History

Peace and protest, justice and injustice: marking Chapel Hill's sacred space

[I read this entry by Chapel Hill Town Council Member Sally Greene on her blog and asked for permissionto cross-post it here. She graciously agreed. Tomorrow the Town will unveil the stone marker at Peace and Justice Plaza. =Ruby]

A little-known fact: grass used to grow around the flag pole in front of the old post office on Franklin Street. That's why those red brick pavers are there--as filler. It was only in latter times, probably since 1979 when the town purchased the property from the federal government, that the space was paved over.

Luckily for these four young men, it was grass during Holy Week in 1964 when they decided to fasten themselves to this place 24 hours a day, fasting in protest of the Town of Chapel Hill's refusal to pass a public accommodations ordinance.

Pat Cusick, LaVert Taylor, John Dunne, James Foushee (in the photo) and countless other activists will be remembered this Sunday at 3 p.m. as we unveil and formally dedicate the Peace and Justice tribute marker at the site we've named Peace and Justice Plaza.

Peace and Justice Plaza tribute

To celebrate the recently-named Peace and Justice Plaza (formerly known at the square in front of the downtown Post Office on Franklin Street where we always have rallies and community events) the Town and the local NAACP are having a rally today and a reception on September 20th when they formally unveil the public marker there. I'm going to try to swing by this when I get off the bus today.

From the Town of Chapel Hill's press release:

Chapel Hill and NAACP Honor Nine Community Activists on the Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington

On Friday, Aug. 28, the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, the Town of Chapel Hill and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP will jointly sponsor the first of two programs to honor nine local peace and justice leaders.

An outdoor rally will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Peace and Justice Plaza outside the Post Office-Courthouse at 179 E. Franklin St. The program will include biographical tributes read by members of the community and remarks by Michelle Cotton Laws, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP. Following the program, there will be a reception inside the Post Office featuring light refreshments and an educational photo display.

Three weeks later, the public unveiling of a tribute marker at Peace and Justice Plaza will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20. Family members and others will speak of the nine peace and justice honorees. A reception for the families and all others in attendance will follow at the home of Chris and Sharon Ringwalt, at 8 Cobb Terrace, Chapel Hill, N.C.

The header on the granite marker reads "Peace and Justice Plaza" and commemorates nine local activists: Charlotte Adams, Hank Anderson, James Brittian, Joe Herzenberg, Mildred Ringwalt, Hubert Robinson, Joe Straley, Lucy Straley, and Gloria Williams. The quote on the marker comes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "True peace is not merely the absence of some negative force, it is the presence of justice." The Town Council has established a process to honor additional peace and justice leaders in the future.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. Attended by some 250,000 people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage.

The Town of Chapel Hill has recently increased efforts to commemorate its history from the civil rights era, when the local movement played a leading role in ending Jim Crow. The Town Council in 2006 named the plaza the Peace and Justice Plaza in honor of the energy and spirit of the thousands who have stood in the shadow of the Courthouse and exercised their rights to assembly and speech and have spoken out on issues as diverse as the Vietnam War, environmental justice, women's rights, gay rights, the death penalty, and racial justice.

From 1960 to 1964, black Lincoln High School students led a powerful civil rights movement, including weekly marches that began at local black churches and ended at the old Post Office, now Peace and Justice Plaza. UNC students joined the civil rights movement in large numbers. They became increasingly vocal in their protests of local racial segregation, legislative restrictions on free speech (the Speaker Ban Law) and national events. Students used marches, sit-ins, and strikes to support the 1969 UNC cafeteria workers strikes and to protest the Vietnam War. Charlotte Adams and other members of the local chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom led a weekly peace vigil in front of the Franklin Street Post Office that began on Jan. 4, 1967. The weekly vigils continued every Wednesday until 1973.

In February 2009, national and local civil rights leaders gathered in Chapel Hill to unveil a historic state highway marker at the corner of Rosemary and Columbia streets. This is the first state marker to commemorate one of the most important North Carolina civil rights protests before the sit-ins of 1960. The Journey of Reconciliation, known as the "First Freedom Ride," consisted of an interracial group that used non-violent resistance to test a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1946 that ruled state Jim Crow laws on interstate buses and trains were unconstitutional. Their Chapel Hill stop created national news when local segregationists threatened and attacked the Freedom Riders. Four of the riders were sentenced to the state chain gang. The incident prompted a community wide debate on Jim Crow that had lasting impact.

For more information about the Aug. 28 rally, please contact Suepinda Keith, NAACP History Committee, suepinda@lanzilla.com or 919-338-2065 or Catherine Lazorko, Chapel Hill Public Information Officer, clazorko@townofchapelhill.org or 919-969-5055.

 

Date: 

Friday, August 28, 2009 - 1:00pm

Location: 

Franklin Street Post Office, Chapel Hill

Exhibit & discussion: Documenting Neighborhood History in the Rogers Road Community

Via UNC News Service:

For 37 years, the Rogers Road community in Chapel Hill has been at the center of a public  debate about the impact of the Orange County Landfill, which borders the neighborhood.

An exhibit opening June 12 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will tell a deeper story, uncovering more than two centuries of the community’s history.

 rogers road
 
Irving and Frances Nunn with their children in 1927
Photo credit: North Carolina Collection,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The exhibit, “We’re all Family Here: Preserving Community Heritage in the Rogers Road Neighborhood of Chapel Hill,” will be open until Aug. 31 in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library.

In a free public program at 5:45 p.m. June 25 in the library, residents will discuss their history. Panelists for the program, “Documenting Neighborhood History in the Rogers Road Community of Chapel Hill,” will include the Rev. Robert Campbell, other members of the community and researcher Emily Eidenier. The program will follow a reception and exhibit viewing at 5 p.m.

 

Date: 

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 1:00pm

Location: 

NC Collection, Wilson LIbrary, UNC Campus

How can I better know the county?

I want to increase my knowledge of the history and politics of Orange County over the summer in preparation for my editor job at the DTH. Do you have any recommendations? Books, articles, etc.

I'm getting ready to get "The American College Town" from the library as a start. 

Climate Change Action: From Joke to Symbol to Reality

 

It is nice to be in a town that has a mayor who is willing to speak to the zeitgeist.  Feeling it also, a couple of months ago I created these designs ...

The last one has been printed on t-shirts if anyone is interested in partaking in some t-shirt activism ... now to show your support for our mayor's courage.

Changing our town's name by October 24 could turn an April Fools joke into a symbolic gesture to be heard throughout the world in a time when action on climate change is dangerously overdue.  Can the joke go to symbol  and then to action? 

Pages

 

Community Guidelines

By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.

 

Content license

By contributing to OrangePolitics, you agree to license your contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Creative Commons License

 
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.