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History of Chapel Hill's Lincoln High School (1950 - 1966)
by Charly Mann
Orange County Training School 1949 Band, Chapel Hill, NC
Orange County Training School was the first black high school in Chapel Hill. Unlike the all-white schools in town where the land and funding for construction came from tax revenues, OCTS was built in 1924 on nine acres of land donated by black businessman Henry Stroud, and much of the construction costs were funded by the black community as well as a grant from Julius Rothenwald, a Jewish businessman who was president and part owner of Sears. Chapel Hill began funding the school in 1930 after the black community held a special election allowing their homes to be taxed at a higher rate than white homes. Nevertheless, Chapel Hill's black schools never received comparative funding to the white schools.
Lincoln High School Senior Prom 1954, Chapel Hill, NC
In 1950 the black community voted to change the name of the school to Lincoln High School because they felt Orange County Training School sounded like a juvenile reformatory. The school was located on Merritt Mill Road near the railroad tacks, and is now used as the administrative offices for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Lincoln High School Chapel Hill Class of 1962
From 1951 to its closing in 1966, Lincoln High School provided the black residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro a great sense of pride, community, and tradition. Academic excellence was instilled by its teachers and principals, and the its football team and marching band were the best in the state. In 1957, 1961, and 1962 its Lincoln High School Tiger's football team were the state champions. (I often heard that any Lincoln team at this time could decisively beat any UNC football team). Almost all the parents knew every teacher because they not only attended the same churches, but were also involved in raising funds for the school to buy library books, team uniforms, and band instruments.
Lincoln High School's 1950 Girls and Boys Basketball Teams, Chapel Hill, NC
Alberta Jones, Lincoln High School Senior, Chapel Hill, Goodbye Poem 1955
Special thanks to Stephanie Scott for supplying the photos for this article
Comments:
Sarah Geer
6:15 PM Wed 12/30/2009
When Lincoln High School closed, all the elementary schools were de-segregated as well. My recollection is that the school boundaries were all adjusted and there were difficulties in fitting all the elementary children into the closest schools. As a temporary fix, every sixth grader in town attended school at Lincoln for that school year. It was an unusual experience: a big school building with only one grade level. My brother was in that group. Although the sixth graders had to be bussed in from all over town, I heard that they enjoyed the experience, especially taking advantage of "big kid" amenities they didn't have in elementary school such as lockers, a band room with instruments and uniforms, and a gym.
Russell D
7:17 PM Wed 12/9/2009
RD Smith, teacher in the Class of 1962 photo is now 92, lives in the same house off Church Street and frequents the Farmers Market in Carrboro with his wife. Both look as young as ever!
Patricia Fields Neubert
3:51 PM Fri 9/11/2009
The marching band from Lincoln High just made The Christmas Parade down Franklin Street fabulous.
Sue W
7:47 AM Wed 8/5/2009
I lived in Chapel Hill from the mid 50's until 1961 & did not even know of Lincoln High School's existence, which I guess speaks volumes in itself.
Elizabeth P
1:53 PM Tue 8/4/2009
It is hard for me to imagine that there were ever segregated schools in Chapel Hill. I was born in 1973 and went from first grade through high school with blacks in all my classes.
Reed Walker
7:59 AM Tue 8/4/2009
Thanks for detailing some of more positive aspects of being part of a segregated school. I did not grow up in Chapel Hill, but in Huntsville, Alabama, and found the strong sense of community that I got from my all black schools was one of the few good things about that era.
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
My best memory of wonderful RD Smith was his patience in teaching me Drivers's Education. Mr. Smith believed that we should not listen to the radio when driving, so that we would not become distracted. I hate to think what he would have to say about cell phones and texting in a car!