Orange County Courthouse Mural

Black History and Civil Rights

Because Orange County is located in one of the original colonies, a long history exists of Black communities living here. In the mural, eleven images represent this timeline, from individuals enslaved by white landowners to participants and activists of the Civil Rights Movement. These depictions are far from a complete record of Black experiences in the county, as these individuals were selected for the mural due to their achievements in the face of discrimination. However, this introduction will use these eleven examples to piece together how Black communities in Orange County lived during three distinct periods of American history.

The first Black individual forcibly brought to Orange County remains unknown, but Orange County deed books, sale records and wills indicate that between 1752 and 1867, over 1600 transfers of enslaved individuals occurred in the county. Six individuals represented in the mural were enslaved for part or all of their lives, and their stories provide a glimpse into the lives of broader Black communities of Orange County. The earliest of these individuals is George Moses Horton, born in 1797 into enslavement under the Horton family. He taught himself to read and composed poetry for UNC at Chapel Hill students, coming to acclaim after publishing the famous poem “Liberty and Slavery” to protest the institution of slavery. George is a unique example of Black social mobility before the Civil War. Fannie Breeze, born in 1832 into enslavement under the Breeze family, provided midwifery services to many families in the county, building a trusted reputation in a time when the state grew its oversight over midwifery. While these two individuals did well for themselves outside of their enslaved status, it is unclear how many others from the local enslaved Black communities had the opportunity to do the same, as many enslavers demanded intense physical labor daily.

The Reconstruction Era brought freedom from enslavement, but not economic elevation or civil protection, to 360,000 enslaved individuals in North Carolina. Several individuals represented in the mural saw their status as citizens change during their lifetimes. Wilson Caldwell, born in 1842 into enslavement by UNC President David Swain, worked as a gardener on the university campus until his emancipation. He then opened a local school for Black children and was elected to the Board of Commissioners of Chapel Hill. His son, Edwin Caldwell, was also born into enslavement but lived most of his life as a free man. He graduated from the Leonard Medical School at Shaw University and is credited with discovering effective treatment for pellagra before its formal study by the field. Lisbon P. Berry, the newest addition to the mural, was born in 1850 into enslavement by the Waddell and Nash families but was emancipated before adulthood. He became the first Black attorney in Orange County after being admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1882. These three individuals found economic and personal success after emancipation, but they and Black communities across the state still faced intense, legal discrimination, such as restricted movement, few civil rights, and economic opportunities similar to the physical labor performed on plantations. Individuals like Samuel Field Phillips, Orange County native who famously argued against the “separate but equal” legal doctrine in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), tried to fight the overwhelming anti-Black legislation on the state and national level, but the next major legal milestones for Black communities in the United States would come sixty years later with the Civil Rights Movement.

The last four individuals in this theme participated in the local adaptation of the national Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960s, sparked by nine Black students from Lincoln High School staging a sit-in at Colonial Drug Store, hundreds of Black and white activists protested the segregation of Chapel Hill businesses together. UNC students, including Karen Lynn Parker, organized and participated in this activism. Some UNC professors like Roberta Bowles Hodges Jackson, the first Black woman professor at the school, supported student exploration of topics like race and intersectionality through their curriculums and mentoring. During this time, the Chapel-Hill Carrboro school system began its first integration efforts in 1961, after a federal judge ruled against their zoning. Public school teachers like Frances Hargraves were among the first to navigate the new classroom dynamics. By the end of the 1960s, after many protests, marches and arrests, Chapel Hill businesses and workplaces became desegregated.

Today, local organizations in Orange County, like From the Rock Wall, work to record and preserve the experiences of Black individuals in the area. Residents of Orange County involved in these public history projects are dedicated to having local Black communities tell their own histories, a direct contradiction to traditional American archival materials with Black individuals as subjects but not creators.