Storyline
How ministers and their allies set out to stop Sunday stock car races at Orange Speedway and a new jalopy track, the county commissioners’ changing stand, the 1957 act of the legislature and the courts that first upheld it and then struck it down.
In briefWhen new race tracks in Orange County held races on Sundays, ministers led a fight to stop them that ended in the state Supreme Court. In April 1956 the Rev. W. I. Conway asked the county commissioners to stop the races at a jalopy track near his church, and about 100 people formed the Orange County Anti-Racing Association, but the county attorney said a ban needed special legislation. In 1957 the legislature passed Senator Edwin S. Lanier's bill barring races on Sundays and after 6 p.m. After Orange Speedway, Inc. sued, the state Supreme Court struck the act down on January 10, 1958, and Sunday racing returned with a 100-mile Grand National race won by Buck Baker.
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No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough.
In April 1956 the Rev. W. I. Conway of the Gospel Baptist Tabernacle asked the county commissioners to stop Sunday races at a new jalopy track near his church, and the Rev. C. H. Reckard of Hillsboro Presbyterian preached against the race tracks the county had let be built. In May about 100 people formed the Orange County Anti-Racing Association, but the county attorney told the commissioners they could not ban the races without special legislation. In April 1957, after a plea from the North Orange Ministerial Association, the commissioners endorsed Senator Edwin S. Lanier's bill against Sunday racing, then at a special meeting voted 3 to 1 to ask instead for no more than four races a year at each track. The legislature passed the ban in May, barring races on Sundays and after 6 p.m. Orange Speedway, Inc. sued; Judge Clawson Williams upheld the act in October 1957, but on January 10, 1958 the state Supreme Court struck it down, and Sunday racing returned to Orange Speedway on March 23 with a 100-mile Grand National race won by Buck Baker.
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 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.
Background reading on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Edward P. Sanseverino's 1995 account of the Occoneechee-Orange Speedway, the stock car track outside Hillsborough that ran in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Topics include automobile racing and racetracks in North Carolina and Hillsborough in the twentieth century.
Photographs made by Jock Lauterer in and around Chapel Hill from about 1964 to 1968, some 3,522 items in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. Subjects include the Speaker Ban Law, Ku Klux Klan activity in North Carolina, Tar Heel basketball and football, the Jubilee festival, the Old Well, and visitors including Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Bob Hope and Jayne Mansfield.
Clippings and promotional materials on the Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough, the dirt racetrack later renamed Orange Speedway. An undated folder from box 31 of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection, Carrboro and Orange County series.
Sources and research tools for this storyline. Research guide: Follow an event across several accounts.
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