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Rogers Road

"You’re driven by just wanting to make the community, in a way, like what you had. Where they have a place, a physical place, where there’s beauty around them, you know, environmental beauty, where they’re safe...I want young people to have the same sense of security that we had ."
- Minister…

Rock Wall

"A lot of people, when they would walk from Northside...walking back, they would just sit on the rock wall right there in front of [Willie Mae Patterson's] house. We used to sit there and just reflect on life and rest." - Keith Edwards, Civil Rights Story Circle interview At the front edge of the…

Carlton's Rock Pile

"That was a very bad experience, because about four or five of us walked in, and Buddy Teagert was the leader, and he said 'sit on the floor..." And then the owner came over and said 'There’s dirt on the floor, I’m going to mop it'” and then he started to pour ammonia on people, hold their nose. So…

North Roberson Street

"We did a lot of roller-skating, especially when I got in, probably fourth or fifth grade. We roller-skated all the time. We'd ride our bikes. One of the worst injuries I had was riding that bicycle down Roberson Street. Because at that time there was a big dip in the road and I didn't hit it just…

The Ramshead Rathskeller

"The Danzigers had four restaurants: the Ranch House, the Rathskeller, the Zoom Zoom, and the Villa Teo...The Rathskeller was the first place in North Carolina, I believe — I know in Chapel Hill—that had pizza...Very first place. The Rathskeller employed a lot of Black people." -David Mason, Jr. The…

Rangewood

Rangewood is a neighborhood located off NC 54 West in Chapel Hill, NC.

Pottersfield (or Potter's Field)

"We were Potter's Field and Sunset. Students came mostly from Potter's Field and Sunset. So, whites were east of Caldwell Street. Some of them were on the eastern...end of Caldwell Street. Airport Road. Out in that area. So I did not [pass white students heading to Chapel Hill High while walking to…

The Pines Restaurant

"As a kid I worked for The Pines down there, where they didn't let no Blacks come in there and eat, and my mommy and my daddy worked back there in the back. By the time I was a senior in high school, you had broken the rule where they could, Blacks could come there and eat." - Thurman Couch Located…

Orange County Training School

"The OCTS is over here, on Caldwell. And my mother’s father was one of the ones that laid the cornerstone, they were all masons. And so I went to what they called Northside, but was OCTS, from 1945 which was when I started...and so my class was the first class that went all the way through from the…

Elmer Pendergraft's Esso Service Station

"Used to be a service station right there called Elmer Pendergraft. Service station right here at the corner, right across from Carolina Carwash...[Dad] worked up until...he got sick. And then Mr. Elmer had to sell the service station because he had gotten sick too...So they just sold it, sold the…

Norwood Brothers Esso Service Station

"Northside was closer to Chapel Hill High than it was to Lincoln, and so in passing you would see the white students on the other side of Franklin Street smoking the cigarettes at Ross Norwood's service station in clear view of the schoolyard. Nobody was trying to hide from the either their parents,…

Northside Elementary

"I went to school at Northside. My parents wouldn't allow me to walk to school the first two years ...I was kind of ticked because I wanted to walk...They allowed me to walk to school in third grade. So that was cool, like a half hour walk from my house...all these roads here then were dirt roads.…

North Graham Street

"We [had] a sense of community on North Graham Street. Everybody's mother looked after each other. Our neighbors were like our sisters and brothers and we just had a big sense of family." - Clementine Self North Graham Street is part of the historically-Black Sunset neighborhood, now often regarded…

North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company

"During World War II, [my mom] sold insurance for North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company." - Doug Clark, Sr. North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, founded in Durham, North Carolina in 1898 by John C. Merrick, is one of the oldest and largest Black-owned businesses in the United States.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

"I went to North Carolina, I played football at North Carolina A&T, where I received a BS degree, and as a matter of fact, I was instrumental in the boycott in '62-'63, where we desegregated the Woolworths." - Fred Battle North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina…

North Carolina Central University

North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is a public, historically-Black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Dr. James E. Shepard in 1909, the university was made part of the state system in 1923.

Mr. Jasper Massey's Store

Jasper Massey ran a store on Brooks Street in Chapel Hill, near Orange County Training School. According to the 1940 census, Mr. Massey also worked at the Carolina Inn.

Morgan State University

"I went to Morgan State University in Baltimore...I felt like I was returning to my roots. I felt like integration had been forced upon me and now that I was able to choose what school I could go to I was going to choose to return back to my community where I knew that academics would be stressed in…

Miss Kelly's Store

"It was just a little meeting place. She just had a large room there. It was just a place you could go and communicate. A little place she had that after school you could go and dance. But no alcohol or nothing like that involved. Just was a place of communication." - Walter Durham Miss Kelly's…

Midway Business District

"I’ve heard stories from people that were around when there were Black owned businesses and most people that owned those businesses were family members or they knew the kid’s parents. It was really easy for them to come in and just hang around and don’t have to worry about safety or…

Midway Barber Shop

Stephen Edwards opened the Midway Barber Shop in 1952.

Merritt School

"We went to a little country school back of our house [run by] Lottie Merritt. It was a school where we [went] from [grades] 1 through 7 and then we would take a test and go to high school at Orange County Training School." - Isabel Atwater Lottie Merritt ran a country school known as Merritt School…

Merritt's Store

"The geographic boundary was pretty much the neighborhood. I think one time a friend and I left the neighborhood and we ended up at Merritt's store to get some candy. And we went past Merritt's store and we ended up on the next street. There turned out to be some lady up there who knew us, and she…

Memorial Hospital

"And that was 1952, when the hospital was opened. That's when jobs really became available. And then, if you got a job at the university hospital, twenty-five dollars a week, a hundred dollars a month. That was a long way from paying seven dollars a week." - Rebecca Clark "My grandmother didn't do…