Complied by Kate Beisner and Jonas Hattman
“This myth of Chapel Hill being this literal bastion, it wasn’t ahead of the curve at all in terms of desegregation… The city and the majority in the town council was not any different from anywhere else.” -Andrea Wuerth
Lincoln High During Segregation
Lincoln High was Chapel Hill’s African-American high school during the Jim Crow era. It educated the town’s black population until the town’s schools were fully desegregated in 1966, 12 years after Brown vs. Board of Education. Lincoln High was known for their successful football team and tight-knit community of alumni, many of whom were members of the Northside community.
“Lincoln High had an amazing football team. There was a lot of pride around that, but during desegregation, all the football trophies were thrown away. And when the students found out about that, it sort of became this lightning rod for what happened generally to their past traditions and the disregard for their property.” -Andrea Wuerth
Civil Rights Movement In Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill had several black demonstrations for equality throughout the Civil Rights Movement. African-American religious and community leaders often unified with black locals and students, using tactics of civil disobedience inspired by Dr. King. February 28th marks the 60th anniversary of the Chapel Hill Nine sit-in at a Franklin St. lunch counter, demanding equal service through nonviolent resistance. King visited June in May of 1960, to speak to the Northside community and to UNC students. At the time, the university was beginning to identify less with its Confederate past and was trending towards more socially progressive values, however the total black enrollment was less than one percent. King’s visit was at the peak of the Civil Rights influence on Chapel Hill, however the Klu Klux Klan occasionally visited the town at the time, usually riding horses through the Northside neighborhood. 
Interview with Andrea Wuerth
Director of Education and Communication at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center
What is the mission of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center? “Our official mission is to honor, build and renew communities of Chapel Hill, predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the Northside and Pine Knolls areas… People who live in these neighborhoods, some of them can trace their history all the way back to the time when their predecessors came.”
How do you work to educate the community? “We rely on oral history. Many of the local civil rights leaders are part of our Community Mentor Team at the Jackson Center. They go into schools with us and tell their stories, often starting with details about growing up in the segregated Northside neighborhoods.”
Do you engage in political work? “We are a non-profit organization, officially meaning that we do not do political work… We really emphasize the importance of remembering the past in a factual way, often just by simply exposing some chapters of our history… So in that way what we’re doing is controversial, even though it’s simply historical.”
Has the University effectively addressed the history of its construction? “Due to the time, many of the UNC buildings that were built before 1865 were built by slaves, but named for the slavemaster… However, there has been an increasing awareness of this issue and an attempt to get these names changed by the Board of Directors at the University.”
What was the Northside community like during segregation? “The community has always been very closely- knit, and especially back before desegregation, everybody knew each other. The neighbors helped each other out because there was sort of an informal economy, people would watch each other’s kids, parents and grandparents.”
What is important to know about Chapel Hill during the Civil Rights Movement? “We need to understand what it took to be part of the Civil Rights Movement, the confidence, the support from the community that made it possible for kids to go out there… There was so much pride in participation.”
What are some of the threats to Northside today? How are they being addressed? “The cost of real estate has been going up because of the desirability of the neighborhood location, meaning that a lot of the people who originally built houses here can no longer even afford to pay the property tax. Also, the students and developers are really hot to turn houses into lucrative apartment buildings, also at high prices… There are lots of different programs here, such as a land bank where we have a big set amount of money loaned from the university, which allows the Jackson Center to buy properties in the neighborhood to fix them and keep them affordable.”
For more information about the Jackson Center, visit https://jacksoncenter.info. For UNC’s virtual Black and Blue tour, which provides more about specific parts of UNC’s history, readers may also visit blackandblue.web.unc.edu.
