The national Civil Rights Movement reached Chapel Hill in 1960, nine Black students from Lincoln High School staged a sit-in at Colonial Drug Store. Dubbed the “Chapel Hill Nine,” the students organized community members into a formal movement. Over the next few years, 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. After two votes from the town Board against integration, the protests culminated in a sit-in and large demonstrations at the Town Hall. During this time, the Chapel-Hill Carrboro school system began its first integration efforts in 1961, after a federal judge ruled against their zoning. Teachers like Frances Hargraves were among the first to navigate the new classroom dynamics.
Not all of the protests were safe for participants. Aggravation between protesters, counter-protesters and police led to large instances of violence. The Klu Klux Klan was often among the counter-protesters, their presence escalating fears of safety. Over the course of five years, hundreds of attendees were arrested and charged, and state courts offered varying degrees of leniency. By the end of the 1960s, protesters had accomplished key goals in Chapel Hill, such as the legal desegregation of public spaces and workplaces, and the physical intensity of the local movement faded.