more than $350 to start a fund for widows, orphans and bombed-out families in Greece, and a citizens' committee followed with a "take a Greek to dinner" collection in restaurants and dormitories. By December 20 the committee had cabled $550 to the Greek Red Cross in Athens. People: W. E. Thompson, Harry F. Comer, John M. Foushee, E. Carrington SmithSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 13, 1940, p. 1
  13. Orange County FSA honors 15 Black farm ownership borrowers The county Farm Security Administration office awarded certificates of merit to 15 Black farm ownership borrowers, former tenants it had helped to buy farms. By March 1944 the county had 22 approved tenant-purchase loans. People: Robert Hughes, John P. BallardThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 24, 1944, p. 1
  14. Orange County's Farm Labor Advisory Board asks schoolchildren to sign up for farm work With many young farmers drafted and spring work held up by rain, the county Farm Labor Advisory Board met on Saturday, April 22, 1944, and decided to ask boys and girls over 12 to register with their school principals for paid farm work, full or part time. Chairman W. F. Lathan presided, and the school board agreed to plan short school days so that pupils could help. People: Don S. Matheson, William F. LathanThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 27, 1944, p. 1
  15. Orange County schools go on short days so farm children can help with the crops All Orange County schools, the Chapel Hill schools among them, went on a short daily schedule for the rest of the 1943-44 term so that farm children could help their families, who had fallen behind after young farmers under 26 were drafted and heavy spring rains delayed the crop year.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 11, 1944, p. 3
  16. George Livas becomes sole owner of the Carolina Coffee Shop George Livas's partnership with James Gust ended and Livas became sole owner of the Carolina Coffee Shop, which he ran until his death in 1956.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly: George Livas Dies Unexpectedly Sunday, February 14, 1956, p. 1
  17. John Arch Parker becomes the first Orange farmer to pay off a tenant-purchase farm FSA committee chairman Robert E. Hughes handed John Arch Parker, a Black farmer of Hillsboro Route 2, the deed of trust to his 145-acre farm marked paid in full, six years after his 1938 loan of $3,915 under the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, which had been set to run forty years. Parker, on relief about 1934, paid it off largely from crop income and a $1,500 timber sale. People: John P. BallardThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 25, 1945, p. 1
  18. German prisoners of war help harvest Orange County crops As many as 100 German prisoners of war a day worked in Orange County's harvest from July to November 1945, the county agent reported. Farm labor had grown scarcer again that year. People: Don S. MathesonThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 10, 1946, p. 1
  19. German prisoners of war from Camp Butner work Orange County farms To meet the farm labor shortage, Orange County farmers, with the Pomona Grange as sponsor, hired German prisoners of war from Camp Butner for the tobacco harvest. By August 9 fifteen prisoners were working in the Orange Grove section, with 40 applications on file; farmers paid 30 cents an hour for days of up to ten hours and carried the men to and from camp. By late August the county's quota of thirty prisoners had moved to filling silos and haying in the Orange Grove and Chapel Hill neighborhoods.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 9, 1945, p. 1
  20. Victory Village is built to house married veterans at UNC As returning veterans pushed enrollment to about 6,800, the federal government put up the prefabricated metal houses of Victory Village on 65 acres of UNC's south campus in 1946. About 350 student families lived there, and the last units were torn down in the early 1970s for the expansion of UNC Hospitals. People: Terry Sanford, William C. Friday, William B. AycockSearch the index · UNC A to Z: Victory Village
  21. The Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church opens a nursery school for student veterans' children A morning nursery school for 30 children opened in the Presbyterian Sunday School building, the fourth such school in Chapel Hill since married student veterans arrived with their babies. The Rev. Charles M. Jones said it was part of a plan among the churches; the First Baptist Church had opened an all-day nursery in its basement a week earlier. People: Charles M. JonesSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 17, 1946, p. 6
  22. Ted Danziger opens the Rathskeller in the basement of his father's candy shop Edward Danziger's son Ted opened the Rathskeller in the basement of the Danziger candy store on Franklin Street. The Hall of Fame credits it with being the first local restaurant to serve draft beer.Search the index · Chapel Hill-Carrboro Business Hall of Fame: Edward and Theodore Danziger
  23. Farmers Home Administration pushes livestock to raise tenant incomes near Cedar Grove The News of Orange County reported a Farmers Home Administration effort to raise tenant income by adding livestock to tobacco farming. Tenants on the Banks Wilson farm near Cedar Grove added hogs and other animals, and 42 county farm families had FHA operating loans.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 21, 1952, p. 1
  24. Tenant farming drops sharply in Orange County Tenant-operated farms in Orange County fell from 513 of 1,939 farms in 1954 to 295 of 1,405 in 1959, and croppers fell from 261 to 135. In 1959, 500 of the county's farms were classed as tobacco farms.US Census of Agriculture 1959: North Carolina County Table 5, farms by tenure of operator
  25. Fumiko Seki lives in Chapel Hill and records the town's color line Fumiko Seki came to Chapel Hill when her husband received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship to study at UNC. As a mother, wife and student she watched how residents kept the color line and met Black students, and she later described the town in her memoir Chaperu hiru monogatari.Search the index · Sophia University, Faculty of Foreign Studies: A College Town in Black and White: The Color Line and Fumiko Seki's Days in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1955-1957
  26. UNC students open SHAC, the nation's first student-run free clinic The Student Health Action Coalition began in 1967 with a few UNC medical students seeing patients in supporters' homes. It now holds a free Wednesday evening clinic at the Carrboro Community Health Center, with student interpreting teams in Spanish and Mandarin.UNC School of Medicine, SHAC: History
  27. Orange–Chatham Comprehensive Health Services begins Orange-Chatham Comprehensive Health Services began in 1970 as a joint venture of UNC's Division of Health Affairs and a local community action program, bringing federally funded primary care to rural residents. UNC staffed its health centers, including Prospect Hill and Haywood-Moncure, from September 1970, and the program later became Piedmont Health.Search the index · From the Rock Wall: Carrboro Community Health Center
  28. Chapel Hill churches and residents sponsor Vietnamese refugee families By July 1975 Chapel Hill residents had sponsored two Vietnamese refugee families and expected more. Four churches pledged about $1,500 for a family sponsored by UNC historian Thomas Reefe, and volunteers were directed to INFO, a referral service in the Inter-Church Council building.In the index: Inter-Faith Council for Social Service (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · The Daily Tar Heel: Sponsoring isn't easy, being a refugee is hard, July 24, 1975
  29. Aziz Sancar joins the UNC faculty Sancar joined Carolina's faculty in 1982; he became the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the School of Medicine, where his lab mapped how cells repair damaged DNA.Search the index · UNC-Chapel Hill: 225 years of Tar Heels: Aziz Sancar
  30. 1990 census counts the Hispanic-origin population of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill The 1990 census counted 1,279 persons of Hispanic origin in Orange County (1.4% of 93,851), 199 in Carrboro (1.7% of 11,553) and 607 in Chapel Hill (1.6% of 38,719). Census Bureau report 1990 CP-1-35, Table 5 (counties) and Table 6 (places).U.S. Census Bureau: 1990 Census of Population, General Population Characteristics, North Carolina (1990 CP-1-35)
  31. Chinese School at Chapel Hill is founded The Chinese School at Chapel Hill, which teaches Chinese language and culture, was founded in 1993 in a community that had grown around UNC since graduate students from mainland China began arriving in the early 1980s. The IRS recognized it as a tax-exempt organization in December 1999.Search the index · The Local Reporter: Chinese-Americans in Chapel Hill
  32. El Centro Latino serves Latino residents from Carrboro El Centro Latino, incorporated in 1999, provided educational and social services, advocacy and cultural activities for Latinos in and around Orange County from Carrboro. It closed the day before Thanksgiving 2009 after funding losses and eight executive directors in ten years.UNC Graduate School: El Centro Latino y más
  33. 2000 census counts the Hispanic or Latino population of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill The 2000 census counted 5,273 Hispanic or Latino residents in Orange County (4.5% of 118,227), 2,062 in Carrboro (12.3% of 16,782) and 1,506 in the Orange County part of Chapel Hill (3.2% of 46,798). Census Bureau report PHC-1-35, Table 3.U.S. Census Bureau: 2000 Census of Population and Housing, Summary Population and Housing Characteristics, North Carolina (PHC-1-35)
  34. Holy Family Catholic Church in Hillsborough holds its first Spanish Mass Holy Family parish in Hillsborough, which had grown from about 107 families in 1986 to about 250 in 1999, celebrated its first Spanish Mass in 2003 as Latino members joined the congregation. By 2012 the parish counted about 680 families and held a Sunday Spanish Mass alongside its three other services.Search the index · News of Orange County: Catholic church celebrates 25 years
  35. UNC Health Care expands Interpreter Services as Spanish-speaking patients increase After a 2003 summary on the state of Hispanic health was presented to the UNC Health Care executive board, the system added Interpreter Services resources from 2003 to 2007. UNC Hospitals handled nearly 40,000 interpreter consults in 2005-2006.Preventive Medicine and Community Health (2020): Novel academic center model for Spanish-speaking patients in the southeastern United States
  36. UNC School of Medicine starts CAMPOS to train Spanish-speaking physicians Marco Alemán and colleagues founded the Comprehensive Advanced Medical Program of Spanish in 2004 to prepare medical students to care for Spanish-speaking patients without relying on interpreters. Its first class graduated in 2008, and students do yearly service with Spanish-speaking communities.UNC School of Medicine, MD Program: CAMPOS turns 20
  37. WCOM community radio begins broadcasting WCOM, a 100-watt low-power FM community station run by the nonprofit Public Gallery of Carrboro, first went on the air at 103.5 FM from Carrboro at 11:27 p.m. on September 29, 2004. Its founders included Jacques Menache and Ruffin Slater, and it first broadcast from a building at Weaver and Greensboro streets.Search the index · WCOM 103.5 FM: History of WCOM
  38. El Futuro runs a bilingual mental health clinic in Carrboro El Futuro, a Latino mental health nonprofit started by psychiatrist Luke Smith, opened a Carrboro office in 2005, a year after its Siler City clinic. The Carrboro location closed in 2015 for lack of funding.INDY Week: El Futuro (Matt Saldaña, November 21, 2007)
  39. Refugees from Burma are among the first recorded direct arrivals in Orange County Orange County Health Department figures record 19 refugee direct arrivals in fiscal year 2005-2006, from Burma, Cuba and Iran. At the time one resettlement agency, Lutheran Family Services, served the Triangle.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  40. Refugees from Burma begin arriving in Orange County in larger numbers All 55 refugee direct arrivals recorded in Orange County in fiscal year 2006-2007 came from Burma. A second resettlement agency, the Triangle office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, opened.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  41. UNC's Latino Migration Project begins the New Roots/Nuevas Raíces oral history initiative The Latino Migration Project at UNC-Chapel Hill began New Roots/Nuevas Raíces to record stories of Latino migration, settlement and integration in North Carolina, with interviews archived through the Southern Oral History Program and University Libraries. The project has collected over 200 interviews, adding about 20 a year. People: Hannah GillNew Roots/Nuevas Raíces (UNC Libraries): About
  42. Carrboro aldermen bar police arrests based solely on civil immigration violations The Carrboro Board of Aldermen unanimously adopted Resolution No. 123/2005-06, making it police policy not to arrest or take into custody anyone solely because they have or may have committed a civil immigration violation. The board had asked the town attorney to research the question on April 18, 2006. People: Mark Chilton, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Joal Hall Broun, Alex ZaffronTown of Carrboro (Mount Holyoke IDA repository copy): Board of Aldermen minutes, May 16, 2006
  43. Arrivals from Burma to Orange County increase sharply Orange County recorded 255 refugee direct arrivals in fiscal year 2007-2008, from Burma, Iran and Colombia, the highest annual figure in the 2005-2017 series. A third resettlement agency, the Triangle office of World Relief, opened.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  44. Hannah Gill founds the Latino Migration Project at UNC Gill started the Latino Migration Project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to improve public understanding of Latin American migration to North Carolina. The project describes itself as an initiative of INSITE Latin America and the Caribbean.Search the index · Chapelboro: Latino Migration Project Selects Chapel Hill for Partnership
  45. Orange County Health Department starts an Immigrant and Refugee Health Program During the sharp rise in arrivals from Burma, the Orange County Health Department initiated an Immigrant and Refugee Health Program. The 2018 report found Karen and Burmese were the two refugee languages most requested by the department's patients.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  46. The Sancars start Carolina Turk Evi Aziz and Gwen Sancar set up the nonprofit Carolina Turk Evi to host Turkish students and scholars at UNC and promote understanding between Turks and Americans.Search the index · UNC-Chapel Hill: Aziz Sancar breaks ground for the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center
  47. Carrboro adopts an anti-lingering ordinance at the Jones Ferry and Davie roads day-labor corner After neighbors complained about conditions at the corner where day laborers, many of them Latino, waited for contractors, the Board of Aldermen approved an ordinance barring waiting at the intersection of Jones Ferry and Davie roads from 11 a.m. to 5 a.m. In September 2007 the board had also approved an action plan and a motion to create a designated space for day laborers. People: Mark ChiltonThe Carrboro Citizen: Carrboro to revisit anti-lingering (June 30, 2011)
  48. A fourth resettlement agency opens as Orange County arrivals stay high Orange County recorded 194 refugee direct arrivals in fiscal year 2008-2009, from Burma, Bhutan, Iran and Iraq. The Triangle office of Church World Service opened as a fourth resettlement agency.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  49. UNC opens the Center for Latino Health for Spanish-speaking patients The UNC Center for Latino Health (CELAH) began in 2008 in the School of Medicine and UNC Health Care, offering specialty and primary care in Spanish, same-day access and health education. It served more than 15,000 patients in its first ten years.UNC Department of Medicine: Culturally Competent Healthcare for the Latino Community
  50. Burma Art Therapy Project begins in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools The Art Therapy Institute began a school-based art therapy program for adolescent refugees from Burma in partnership with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and the refugee community in Orange County. A later UNC evaluation estimated that about 400 Burmese families lived in the county.In the index: Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (N.C.) · UNC Carolina Digital Repository: Evaluation of the Burma Art Therapy Project for Adolescent Refugees from Burma in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
  51. Sheriff Pendergrass defends Orange County's enrollment in Secure Communities At a county commissioners' meeting, Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass explained his decision to enroll the Orange County jail in the federal Secure Communities pilot, which checks the fingerprints of people booked into jail against federal databases including immigration records. Commissioners, who had resolved in 2007 not to join the 287(g) program, raised concerns but took no action.Search the index · OrangePolitics: Orange County and the Secure Communities Program
  52. Cliff's Meat Market is honored for serving Carrboro's Spanish-speaking customers Cliff's Meat Market in Carrboro received Orange County's Pauli Murray Award in the business category; owner Cliff Collins was nominated for reaching out to the Spanish-speaking community. The butcher shop, open since 1973, had hired Latino staff as Spanish-speaking customers began asking for cuts in Spanish.Search the index · The Carrboro Citizen: Timeline: 2009
  53. 2010 census counts the Hispanic or Latino population of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill The 2010 census counted 11,017 Hispanic or Latino residents in Orange County, 2,603 in Chapel Hill and 1,921 in Carrboro, as compiled in the NC Office of State Budget and Management's LINC Census Population dataset.NC Office of State Budget and Management (LINC): Census Population dataset, Orange County Hispanic or Latino Origin Population
  54. El Centro Hispano opens a Carrboro office El Centro Hispano, founded in Durham in 1992, added a Carrboro office in 2010 after El Centro Latino closed. It planned a resources office, legal and tax clinic, tutoring, ESL classes and an HIV prevention program at Carrboro Plaza on N.C. 54, beside a new Latino Community Credit Union branch.The Daily Tar Heel: Fiestas en la Calle showcases vibrant performances, highlights Latino community (August 27, 2024)
  55. Local schools and health providers report Burmese, Karen and Chin families moving to Orange County from elsewhere Although direct refugee arrivals fell to 86 in fiscal year 2010-2011, local schools and health care agencies reported significant in-migration of Burmese, Karen and Chin residents from other counties and states.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  56. The 2010 census counts the Asian American population of Carrboro and Chapel Hill Asian Americans were 8 percent of Carrboro's 19,582 residents and 12 percent of Chapel Hill's 57,233. Chinese residents were the largest Asian group in both towns, while people from Burma made up a fifth of Carrboro's Asian population and 6 percent of Chapel Hill's; 24 percent of Carrboro residents and 16 percent of Chapel Hill's were born abroad.Search the index · Willow Lung-Amam, "The Not-So-New South Suburbs," RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9, no. 2 (2023), p. 67
  57. Transplanting Traditions Community Farm begins with refugee farmers from Burma Kelly Owensby started Transplanting Traditions in 2010 with three years of federal Office of Refugee Resettlement funding, after meeting Karen families at a community garden run by the Orange County Partnership for Young Children. In the first year 44 people from Burma turned a pasture into a farm.Transplanting Traditions Community Farm: Who We Are
  58. UNC starts the Building Integrated Communities program The Latino Migration Project began Building Integrated Communities, which Gill co-founded, to help North Carolina local governments plan with immigrant and refugee residents. Each partner community works with the program for about two years.Search the index · UNC Global Affairs: Global Heel Profile: Hannah Gill and the Building Integrated Communities Program
  59. Transplanting Traditions begins farming at the Irvin Nature Preserve After Triangle Land Conservancy began working with the farm in 2010 to find more land, Transplanting Traditions held its first growing season at the conservancy's J. Logan and Elinor Moore Irvin Nature Preserve, off Jones Ferry Road, in 2011.Triangle Land Conservancy: Conservation for All Farm Tour
  60. Karen Community of North Carolina is incorporated in Chapel Hill The Karen Community of North Carolina was registered as a nonprofit corporation with a Chapel Hill principal office and Eh Tha Pwee as registered agent. In May 2012 he estimated that about 400 Karen families lived in Orange County.City-Data (NC Secretary of State business entity record): Karen Community of North Carolina
  61. Asian Americans are the largest racial minority in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools and in Chapel Hill By 2012 Asian Americans outnumbered every other minority group in the school district and in the town of Chapel Hill. In 2012-13 they were 15 percent of district students and 31 percent at Seawell Elementary, where many Chinese immigrant families had settled.Search the index · Willow Lung-Amam, "The Not-So-New South Suburbs," RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9, no. 2 (2023), p. 62
  62. Asif Khan founds the Refugee Community Partnership Asif Khan, then a UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate, founded the Refugee Community Partnership to strengthen support networks among refugee families in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The organization, now based in Carrboro, runs help lines that include Karen and Burmese.North Carolina Health News: Lost in translation: U.S. health care agencies struggle to serve refugees
  63. Section 74A parents organize to stay out of the Northside redistricting Parents in the Larkspur, Parkside and Northwood neighborhoods, most of the vocal ones recent Chinese immigrants, started an online group, met at the Chinese school, petitioned the board with hundreds of signatures and wrote letters to the Chapel Hill News. They backed Plan 4.1, the only draft that kept their children at Seawell, and drew up alternative assignment plans of their own.Search the index · Willow Lung-Amam, "The Not-So-New South Suburbs," RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9, no. 2 (2023), p. 66
  64. The Asian American Parent Advisory Council declines to back the Section 74A parents The council, a parent group formed to represent Asian American families in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, said in a letter to the Chapel Hill News that it did not see the redistricting as a racial matter and would not join the opposition. Its vice chair said she also hoped to counter a growing belief that Asian American parents were racist.Search the index · Willow Lung-Amam, "The Not-So-New South Suburbs," RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9, no. 2 (2023), p. 68
  65. New Roots interview records the history of the Spanish Mass at St. Thomas More Luis Royo, coordinator of Hispanic ministries at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, told New Roots interviewer Kelsey Jost-Creegan that the parish's Spanish Mass went back almost twenty years. He said his coordinator post had existed for about ten years and that he was its fourth holder.New Roots/Nuevas Raíces (UNC Libraries): R-0632, Royo, Luis
  66. School Board converts Frank Porter Graham Elementary into a Spanish dual-language magnet school After a district report named serving students with limited English and closing the achievement gap as the main purposes of dual language, and after forums that included sessions for Spanish-speaking and Karen and Burmese families, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board approved converting Frank Porter Graham Elementary into a Spanish-English magnet school. It reopened as the district's first dual-language magnet on August 26, 2013, with more than 500 students.Search the index · CHCCS News: District announces Dual Language meetings and deadlines
  67. Refugee Support Center opens in Carrboro The Refugee Support Center, a volunteer-based nonprofit in Carrboro, was established in July 2012 to serve refugees in Orange County. Its main client groups are from Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria, and it offers Karen interpretation.Refugee Support Center: About Us
  68. UNC School of Social Work launches its Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative Josh Hinson launched the initiative at the UNC School of Social Work in 2013 to support resettled refugees, connecting refugee communities to interpreters, mental health screening and treatment.UNC School of Social Work: Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative partners with N.C. African Services Coalition
  69. NEH funds public access to the New Roots oral history archive The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded UNC-Chapel Hill a Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grant (PW-51527-14) to open public access to New Roots interviews through a bilingual digital archive. People: Hannah GillNational Endowment for the Humanities: Tune In Tuesdays: New Roots: Latino Oral Histories (August 30, 2016)
  70. Orange County Health Department reports serving clients in almost 20 languages The county's 2014 State of the County Health Report said the Health Department served clients in almost 20 languages through bilingual staff and interpreters and bought translation memory software. It also described the Orange County Latino Health and Refugee Health Coalitions working on access to care.Orange County, NC: 2014 State of the County Health Report
  71. Carrboro aldermen declare the town a welcoming community for immigrant children The Board of Aldermen unanimously passed a resolution declaring Carrboro a welcoming community for minors fleeing violence and affirming immigrant children's right to attend public school regardless of immigration status. The Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the ACLU of North Carolina helped develop it.Chapelboro: Carrboro Adopts Downtown Area Plan, Passes Resolution Supporting Immigrant Communities (November 20, 2025)
  72. UNC Refugee Wellness begins providing mental health care under a state refugee contract In 2015 the UNC School of Social Work's Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative began contracting with the Refugee Office of the state Department of Health and Human Services to provide mental health services directly to refugees in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.Jordan Institute for Families: Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative
  73. Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha are killed in Chapel Hill On February 10, 2015, a neighbor shot and killed Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19, in the couple's Chapel Hill condominium. He pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in June 2019 and received three consecutive life sentences without parole. People: Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-SalhaWUNC: North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty To Killing 3 Muslim Students (June 12, 2019)
  74. About 2,000 people hold a vigil in UNC's Pit for Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha The day after the three were killed, an estimated 2,000 people gathered at the Pit on the UNC campus. Speakers included Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke, Deah's brother Farris Barakat, Chancellors Carol L. Folt and Randy Woodson, and Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt. People: Razan Abu-Salha, Carol L. Folt, Mark Kleinschmidt, Yusor Abu-Salha, Deah BarakatUNC-Chapel Hill, University Gazette: A call for unity (February 12, 2015)
  75. Carrboro's Center for Employment and Leadership for day laborers opens El Centro Hispano, the Carrboro Day Laborer Task Force, Orange County Justice United and the Town of Carrboro opened a workers' center for day laborers at 201 W. Weaver St., which organizers called the first in North Carolina. The opening began with a march from the Jones Ferry and Davie roads corner and followed about ten years of planning. People: Lydia Lavelle, Randee Haven-O'DonnellNational Day Laborer Organizing Network: Carrboro Opens First Workers Center for Day Laborers in North Carolina
  76. UNC and the Dental Foundation of North Carolina set up the Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha Memorial Award The university and the Dental Foundation of North Carolina established a memorial award in the names of Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha, to be presented for the first time in the 2015-16 academic year. People: Carol L. Folt, Yusor Abu-Salha, Deah BarakatUNC General Alumni Association: Memorial Award Set Up Honoring Slain Students (June 23, 2015)
  77. UNC dental students hold the first DEAH DAY of service More than 350 students of the UNC School of Dentistry gave nearly 1,200 hours to 22 local organizations, from Habitat for Humanity in Efland to Table in Carrboro, in memory of Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha. DEAH DAY stands for Directing Efforts And Honoring Deah And Yusor, and the school was still holding it in 2024. People: Yusor Abu-Salha, Deah BarakatUNC-Chapel Hill: Volunteering to honor a legacy (September 17, 2015)
  78. Aziz Sancar wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Sancar, Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for mechanistic studies of DNA repair. The academy listed Sancar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Search the index · Nobel Prize: Press release, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015
  79. New Roots launches its bilingual digital archive New Roots/Nuevas Raíces launched a Spanish and English website with more than 150 digitized interviews, including audio recordings, abstracts and full transcripts. UNC's University Libraries handled digitization, cataloging and preservation. People: Hannah GillSociety of American Archivists, Oral History Section: The New Roots/Nuevas Raíces Latino Oral History Initiative Launches Bilingual Digital Resources
  80. Smithies and Sancar give replica Nobel medals to UNC At a Davis Library gathering, Oliver Smithies and Aziz Sancar presented gold-plated bronze replicas of their Nobel Prize medals to the university. Chancellor Carol Folt recounted that Sancar had led the search committee that brought Nobuyo Maeda and Smithies to UNC. People: Oliver Smithies, Carol L. FoltSearch the index · UNC School of Medicine, Biochemistry and Biophysics: UNC Nobel laureates Oliver Smithies and Aziz Sancar present medals to UNC
  81. Chapel Hill is selected for a Building Integrated Communities partnership The Latino Migration Project chose Chapel Hill, along with Siler City, for two years of community planning support to help the town work with foreign-born residents. Town manager Roger Stancil said the town already had policies meant to make the community inclusive.Search the index · Chapelboro: Latino Migration Project Selects Chapel Hill for Partnership
  82. Ground is broken for the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center Aziz and Gwen Sancar broke ground at 1609 East Franklin Street on a 1.7-acre center with a 9,700-square-foot community hall and a two-story guesthouse for Turkish students and scholars.Search the index · UNC-Chapel Hill: Aziz Sancar breaks ground for the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center
  83. Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities assessment documents the refugee community from Burma The Town of Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities assessment reported about 1,200 refugees living in Orange County, roughly 90 percent from Burma. Of 74 refugees surveyed through Transplanting Traditions and the Refugee Support Center, 57 were from Burma and spoke Karenic languages. People: Hannah GillUNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  84. New Hope Elementary starts a Spanish dual-language program in Orange County Schools After a year and a half of planning, New Hope Elementary opened a 50-50 Spanish-English dual-language program for 48 kindergarten students at the start of the 2018-19 school year, taught on alternating days in English and Spanish. The principal described it as a way for Latino students to take pride in their heritage and keep the Spanish they use with their families.Search the index · News of Orange County: Dual language program comes to New Hope Elementary
  85. Chapel Hill adopts a Building Integrated Communities action plan Following the 2018 community assessment, the town produced a 34-point plan covering public transportation, relations with law enforcement, resident leadership, housing access and communication in other languages. The town went on to translate documents into Spanish, Mandarin, Karen and Burmese and to add interpretation at meetings.Search the index · Chapelboro: Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities Program: Helping Immigrants, Now With New Funds
  86. Chapel Hill adopts a Language Access Plan covering Karen and Burmese The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously adopted a Language Access Plan in November 2019, following the 2018 Building Integrated Communities process in which immigrant and refugee residents named language access as a key need. The plan covered the town's leading non-English languages, Burmese, Karen, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.Chapelboro: Language Access Plan to Help Chapel Hill's Diverse Population (December 4, 2019) · Also: Chapel Hill Public Library: Language access
  87. 2020 census counts the Hispanic or Latino population of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill The 2020 census counted 15,812 Hispanic or Latino residents in Orange County, 4,734 in Chapel Hill and 2,723 in Carrboro, from the 2020 redistricting data as compiled in the NC Office of State Budget and Management's LINC database.NC Office of State Budget and Management (LINC): Census Population dataset, Orange County Hispanic or Latino Origin Population
  88. Orange County Commissioners adopt a countywide Language Access policy The Board of County Commissioners approved a policy requiring free interpretation and translation for residents with limited English across all county services, and directing each county department to keep a language access plan and train its staff.Search the index · Orange County, NC: Orange County Language Access Policy (BOCC Approved June 16, 2020)
  89. Census counts 36 migrant workers on Orange County farms The 2022 Census of Agriculture found 174 Orange County farms employing 597 hired workers, including 36 migrant workers on seven farms. Between 2017 and 2022 the number of tobacco farms in the county fell by 60 percent.N.C. Cooperative Extension, Orange County Center: Growing Food
  90. Hsar Ree Ree Wei becomes executive director of Transplanting Traditions Founder Kelly Owensby stepped back in spring 2022 and Hsar Ree Ree Wei, who was born in a Thai refugee camp and joined the farm as a youth intern in 2012, became executive director.INDY Week: A New Season at Transplanting Traditions Community Farm
  91. A Blue Cross NC Foundation grant expands Building Integrated Communities The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation awarded $1.55 million to the program, with further money to community partners, naming Gill as principal investigator. Chapel Hill received a separate three-year grant of $375,000 from the same foundation for its own immigrant and refugee work.Search the index · UNC Latino Migration Project: New funding boosts support of Building Integrated Communities program
  92. Latino residents press for Spanish-language mental health care at a Chapel Hill assembly At a public accountability assembly at St. Thomas More Catholic Church organized by Orange County Justice United and the North Carolina Congress of Latino Organizations, residents called for more mental health services in Spanish. That month Alliance Health announced $500,000 for El Futuro's services and programs in Orange County.INDY Week: A New Community Mental Health Program Supports Latino Residents in Orange County
  93. El Futuro launches Mentes Fuertes, a Spanish-language mental health program in Orange County Four Spanish-speaking community health workers began leading free ten-session psychoeducation groups at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, St. Thomas More and Holy Family Catholic Church. By March 2024, 48 participants had enrolled.INDY Week: A New Community Mental Health Program Supports Latino Residents in Orange County
  94. Carrboro adopts a townwide Language Access Plan The Town Council adopted a Language Access Plan naming six community languages (Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Karen, Burmese and Arabic), with Spanish the most spoken. The plan was developed with UNC's Building Integrated Communities program and the Refugee Community Partnership.Town of Carrboro: Language Access
  95. Buckhorn Flea Market closes on Buckhorn Road The Buckhorn Flea Market on Buckhorn Road in western Orange County, known to many Spanish speakers as La Pulga de Mebane, closed after about four decades when a trucking company bought the land. Its 300 to 500 weekend vendors were largely Latino immigrants, and the Mebane City Council voted on July 1 to annex and rezone the property for a truck terminal.Search the index · Chapelboro: Closure of Buckhorn Flea Market Leaves Vendors, Customers Asking What Happens Now
  96. Carrboro Town Council reaffirms support for immigrant communities and its 4th Amendment status The Town Council passed a resolution by council members Eliazar Posada-Orozco and Cristóbal Palmer condemning discriminatory actions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and reaffirming Carrboro's status as a 4th Amendment town. The council had voted unanimously for that designation on May 20, 2025. People: Barbara FousheeTown of Carrboro: Carrboro This Week, Nov. 20, 2025

Places in this theme

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 8 with a known location.

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.

Show 1 more

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this subject. Research guide: How to research with Orange County Indexed.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases 8

Show all 8

Local help

Related themes

UNC & Campus Life →Schools & Education →Families, Land & Genealogy →Wars & Military Service →Black Life & Civil Rights →Everyday Life & Traditions →

Picture: Farm Security Administration photographs, Library of Congress; public domain. Image credits →

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026