Education

Knowledge is power.  Since Reconstruction and the establishment of the first Freedmen’s School on the western edge of Chapel Hill (where Crook’s Corner is now) in the mid-1800s, the Black community has invested in the education of its youth.  Parents, teachers, and church members locked arms to support, monitor, and mentor each child.  In 1930, after Chapel Hill took control of the Orange County Training School and reduced funding to the minimum six months required by law, Northside residents taxed themselves to provide for a full academic year.  In 1949, students successfully rallied to throw off the stigma of a “training” school and to rename O.C.T.S. Lincoln.  In 1951, when almost half of all of the high school students in Chapel Hill were Black, Lincoln got a new building on Merritt Mill Road.  High-performing and competitive across the board, the new high school became the pride of Northside. In 1966, with the desegregation of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Lincoln High closed and Black students were transferred to Chapel Hill High School. While necessary, desegregation came at a cost for Black students and faculty who had created a strong community at Lincoln High. The strong legacy and support for education has continued to the present, with many local schools named after notable Black educators like R.D. and Euzelle Smith and Principal Charles McDougle.

To learn more about the role of the education in the community—and of the community in education—see the full Mighty Tigers interview series that we are proud to co-host with the UNC Southern Oral History Program.  And listen in to David Mason, Jr. or Keith Edwards on the costs of desegregation in the late 1960s and 1970s. Look at tags like education, Orange County Training School, and Black educators to learn more about the history of education in the community.