This resource list is intended to provide useful information for researchers and organizers, with links to other projects, people, and organizations that are committed to exploring Black histories of Chapel Hill and/or organizing around anti-racism in Chapel Hill and across the South.
Digital Historical Resources
- Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) Interview Database
- Southern Oral History Program, Project N: Undergraduate Internship Program. Interviews conducted by undergraduate interns of the SOHP, relating to student activism and student life at UNC-Chapel Hill, including interviews with Black Pioneers (first Black students at the University), LGBTQ+ alumni-activists, student veterans, and Native students, faculty, and staff. Updated 2019.
- Southern Oral History Program, Project L.15 Racial Justice Activism. Interviews pertain to the history of racial justice movements at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1991 to 2018, with a focus on the student-led movement for a free-standing Black Cultural Center (Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History) from 1991-1993 and the 2014-2015 movement led by the Real Silent Sam Coalition to create Hurston Hall. Updated 2019.
- Names in Brick and Stone: Histories from UNC’s Built Landscape. Exploration of the history of major buildings on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus and their namesakes, including histories of some of the spaces discussed in this dissertation, including the Cheek-Clark Building and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. Updated 2017.
- Marian Cheek Jackson Center Oral History Trust. Oral history collection organized and maintained by the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving & Making History, providing a rich, layered, and multi-perspectival view of the historically Black neighborhoods that make up what are currently known as Northside and Pine Knolls in Chapel Hill. Oral histories discuss labor and civil rights activism in Chapel Hill, relaying the challenges of desegregation and systematic land loss and exemplifying courageous struggle, abundant care, rites of faithful celebration, and the hard work of creating community where division would reign. Updated 2018.
- John Kenyon Chapman Papers. Documents Yonni Chapman’s social activism and academic achievements, and, through a wide variety of audio, visual, paper, and digital formats, offers an account of nearly four decades of progressive racial, social, and economic justice struggles in the central North Carolina region. Updated 2012.
- Slavery and the Making of the University. Introduces materials that recognize and document the contributions of slaves, college servants and free persons of color primarily during UNC-Chapel Hill’s antebellum period. Updated 2007.
- Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina. Documents the state’s history through a spatially based presentation of commemorative monuments, shrines, and public art, enabling users to visualize and analyze the historical memory of the state of North Carolina by viewing sites of memory on modern and historic maps. Updated 2013.
- The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of UNC-Chapel Hill History. Retells the history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill much as a physical museum might do, with texts and images arranged in a series of roughly chronological exhibits. Updated 2006.
- A Guide to Resources About UNC’s Confederate Monument. A guide to primary sources, held in the University Archives and other Wilson Library collections, about the planning and dedication of Silent Sam and the discussion surrounding the monument in the years since. Updated 2018.
- The Silent Sam Syllabus. Reading list on Confederate Monuments, memory, memorials, southern history, crowd-sourced and compiled by Rachel Kirby, Boston University. Updated 2018.
- Universities Studying Slavery. Consortium dedicated to organizing multi-institutional collaboration as part of an effort to facilitate mutual support in the pursuit of common goals around the core theme of “Universities Studying Slavery.” USS additionally allows participating institutions to work together as they address both historical and contemporary issues dealing with race and inequality in higher education and in university communities as well as the complicated legacies of slavery in modern American society. Updated 2019.
- History on the Hill Blog. A hub of resources for learning about the history of the UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Ruptures, Vol. 1. Zine created by FLOCK (Feminists Liberating Our Collective Knowledge) to connect activist movements across campus, think seriously about how to transform the deeply racialized landscape of UNC, respond to various administration efforts to memorialize student activism, and do so in ways that recognize the creativity of students who refuse to be limited by what is called ‘possible’ in this moment. Updated 2017.
- Digital NC. A statewide digitization and digital publishing program housed in the North Carolina Collection at UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library.
Organizing Resources
In Chapel Hill
- Black Congress is an organization of Black students organizing for Black liberation at UNC-Chapel Hill.
- UNControllables promotes awareness of and involvement in radical, anti-fascist, anti-oppression, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist activities and groups at UNC-Chapel Hill and in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
- Take Action Chapel Hill is a group of students, neighbors, creatives, workers, parents, and friends that formed in August 2018 to support anti-racist activists facing charges related to protests against white supremacy at UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Black Student Movement is devoted to addressing cultural and diversity issues across UNC’s campus and the surrounding community, while also promoting black ideals and culture.
- Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving & Making History is a hub of creative action dedicated to preserving the future of historically Black neighborhoods in Chapel Hill, NC. Located in the heart of the Northside community, Center staff work in collaboration with Northside neighbors and friends to respect and to serve histories that, even as they are told, make new history out of Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, civil rights struggle, and desegregation.
- The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History encourages and supports the critical examination of all dimensions of African-American and African diaspora cultures through sustained and open discussion, dialogue and debate, and to enhance the intellectual and socio-cultural climate at the UNC-Chapel Hill and in communities beyond the campus boundaries.
Beyond Chapel Hill
- Southern Anti-Racism Network develops campaigns and projects in the South to end racial disparities in criminal justice, economic opportunities, education, environmental justice and health care.
- Black Liberation Collective is a collective consisting of Black students who are dedicated to transforming institutions of higher education through unity, coalition building, direct action and political education.
- Black Youth Project 100 is a member-based organization of Black 18-35 year old activists and organizers, dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people through building a network focused on transformative leadership development, direct action organizing, advocacy, and political education using a Black queer feminist lens.
- Project South is a Southern-based leadership development organization that creates spaces for movement building.
- Organizing Against Racism is a network of anti-racism groups based in or around the Triangle that host trainings and events to advance racial equity.
- Racial Equity Institute is an alliance of trainers and organizers who work to help leaders and organizations who want to proactively understand and address racism, both in their organization and in the community where the organization is working.
If you would like your organization or information to be added to the resource list, please send a comment through the Contact page.