McCorkle Place

Memorial for James Lewis Cates and William Murphey

Document Description: The Black Student Movement rallied in 1971 at the University’s Confederate Monument in memory of James Lewis Cates, a young Black man from Chapel Hill stabbed on the University campus by a member of a white motorcycle gang while police officers watched, and William Murphey, a Black man murdered by a white state trooper in Ayden, North Carolina. Because both men’s murders were painful instances of anti-Black violence in North Carolina, the rallying point of the Confederate Monument was chosen to highlight that visible racism.

71dec_memorial-for-james-cates-photos_blackink_silentsam

 

Organization: Black Student Movement

Date: 12/1/1971

Document Type: Photograph

Creator: Leslie Todd, Phil McAlpin, John Hankins

Document Collection: Black Ink

Campus Space: McCorkle Place

Citation: “Blacks stage memorial for James Cates and William Murphey.” Black Ink. December 1971. Page 5.