Browse Items (2185 total)

 Deshawn Alston - Old School (clip)

 James Blacknell Jr. building a stone wall

James Blacknell Jr. builds a stone wall on the campus of the University of North Carolina. Mr. Blacknell, along with his father (James Blacknell, Sr.) and son (Norman Blacknell) worked as stone masons, constructing many of the prominent stone walls and buildings on the campus of UNC.Photo courtesy…

Staunton Memorial CME Church

Staunton Memorial CME Church is located at 230 Credle Street in Pittsboro, NC.

Sutton's Drug Store

"Most of the news that came out of that was the kind of word of mouth. You know, we're going to march in front of Sutton's today and the word would just kind of come, and after it was over-. I marched in some of these places." - Stanley Vickers Sutton's Drug Store opened in the Strowd Building at…

The Patio

"There's another fellow who came home from World War II and moved back here by 1954. He built a place back here on Merritt Mill Road -- it's no longer there -- called The Patio. He was trying to make it go and all...And in the summer, too, there was a lot of people in Chapel Hill that had nieces and…

Tin Can

"Sometimes the [Lincoln High School basketball] coaches would take the boys to a gym down on UNC campus to play...the Tin Can. They would take them down to practice. They never played a game there. All the games were played over here in our auditorium." - Mary Norwood Jones The Tin Can on the UNC…

Tin Top

"If you come across the railroad track, you’re going to run into Brewer Lane. And when you get there from Brewer Lane, and you come on around the curve, right there is Hargraves Street. That was Tin Top. That little area was up there, Tin Top." - Donny "Hollywood" Riggsbee The Tin Top neighborhood…

Trailways Bus Station

"Me and my Mom used to go to the Trailways bus station to catch the bus to Durham ~ they had black, well it was "colored" back then, on one side and "white" on the other, and we had our place on the bus, we had our water fountains for coloreds and our bathrooms for coloreds, and we figured that's…

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"There would not be a University if there had not been the Blacks in this community to help build the University." - Kathy Atwater The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was chartered in 1789 and began enrolling students in 1795. Through the mid-19th century, enslaved Black people on lease…

Kennon Cheek/Rebecca Clark Building

The Kennon Cheek/Rebecca Clark building was built in the 1920s to house the university laundry. It was renamed in 1998 to honor Kennon Cheek, a former janitor in Venable Hall and first president of the university janitor's association, and Rebecca Clark, who worked as a housekeeper at the Carolina…

History of Hickory Grove Missionary Baptist Church

Pastors of Hickory Grove Missionary Baptist Church

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Initially established as a women's college, the State Normal and Industrial School opened in 1892. In 1919 it was renamed the North Carolina College for Women and in 1932 it was renamed the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina. Men were first admitted in 1963, when it became the…

Varsity Theatre

"My dad, when we was growing up he worked at the Varsity Theatre as a janitor, and that gave us the opportunity to go and see some of the movies. As you know, back in the early '50s and the '60s and maybe up into the '70s, you know, you were not, African Americans was not allowed to go to the…

Villa Teo

"I started working part time at the last restaurant that the Danzigers had, called the Villa Teo. The Villa Teo is down on what we call Stroud Hill...And the Villa Teo was a beautiful place...it was the type of place where you would want to take your girl on a nice date." - David Mason Originally…

Watts Restaurant and Watts Motel

"We may have had a few incidents, and I remember at the Watts Motel, they would throw acid and pee out the window, embarrassing. But they just didn’t want us to integrate, that was the biggest problem." - Carol Brooks "They was picketing that place because they wouldn t let Blacks go in there and…

William E. Smith Masonry

"When you start, you’re always dealing with brick. But with bricks come long blocks, and then later on, then come rocks. You know, so I was not trained to be a rock mason. 1971 or 1972, I did my first rock repair on Pittsboro Street at the Carolina Inn. And we have just gone from there.... I knew…

Windy Hill

"I was born in Chapel Hill, I was born on Hillsborough Street, which most blacks referred as Windy Hill. And...to enter Windy Hill, you had to go through the white community. And to exit Windy Hill you had to go through the white community. And it was just a segment of black homeowners that lived on…

Winston-Salem State University

Winston-Salem State University is a historically Black public university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded as Slater Industrial Academy in 1892, it was renamed Winston-Salem Teachers College in 1925. The addition of a school of nursing in 1963 led it to be renamed Winston-Salem State College…

Ms. Molly's Gift Shop

The building that houses Ms. Molly's Gift Shop and Walt's Grill has been owned by the Riggsbee family since 1944. At various points in time, it has been home to the Church of God of Prophecy and Lizzy Mae's Southern Kitchen. In the late 1990s, the restaurant became Walt's Grill with Ms. Molly's…

Walt's Grill

The building that houses Ms. Molly's Gift Shop and Walt's Grill has been owned by the Riggsbee family since 1944. At various points in time, it has been home to the Church of God of Prophecy and Lizzy Mae's Southern Kitchen. In the late 1990s, the restaurant became Walt's Grill, run by Bobby…

 Patricia "Pat" Jackson

“All the sermons that you are hearing, preaching, you are seeing God at work through the elders. Not until then, did you realize that was the relationship with the Lord. You had to give an account to God that he set you up and kept you safe and now I need to get your attention. He got my attention.…

Dorcas Saunders

 Dorcas Saunders - On moving to Chapel Hill, segregation, family, and her childhood

"I watched her. I watched her wash linen and dry it, make up the beds and everything. And I mean that stuck in my mind because I did not know she did that kind of work. I just knew she put on a uniform and she left. But I never knew what the uniform was for or what it meant or anything. - Dorcas…