The historic unveiling of a tribute marker will take place from 3 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, at Peace and Justice Plaza in front of the Post Office-Courthouse, 179 E. Franklin St.
The public event will be the second of a two-part series jointly sponsored by the Town of Chapel Hill and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP to honor nine local peace and justice leaders. The first event was a rally (pictured at left) that was held last month on the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.
On Sunday, a granite marker will be unveiled that will commemorate 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." Remarks about these individuals will be made by family, family and others who knew and respected them.
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.
The Town Council has established a process to honor additional peace and justice leaders in the future.
For more information about the Sept. 20 event, please contact Catherine Lazorko, public information officer for the Town of Chapel Hill, at
clazorko@townofchapelhill.org or 919-969-5055