by Charly Mann

The Chapel Hill Museum building on Franklin Street was once the Chapel Hill public library 

I recently completed a cross country trip along Route 66 visiting more than three dozen small and medium sized towns along the way. Towns ranging in size from 500 to 30,000 all had one or more local museums celebrating their history that were largely funded by the local government. A city as vibrant, large, and with as much important history as Chapel Hill needs a public museum to celebrate its glorious past.

The Chapel Hill Museum is an invaluable archival repository for students, tourists, historians, and those like me who love Chapel Hill's past. Chapel Hill is unique among places on this earth, and has been a bastion for creativity and social progress. The Chapel Hill Museum is the one place in town where we can all  appreciate and be made aware of the town's rich historical legacy.

This is an exhibit in the Chapel Hill Museum commemorating the Intimate Bookshop 

Yesterday I received an alarming letter from Paul Green about the impending closure of the Chapel Hill Museum which I have condensed below:

The Chapel Hill Museum will soon be closing its doors unless people like you help keep it open.

The museum reminds everyone who walks through its doors why we all love Chapel Hill. And it does so in an intimate setting that is a piece of history in its own right, the East Franklin Street building that for nearly thirty years served as the town library.

The museum recently requested funding from the town of approximately $49,000 for future maintenance, upkeep, and operational costs of the town-owned building it occupies. For whatever reason, the Council voted to allocate less than half that amount, a little over $20,000. That's the short version of events.

This is part of the extensive James Taylor exhibit at the Chapel Hill Museum. James Taylor attended elementary school in Chapel Hill.

The museum has a few stalwart supporters on the council, like Laurin Easthom, Sally Greene, and even the fiscally conservative Matt Czajkowski. 

Now how about getting the rest of the council to realize the museum is a valuable town resource. Please do what I'm presently unable to, and speak up for the museum and our town's history. Send an e-mail to the mayor and all town council members at once by using this address:

mayorandcouncil@townofchapelhill.org

Let the mayor and town council know we value the Chapel Hill Museum, and it would be a terrible thing for it to close. The right thing for them to do is to fully fund the museum's request.

This is the study of long time Chapel Hill resident and distinquished playwright Paul Green who died in 1981. It is now housed in the Chapel Hill Museum

It will only take a few minutes of your time. Please do it today. Because you know what? Your past neighbors are counting on you.

Sincerely,

Paul Green
Chapel Hill

p.s. - please forward to friends.

by Charly Mann

Outskirts of Chapel Hill in 1954 near current location of Eastgate Shopping Center. The highway to Durham was then an uncrowded two lane road.

What makes Chapel Hill great? For me it is three things, the people, the location, and the enduring charm of the campus and downtown.

From its inception the town has been the home of one of most diverse, creative, and often eccentric group of individuals in the nation. As a result Chapel Hill is a thriving community that has a history of innovative one-of-a-kind restaurants, bookstores, bars, and clothing stores. There is also an array of natural and architectural beauty on the campus and downtown that creates an atmosphere that emotionally binds one to the place.

South Building and The Old Well in May of 1963

Unlike most towns that arise because of commercial consideration, Chapel Hill's location was primarily chosen because of its magnificent forest and scenic terrain. The town is an oasis of ancient trees, historic buildings, and great traditions. It is also home to some of the friendliest people on the planet. The clear blue sky, that is most often overhead, adds another charm to the place.

Chapel Hill has long had a special music in its air that could be heard nowhere else. It goes back to the guitar and mandolin ensembles that were popular on campus in the late 19th century and continued through the enormously successful UNC bands of Hal Kemp and Kay Kyser in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Since the 1960s Chapel Hill's music scene has been an incubator for great musical talents that have included James Taylor, Arrogance, Mike Cross, Jim Wann, Bland Simpson, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

This is an illustration from 1902 when Chapel Hill was the music capital of the world. Guitar players came from all over the country to live here and join a band. This is a part of Chapel Hill history that very few people have ever heard of today .

More than anything else Chapel Hill is the home to a university where the brightest youth in North Carolina come to improve their minds and body, and often leave with the ability to achieve their dreams.

Chapel Hill Memories was created so that all former and current Chapel Hill residents can have an opportunity to share their recollections about this wonderful community. We also encourage our readers to do research and conduct interviews with older Chapel Hill residents. Please help preserve the memories of this town. Send your collections to: chmemories@gmail.com.

by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill has changed a lot in the last 100 years. Since starting Chapel Hill Memories a year ago I have been fortunate to talk to two centenarians from Chapel Hill which has inspired me to write about what the town was like in 1910.

The population of Chapel Hill in 1910 was 1,449. The total value of all the real estate and personal property in town was less than a million dollars. The combined value of all the buildings, houses, and property in Chapel Hill that year was $410,562. All the personal property in town had a value of $585,750.

UNC students gather in front of their social club in downtown Chapel Hill with their servant in 1910

The mayor of Chapel Hill was Algernon S. Barbee, who graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1860 and served as Lieutenant Commander for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The chief of police was D.S. Long.

1910 Chapel Hill mayor Algernon Barbee

Chapel Hill had four churches in 1910. Reverend Starr was the minister at Chapel of the Cross, the Episcopal church. R.L. Smith was the minister of the Baptist congregation. W.S. Patton was the pastor for the Methodists, and Mr. Moss was reverend at the Presbyterian church.

Advertisement for the University of North Carolina in 1910. In those days there were no SATs or college entrance exams. Most students who went to UNC came from wealthy and upper middle class families.

More than half of the population of Chapel Hill were farmers, and their primary cash crop was cotton. A lucrative business in town in those days was owning a cotton gin, and there were six of these in Chapel Hill in 1910. These machines quickly separated commercial cotton from its seeds. Fred Sparrow, I.S. Riggsbee, and G.W. Purefoy had the three most popular cotton gins in town.

During the early twentieth century many wealthy Cubans sent their sons to UNC, and there was even a Cuban club on campus. This is Francisco Fuentes from the UNC class of 1910.

Chapel Hill had two hotels in 1910, the University Inn and Pickard's Hotel, both were rather rustic and primitive. If you could afford it, better lodging could be found at numerous boarding houses in town, which were actually local houses that had extra rooms for rent. The best was the home of Mrs. A.A. Kluttz. The other houses in town that rented rooms were run by Mrs. W.L. Thankersley, Mrs. Gattis, Mrs. J.C. Cole, Mrs. Josephine Archer, Mrs. E.W. Nevill, Mrs. Mary Burch, Mrs. J.E. Merritt, Mrs. W.J. A. Cheek, and Mrs. R.S. McRea. Most of these women's husbands were merchants in town or professors at the University. Two men, W.B. Thompson and T.B. Farrar also rented rooms in their houses. Swain Hall, besides being the student dining hall, was then the most inexpensive place to rent a room. There was no running water nor indoor plumbing in any of these hotels or boarding houses in 1910.

An old man in 1910 standing by a rock wall along Franklin Street next to where Graham Memorial is today. In the background is the Pickard Hotel. 

In 1910 there was only a rudimentry water service in Chapel Hill and there was no indoor plumbing nor hot water. People did not bathe on a regular basis, but in 1910 a business in town offered hot baths. 

There were three drug stores in Chapel Hill in 1910; Eubanks, Patterson Brothers, and Norwood Drug Company, as well as four town doctors, Lewis Webb, E.A. Abernathy, C.S. Mangum, and Brack Lloyd. If you wanted meat there were two butcher shops where chicken and cows were regularly slaughtered in the back. They were owned by William Creel and R.M. Leigh.

Homes and buildings in 1910 were heated in Chapel Hill by either by coal or wood, and two merchants in town, G.C. Pickard and T.E. Best, provided these essentials. There was electricity in Chapel Hill then but it was primarily used for lighting, and the electric company was owned and operated by the University. There were also two hardware stores in town; one owned by S.L. Herndon and the other by H.C. Willis.

1910 UNC baseball team. Until the early 1960's college baseball was almost as popular as football in North Carolina. (Basketball did not attract a large following until about 1960.) From 1935 to 1986 North Carolina was the only state that had Easter Monday as a state holiday because it was the day of the NC State - Wake Forest baseball game 

Chapel Hill had only two small restaurants in 1910, one in the house of J.E. Gouch (later changed to Gooch), and the Royal Cafe.

This is a 1910 parody ad for Gooch's Cafe, then one of only two restaurants in Chapel Hill

Shoes were often custom made in those days, and Chapel Hill had two shoe makers, George Trice and Brooks Brewer. The primary means of transportation in town was by horse, and Chapel Hill had two thriving livery stables, one owned by G.C. Pickard and the other by L.J. Hargrave. One was located behind where the Carolina Coffee Shop is today, and the other where the sundial now stands in front of the Morehead Planetarium.

A black carriage driver with "yessuh boss" attached to photo in Chapel Hill from 1910. Fifty years later there were two taxi services in Chapel Hill. One was white owned and operated called Tarheel Cab, and the other was black called Carolina Cab. Carolina Cab operated more than 16 blue and white Checker cabs and was the dominant cab company for both black and white passengers by 1965.

Mr. Pickard was a successful businessman who was also a grocer and owned a hotel. This ad is from 1910. Later they would offer a shuttle service by automobile to Durham.

In 1910 Chapel Hill had a weekly newspaper called The Weekly News that was operated by W.B. Thompson. The Tar Heel in those days was published twice a month. Few people in town could afford a camera, but Robert Foister and W.B. Sorrell had photography shops downtown where you could get a portrait made.

This is a black UNC servant carrying student laundry in front of Foister's Camera store on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill in 1910.

The average lifespan for a Chapel Hill resident in 1910 was 47. E.A. Brown and A.J. Hargrave were the town's two undertakers and embalmers.

In 1910 UNC's debate team won contests against Tulane and the University of Pennsylvania, both of which received more press coverage than any sporting event.

UNC Class of 1910 senior Levy Ames Brown. Note he graduated at the age of 18. In those days every student knew everyone else enrolled in their class.

As a young boy in the 1950s I spent a lot of time in the woods around Chapel Hill and often found abandoned saw mills (There was even one in the woods behind Glenwood School). I have discovered that in 1910 there were seven saw mills in operation in what are now Chapel Hill's city limits.

 by Charly Mann

To many of us the Vietnam War is a grim memory of a United States military failure and wasted lives. During the time the war was fought it sharply divided the country. To those of military age the draft meant you might actually have to go fight and die for your country in a war you did not support. In 1968, I was an eighteen year old freshman at the University of North Carolina, and was one of the leaders of an anti-war group on campus called the UAWMF (United Anti-War Mobilization Front). Before Vietnam turned into a major war in 1967, 89% of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do what was right. By the end the war in 1973 only 19% of Americans felt this way according to a Gallup poll. I was outraged that we were fighting to support a South Vietnamese government that was highly corrupt against an almost equally deplorable totalitarian North Vietnam. I felt the Vietnam War was a civil war that needed to be decided by its own people.

Daily Tar Heel article from November 13th, 1968 about U.S. soldier coming to UNC to talk to students at Y-Court about his opposition to the war in Vietnam 

In the Fall of 1968 only a handful of UNC students were actively involved in the anti-Vietnam War Movement. I joined a small group called the UAWMF headed by a brilliant and affable senior from New Orleans named Adolph Reed. Our focus that semester was supporting American soldiers who believed the war was wrong. Even though soldiers were supposed to have the same right to freedom of speech as other Americans, the United States military was severely punishing soldiers who spoke out against the war. The largest military base in the United States, Fort Bragg, was less than a two hour drive from Chapel Hill, and my organization worked directly with several soldiers there who opposed the war.

Article from the Saturday November 16, 1968 Duke Chronicle about trip to Fort Bragg that day organized by the UAWMF to hand out leaflets

I was the information director for the UAWMF, which meant I contacted the press about any events that our group sponsored. On November 8th, 1968 we brought three Fort Bragg soldiers to UNC to speak to the crowds on their way to that day's homecoming football game. One of these soldiers PFC. Walter Kos was court-martialed for his activities there. Another, PVT. Joseph Miles, was restricted to base and reduced in rank for speaking out against the war to UNC students. The other soldier, PFC. Keith Jones, returned to Chapel Hill the following Tuesday, and I sat with him for several hours at a table at Y-Court as he talked to a large crowd of students about why he thought our involvement in Vietnam was wrong. Jones was not in military uniform, nor did he demonstrate against the war, both of which are prohibited to active duty military personnel. After this event I took Jones to Chapel Hill High School, Duke University, and North Carolina Central to speak informally to students. That evening Jones stayed at my home and told me in greater detail why he opposed the war, as well as about the abuse and intimidation soldiers received who wanted to express their views against fighting in Vietnam. He told me that at least 1,000 GIs at Fort Bragg felt the same way he did, but remained silent out of fear. The next day when Jones returned to Fort Bragg he was restricted to base, and later transferred to a more remote military post.

Before we left for Fort Bragg I had everyone going sign their names in my notebook. From top to Bottom are John Steiger (junior), Scott Bradley (senior), Bob Lock (senior), Sam Austell (junior), Don Storey (sophomore), Alan R. Cole (freshman from N.C. State), Hugh McConnell (graduate student), Mike Cozza (senior), Charles Mann (freshman), Lloyd Clayton (sophomore), Adolph Reed (senior), George A. Rose (freshman)

With the military muzzling the voices of the soldiers our group supported we decided to organize a group of students to go down to Fort Bragg on Saturday November 16th to hand out leaflets about freedom of speech for soldiers, which also included information about why some soldiers were speaking out against the war.  I had flyers printed about the event which were posted at schools and universities throughout the Triangle area, and also got the Daily Tar Heel and Duke Chronicle to write small articles about our plans. On Saturday those wanting to go to Fort Bragg met at the Morehead Planetarium parking lot. There were 11 students including myself, and a reporter from the Daily Tar Heel who wanted to go along to report about our activities. As we turned out of the parking lot in our two car caravan we soon realized there were two other cars following us. They continued to tail behind us for the rest of the day.

Adolph Reed (center), the head of the UAWMF, meeting with students in the Morehead Planetarium parking lot on November 16th, 1968 before leaving for Fort Bragg

Our plan was never to break any laws or engage in any act of civil disobedience at Fort Bragg. It was only to find a large open place where soldiers congregated when off duty to offer them our leaflets. Fort Bragg was then (and I think still is) a large open military reservation without fences or sentries which anyone could drive through. The first thing we did upon arriving at Fort Bragg was to go to the Operations and Provost office on the base to seek permission to hand out our leaflets at an approved location. 

There we met with Major Vernon Keller who was the Operations and Provost Marshall of the base. When we made our request to him he read us a short document entitled Title 18 U.S. Code Section 1382, which said picketing, demonstrations, sit-ins, political speeches, protest marches, and "similar activities" were not permitted at Fort Bragg. He said this prohibited us from handing out our leaflets anywhere on the base. I said to Major Keller that I did not think handing out leaflets was a similar activity to picketing, sit-ins, and political speeches. Nevertheless our group agreed we should consider Major Keller's directive carefully, and we left Fort Bragg and drove to nearby Fayetteville to discuss what to do next.

This is me, Charly Mann, second from the right in white pants explaining to Fayetteville police Sgt. C.B. Morrison that our group had no plans to break the law during our visit to Fayetteville and Fort Bragg. To my right is Daily Tar Heel reporter Mike Cozza. On my left is Adolph Reed and next to him is Andy Rose.

Of the eleven UNC students on the trip only myself and Andy Rose were freshmen. Most of the rest were seniors or graduate students. Andy and I had both worked with several of the soldiers that had been court-martialed or reduced in rank for trying to exercise their freedom of speech, and argued that handing out leaflets was not a "similar activity" as those described in Section 1382. None of the other students agreed with us, but said they would sit in the cars if the two of us wanted to hand out leaflets. At 6:30 PM we drove back onto the base and found a movie theater. We parked the two cars and Andy and I got out and handed out leaflets. Mike Cozza the reporter of the Daily Tar Heel also got out of the car with a writing pad to cover our activities. Less than thirty minutes later the place was swarming with military policeman and other plain clothes officers who took all twelve us to a prison on the base. During the more than seven hours we were there each of us were subjected to intimidating and harassing interviews in which we were accused of being communist agents, and told that we would each likely be spending at least six months in prison. We were also told that because our crime was so severe we would likely not be able to find meaningful employment after college. Not surprisingly several of the students were in tears after going through their interrogations. Finally at 2 AM we were expelled from the base and told we had all been arrested for breaking a federal law.

The news about our arrests for handing out leaflets at Fort Bragg made headlines across the state and nation on the following Sunday (November 17th, 1968) and Monday. 

The week after my arrest I was singled out for more harassment from the military's intelligence division (the CTD). That Tuesday two agents visited me at my home. First they wanted me to admit that I or other members of my group were communists. Then they informed me that all U.S. soldiers had the same rights to freedom of speech as civilians, but when I said that two of the soldiers I had worked with had recently been court-martialed for speaking out against the war they said they were unaware of this. Towards the end of our hour long conversation they were able to shock me with the information that I had been under filmed surveillance for several weeks. They said that they had proof of me committing another federal crime by wearing a Navy jacket on November 11th. I told them that jacket was bought at the local PTA Thrift Shop, but they demanded I turn the jacket over to them now or face even more serious charges. After taking my jacket they let me know that they thought the editorial views of the Daily Tar Heel were communistic.

This photograph is from the day of the trial of The Fort Bragg 12 on November 25th, 1968. We are standing outside the courtroom in Fayetteville. Andy Rose is on the far right, Adolph Reed in the center, and Scott Bradley on his left. 

Unlike today, the law moved very quickly in 1968 and our trial was set for less than two weeks later on November 25th. I, along with the ten other students who were arrested, was represented by four attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union headed by Charles F. Lanbeth and assisted by Dale Whitman, a UNC professor of law. Mike Cozza, the DTH reporter, did not have representation, because he was sure, as was almost everyone else, that charges would be dropped against him since he was not even part of our group and only reporting on the event. Our legal team not only proved the Fort Bragg regulation was too vague to prohibit handing out leaflets, but preventing us from handing out leaflets was also unconstitutional. This is because giving out leaflets is a passive act, and since newspapers were also sold throughout the base, and we could have bought ads in them that contained what was in our leaflets, our rights were being denied under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Our judge, Wallace C. Jackson, however, had made up his mind on the case long before the trial started. As soon as both sides rested he looked at the table where I was sitting and read the following words, "I implore you to return to the ways of your forefathers and spurn the lawless and vociferous doctrine of hatred and division you are spreading." That statement came as a shock to me since our forefathers had stood up against the unjust British government that tried to squash people who criticized it in 1776.

The outcome of the trial made headlines around the country and many newspapers had accompanying editorials calling the verdict an outrage.

Judge Stevens then took aim at Rose and me as he dismissed the charges against most of the other defendants. He gave us six month sentences, he said, "in order to protect free speech, because if this country is turned over to the elements for which we worked, the first thing that will be prohibited will be free speech." I had not been aware I working for another element. I was simply against the United States involvement in Vietnam War. I also knew from my own thoughts that exercising freedom of speech is something I held dear. For no reason anyone could discern, Scott Bradley, who was seated in one of the cars, was given a three month sentence. Most shocking was that Mike Cozza, the Daily Tar Heel reporter, was sentenced to 60 days in jail. Cozza was not even part of our group and told the military authorities when we first met with them he was a reporter observing our activities. Judge Stevens explained his bizarre decision this way: "Cozza's action was like getting a phone call that a murder was about to be committed, and then riding in the car with the murderers." Obviously he thought Andy and me handing out leaflets was akin to committing a murder. Cozza unfortunately did not have the means to appeal such an outrageous decision and accepted his sentence.

Over the next year much of my life was sidetracked by the appeals process in this case. More than a year later, on November 28th, 1969, the United States Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, overturned our convictions.

This is part of the ruling that overturned my conviction in the Fort Bragg case as well as those of Andy Rose and Scott Bradley. It was handed down on November 28, 1969 by the United States Court of Appeals. 

Chapel Hill Memories is meant to be a collaborative effort in which people relate their memories of the people, places, and events in Chapel Hill's past. Since its inception, I have been encouraging others to submit articles to Chapel Hill Memories. Thus far it has been almost exclusively me writing about my experiences and historical research I have done on the community. I am now beginning an indefinite hiatus from writing new articles for Chapel Hill Memories, and urge others to begin contributing their own recollections.

I have been thrilled by the large number of visitors to the site every day, and the hundreds of e-mails and phone calls I get each month relating to it, but what I really want is for others to share their stories about this wonderful place. 

Please submit articles on your Chapel Hill memories to:
chmemories@gmail.com

I can also provide a mailing address if you need to submit hard copies of your pieces.

Thanks for the kind words and for looking at Chapel Hill Memories,

Charly Mann

Charly Mann - Chapel Hill Memories

by Charly Mann

There are several stories that attempt to explain the origin of the name Tar Heel. The one I believe is accurate has highly racist overtones, and has been supplanted by more benign explanations in the last eighty years. My source is Kemp Plummer Battle, one of Chapel Hill most beloved and influential residents, who was President of the University of North Carolina from 1876 to 1891. For the last thirty years of his life until 1919, he spent much of his time diligently recording the history of Chapel Hill and the University. His two volume History of the University of North Carolina remains the definite source of information about the first 120 years of the university. What follows are the recollections of Battle who was born on December 19,1831and graduated from UNC in the class of 1849.

Kemp Plumber Battle, President of the University of North Carolina for 15 years and author of the History of the University of North Carolina

At the beginning of the Civil War in January of 1862 a group of black slaves in Mississippi were playing a game in which a copper penny was placed in the middle of a ring. Each man had a chance to dance over to coin and try to pick it up with their foot. The man who could pick it up and then dance with it out of the circle got to keep the penny. An especially dark black man who was referred to as a "darkey" kept winning the penny and the crowd watching the game became suspicious. A man in the crowd shouted," Dat nigger has got tar on his heels!" The man's foot was inspected, and indeed he did has tar on his heels.

Racist writings and cartoons sometimes appeared in UNC publications like this one from the 1913 Yackey Yack until almost 1960

This story was widely reported by Southern newspapers and soon Virginia soldiers started calling North Carolina soldiers Tar Heels because they said North Carolina was best known for producing "tar, pitch, and turpentine" The North Carolina soldiers enjoyed the nickname and declared Virginia soldiers would run away in battle with the Yankees, but the North Carolina soldiers would not run because they had tar on their heels. From then on people from North Carolina has been known as Tar Heels.

A cartoon with racist undertones from the 1912 Tar Heel