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Politics & Government

Elections, courthouse politics, town councils, and public debate in Orange County.

In briefHillsborough hosted the Third Provincial Congress in 1775, sessions of the General Assembly during the Revolution and the 1788 convention that declined to ratify the Constitution, and the county has argued in public ever since, through the Kirk-Holden War, the Speaker Ban and the elections that brought Howard Lee and Carrboro’s firsts. The storylines follow those arguments from the courthouse to the town halls.

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The Orange County Courthouse at Hillsborough in winter.

Events and storylines

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

Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766The county formed in 1752, its seat surveyed by William Churton in 1754 where the Great Trading Path crossed the Eno, and the town’s names in turn: Orange, Corbinton, Childsburgh, and from 1766 Hillsborough Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775The August 1775 congress that organized North Carolina for war Hillsborough ratification convention, 1788North Carolina’s first convention on the federal Constitution, which declined to ratify without a bill of rights (the Fayetteville convention of 1789 ratified) General Assembly sessions at Hillsborough, 1778–1784The five sessions the state legislature held at Hillsborough, in 1778, 1780, 1782, 1783 and 1784; its other sessions of these years met at Halifax, Smithfield, New Bern and Wake Court House Kirk-Holden War connections, 1870Orange County actors in the 1870 crisis: Josiah Turner, Frederick Nash Strudwick and William A. Graham Speaker Ban controversy, 1962–1968The law barring “visiting speakers” from state campuses, the 1966 wall speeches and Dickson v. Sitterson
Show all 81 events and storylines
Howard Lee’s campaigns for mayor, Congress, lieutenant governor and the state Senate, 1968–1992The first Black mayor of a majority-white Southern town since Reconstruction Carrboro’s Black political firstsFrom Braxton Foushee, the first Black alderman in 1969, and Robert Drakeford, the first Black mayor in 1977, to the first Black town manager and police chief and Barbara Foushee, the first Black woman mayor, in 2023 Carrboro’s LGBTQ municipal firstsDomestic partner registry, partner benefits and openly gay mayors, as recorded by the town UNC’s student strike against the Vietnam War, May 1970After the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings, some 6,000 students joined a strike that suspended business as usual on campus LGBTQ political firsts in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1980s–1990sJoe Herzenberg’s election to the Chapel Hill Town Council in 1987, Mike Nelson’s as Carrboro’s mayor in 1995, and the anti-discrimination and domestic-partner measures that followed Water for the towns: University Lake, the 1976–77 drought, and OWASAChapel Hill’s reservoir of 1932, the water crisis of 1976–77, the creation of the Orange Water and Sewer Authority in 1977, and the reservoir fight that followed at Cane Creek Governor Holden’s impeachment and trial, 1870–1871Orange County’s part in the impeachment: Frederick N. Strudwick’s resolution, the article on Josiah Turner Jr.’s arrest at Hillsborough, William A. Graham for the prosecution, Orange witnesses, and Senator John W. Graham’s motion for judgment Schools and a new courthouse: the county bonds, 1947–1954The 1947 bond issue the voters turned down, the 1948–49 study of county needs, the November 1949 vote for $1.25 million in school and courthouse bonds, and the new courthouse opened in 1954 The Chapel Hill town election of 1949The May 1949 election in which Edwin S. Lanier unseated Mayor Robert W. Madry, with a record registration and the first candidacies of a woman and a Black minister for the Board of Aldermen The five-member county board, 1953–1956How rural Orange won a larger board of commissioners: the petitions and the heated 1953 hearing, the legislature’s act, the first primary and election for five seats, and the new board’s first meeting in December 1954 Orange County’s bicentennial, 1952–1953The county’s two-hundredth birthday: the committees named in 1952, the Lefler and Wager history, and the October 1953 week of parades, tours, the courthouse cornerstone and the pageant The Road to Orange ABC stores and liquor by the drink in Orange County, 1938–1978Orange County’s long argument over legal liquor: the 1938 defeat, the refusals to call a vote in the 1950s, the 1959 election that approved county ABC stores, and the stores at Hillsboro, Eastgate, Carr and the interstate Recreation in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1955–1964The two-year campaign for a recreation tax district around Chapel Hill and Carrboro: the Jaycees’ petition, Carrboro’s wish to stay out, the hearing where integration came up, the 1957 vote that turned it down and the private plans that followed The 1956 school bonds and what they built, 1955–1958The $2 million county school bond issue voters approved in March 1956: how the commissioners brought it to a vote, the objection raised over the segregation ruling, and the schools the board built with it, from the new Carrboro school to gymnasiums at Hillsboro High and Central The Pearsall Plan in Orange County, 1956–1961The 1956 state amendment that let localities close schools rather than integrate them: the debate in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, Representative Umstead’s support and his proposal for biracial committees, and a county vote that approved the plan while Chapel Hill voted it down Hillsboro’s new post office, 1948–1959A decade of postal change at Hillsborough: Tom Bivins’s years as postmaster, the long search for a post office site, the town board’s protest over the building by the Eno, and the 1958 move into Fred Cates’s leased building under Maude Brown The Walker Milling building on Court Square, 1963–1964The Walker Milling Co. building, a three-story landmark on Court Square in Hillsborough: the mill’s closing in 1963, the county’s purchase of the property to protect its land needs around the courthouse, and the 1964 demolition that historical groups asked the commissioners to stop Orange County’s House seat changes hands, 1963How Orange County’s seat in the state House passed through three holders in 1963: John W. Umstead Jr.’s resignation, L. J. Phipps’s short term before he left to lead the American Legion, and the one-vote nomination of Edwin J. Hamlin Orange County’s antipoverty program and JOCCA, 1964–1982How the county’s governments took up the fight against poverty in 1964: the delays over Community Action, Inc., a biracial corporation for Chapel Hill’s racial and economic problems, the town boards’ votes and appointments, and the county’s advisory committee for the federal program The Towne House apartments fight, 1961The 1961 dispute over the Towne House, a planned 104-unit apartment project off East Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill: the neighbors’ rezoning, the resignation of the whole district planning board, the new board named in its place and the aldermen’s refusal of a permit The 1898 white supremacy campaign in Orange CountyThe 1898 election in Orange County as the papers reported it: the Populists’ silver union, the Democratic and Populist tickets, the lynching of Manly McCauley near Chapel Hill, the new voters registered, and the Democrats’ white supremacy appeal on election eve Republicans take the Orange County courthouse, 1916–1917How Orange County elected a full Republican ticket in 1916 and what followed at the courthouse: the outgoing Democratic sheriff’s fight over collecting the 1916 taxes, and the new board’s moves against Democratic officeholders in January 1917 Chapel Hill’s first town manager and its improvements, 1922–1931Chapel 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 Chapel Hill’s sewers and the Bolin Creek plant, 1923–1944How Chapel Hill extended its sewers in the 1920s: the small bond issues, engineer W. C. Olsen’s plan for a Bolin Creek interceptor and disposal plant, the plant site, a downstream owner’s suit, the Church Street lines, and the 1926 contest with Carrboro for ditch diggers Paving Chapel Hill’s streets, 1924–1931How Chapel Hill paved its streets from 1924: the owners’ petitions for curb and gutter, Franklin and Columbia streets paved curb to curb, the Ziegler Brothers contracts with the University and the state, new parking rules, the West Franklin plan, and the street bonds Orange County’s 1925 jail, 1923–1996How Orange County replaced its old jail at Hillsborough: the grand jury’s call for a secure jail in 1924, the Colonial brick building begun east of the courthouse in 1925, the $65,000 in bonds that paid for it, and its use once built The short route to Raleigh: the old Raleigh road, the Nelson road and Route 54, 1925–1929How Chapel Hill got its short route to Raleigh and its state roads east and west: the county’s vote and reversal on the old Raleigh road, the write-in protest that followed, the state’s takeover of the Nelson and Calvander roads, the Carrboro link, and Route 54 Rebuilding Franklin Street’s business block, 1922–1927How Chapel Hill remade the Franklin Street business block: E. M. Knox’s first sidewalks and street trees, the 1927 traffic beacon and street bonds, the paved center strip and moved curb, the fight over the block’s trees, the ride-seeker ordinance and the new post lamps Orange County in the 1928 election and the new county board, 1928–1929Orange County in the 1928 election and after: the enlarged Chapel Hill precinct, Hoover’s county majority and Smith’s Chapel Hill vote, the new sheriff and commissioners, the student voting charge, George Johnston’s bedside oath, resignation and death, and John Hanner’s return as chairman Fire protection after the Pickard Hotel fire, inside and beyond the town limits, 1928–1944Chapel Hill’s fire protection after the Pickard Hotel burned in January 1928: the full-time fireman, the new water mains and lower insurance rates, then the Kenfield house fire beyond the town limits in 1929 and the neighbors’ meeting on protection outside town The University’s hard year and the choice of Frank Graham, 1930The University’s spring of 1930 as the Weekly and the record tell it: Harry Woodburn Chase’s move to Illinois, the trustees’ search committee, the loss of Dean Addison Hibbard and Howard Mumford Jones, a 20 percent budget cut, and the June election of Frank Porter Graham Gas comes to Chapel Hill, 1930How piped gas reached Chapel Hill from Durham in 1930: the aldermen’s franchise to the Durham Gas Company, the count of signed customers, the company’s Franklin Street office, the ditchers laying mains through town, and the turning on of the gas in July West Franklin Street paving and its Black homeowners, 1926–1941How Chapel Hill paved West Franklin Street on assessments and what the debt meant for its Black homeowners: the 1926 street program and contract, the bonds of 1927 and 1928, the relief committee, the Duke legal aid clinic, and the federal home loans of 1934 Beer, repeal and the 1933 liquor voteOrange County and the end of Prohibition: the first legal beer sold in Chapel Hill in May 1933, the county’s beer licenses, the repeal and dry candidates, the November vote in which only Chapel Hill went wet, and the county’s 1938 vote against ABC stores The Civil Works Administration in Orange County, 1933–1934The Civil Works Administration in Orange County from November 1933 to March 1934: George H. Lawrence’s projects and quota, the work on Hillsborough’s courthouse square and library, Chapel Hill’s streets, the creek, schools and campus, the February cuts, and the program’s end Hard-surfacing Chapel Hill’s streets with federal labor, 1934–1935How 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 Chapel Hill’s 1938 town hall and its later uses, 1938–1989How Chapel Hill built its town hall at Rosemary and Columbia streets with PWA help: the grant and the bond vote of 1938, John M. Booker’s call for a Franklin Street site, the contract, the move-in and dedication of 1939, the Roberson portrait and the old buildings cleared Social Security comes to Orange County, 1937–1938How the Social Security programs came to Orange County in 1937: the new welfare board and superintendent, the welfare fund and the higher county tax rate, the first checks to the aged, dependent children and the blind, the growing caseload, and the child welfare service of 1938 The Institute of Government’s building, 1935–1939How Albert Coates built a home for the Institute of Government: the campus site and PWA grant of 1935, the grant’s withdrawal in 1936, the Franklin Street lots cleared in 1938, the private gifts and loan that paid for it, and the November 1939 dedication Orange County’s elections of 1936, 1938 and 1940Orange 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 Chapel Hill’s milk supply in wartime, 1942–1945Chapel Hill’s wartime milk disputes: the aldermen’s 1942 suspension of the milk ordinance and the Navy’s ban on 17 places, the 1943 fight over Durham Dairy Products’ shipped-in milk and the company’s withdrawal, the return to all Grade A, and the dairy farmers’ cooperative plant of 1945 Chapel Hill’s street bonds and the state streets, 1937–1941How Chapel Hill paid for hard-surfaced streets from 1937 to 1941: the last of the PWA street surfacing, the $16,000 curb-and-gutter bonds the debt-limitation amendment put to a vote, the 1941 street and fire apparatus bonds, and the state’s taking over of three streets Joseph Caldwell’s last years and the choice of David L. Swain, 1833–1837How the University passed from its first president to its next: Joseph Caldwell’s illness and Elisha Mitchell’s acting presidency, Caldwell’s death and the mourning in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, the delayed election, David L. Swain’s arrival and the busts and monument made in Caldwell’s memory Orange County and the 1835 constitutional convention, 1822–1835How Orange County took part in reforming the state constitution: the Fourth of July toasts and reform meetings of 1822 and 1823, the 1835 vote for a convention, the nominating meetings and platforms, James S. Smith’s motion on borough seats and the county’s vote on the amendments Internal improvements and the 1833 Hillsborough railroad convention, 1828–1837How Orange County pressed for roads, river navigation and a railroad from 1828 to 1837: James Mebane’s flour boat, the early railroad and navigation meetings, the 1833 internal improvement convention at Hillsborough, the call for two-fifths state aid and the county’s later delegates and appointments The Log Cabin campaign in Orange County, 1840–1841How the 1840 presidential campaign played out in Orange County: the Whig and Democratic nominations, the August election that made Orange a Whig county, the Mangum and Brown debate, the Chapel Hill log cabin festival, the Harrison vote and Hillsborough’s funeral honors for Harrison Dividing Orange: the fight that made Alamance County, 1842–1851How western Orange won a county of its own: the 1842 and 1844 fights over a new courthouse tax and a central division, the two votes that rejected division, Giles Mebane’s bill of 1849, the referendum, the first Alamance court and lots in Graham, and the settled line Building the Orange County courthouse, 1842–1846How Orange County built the courthouse that still stands in Hillsborough: the justices’ refusal of 1842, the $8,000 tax of 1844, John Berry’s contract and the Masonic cornerstone, the old wooden courthouse sold and moved, and the town clock set in the new cupola Benjamin Hedrick, the scientific school and his dismissal, 1851–1862How Benjamin Hedrick went from first honors to the University’s chair of agricultural chemistry in its new scientific school, and how his 1856 support for Fremont led to effigy burnings, the faculty’s disavowal, his dismissal by the trustees and, in 1862, his removal from the Presbyterian roll The death of Elisha Mitchell and the University’s mourning, 1857–1858How Chapel Hill and the University marked the death of Professor Elisha Mitchell on the Black Mountains in June 1857: the town meeting, the commissioners’ and students’ resolutions, the faculty’s sermon and eulogy, the care of his widow, his books and cabinet, and his successor The county schools under Superintendent James L. Currie, 1882–1889How the county’s public schools ran under Superintendent James L. Currie from 1882 to 1889: the white and Black teachers’ associations and institutes, the new Board of Education of 1885, the school reports showing short terms and unequal pay, and Currie’s resignation in 1889 Working the county roads: the road tax fights, 1891–1899How Orange County argued over paying for its roads in the 1890s: the road tax of 1891, the justices’ repeal of 1893 over the commissioners’ votes, J. A. Holmes’s road plan, the special road law of 1896 and the return to work days on the roads in 1899 Hillsborough as the southern army’s base after Camden, 1780How Hillsborough served as the southern army’s base in 1780: de Kalb’s halt, Gates’s regrouping of the army after Camden, the General Assembly and its Board of War, the courthouse and church turned to army use, the crowded town, the march to Salisbury and Greene’s arrival Samuel Strudwick’s claim to the Haw Old Fields, 1754–1788How Samuel Strudwick tried to hold the Haw Old Fields against the people living on them: Burrington’s mortgage of 1754, the 1766 meeting with the settlers, the tenants’ association of 1768, the state patents taken on his land, his appeals of 1780 and the lawsuits that ended in 1788 The test of allegiance in Orange County, 1775–1782How Orange County’s Revolutionary authorities used the oath of allegiance: the 1775 efforts to win over former Regulators and people of scruple, Michael Holt’s oath, the Loyalist estates inventoried, the county court’s citations of suspects and merchants, the sixty-day orders to leave and the 1782 commissioner of confiscated estates Person Hall and the Main Building (South Building), 1796–1814How the University finished its first chapel and its Main Building, later South Building: Thomas Person’s gift and Person Hall, Charles Gerrard’s Tennessee lands, the Masonic cornerstone of 1798, the roofless walls, the lotteries, William Polk’s appeal, Joseph Caldwell’s subscription tours and the students’ move in 1814 Opposing the Vietnam War in Chapel Hill, 1965–1973How students, faculty and townspeople in Chapel Hill opposed the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1969: the early silent walks and fasts, the Wednesday vigil at the post office, the speakers and debates, draft counseling and draft resistance, the Dow Chemical sit-in and the Moratorium day of October 1969 The Franklin Street vending ban, 1970–1974How Chapel Hill banned selling on Franklin Street’s sidewalks from 1970 to 1974: the merchants’ complaint about the flower ladies, the 1970 ban that spared flowers, the young vendors’ guild and lawsuit, the 1971 ban on all street selling and the flower ladies’ move into an alley, and the board’s refusal to reopen the sidewalks Students win and keep the vote in Orange County, 1971–1980How UNC students won the right to register and vote in Chapel Hill from 1971 to 1973: the federal ruling on residency, the elections board’s decision to treat students like other residents, the registration drives and the fight over a campus registrar, and the first student registrar and student alderman The energy crisis in Chapel Hill, 1973–1974How Chapel Hill and Carrboro lived through the fuel shortages of 1973 and 1974: the gas station protests and limits, the University’s energy cuts and holiday closing, the town’s energy task force, the stations running dry, set pumping hours, the attorney general’s suits and the push for more gasoline Rewriting Chapel Hill’s charter: from Board of Aldermen to Town Council, 1973–1979How Chapel Hill rewrote its town charter between 1973 and 1979: the Charter Commission and its call for eight aldermen and a four-year mayor, the charter sent to the General Assembly without a referendum, the fight over its human services powers, the 1977 fair-housing amendment and the board’s new name, Town Council Taxing the University’s property, 1974–1980How Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro tried to tax University property from 1974 to 1979: the first assessments under the revised state law, the claims on the Carolina Inn, the airport and the utilities, the towns’ complaint about Southern Bell, and the 1979 rulings of the Property Tax Commission and Superior Court Town elections and bond votes, 1979–1989How Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and Orange County voted in 1979: the Town Council’s bond questions and the open space fight, the mayor’s race Joe Nassif won, the council, aldermen, commissioners and school board races, the county’s rejected $20.4 million bond package and the new council’s first acts Protest and support during the Persian Gulf war, 1990–1991How Chapel Hill, Carrboro and UNC answered the Persian Gulf war in 1990 and 1991: the post office vigils, the Franklin Street march and the Polk Place protest, the CBS town meeting, the sanctuary votes, the rallies for the troops, and the Peace Village in the Pit until after the cease-fire The new Chapel Hill Public Library and the old one on Franklin Street, 1984–1994How Chapel Hill planned and built a new public library between 1984 and 1992: the 1986 library bond, the Estes Drive site and Pritchard Park, the land the town moved to acquire, the failed 1990 bond, the smaller 27,000-square-foot building and the 1992 construction contracts Internationalist Books and the killing of Bob Sheldon, 1991–1993How Internationalist Books on West Rosemary Street went on after its founder, Bob Sheldon, was shot in the store in February 1991: the mourning and vigils, the friends’ committee and reward, the reopening with volunteers, the passing of the store to its board and the march a year later The 1991 town elections in Chapel Hill and CarrboroHow Chapel Hill and Carrboro voted in 1991: Jonathan Howes’s decision not to seek a third term, Ken Broun’s election as mayor over Rosemary Waldorf, the UNC student Mark Chilton’s council seat, Carrboro’s re-elected aldermen and its rejected recreation center bond, and the December swearing-in Orange County in the 1990 electionHow Orange County voted in 1990: Carl Fox’s filing for district attorney, a crowded race for three county commissioner seats, the registration drives and Harvey Gantt’s rally in the Pit during his Senate race against Jesse Helms, the November results and the ballot shortages Orange County in the 1992 electionHow Orange County voted in 1992: Margaret Pollard’s challenge to state senators Howard Lee and Russell Walker, the student registration drives and campus rallies, the Greens’ independent candidate for commissioner, the fight over the $52 million school bond, the Clinton and Gore rally in Hillsborough and the November results Herzenberg’s tax case, the recall law and two resignations, 1992–1993How the Chapel Hill Town Council changed in 1992 and 1993: Joe Herzenberg’s guilty plea for failing to file state taxes and the council’s censure, Art Werner’s election as mayor pro tem, Roosevelt Wilkerson’s resignation over a letter signed with the mayor’s name, Barbara Powell’s appointment and Herzenberg’s resignation Orange County’s civil rights ordinance, 1987–1994How Orange County came to a civil rights ordinance between 1987 and 1994: the Human Relations Commission, the draft ordinance and Sen. Howard Lee’s bill, the fight over its threatening-speech clause, the push to add sexual orientation, and the votes that brought it into Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough LaVonda Burnette and the school board recall, 1993–1994How LaVonda Burnette’s seat on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board was contested from her 1993 election to her 1994 resignation: her acknowledgment that she was not a UNC student, the board’s call to resign, the recall law, the charges, the petition drive and the NAACP’s objections The 1993 town elections in Chapel Hill and CarrboroHow Chapel Hill and Carrboro chose their mayors, council members and aldermen in 1993: the retirements and filings, the forums and endorsements, the November 2 results and the Carrboro recount, and the swearing-in of the new boards Orange County in the 1994 electionHow Orange County voted in 1993 and 1994: the race for district attorney, the field for three county commissioner seats, the May primary, the new single ballot counted by computer, and the November results for the commissioners, the sheriff, the state Senate, Congress and the farmland bond The Bicentennial of UNC and Chapel Hill, 1993–1994How UNC and Chapel Hill marked their 200th year in 1993 and 1994: the town’s markers, mural, books and exhibits, the University’s convocation with President Clinton, its lectures, music and open house, and the town’s Chapel Hill Revisited day, through the commencement that closed the Observance

More storylines

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

StorylineSt. Matthew's Parish and Hillsborough's old church, 1752–18241752–1824 · 26 events · From 1752 St. Matthew's Parish was Orange County's established Anglican church, with chapels at New Hope and St. Mary's and, from about 1768, a church in Hillsborough. Its rector, George Micklejohn, preached to Tryon's troops in 1768 and stayed loyal to the Crown in 1776. Its church served as an army hospital, an academy and the meeting place of the 1788 convention, and in 1797 the Assembly ordered the ruinous building sold. Episcopal worship came back through St. Jude's and St. Mary's in 1818 and 1819, and in 1824 the reorganized parish left the old lot to the Presbyterians. StorylineThe sheriff and the taxes: Orange County's sheriffs, 1752–17771752–1777 · 19 events · In colonial Orange County the sheriff collected the taxes, and how sheriffs and their deputies collected them became a grievance that fed the Regulation. The governor chose sheriffs from names the county court sent him, beginning with Alexander Mebane, who returned 1,113 tithables for 1752 and 1753. Thomas Hart's short account and the Assembly bill excusing him from taxes, deputies' seizures of deer skins and livestock, and Tyree Harris's extra charge on late payers came before the 1768 depositions and the rescue of a seized horse at Hillsborough. Regulators whipped Sheriff John Lea in 1769. In 1777 the first court under statehood named Mebane's son sheriff. StorylineHillsborough’s courthouse, jail, pillory and stocks, 1752–18371752–1837 · 43 events · From 1752 to 1837 the county and the Assembly built, lost and rebuilt Hillsborough's courthouse and jail. Until a frame courthouse was ready in December 1756 the court met in private homes, and in 1757 the sheriff was ordered to provide stocks, a pillory and a whipping post. The second county jail burned, a fire in March 1790 took the courthouse, and that year the Assembly ordered a new one where the burned one had stood. Henry Harris, a Black man jailed as a runaway because he could not prove his freedom, was charged with setting fire to the county jail. John Berry completed a two-story stone jail, set at no more than $4,000, in 1837. StorylineHugh McAden, Henry Pattillo and the first Presbyterian congregations, 1753–17901753–1790 · 19 events · Orange County's Presbyterian settlers had congregations before they had ministers. Hugh McAden preached on the Eno and at the Hawfields in 1755 and 1756, and the settlements asked Hanover Presbytery for preachers, but none came regularly until Henry Pattillo became pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches in 1765. Pattillo and his fellow ministers condemned the Regulators in 1768 and he preached to Tryon's troops; in 1770 they formed Orange Presbytery, which first met at Hawfields. In 1775 the Provincial Congress sent Pattillo to win former Regulators to the American cause, and about 1790 the old Pattillo field was split into two pastoral charges. StorylineThe Hillsborough district superior court, 1767–18061767–1806 · 18 events · The district superior court made Hillsborough a court town, and in the Regulator years it became the place where the Regulators' quarrel with the county officers was fought out. Set at Hillsborough by an act of 1767, it first sat in March 1768. Its September 1768 term tried William Butler and Herman Husband and found Edmund Fanning guilty; later terms threw out the Regulators' bills, and in September 1770 about 150 Regulators broke up the court. Shut by the court-law quarrel after 1772, it sat again on March 24, 1778, and Hillsborough kept its hold on the circuit until the act of 1806. StorylineThomas Burke of Hillsborough, 1772–17891772–1789 · 15 events · Thomas Burke went from a Hillsborough law practice to the Continental Congress and the governor's office, and Orange County sent him to each stage of the Revolution. Douglass credits him with drafting Orange's 1776 instructions to the Halifax Congress, and he sat on the committee whose report empowered the delegates to join in declaring independence. The Assembly at Hillsborough cleared him in 1778 in his quarrel with Congress. Elected governor in 1781, he was captured in David Fanning's raid, broke his parole to return, and died near Hillsborough in 1783. In 1789 the court let his executor sell four people the estate held in slavery.
Show all 69 storylines
StorylineOrange County's militia in the Revolution, 1775–17791775–1779 · 17 events · Orange County had to field a Revolutionary militia in a district the Council of Safety thought full of disaffected persons. The Provincial Congress named the county's officers in 1775, and in February 1776 Orange men held Cross Creek while Nathaniel Rochester took about 500 retreating Loyalists prisoner. In April 1776 the congress split the militia into Northern and Southern regiments under John Butler and James Saunders. Asked for 500 men against the Cherokee, Orange met a quota of 300. By 1778 the county owed the state's troops 73 hats and 146 pairs of shoes, and in 1779 Hillsborough became an army depot as Orange militia fought at Stono Ferry. StorylineEagle Lodge and the Hillsborough Masonic Hall, 1788–18231788–1823 · 10 events · Eagle Lodge, silent since 1799, was revived at Hillsborough in 1819 and paid for its Masonic Hall with a lottery. Under a new number, 71, the lodge voted money toward a male academy in 1820, and from 1821 it ran a lottery, held over eleven years, to pay for a hall. In July 1823 commissioners advertised for proposals to build a brick hall, and the cornerstone was laid on November 23, 1823 at what is now 142 West King Street. The Greek Revival hall was designed by the state architect William Nichols and is believed built by John Berry and Samuel Hancock. The Grand Lodge restored the lodge's original number, 19, in 1932. StorylineChapel Hill grows from a college village to a town, 1800–18191800–1819 · 14 events · Between 1800 and 1819 stores, houses and shops went up on Franklin Street, and in 1819 the General Assembly named commissioners for the town of Chapel Hill. Along the way John McCauley opened one of the first stores by 1803, James Hogg built a ten-room house in 1804, and Thomas H. Taylor, Christopher Barbee, Thompson and Trice and Edward Robson added a shoe store, a smithy, a store and the post office. The county court licensed stores to retail spirits in 1817 and 1818, and a student of the class of 1818 remembered about a dozen houses on the main street. StorylineJacksonians and Whigs in Orange County, 1824–18391824–1839 · 12 events · Orange County voted for Andrew Jackson in 1824 and by a wide margin in 1828, but by the late 1830s Whigs and Van Buren men were contesting its seats. Willie P. Mangum, chosen senator in 1830 as a Jacksonian, broke with Jackson over the removal of the bank deposits, and an Orange meeting approved his course in 1834. In 1836, after many county leaders broke with Jackson, supporters of Hugh L. White and of Martin Van Buren held rival meetings at the Hillsborough court house, and Orange went for Van Buren. Van Buren men took three Orange seats from the Whigs in 1838, and in 1839 Orange favored Dr. William Montgomery for Congress over the Whig George W. Haywood. StorylineChapel Hill's town government and its codes, 1829–18591829–1859 · 17 events · Chapel Hill's early town codes governed its streets and policed its Black residents, enslaved and free. On February 19, 1829 the commissioners adopted fifteen ordinances that divided white men into patrol companies, made white and Black men liable to work the streets, and barred enslaved people from the streets on Sundays and at night without a written pass. An act of 1851 incorporated the town under five elected commissioners. A revised code of March 19, 1859 fixed the village limits at about 839 acres, ordered officers to check the status of Black residents who claimed to be free, and barred Black people from the country from the streets after 4 p.m. on tax and election days. StorylineWhigs, Democrats and Know Nothings in Orange County, 1841–18591841–1859 · 16 events · Orange County's elections from 1841 to 1859 were often close, as Whigs, Democrats and for a time the Know Nothings contested the county. In 1841 Orange narrowly backed the Whig James S. Smith for Congress, though the Democrat Romulus M. Saunders won the district. In 1844 the county elected its whole Whig ticket and gave its own William A. Graham a majority for governor. A tied 1848 state Senate race, broken by the sheriff's casting vote, ended in a new election. Orange backed Graham's 1852 run for vice president, voted for the Know Nothing, or American, candidate for Congress in 1855 and went Democratic in 1856. In December 1859 a Whig and Opposition meeting denounced John Brown's raid. StorylineHillsborough's town ordinances and the patrol against Black residents, 1843–18621843–1862 · 15 events · From 1843 to 1862 Hillsborough's town commissioners passed ordinances restricting the movement, gatherings and residence of Black people, enslaved and free, and kept a patrol to enforce them. By 1843 free people of color settling in town had to give a $100 bond for good behavior or leave; in 1850 the bond rose to $500, with five days instead of thirty to post it. Enslaved people caught without a pass after ten at night were to be jailed and whipped unless the owner paid a fine. The patrol broke up gatherings in the streets. In 1854 the town closed its graveyard for Black people to new burials, and in 1862 it ordered free Black residents to renew their bonds. StorylineOrange County during the Civil War, 1861–18651861–1865 · 155 events · Students left Chapel Hill to enlist from late April 1861, and Hillsborough Military Academy's founder, Charles Tew, left in May to command a Confederate regiment. The university stayed open as enrollment fell to about a dozen. Federal cavalry held Chapel Hill from April 17 to May 3, 1865, as many newly freed people left town or joined the army. StorylineThe university closes and reopens1868 to 1875 · 78 events · Reconstruction Republicans took control of the trustees in 1868 and dismissed the old faculty; Solomon Pool's presidency drew almost no students, and the university closed in February 1871. The legislature revived it in March 1875, Cornelia Phillips Spencer rang the bell, and it reopened in September under a rebuilt faculty. StorylineThe congressional Ku Klux hearings, 1871January–September 1871 · 22 events · In 1871 two committees of Congress took sworn testimony on the Klan in North Carolina. Before the Senate select committee in January and February, Hillsborough constable W. G. Turrentine, clerk of court George Laws and editor Josiah Turner Jr. gave opposed accounts of the jail raid, hangings and whippings in Orange; before the Joint Select Committee that summer and fall, Dr. Pride Jones told of persuading the Orange Klan to disband in 1870, and William L. Saunders refused to answer. StorylineThe Grange in Orange County, 1873–19481873–1948 · 6 events · The Patrons of Husbandry, or Grange, took root in Orange County twice. James Means of Concord organized the Eno Grange at Cedar Grove in December 1873, and in October 1874 delegates of seven Granges organized a county council with John K. Hughes as master. A state Grange revival from 1929 to 1931 produced five Orange chapters, among them Schley Grange No. 710. Schley and Fairfield made their halls out of abandoned schoolhouses, and the chapters met every two weeks with women and children as members. A Grange was organized at New Hope in 1946, and in 1948 W. Kerr Scott, the Democratic nominee for governor and a former State Grange master, spoke to the county's Granges. StorylineProhibition and the liquor question, 1879–18921879–1892 · 13 events · Between 1879 and 1892 the sale of liquor in Orange County was argued over in the legislature, at the polls, before town and county boards and in court. In 1879 the legislature widened the ban on selling liquor around the university to four miles. Before the 1881 statewide prohibition vote, supporters organized the county under Rev. N. H. Cobb, with every minister, white and Black, a vice president. In 1882 Anderson Hill ran for the House as an Independent Prohibition candidate. Hillsborough's town board refused liquor licenses in 1890 and 1891, but the county commissioners licensed John U. Smith, and the town's suit against him was compromised and dismissed in 1892. StorylineOrange County party politics and Sheriff Hughes, 1880–18881880–1888 · 13 events · In the 1880s Orange County voters kept returning Sheriff John K. Hughes, even in years they voted Democratic for president. Hughes was first elected in 1880, when independents ran against the Democratic ticket. In 1882 the Republican county convention endorsed the Liberal coalition ticket and Hughes's re-election; Zebulon B. Vance spoke nearly three hours against the coalition, but the Republican Isaac R. Strayhorn led the Senate race and the Liberal James A. Cheek won a House seat by seven votes. In 1884 Orange went for Cleveland and still returned Hughes, and in 1886 the Republican-backed Hughes won by more than 1,100 votes. In 1888 the Democrats left the sheriff's race to Hughes, who won as an independent. StorylineThe University's state money, 1881–18891881–1889 · 9 events · In 1881, according to Lefler and Wager, the General Assembly voted the university its first regular appropriation for maintenance, and within a few years the university both gained and lost state money. An 1885 act added $15,000 a year, and the trustees enlarged the faculty from nine to fifteen. In 1887, after a campaign led by Leonidas L. Polk, the General Assembly took the university's $7,500 yearly land-scrip interest for a separate Agricultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh. The university dropped pedagogics, mining engineering and other courses, and unable to pay the chairs added in 1885, the trustees let three professors go in 1888. In 1889 William Cain's election let the faculty begin teaching civil engineering. StorylineBlack Republicans and the county party, 1890–18971890–1897 · 8 events · Black Republicans in Orange County condemned the county's white Republicans for keeping every office and appointment, and in the 1890s they ran candidates of their own. In August 1890 a mass meeting called to order by Lisbon P. Berry nominated him for the state Senate, and a later meeting backed London A. Whitted for the House. The county convention endorsed its own slate, and one man named on it called it the "white Republican" convention. In 1892 Black men who said the party's "ring" had not treated them fairly nominated John M. Whitted, and in 1894 Swain Kirkland announced for the House. In 1897 Hillsborough elected Samuel L. Whitted, by the paper's account the first Black town commissioner. StorylineThe People's Party and fusion in Orange County, 1892–18981892–1898 · 13 events · The People's Party, whose platform a large Hillsborough gathering adopted in March 1892, joined with the Republicans to sweep Orange County in 1894 and with the Democrats to win it in 1896. In 1892 the Democratic county convention barred two delegates for standing on the St. Louis platform, and the Populists voted to put up a full county ticket. In November 1894 Republicans and Populists won everything but sheriff and register of deeds, which the Democrats kept by 58 and seven votes. In 1896 Orange Democrats and Populists fused on a county ticket that won in full, with the Populist Albert H. Holmes going to the House. In 1898 Orange Populists endorsed a union of the silver forces. StorylineHillsborough's roller mill, 1893–19641893–1964 · 7 events · When a contractor razed Walker Milling Co.'s three-story landmark on Court Square in 1964 to clear the lot for parking, historical groups asked the commissioners to save it, but by a split vote they agreed only to buy its old handmade bricks for resale. The story began in 1893, when Jackson Crabtree's new Hillsboro Roller Mills started turning out flour. In 1900 the Hillsboro Milling and Manufacturing Company organized under Dr. C. D. Jones, and Crabtree later sold it the old river mill. By 1917 Houston J. Walker and his brother had bought the roller mill. In 1963 Charles M. Walker Jr. said he would close the business, and the commissioners bought the mill and its lot for $25,000. StorylineChapel Hill's volunteer fire company, 1898–19311898–1931 · 22 events · From about 1898 a volunteer company fought Chapel Hill's fires, at first with two hand reels and hose lent by the University, and more than once a building burned where no hydrant was near. In 1921 the town built a brick municipal building and fire house and received an American La France motor truck. In June 1922, with the nearest hydrant almost half a mile away, fire destroyed the Orange County Training School, the county's school for Black students. In 1923 the company hosted the state's firemen at a barbecue, and the state association elected Chief John L. Foister its president. After officers missed an alarm, the aldermen put a full-time fireman on duty in 1928. In 1931 the bricklayer John Johnson became, by the Weekly's account, the only Black member of a white fire company in North Carolina. StorylineChapel Hill's public school becomes a graded district, 1900–19091900–1909 · 6 events · Chapel Hill's public schooling began the decade as a contract with two private teachers and ended it as a graded school district run free of the Orange County board. In 1900 the school board ruled that the Canadas' school was not a public school, since the teachers had not met the school law, and withheld their pay; John W. Canada's school closed in 1901. In 1903 the commissioners called a special school tax election in the district, and the school committee later bought the old Canada building. An act ratified in February 1909 created the Chapel Hill Graded School District, with a special school tax and six trustees, subject to the voters' approval in May. StorylineOrange County's party politics under the suffrage amendment, 1900–19081900–1908 · 7 events · In July 1900 Charles B. Aycock spoke for the suffrage amendment at a White Supremacy rally in Hillsborough. The amendment lost in Orange by a handful of votes and the opposing state ticket carried the county by a few votes, but Democrats won the legislative seats and county offices. Under the amendment, men who had not paid their poll tax could not vote, and by May 1902 Sheriff John K. Hughes reported 375 white and 500 Black men unpaid for 1901. The county elected the whole Democratic ticket in 1904, and in 1906 every Democrat won. In 1908 Orange went for Taft and sent the Republican Thomas E. Sparrow to the House over Samuel M. Gattis. StorylineLocal school taxes come to Orange County, 1903–19091903–1909 · 10 events · Between 1903 and 1910 Orange County's school districts voted one by one on whether to tax themselves for better schools, and the votes went both ways. Caldwell District approved a local tax for a rural graded school in 1903, while Elm Grove rejected one that October. After a 1904 election the Mebane district followed, and in 1905 the commissioners levied special school taxes in both. In 1907 Superintendent John C. Hocutt said he meant to campaign for local taxes. In 1908 the Hillsboro district defeated a school tax while Fairfield carried one, and in 1909 the legislature created the Chapel Hill Graded School District with a special tax. By 1910 special school taxes were collected in six districts. StorylineHighways through Orange County, 1911–19241911–1924 · 17 events · Hillsboro fought to be on the Central Highway, and between 1911 and 1924 hard roads were built across Orange County. In 1911 Hillsboro, joined by delegations from Durham and Mebane, pressed its claim, and the trustees chose the route by way of Hillsboro and Mebane. In 1919 the commissioners let the national highway across the county. The 1921 Highway Act, championed by Harriet Morehead Berry of Hillsborough, paid for a state network whose Central Highway ran through the town. The state bridged the Eno at Hillsboro in 1922, and the Durham-Hillsboro highway opened in 1924, after paving had sent traffic through Chapel Hill and onto a private detour whose owner charged drivers. StorylineChapel Hill's town elections under Mayor Roberson, 1915–19271915–1927 · 8 events · From 1915 to 1925 Chapel Hill's town elections returned W. S. Roberson as mayor, usually with a citizens' ticket. He defeated W. H. Boger in 1915 and was elected again in 1917 and 1919. In 1923 he beat Carl Wiegand, a young lawyer, 314 to 76, in what the Weekly called the heaviest vote ever cast in the town. Under a 1925 charter amendment the town elected six aldermen instead of five, and only 76 voters came to re-elect Roberson. He refused to run again in 1927, and in a light vote Zeb P. Council of the University printery was elected mayor. The Weekly said none of the men elected had sought the office. StorylineSunday closing and Sunday beer sales in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1916–19751916–1975 · 13 events · Chapel Hill's aldermen let drug stores keep set Sunday hours in 1916, and in April 1923 they closed the town's stores on Sunday, leaving cafes and drug stores two short windows to sell drinks and tobacco, soon lengthened. In 1924 the Carrboro aldermen turned down the Methodist and Baptist churches' call to stop all Sunday trade and set Sunday hours instead, after more than half the town's voters petitioned against it. In 1928 Chapel Hill's mayor heard charges against druggists who had sold cigarettes during church hours, and in 1933 the aldermen ordered the grocery stores closed on Sundays. Chapel Hill stopped late-night beer sales in 1942, and the county banned Sunday beer sales in 1946. Both towns repealed their Sunday bans on beer and wine in 1971, but Carrboro restored its ban in 1974, and a court dismissed merchants' suit against it. In December 1975 a newly elected Carrboro board repealed it again. StorylineOrange County's welfare superintendents, 1919–19611919–1961 · 7 events · Orange County's welfare department began under the school superintendent and worked for years with little staff. After a 1919 law required every county to have a welfare board, the commissioners and school board made school superintendent R. H. Claytor the first welfare superintendent. George H. Lawrence became the first full-time superintendent in 1928 and for years worked with only a part-time clerk. In 1954 Annie Strowd resigned weeks after the commissioners refused her department's requests for pay raises and a casework supervisor. Her successor, Jane Parker, left in 1956 for a Durham agency and returned in 1957 after the commissioners raised the salary. She retired in 1961, and Mrs. Creighton Bunn was superintendent by March. StorylineChapel Hill's trash and garbage service, 1919–19351919–1935 · 3 events · A town wagon hauling trash from back lots was the start of a Chapel Hill service that by 1935 reached beyond the town limits, partly to stop dumping in the woods. By 1919 the town charged owners and tenants of back lots an extra 25 cents each to pay for the wagon, which the News called a good sanitary move. In 1931 the aldermen forbade burning leaves or trash on streets and sidewalks, which had been cracking the new concrete curbs and gutters, and required owners to clear trash that was a fire danger or nuisance. In 1935 they offered the service, at 75 cents a month, to families outside the limits wherever enough subscribers made it pay. StorylineTown and county budgets and tax rates, 1925–19321925–1932 · 16 events · What a Chapel Hill taxpayer paid in town and county taxes together fell from $2.69 on $100 of valuation in 1926 to $2.22 in 1932. In January 1926 the Orange County rate was $1.34, up from 90 cents in 1922, and the aldermen held the town rate at $1.38 through 1928; new state school and highway aid helped lower the county rate in 1929. From July 1, 1931 the state took over Orange's roads, which county accountant G. W. Ray said wiped out the county's 25-cent road tax, and that July the aldermen cut town employees' pay 10 percent. In 1932 the aldermen adopted a smaller town budget and the commissioners set the county rate at 80 cents. StorylineChapel Hill's town attorneys, 1929–19851929–1985 · 7 events · In 1929 Chapel Hill's town attorney found the zoning ordinance's billboard ban invalid, and in 1937 the mayor broke a tie to elect C. P. Hinshaw, who served until 1951. Emery B. Denny Jr. was town attorney from 1967 until his death in 1982, and in 1983 the Town Council named Grainger Barrett, whom the Daily Tar Heel called the first to hold the post full time. Barrett resigned in 1985, after arguing the town's side in the Oxford Hills zoning suit and advising on Rosemary Square. StorylineOrange County's property revaluations, 1930–19631930–1963 · 13 events · Orange County passed over a general revaluation of property for taxes in 1937 and postponed one in 1945, and when it hired professional appraisers, the county's valuation rose by about 89 percent. Assessors were appointed in 1930 for a 1931 revaluation. In 1937 the commissioners chose a review of the tax lists instead of a general revaluation, and in 1945 the wartime labor shortage postponed another. In 1947 a board of assessors inspected nearly every tract, and the valuation was raised. In 1952 the commissioners hired the J. M. Cleminshaw Company to revalue all property at market value, and some 40 citizens protested its values in 1954. In 1963 Associated Surveys of Greensboro began the next ten-year revaluation. StorylineThe Movie Guild and Sunday movies in Chapel Hill, 1931–19371931–1937 · 4 events · Sunday movies in Chapel Hill ran for years as charity benefits under an informal understanding before the aldermen legalized them in 1937. By January 1931 a Movie Guild with Paul Green as president was showing educational and artistic films to members on Sunday afternoons at the Carolina Theatre for local charities. In 1935 its directors gave one Sunday show's proceeds toward the American Legion post's log hut and added a Sunday night picture after church services, and they reported money spent on relief, school lunches and other needs. The 1937 rules allowed Sunday shows outside the evening church hour and required the Guild to report its receipts and spending each year. StorylineChapel Hill town elections, 1933–19491933–1949 · 10 events · On May 2, 1933 former town manager John Foushee was elected mayor of Chapel Hill over Mayor Zeb P. Council and B. J. Howard, and he was returned in 1935, 1937, 1939 and 1941, twice without opposition. In May 1942 he said he would resign because he was moving to his farm outside the town limits, and on July 8 the aldermen unanimously elected R. W. Madry, director of the University news bureau, as mayor. The Weekly believed no one in the University's service had headed the town government before. No one filed against Madry in 1943. On May 3, 1949 Edwin S. Lanier defeated him 811 to 589, ending his seven years as mayor. StorylineThe New Deal in Orange County, 1933–19361933–1936 · 25 events · Families asking relief in Orange County peaked at 900 in March 1933; from that summer federal programs reached the county, which had to share their cost. George H. Lawrence ran Civil Works projects that by December 1 employed more than 200 men, and 851 Orange farmers were under federal AAA contracts. Cuts in relief money halted work projects in 1934 and 1935, and Orange was merged into a five-county relief district run from Durham. The Works Progress Administration then gave jobs to all but 24 of the families on the old relief list. By December 1936 Lawrence said any able-bodied man who tried could get work, and the need that remained was among widows, orphans, the old and the sick. StorylineChapel Hill women's peace organizing, 1935–19391935–1939 · 3 events · In September 1939, with war in Europe, Chapel Hill women organized to keep the United States out of it. The Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, founded in 1935 by Charlotte Adams, sent Congressman Carl Durham a letter urging him to keep the arms embargo, put basic war materials on a cash-and-carry basis and hold war trade to peacetime levels, answering his statement that most people he had talked with favored repeal. That month other Chapel Hill women formed Mothers for Peace, with no dues, political aims or affiliations, and called on women across the country to write the President and their members of Congress and to fight war propaganda. StorylineChapel Hill and Orange County tax rates, 1938–19451938–1945 · 8 events · Welfare costs and lost revenue pushed the Orange County tax rate up in 1938, and it came down again later. In July 1938 the commissioners raised the county rate from 95 cents to $1 on the $100, as the welfare fund rose to meet Social Security requirements and revenue from intangibles, now taxed by the state, fell; with the town rate held, a Chapel Hill owner paid $2.65. In 1942 the commissioners cut the county rate to 95 cents, a cut the Weekly credited mainly to a rise in total assessments, and a Chapel Hill owner's combined rate fell to $2.50. The county rate was set at 88 cents in 1943 and kept there in 1944 and 1945. StorylineThe Hargraves Center and Chapel Hill’s Negro Community Center1939–2022 · 43 events · Chapel Hill’s Black residents bought land for a Negro Community Center in 1939; the Navy finished the building as quarters for the B-1 Band during the war, and it opened for community use in 1945. It gained the A.D. Clark Pool in 1961, was renamed for William M. Hargraves in 1973 and added the Northside Gymnasium in 1998, and its gym was named for Nate Davis in 2022. StorylineChapel Hill's noise ordinance and student parties, 1939–19911939–1991 · 27 events · Chapel Hill's aldermen passed an ordinance against unnecessary noise in 1939 and an anti-noise ordinance in 1968, and after complaints about fraternity bands a 1972 code required town permits for bands and amplified sound. After students objected to complaint-based enforcement, the town set decibel limits in 1978. A 1980 crackdown on fraternity parties led to talks with students and a 1981 ordinance that allowed louder parties only on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights with permits; a fraternity soon lost its permit privileges for six months. In 1987 the Town Council cut the permitted level to 75 decibels and the weekend cutoff to midnight, denied Pi Kappa Phi a permit for its Burnout benefit and tabled a student-written amendment; it granted the Burnout permit in 1988. In 1989 it revived its noise committee instead of tightening the limit as neighbors asked. In 1990 it defined nighttime nuisance noise and set fines, and in 1991 it lowered the permitted limit to 70 decibels. StorylineCharles M. Jones and the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, 1941–19531941–1953 · 8 events · In 1953 a commission of Orange Presbytery removed Charles M. Jones as pastor of the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, though his congregation had voted to keep him. By Frank Porter Graham's account, Jones sheltered the riders of both races who tested bus segregation in 1947. In November 1952 the presbytery's Judicial Commission called for a clean break, holding that he and the church had not always been true to the denomination's standards. The congregation voted 156 to 14 not to dismiss him. In February 1953 the commission dissolved the pastoral relationship, though its chairman said there were no charges or censures against Jones. After the General Assembly's commission upheld it, Jones asked to be divested of office without censure. StorylineThe county superintendency passes from Claytor to Proffit, 1946–19471946–1949 · 6 events · In August 1946 Glenn T. Proffit became assistant to R. H. Claytor, Orange County's school superintendent since 1917. On May 5, 1947 the Board of Education elected Proffit superintendent and kept Claytor as his assistant; after teachers petitioned for Claytor's reinstatement, the board met until midnight on May 12 and stood by its choice. Proffit took over that July and served until 1951, and Claytor, superintendent emeritus, died in February 1949. StorylineChapel Hill’s zoning reaches the countryside, 1948–19551948–1955 · 16 events · Chapel Hill set up a planning and zoning board in 1948, put its first zoning ordinance into effect in June 1949, and that May asked for zoning a mile beyond its limits. In 1951 the town sought power to zone three miles out, chiefly to keep commercial strips off the new Durham-Chapel Hill boulevard, and the legislature enlarged its zoning commission with county members. A 1952 plan to zone four miles around town brought heated opposition from rural landowners through four public hearings; the county put farmers on the commission, and in 1953 a new act cut the area and gave rural residents equal seats. After a final hearing the aldermen adopted the perimeter ordinance in March 1955, and that August the county named its members to the Greater Chapel Hill zoning boards. StorylinePaving the rural roads, 1949June–December 1949 · 17 events · On June 4, 1949 Orange County voters approved Governor Kerr Scott's $200 million secondary road bonds, 2,450 to 1,743, though the Hillsboro precinct voted them down. In September a mass meeting called by the Pomona Grange set up a countywide steering committee and township committees to choose the roads to be paved. The Highway Commission let the first two Orange paving contracts in October, and in December highway commissioner James A. Barnwell chose 42.9 miles for the first phase and the county commissioners endorsed ten projects totaling 39.7 miles. StorylineThe Chapel Hill Fire Department, 1951–19641951–1964 · 11 events · In 1951 the Chapel Hill aldermen stopped the town fire department from answering calls outside the town limits unless a fire endangered property in town, and in 1956 the town agreed to protect the suburban Greater Chapel Hill Fire District in return for its 10-cent fire tax. A reorganization had made J. S. Boone full-time chief by 1955. A 100-foot aerial ladder truck arrived in 1959, and a second station opened in Glen Lennox. In 1962 James Stewart was promoted to chief, and Boone, a town fireman for 34 years, became assistant chief at his own request. In 1963 the department moved into a new $80,000 central fire station, and Boone retired in January 1964. StorylineBen Johnston's Hillsboro mayoralty and its end, 1955–19611955–1961 · 6 events · Ben G. Johnston, Hillsboro's mayor since 1933, saw the town's new Eno River dam named for him before voters turned him out in 1961. In 1955 he won a twelfth term, and in 1956 the town commissioners named the dam for the mayor who had pushed for a town water system and led the bond drive for it. He won a fourteenth term in 1959 over Fred S. Cates Jr., who had campaigned for a city manager form of government. In 1961 Fred T. Claytor, a commissioner, teacher and coach, defeated him 279 to 159. The new board raised the property tax rate from 75 cents to $1 per $100, and Claytor cited a General Fund under $1,000. StorylineChapel Hill and Carrboro town and school board elections, 1965–19771965–1977 · 25 events · Sandy McClamroch won a third term as mayor of Chapel Hill in 1965 and was re-elected in 1967, both times by wide margins. The 1965 election also chose three members of the school board. Before the 1967 vote some registrars turned away students living in University dormitories, and that May voters returned two aldermen, brought back a former one and elected David Ethridge, while Gene Strowd lost the seat he had held for 12 years. Howard Lee won second and third terms as mayor in 1971 and 1973, Carrboro elected Robert Wells mayor, and in 1973 voters put the first UNC student on the Chapel Hill board and returned Edwin Caldwell, the school board's only Black member. In 1975 James C. Wallace defeated Gerry Cohen for mayor in the first election under Chapel Hill's new charter, and Ruth West and the Carrboro Community Coalition won in Carrboro. In 1977 Robert Drakeford became what the Daily Tar Heel called Carrboro's first Black mayor. StorylineSaving the Eno1966 to present · 16 events · The Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley, formed in 1966 to stop Durham's reservoir plans, won Eno River State Park and has kept adding land to it. StorylineWall speeches at the campus line, 19661966–2011 · 20 events · In 1966 the trustees barred Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker from the campus under the Speaker Ban law, so each spoke to students across the stone wall at McCorkle Place from the Franklin Street sidewalk. Students and the two speakers sued in Dickson v. Sitterson, a federal court struck the law down in 1968, and a marker went up at the wall in 2011. StorylineHoward Fuller, Howard Lee and the social work deanship, 1967–19701967–1970 · 7 events · In 1967 the School of Social Work hired Durham organizer Howard Fuller as a part-time lecturer over the governor's objection, and he resigned in 1968. In 1969 the UNC trustees first refused to consider Mayor Howard Lee for a post in the School of Social Work, then approved him for a lectureship at a lower salary. When Lee criticized Governor Bob Scott the same day, University officials held up the appointment, and Lee withdrew in September, citing pressures inside and outside the University and the cut in pay. In 1970 students protested that Dean C. Wilson Anderson would not be recommended for a second term because of the Fuller and Lee appointments, and Anderson resigned that December. StorylineCarrboro's town government, 1971–19921971–1992 · 51 events · Robert Wells was elected mayor of Carrboro in 1971 with four new aldermen. In 1972 the board fired its town manager, named a 25-year-old UNC senior in his place and called bonds to extend water and sewer service. A sewer moratorium and stricter zoning slowed building from 1973, a police chief who fired nine patrolmen was asked to resign that summer, and in 1976 Carrboro hired its first Black town manager. In 1975 residents formed the Carrboro Community Coalition, which elected its candidates for mayor and two aldermen that November, and the new board fired the town manager hired that January. Construction began on the Tar Heel Manor apartments in 1978. Town Manager Richard Knight left in 1980. In 1981 the new Association for a Better Carrboro unseated three Coalition aldermen, and in 1983 its members won the whole board; Town Manager Richard Hunter, cleared of residents' charges in 1982 by Mayor Robert Drakeford's tie-breaking vote, resigned as the new board took office. Hilliard Caldwell won a second term in 1985, Eleanor Kinnaird unseated Mayor Jim Porto in 1987 in a race that turned on the Amberly subdivision and won re-election in 1989, and a citizens' task force set the town's capital priorities in 1989. From 1990 to 1992 the aldermen lost a post office deal over Westwood Cemetery land and later won federal money for a new post office, faced revenue shortfalls, and turned down both a plan to annex five holes in the town and a panhandling ban. Voters returned Kinnaird and three incumbent aldermen in 1991, and Ben Callahan succeeded Sid Herje as police chief in 1992. StorylineCable television in Orange County, 1972–19941972–1994 · 46 events · Chapel Hill adopted a cable television ordinance in 1972, and Alert Cable TV began serving Hillsborough in 1974. Carrboro's aldermen first approved an Alert franchise in 1975, but after delays over utility poles and sites refused for its equipment, service there began only in August 1979. That November Chapel Hill gave its franchise to Village Cable, and the county moved toward a cable ordinance and advisory committee of its own. Village Cable began serving Chapel Hill in 1980 and won the franchise for most of rural Orange County, and in the years after the town disputed its rates, its adult channels and its stock gift to its foundation. In 1984 Carrboro gave Alert Cable a 15-year franchise with a ban on obscene programs. In 1985 Chapel Hill let Village Cable raise its rates 10 percent a year, and in 1986 the Village Companies sold it to Carolina Cable. In 1992 Chapel Hill named a cable advisory committee and opened its review of Carolina Cable's franchise, which ran to 1994, with a hearing on residents' complaints. Cablevision took over Chapel Hill's service in 1992; in 1993 and 1994 both towns sought federal authority over its rates while Chapel Hill bargained over a franchise renewal amid residents' complaints. StorylineFlora Garrett, Richard Whitted and the county board, 1972–19841972–1984 · 12 events · In 1972 Orange County voters elected Flo Garrett, the first woman elected to the Board of Commissioners, and Richard E. Whitted, its first Black member. After the 1974 election the board chose Garrett as chairman and Whitted as vice chairman and replaced the county attorney, and in 1976 Whitted became the board's first Black chair. That year voters returned Whitted and elected Donald Willhoit, who had won a Democratic runoff. Whitted and Willhoit were re-elected in 1980, and Whitted left the board in 1984 after 12 years. StorylineChapel Hill's town managers, 1972–20061972–2006 · 16 events · In January 1973 the Chapel Hill aldermen voted 4 to 1 to dismiss Robert Peck, town manager since 1961, after he refused to resign; Mayor Howard Lee cited two years of disagreement over how he ran the town. The town's purchasing agent resigned in his defense, and Chester Kendzior became town manager that June. In 1974 the aldermen reorganized the town administration under two assistant managers, and in May 1975 Kendzior resigned after Mayor Lee, for five of the six aldermen, asked him to go. Kurt Jenne, Eugene Shipman and David R. Taylor followed Kendzior as town manager from 1975 to 1982; Taylor left at the end of 1989 to head the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, and Cal Horton held the post from 1990 to 2006, the longest tenure of any Chapel Hill town manager. StorylineWatergate and impeachment at UNC, 19731973 · 6 events · In the fall of 1973, after the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor, more than 700 people rallied in the Pit for President Nixon's impeachment, student body presidents launched a statewide drive, and most voters in a campus referendum said Nixon should resign or be removed. Senators Sam Ervin and George McGovern spoke at UNC that fall. StorylineStudents on the town boards and the student liaisons, 1976–19891976–1989 · 7 events · In 1976 Carrboro's aldermen asked Student Government for students to fill a Planning Board seat. In 1985, pressed by student leaders after Lightning Brown resigned, the Chapel Hill Town Council appointed graduate student Meg Parker to its Planning Board. State law barred a student seat on the council, so Chapel Hill created a Student Government liaison in 1988, and Carrboro followed in 1989. StorylineCarrboro's annexations and census fights, 1979–19901979–1990 · 10 events · Carrboro annexed Barrington Hills and the Tar Heel Manor apartments in December 1979 and won a property owner's suit against the annexation in 1980. Saying the 1980 census, taken as students left town, had missed residents, the town sued the Census Bureau and hired a firm to recount. A special census in September 1981, authorized by the General Assembly, counted 8,264 people, while Chapel Hill declined to seek a recount of its own. In 1990 Carrboro challenged the preliminary census again, saying nearly 1,000 residents had been missed. StorylineDraft registration, the nuclear freeze and Grenada: peace protest in Chapel Hill, 1980–19881980–1988 · 19 events · Chapel Hill residents and UNC students held vigils against the return of draft registration in 1980. In 1981 and 1982 they signed nuclear freeze petitions, the Town Council accepted 7,000 signatures and marchers walked from Carrboro to campus. The 1983 invasion of Grenada brought rival rallies in the Pit, a law faculty letter to President Reagan and a teach-in, and a protest marked its anniversary in 1984. In 1985 the county commissioners called a state plan to move Durham residents to Chapel Hill in a nuclear attack unrealistic, and students marched against the Strategic Defense Initiative, which they protested again in 1986 and 1988. StorylineChapel Hill protests over U.S. policy in Central America, 1981–19891981–1989 · 20 events · From 1981 Chapel Hill groups protested U.S. military aid to El Salvador with leafleting, vigils at the Franklin Street post office and a march across campus, and marked the anniversaries of Archbishop Oscar Romero's killing. In 1983 a sanctuary group sought a church for refugees and a statewide coalition met in Murphey Hall; a 1984 teach-in debated the Kissinger report, and a vigil opposed intervention in Nicaragua. From 1985 the protests turned to aid for the Contras, with a march on Rep. Bill Cobey's office, an unofficial referendum outside the polls, a silent protest at a Contra leader's speech and roadside crosses; in 1988 about 200 people marched against troops sent to Honduras. StorylineOrange County's half-cent sales tax, school bonds and impact tax, 1983–19891983–1989 · 12 events · In 1983 the Orange County commissioners named a task force on school building needs and the new half-cent local sales tax. After a public hearing in March 1984 they adopted the tax 3 to 2 that April, setting aside at least 80 percent of the money for school buildings, and in November they backed a school bond chiefly to replace Stanback Middle School. In 1988 voters approved a $30 million bond package, $22 million of it for school buildings, and in 1989 the county sold the first $11.8 million. That April the commissioners withdrew a proposed impact tax on new building for more study after Hillsborough asked to be left out. StorylineThe Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation today1984–2024 · 28 events · The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association formed in 1984, took the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation name in 1994 and won state recognition in 2002 after a decade of petitions and a court ruling. The band bought land for its tribal grounds near Pleasant Grove in 2004, rebuilt the replica village at Hillsborough, and dedicated a state highway marker in 2024. StorylineThe Chapel Hill-Carrboro merger study, 1985–19861985–1986 · 4 events · In 1985 Mayors Joe Nassif and Jim Porto asked for an outside study of merging Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and The Chapel Hill Newspaper raised the money from private donors. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce backed the study that fall. In January 1986 the Carrboro aldermen endorsed it 5 to 2, adding that they committed no public money and did not endorse merger. StorylineOpposing the Shearon Harris nuclear plant, 19861986 · 8 events · In 1986 opposition to the Shearon Harris nuclear plant reached Orange County's elections and town boards. Two challengers who had spoken against the plant unseated county commissioners in the June runoff, and Chapel Hill and Orange County passed resolutions asking that it be converted to another fuel. Restaurants and writers held benefits, students formed a campus chapter of the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris, and opponents held a vigil when the plant was granted a low-power license in October. StorylineRecycling in Orange County and at UNC, 1986–19941986–1994 · 34 events · Recycling at UNC began with a student pilot in 1986, and curbside pickup began in Chapel Hill and Carrboro in 1988. From 1989 UNC had a recycling office and the county program grew to apartments, drop-off sites, plastics and magazines, though mixed-paper collections stopped twice for lack of a market. The program and UNC's office both won state awards, and Chapel Hill tried weekly pickup from roll-out carts. In 1993 curbside pickup added cans and plastic jugs and UNC began paying departments to buy recycled paper, and by 1994 the county took cardboard at every drop-off site, though a glutted market stopped unmixed paper at University Mall. StorylineCarrboro’s community recreation center, 1988–19911988–1991 · 6 events · Carrboro's aldermen ordered a study of a community recreation center in 1988, when the recreation director said school buildings could no longer meet demand. Residents divided over the tax increase a 1990 plan needed, and the board asked for a smaller one. In November 1991 voters rejected a $2.15 million bond for the center, 921 to 629. StorylineSister cities of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1988–19921988–1992 · 8 events · Carrboro unofficially adopted Elmenshia, Egypt, as a sister city in 1987. In 1989 Chapel Hill made San Jorge, Nicaragua, its sister city and Carrboro joined the Sister City program, and in 1990 a Chapel Hill delegation watched San Jorge's polls. Soviet visas were refused in 1991, but in May 1992 a delegation signed a protocol of intent in Saratov, Russia, and a Saratov delegation visited that fall. StorylineLatino migration to Carrboro and Chapel Hill1990 to present · 32 events · Latin American families began arriving in Carrboro and Chapel Hill in the 1990s: the neighborhoods and workplaces that received them, and the institutions they built.

Indexed works

Works about Politics & Government 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 642Letters & correspondence 204Photographs & portraits 97Biography 76Periodicals 60other types 228

Period

Colonial era (to 1775) 7117th century 7418th century 475Revolution (1775–1783) 27819th century 282Civil War (1861–1865) 4020th century 175World War II era 19

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 1,058Orange County 868Hillsborough 699Chapel Hill 350Chatham County (neighboring) 48Granville County (neighboring) 45

Widely held

William Friday

Link, William A. · 1995

Biography of William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina system, by historian William A. Link, published by UNC Press in 1995 with the subtitle power, purpose, and American higher education. It covers Friday's career and the history of the university at Chapel Hill and statewide. Part of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.

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

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO FRIDAY LIN NC Cardinal UNC Duke Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Methodist Wingate UNCSA CH Historical Society

The Story of the Institute of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Coates, Albert McKinley · 1981

Albert Coates's own account of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina, which he founded, subtitled 'out of a classroom in Chapel Hill' and published in 1981. The 303 pages trace the institute's history and its role in educating North Carolina's public officials.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Library of Congress UNCSA CH Historical Society

Communists on Campus

Billingsley, William J. · 1999 · University of Georgia Press

William J. Billingsley's history of the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 North Carolina statute that barred known Communists from speaking on state campuses, and the fight over it at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The subtitle sets the scope: race, politics and the public university in sixties North Carolina. It treats academic freedom, anti-communist movements and free speech in the state. University of Georgia Press, 1999, 308 pages with eight pages of plates.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NCCU record: Universities and colleges -- Law and legislation.

Reviewed in Academe (2000), The American Historical Review (2001), The Journal of Southern History (2001), Journal of American History (2001), The Journal of Politics (2001).

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU UNC Library of Congress

Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina

Pleasants, Julian M.; Burns, Augustus M., III · 1990 · UNC Press

Julian M. Pleasants and Augustus M. Burns III on the 1950 Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina, in which Frank Porter Graham, the former president of the University of North Carolina, lost to Willis Smith after a campaign marked by race-baiting. Primaries, elections and race relations in the state are its subjects. Published by UNC Press in 1990, 356 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NCCU record: Elections.

Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (1991), The American Historical Review (1991), Journal of American History (1991), The Journal of Southern History (1992).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 324.975 PLE Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU CH Historical Society

The Age of Orange: Political and Intellectual Leadership in North Carolina, 1752-1861

Blackwelder, Ruth · 1961

Ruth Blackwelder's study of political and intellectual leadership in Orange County and North Carolina from 1752 to 1861, published in Charlotte by W. Loftin in 1961. Topics include state politics and government, intellectual life before the Civil War, and county genealogy. It runs 216 pages with illustrations and a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: North Carolina -- Politics and government -- 1775-1865.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 BLACKWEL UNC Durham Library of Congress Davidson DPLA CH Historical Society NC Cardinal

Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary

Nash, Frank · 1953

Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.

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

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 NAS NC Cardinal UNC Durham Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson DPLA
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The Good Government Man

Covington, Jr., Howard E. · 2010

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Public administration.

Read free online · UNC Libraries NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Crossref Library of Congress

Frank Porter Graham: A Southern Liberal

Ashby, Warren H. · 1981 · Blair

Warren Ashby's biography of Frank Porter Graham (1886-1972), president of the University of North Carolina from 1930 to 1949 and later a United States senator. Published by Blair in 1981, x and 386 pages with sixteen leaves of plates and a bibliography.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NCCU record: Legislators.

Reviewed in The American Historical Review (1981), Journal of American History (1981).

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham NCCU UNC CH Historical Society

Recently indexed: Address by Edwin A. Alderman ... on the life of William Hooper, "the prophet of American independence" : Guilford Battle Ground, July 4, 1894 (1894) · An analysis of the preparation for a recreation tax election (1966) · Communism and the New Left (1969) · The congressional career of Nathaniel Macon (1900) · Consumer rights handbook : a student's guide to the law (1981) · Developing political schemas and media use of first-time voters in U.S. Senate races (1989)

Search all 1,447 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.

  • Foundational · NC BIO MANGUM SHA The Papers of Willie Person Mangum Mangum, Willie Person · 1950

    The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.

  • Foundational · 320.975 EAMON The Making of A Southern Democracy: North Carolina Politics From Kerr Scott to Pat McCrory Eamon, Tom · 2014

    North Carolina politics from the late 1940s, when Kerr Scott won the governorship, to the election of Pat McCrory in 2012. Tom Eamon contends that the state's remaking as a modern democracy was a revolution won through politics, pushed forward by movements and individuals who wanted change. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2014; 402 pages with illustrations, maps, portraits, notes and an index.

  • Foundational · NC 324.975 LUE Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities Luebke, Paul · 1990

    Paul Luebke, a political sociologist at UNC Greensboro who won a Durham seat in the state House in 1990, tests popular beliefs about North Carolina politics since the 1950s against elections and party competition, reading the state's public life as a contest between traditionalists and modernizers. He followed it with 'Tar Heel Politics 2000' in 1998. Published by UNC Press; 238 pages with notes and an index.

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  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 324.975 PLE Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina Pleasants, Julian M. · 1990

    Julian M. Pleasants and Augustus M. Burns III on the 1950 Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina, in which Frank Porter Graham, the former president of the University of North Carolina, lost to Willis Smith after a campaign marked by race-baiting. Primaries, elections and race relations in the state are its subjects. Published by UNC Press in 1990, 356 pages with illustrations.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 330.975 EKI Poor Carolina: Politics and Society in Colonial North Carolina, 1729-1776 Ekirch, A. Roger · 1981

    A. Roger Ekirch's study of politics and society in colonial North Carolina between 1729, when the Crown bought the colony from the Lords Proprietors, and 1776. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1981, 305 pages with maps, it treats economic conditions, social structure and government in the decades when Orange County was created and Hillsborough became its seat.

  • Start here · 975.6 POW North Carolina Through Four Centuries Powell, William Stevens · 1989

    William S. Powell, for years librarian and curator of the North Carolina Collection at Chapel Hill and later a professor of history there, wrote this one-volume history of the state across four centuries, covering its politics and government. It won the Mayflower Cup for nonfiction in 1989. Published by UNC Press; 652 pages, illustrated, with a 23-page bibliography and an index.

  • Foundational · NC 975.604 CHRISTEN The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina Christensen, Rob · 2010

    Journalist Rob Christensen follows a century of North Carolina politics, from the Simmons machine and the Shelby dynasty through the Jessecrats and Jim Hunt's Democratic revival, asking how one state could send Jesse Helms and John Edwards to the Senate. He credits party competition with the state's rise from poverty. This 2010 second edition adds the Edwards and Easley scandals, Elizabeth Dole's defeat, Beverly Perdue's election and Barack Obama's 2008 win in the state.

  • Wider context · NC 320.975 RAP North Carolina, A Study in English Colonial Government Raper, Charles Lee · 1973

    Colonial government in North Carolina, studied by Charles Lee Raper through the governor, council and assembly and the reach of their powers from proprietary rule through the royal period. First published by Macmillan in New York in 1904, it appears here in the Reprint Company's 1973 edition from Spartanburg, South Carolina; xiii and 260 pages, with a bibliography.

  • Foundational · NC 328.3 BARNES Work in Progress: The North Carolina Legislature Barnes, Henson P. · 1993

    Henson P. Barnes, a Goldsboro lawyer, wrote this history of the North Carolina General Assembly soon after leaving the state Senate, where he served from 1977 to 1992 and was president pro tempore in his last two terms. The legislature published it in Raleigh in 1993; xxv and 439 illustrated pages with a bibliography and index.

In the chronology

A selection of 12 events from the 3,458 chronology entries for this theme, including highlights and examples from different years. See all 3,458 dated events in the chronology →

  1. General Assembly holds its August 1778 session at Hillsborough The second session of the 1778 General Assembly met at Hillsborough, elected Whitmell Hill and Thomas Burke as additional delegates to the Continental Congress, and authorized 850,000 pounds in bills of credit to pay the state's war debts. The House adjourned to meet next at Halifax in January 1779. People: Thomas Benbury, Allen Jones, Thomas Burke Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Whitmell HillColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina House of Commons, Aug 08 to Aug 19, 1778 (vol. 12, pp. 816–880)
  2. Cornwallis occupies Hillsborough After driving Nathanael Greene's army across the Dan River, Lord Cornwallis reached Hillsborough on February 20, 1781, and issued a proclamation calling loyalists to join him. The ceremony of raising the King's Standard, ordered for one o'clock on February 21 with a salute of 21 guns, was put off that noon until the next day. Short of food and forage, and told that Greene had recrossed the Dan, he left on February 26, crossing the Haw toward Alamance Creek. People: Charles Cornwallis, Nathanael Greene Place: HillsboroughJournal of the American Revolution: Ian Saberton, Cornwallis and the Winter Campaign, January to April 1781 (April 28, 2020) · Also: Internet Archive: "A British Orderly Book, 1780-1781", IV, North Carolina Historical Review 9
  3. David Fanning raids Hillsborough and captures Governor Burke Fanning’s Loyalists captured Governor Thomas Burke during a surprise raid on Hillsborough. People: David Fanning, Thomas Burke Place: HillsboroughNCpedia — David Fanning
  4. Hillsborough Convention declines to ratify the Constitution Meeting at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough, delegates defeated a motion to ratify the Constitution 184 to 84 on August 1, 1788. On August 2 they voted to neither ratify nor reject it until a declaration of rights and amendments went before Congress. People: Samuel Johnston, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Willie Jones, James Iredell Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: St. Matthew's ChurchColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 22, pp. 1-35: Minutes of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention at Hillsborough
  5. The county tax list counts 36 white polls and 82 taxable enslaved people in Hillsborough town Orange County's 1790 tax list returned 2,272 polls and 406,106 acres across its eight districts, with a separate list for Hillsborough town showing 36 white polls against 82 black polls. William Hooper was charged for 22 of them, John Taylor for 10 and Francis Childs for 5. People: William Hooper, Walter Alves Place: Orange County · Also named: John Taylor, Francis ChildsDocumenting the American South: List of taxpayers in Orange County in 1790
  6. Thomas Ruffin issues the State v. Mann decision Thomas Ruffin of Hillsborough, newly seated on the North Carolina Supreme Court, wrote the opinion in State v. Mann, overturning the conviction of John Mann of Edenton for shooting Lydia, an enslaved woman he had hired, as she fled a whipping. Ruffin held that a master's power must be absolute, and abolitionists later cited the ruling widely. People: Thomas Ruffin, Lydia Place: Countywide · Also named: John MannAfrican American Intellectual History Society, Black Perspectives: Sally Greene, State v. Mann: Lydia's Journey (February 23, 2022)
  7. Hillsborough builds the Confederate Memorial Library Federal relief crews began a new library on Churton Street in Hillsborough in December 1933, with local money, including $7,000 from the Hillsborough United Daughters of the Confederacy, paying for materials. The cornerstone of the Confederate Memorial Public Library was laid on July 13, 1934, and the building became the Orange County Historical Museum in 1983. Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Churton StreetThe Chapel Hill Weekly, July 20, 1934, p. 3 (Laying of Cornerstone)
  8. Journey of Reconciliation comes to Chapel Hill Interracial riders testing segregation on interstate buses reached Chapel Hill on April 12, 1947. The next day police arrested four of them at the bus station and a white cab driver struck rider James Peck. Convicted in Orange County, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko and Joe Felmet surrendered at the Hillsborough courthouse on March 21, 1949 to serve chain-gang sentences. People: Bayard Rustin, George Houser, Igal Roodenko, Joseph A. Felmet Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Hillsborough courthouseTown of Chapel Hill: Information packet for Freedom Riders resolution (Council agenda, January 28, 2008) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 27, 1976, p. 1
  9. The Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley forms Residents who had begun organizing in 1965 against plans to dam the Eno for a water-supply reservoir formed the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley on October 14, 1966. Led by Margaret and Holger Nygard, it began the campaign that preserved the river corridor in Durham and Orange counties. People: Margaret Nygard, Holger Nygard Place: Eno RiverEno River Association: ERA Through the Eras, Beginnings of the Eno River Association
  10. Central High students march and Orange County schools integrate In 1968 Black students at Central High School in Hillsborough walked out and marched to protest a plan for phased desegregation. After Central's last class graduated that spring, its high school students moved to Orange High, ending the county's dual school system in 1968–69. Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Central High School, Orange HighAlliance for Historic Hillsborough: Central High School/Agnes Kindergarten
  11. Braxton Foushee becomes Carrboro’s first Black alderman Braxton Foushee was elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen in 1969, the first Black member of the town's governing board, and served until 1981. He pressed for paved roads and sidewalks in Black neighborhoods and counted bringing bus service to Carrboro as his proudest achievement. People: Braxton Foushee Place: CarrboroTown of Carrboro: Braxton Foushee to Receive the Order of the Long Leaf Pine (November 14, 2025)
  12. Howard Lee is elected mayor of Chapel Hill Howard N. Lee defeated Roland Giduz by about 400 votes on May 6, 1969, in the largest turnout for a Chapel Hill election to that date, becoming the town's first Black mayor. He was the first African American elected mayor of a predominantly white Southern town since Reconstruction. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland Giduz Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Lillian LeeThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1969, p. 1: Howard Lee Elected Chapel Hill Mayor

See all 3,458 dated events in the chronology →

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 122 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.

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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

National Register files

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time 7

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Collections and databases 10

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Local help

Related themes

UNC & Campus Life →Colonial Orange County →Schools & Education →Law, Courts & Justice →Wars & Military Service →Families, Land & Genealogy →

Picture: Library of Congress photograph, late 1930s; public domain. Image credits →

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