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Named event or history

Rogers Road environmental justice

A historic Black community, the county landfill beside it, and the long campaign for sewer service and the Greene Tract.

In briefIn 1972 officials placed the county landfill on Eubanks Road beside the historically Black Rogers Road community, promising it would run about ten years. It was expanded instead and did not close until 2013, and residents' organizing through the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association helped win a sewer line for the neighborhood, completed in 2019.

12 indexed works are connected with this event. 1 held at OCPL →

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The Rogers Road Community Center
The Rogers Road Community Center

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Rogers Road

Pearce, Emily Eidenier · 2009

Emily Eidenier Pearce's history of Rogers Road, the historically African American neighborhood on the edge of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and of what happened to it after Orange County opened its landfill next door in 1972. Drawing on interviews with residents, the book records the neighborhood's origins, family life, churches and customs, and then the environmental and social burdens of decades beside the landfill. Privately issued in 2009, 298 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Rogers Road (Orange County, N.C.).

✓ Held at OCPL · 975.656 EID NC Cardinal UNC Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

Report on socioeconomic and demographic data for the Orange regional landfill and the four alternative landfill sites that are being considered for a new landfill

Town of Chapel Hill Planning Dept · 1996

A June 19, 1996, report by the Town of Chapel Hill Planning Department presenting 1990 census data on the areas around the Orange regional landfill and four alternative sites under consideration for a new landfill, prepared under North Carolina General Statutes 160A-325 and 153A-136(c), which call for such review before a landfill is sited.

Why this is here: Its title names this subject.

UNC

Regeneration of a wasteland : design alternatives for the reuse of the Orange County, NC landfill

Buck, Kathleen King · 2001

Kathleen King Buck's master of landscape architecture project at North Carolina State University, proposing design alternatives for reusing the Orange County landfill site. Completed in 2001 in 63 leaves with illustrations, plans and maps, several of them in color. Topics include earthwork fills in the county along with the design, construction and environmental aspects of waste disposal sites.

Why this is here: Its title names this subject.

NC State

Out of sight, out of mind : a contingent valuation analysis of the siting of sanitary landfills

Woo, Lillian G. · 1996

Lillian G. Woo applied contingent valuation, the method economists use to price goods that are not traded, to the siting of sanitary landfills, with Orange County among the North Carolina cases. Environmental policy, public goods valuation and landfill location are the subjects. A 26 page landfill survey sits in a pocket at the end, and the bibliography runs from leaf 249 to 259. Dated 1996.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sanitary landfills -- North Carolina -- Orange County.

UNC

Report of preliminary engineering evaluations : Orange regional landfill site search

1995 · Joyce Engineering, Inc.

Joyce Engineering of Greensboro prepared this February 1995 report on preliminary engineering evaluations for the Orange regional landfill site search, examining candidate sites for a new landfill. One volume of various pagings with illustrations and maps, issued in a loose leaf binder. Topics include sanitary landfills, sanitary engineering and engineering geology in Orange County.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sanitary landfills -- North Carolina -- Orange County.

UNC

Economic cost analysis in MSW landfill siting : the Orange County case study

Henrikson, Brett · 1994

Brett Henrikson's 1994 honors paper at Duke University works through the economics of siting a municipal solid waste landfill, using Orange County as its case study. Topics include the location and the costs of sanitary landfills, both in the county and in the United States generally. A typescript of 41 numbered leaves followed by 74 more that are unnumbered.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Sanitary landfills -- North Carolina -- Orange County -- Costs -- Case studies.

Duke
Show 6 more

Supplemental information packet : Orange County landfill site search

1994 · Joyce Engineering, Inc.

A supplemental packet of information for the Orange County landfill site search, dated 26 September 1994 and prepared by Joyce Engineering of Greensboro. One volume of various pagings with illustrations and maps, four further pages of maps inserted. It belongs to the run of consultant reports produced while the county looked for a regional landfill site.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sanitary landfills -- North Carolina -- Orange County.

UNC

Mass political participation in the local context : a case study

Peek, Leigh A. · 1992

Leigh A. Peek's case study of the Coalition to Remove Site OC-5, the group that organized against a proposed municipal solid waste landfill in Orange County. The paper uses the fight as an example of mass political participation at the local level, concerning land use, political participation and sanitary landfills in the county. Dated 1992, bibliography on leaves 29 to 30.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sanitary landfills -- North Carolina -- Orange County.

UNC

Report of additional services to the landfill site search : Orange regional landfill

1991 · Joyce Engineering, Inc.

Dated 11 November 1991, a report of additional services carried out by Joyce Engineering of Greensboro in the search for a site for the Orange regional landfill. One volume of various pagings with illustrations and maps, issued in a spiral binding. Topics include the location of sanitary landfills and engineering geology in Orange County.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sanitary landfills -- North Carolina -- Orange County.

UNC

Survey of solid waste management activities, Region J, North Carolina

Triangle J Council of Governments; North Carolina. Department of Natural Resources and Community Development · 1980 · Triangle J Council of Governments

Triangle J Council of Governments surveyed solid waste activities across Region J in 1980, taking in Chatham, Durham, Johnston, Lee, Orange and Wake counties. Refuse collection, disposal practice and sanitary landfills are treated county by county. Preparation was financed in part by a state planning assistance grant.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Sanitary landfills -- North Carolina -- Orange County.

UNC

Michael R. Nelson papers, circa 1890-2012

Nelson, Michael R., 1963- · 1890

Roughly 2,000 items in 6.5 linear feet kept as the papers of Michael R. Nelson, born 1963, dated from about 1890 to 2012, collection 70140 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Topics include politics and government in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County, campaign paraphernalia, and gay activists and politicians in North Carolina, naming Joseph A. Herzenberg, 1941 to 2007.

Why this is here: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Orange County Landfill (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Orange County's landfill, followed through newspaper clippings, photocopied articles, promotional materials, reports and maps. Undated folder in box 32 of the Carrboro and Orange County series, Chapel Hill Historical Society Vertical File Collection (CHHS.001).

Why this is here: Its title names this subject.

CH Historical Society

In the chronology

Episodes in this history, earliest first. Each has its own page.

Historic Rogers Road neighborhood1840–2021 · 25 events · The Rogers-Eubanks area grew from Black-owned farms and sawmills after emancipation, and in 1972 the county landfill was placed beside it. Residents organized through RENA and the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition from 2007, the landfill closed in 2013, and the neighborhood won a community center in 2014 and the sewer extension in 2019. Orange County landfill campaign1972 to 2013 · 31 events · The Eubanks Road landfill opened beside the Rogers Road community in 1972; four decades of expansions, lawsuits and the neighborhood's demands ended with its closure in 2013.

Other dated events here: sixteen of 54, the highlights and a sample of the rest spread across the years, in date order. See all 54 dated events in the chronology →

Earliest first. Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

16 dated events

  1. The Hogan-Rogers House was built on the Hogan plantation on Purefoy Road

    Construction or physical change · Purefoy Road, Chapel Hill

    The two-story frame house on Purefoy Road, on land now owned by St. Paul AME Church, dates to the 1840s or 1850s; the 1992 township survey recorded it as the Lloyd-Rogers House at 1612 Purefoy Road, the only house in the township on a raised basement. A fireplace in that basement led the Preservation Society's director to conclude that enslaved people on the Hogan plantation probably lived and worked there. INDY Week reported in 2012 that many Rogers-Eubanks residents descend from people held on the plantation.

  2. Rogers Road landfill opens

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County opened a shared, unlined county landfill on Eubanks Road, built in late 1972 beside the historically Black Rogers-Eubanks community, whose residents were told it would close after about ten years. It was expanded repeatedly and ran for 41 years, closing in June 2013.

    People: Howard N. Lee

  3. Robert Campbell helps start Faith Tabernacle Oasis of Love International Church

    Founding or opening · Rogers Road, Chapel Hill

    Campbell and his wife helped start Faith Tabernacle Oasis of Love International Church, where he was ordained in the 1980s. He has said his bishop's charge to the congregation to go beyond its own comfort turned him toward the landfill and the neighborhood's water.

  4. Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County begin a countywide search for a new landfill site

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    The three governing boards started a countywide search for the next sanitary landfill, carried out with a citizens' Landfill Search Committee and an engineering consultant. The Greene Tract, bought in 1984 for landfill use, was screened but not made a finalist.

  5. Assembly of Governments agrees compensation items for neighbors of the landfill

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro met as an Assembly of Governments in 1997 to take up benefits for people living near the Orange Regional Landfill and agreed a set of compensation items. In 2007 Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton wrote that not all of them had been carried out.

    People: Mark Chilton

  6. Duke University easement to NASA stalls landfill candidate site OC-17

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill's manager reported that Duke University had filed an easement in favor of NASA on candidate site OC-17, leaving the towns unable to test the land. The council voted 8 to 0 to have the town attorney write to the U.S. Attorney and called an Assembly of Governments for October 22, 1997.

  7. Chapel Hill lets Orange County commissioners pick the next construction and demolition landfill site

    Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill

    With the existing construction and demolition landfill expected to fill by summer 2000, the council voted 9 to 0 to let the Board of Commissioners select an in-county replacement site on its behalf, citing time pressure and the expected transfer of solid waste authority to the county.

  8. Carrboro formed the New Horizons task force for the Rogers Road area

    Founding or opening · Carrboro

    Carrboro created the New Horizons task force to serve residents of the Rogers Road area it was annexing. The town's Rogers Road sidewalk and bus stop project, begun in 2018, grew out of the task force's work.

  9. Rogers–Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism organizes

    Protest or organizing · Countywide

    Residents of the Rogers Road and Eubanks Road neighborhood formed the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism in 2007. At the September 20, 2007 Assembly of Governments meeting, member Neloa Jones asked officials to drop the neighborhood as a transfer station site, end solid-waste operations there by November 2009, and provide water and sewer service.

    People: Robert Campbell

  10. Commissioners reopen the search for a transfer station site

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    After Rogers Road residents and the Coalition to End Environmental Racism pressed the county, the Board of Commissioners announced it would reopen its search for a transfer station site. Eubanks Road stayed on the list while consultant Olver Inc. drew up siting criteria.

    People: Robert Campbell

  11. UNC's library exhibited Rogers Road family histories drawn from Emily Eidenier Pearce's book

    Publication, speech or performance · UNC University Library, Chapel Hill

    The exhibit We're All Family Here: Preserving Community Heritage in the Rogers Road Neighborhood of Chapel Hill introduced families who had shaped the area from the 1700s on. It was inspired by Pearce's 2009 history Rogers Road, which RENA presents as part of its History Project.

    Subject: UNC Libraries · Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association

  12. Orange County commissioners raised the landfill tipping fee to pay for Rogers Road remediation

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    Commissioners raised the tipping fee from $52 to $57 a ton to create a remediation fund of about $50,000 to $60,000 a year for water and sewer connections, cleanup of illegal dumping and a community center in Rogers Road. The county also moved $750,000 out of its solid waste reserve for the same purpose. Chapel Hill and Carrboro objected to the timing of the fee.

    People: Robert Campbell · Mark Kleinschmidt

  13. EPA accepted RENA's civil rights complaint over water and sewer service for investigation

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    The EPA Office of Civil Rights took up the question whether the Orange County Planning and Inspections Department had intentionally discriminated on the basis of race by denying water and sewer service to the African American residents of Rogers Road. RENA had filed the complaint with the U.S. Justice Department, which referred it to several federal agencies, and it was joined to an earlier complaint against OWASA accepted on November 23, 2009.

    Subject: Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association

  14. RENA and the Jackson Center produced the Historic and Vibrant Rogers Road report

    Publication, speech or performance · Rogers Road

    The Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association and the Marian Cheek Jackson Center put together survey analysis and community feedback on the neighborhood's future. Two years later the same partners ran the planning process behind Mapping our Community's Future.

    Subject: Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association · Marian Cheek Jackson Center

  15. Carrboro broke ground on the Rogers Road sidewalk and bus stop project

    Construction or physical change · Carrboro

    A $1.37 million project put a five-foot sidewalk from the west side of Rogers Road to Meadow Run Court, together with a new bus pad and shelter. Ground was broken in late June 2018 and construction began that fall. The project traced back to a New Horizons task force created in 2005.

  16. The three governments adopted an interlocal agreement on the future of the Greene Tract

    Law, policy or court · Greene Tract

    The agreement required Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro to act jointly in hiring consultants, entering development agreements and taking public input, put the mayors, chair and managers in a working group to negotiate the ultimate uses, and stated an initial intent covering mixed use and affordable housing, a school site with recreation, a joint preserve and connectivity. A November 2021 resolution then approved the recombination plat and the conceptual plan for the 60-acre county tract and the 107-acre joint tract.

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 1 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Background context 4

Background from selected state and local sources

Search beyond the index 4

Other catalogs, databases, and guides worth searching

Additional research sources

Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.

Related themes

From West End to Carrboro: railroad, mills, and a new town, 1882–1913 →Politics & Government →Growth, Land & Planning →Research Triangle Park and the county’s transformation →

Picture: The Rogers Road Community Center. CC0. Photograph by Mx. Granger; via Wikimedia Commons

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