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"It takes a strong neighborhood to build a town. You’ve got to take it one neighborhood at a time. And I see that happening around here."
- Antonio Vinson

Explore the history of Black communities in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, NC. Meet our neighbors through oral history interviews, images, and more. Share your own story.
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Campus Y

Charlie Jones was the first person to bring a group of us high school students together and we met at the YMCA on campus...Charlie Jones had a daughter that was a junior at the same time, and he pulled together a group of black high school students and students from the white high school. We met on…

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…

Carolina Theater

"Let's reflect back to Chapel Hill...that's where you had the Varsity Theater, Carolina Theater, in Chapel Hill. Then we had a Rialto Theater in Carrboro, on the main street. That was a Black theater. But here again, if it left scars on me, the scars are there for me, it's the fact that I would have…

Carrboro Community Health Center

"What we believe is kind of the foundation of this work is relationships, so you go meet your neighbors, you talk to them, you talk to them again, you talk to them again..." - Brian Toomey Carrboro Community Health Center, part of Piedmont Health, was first known as Orange-Chatham Comprehensive…

Carrboro Elementary School

"I was in a Black school at Northside Elementary. [My mother] wanted me to go to the school which was the nearest to our home which was the white school...Carrboro Elementary....I can only guess that it was because, I mean, I don't think she set out to be a history maker or a trendsetter. I don't…

Cathedral of Hope Mission Church

Cathedral of Hope Mission Church is located at 100-A Hillview Street in Carrboro, NC.

Chapel Hill High School

"McDougle had been the principal since1949 through 1966 at Lincoln. All of a sudden, he goes to Chapel Hill High, and they take and make him an assistant. W.D. Peerman who had been one of the winningest football coaches of North Carolina, he was regulated to the JV team." - David Mason,…

Chapel Hill Junior High School

I think one thing that helped me survive up on Franklin Street at Chapel Hill Junior High School was some of the white friends we had, male and female. You know, I remember I used to be sitting there in class...crying and...there were these two white girls that used to just kind of...talk to me, and…

Colonial Drugstore

"...we had Colonial Drugstore, the Rock Quarry, a number of other restaurants around here that we were able to desegregate. And what it caused, students, with the leadership of some adults like Hilliard Caldwell and some others, we began to demonstrate and ask the peoples for service at the lunch…

Culbreth Middle School

I knew who he was -- I knew Grey Culbreth. What did I think about the naming of the school? I didn't think anything about it. But I did think something about when they - I mean, I was very instrumental in the naming of MacDougal." - Betty King Grey Culbreth Middle School opened as Grey Culbreth…