Map

Venable Hall

As the effects of the Great Depression came to Chapel Hill following the 1929 stock market crash, the University threatened a ten percent pay cut to the wages of the janitorial staff. In response, four Black janitors–Frank Hairston, Elliot Washington, Melvin Rich, and Kennon Cheek–began meeting regularly to discuss issues arising from their jobs and eventually, their options for organizing against the potential pay cuts. Cheek and his fellow organizers in the Janitors’ Association worked in Venable Hall, the home of the University’s Department of Chemistry.

Venable Hall, in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Image Collection Collection #P0004, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Organization: Janitors’ Association

Space Use: Academic

Spatial Organizing Approach: Creation

Date Created: 1925

Date Ended: 2007

Campus Space: Cheek-Clark Building

Citation: The Voice of the Janitor’s Association 1940, Newsletter, in the Office of the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Michael Hooker Records #40026, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.