Storyline
Orange County’s Democratic primaries and runoff of 1936, with Sandy Graham’s large county vote for governor and B. J. Howard’s House nomination, and the 1938 general election, with Collier Cobb Jr. named to the ticket and Carl T. Durham sent to Congress.
In briefIn the 1936 Democratic primary for governor Orange County stood by its native son, A. H. (Sandy) Graham, giving him 2,754 votes to 817 for Ralph McDonald and 230 for Clyde Hoey. In the July runoff the county went for Hoey, and B. J. Howard of Chapel Hill won the runoff for the state House. In 1938 Carl T. Durham became the Democratic nominee for Congress, the county executive committee voted 7 to 6 for Collier Cobb Jr. to take Durham's place on the commissioners ticket, and every Democrat on the county ticket won by a wide margin. In 1940 three Chapel Hill candidates entered the Democratic primary for the House, and the election board chose to re-list voters.
Read the full storyRead the 10 eventsAll storylines
Read the events and sources below.
No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on Politics & Government.
In the Democratic primary of June 6, 1936 Orange gave its native son A. H. (Sandy) Graham 2,754 votes for governor to 817 for Ralph McDonald and 230 for Clyde Hoey. Sheriff Samuel T. Latta Jr. won the nomination, S. W. Andrews and G. G. Bivins were renominated, and S. A. Nathan finished second of six for the three county commissioner places, behind Carl T. Durham. On July 1 McDonald spoke to a full courtroom in Hillsboro and called Sandy Graham one of the first citizens of North Carolina. In the July 4 runoff for the state House, B. J. Howard of Chapel Hill beat W. P. Berry 1,801 to 1,075, and the county gave Hoey 1,673 votes to 1,153 for McDonald, though the Hillsboro precinct went to McDonald.
In 1938 Durham was chosen as the Democratic nominee for Congress. On November 2 the county executive committee, with chairman A. H. Graham presiding, voted 7 to 6 for Collier Cobb Jr. of Chapel Hill over R. E. Hughes to take Durham's place on the commissioners ticket. On November 8 every Democrat on the county ticket won by a wide margin, with Latta elected sheriff and Roland McClamroch sent to the House, and Durham carried the county 1,966 to 199 over write-in candidate Oscar G. Barker.
On March 14, 1940 former state senator John W. Umstead Jr. entered the May 25 Democratic primary for the state House, making three Chapel Hill candidates with Roland P. McClamroch and Raymond F. Stainback, on a platform that called for farm-to-market roads, vocational schools, a teachers' pension plan and University appropriations that would not require it to sell merchandise. That month the county board of elections, under chairman C. A. Bivens, successor to the late O. L. Thomas, chose to re-list voters rather than hold a complete new registration except in the University, Efland and Caldwell precincts, and voters had to declare a party to vote in the primary. By April 5 William H. Jordan of Efland had announced for state senator on the Republican ticket, with a platform that included a $1,000 tax exemption on every home, the return of Prohibition and the abolition of capital punishment.
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.
Sources and research tools for this storyline. Research guide: Follow an event across several accounts.
More to discover
The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.
