Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

• African American business enterprises--North Carolina.
• African American businesspeople--North Carolina.
• African American cookery.
• African American families--North Carolina.
• African American women cooks--North Carolina.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Chapel Hill.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Chatham County.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Businesswomen--North Carolina.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Commerce.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Chatham County (N.C.)--Social life and cutsoms.
• Cookery, American--Southern style.
• Council, Mildred.
• Depressions--1929--North Carolina.
• Mama Dip's Country Kitchen (Restaurant).
• Restaurants--North Carolina--Chapel Hill.

African American businesswoman and cook Mildred Council ("Dip") was born on a farm in rural Chatham County, N.C, in 1929. Her father, Ed Cotton, was a farmer, while her mother, Effie Edwards Cotton, taught school in Chatham County.

Council attended cosmetology school in Durham, N.C., graduating in 1947. She then married Joe Council, with whom she had eight children while holding down a variety of food preparation jobs. In 1957, Council became the manager of Bill's Barbecue, a restaurant owned by her father-in-law in Chapel Hill, N.C. She opened Mama Dip's Country Kitchen in Chapel Hill in 1976. Dip's has become a landmark for southern-style cooking in the region. In 1999, she published Mama Dip's Kitchen, which contains both recipes and reminiscences.

The papers of African American businesswomen and cook Mildred Council consist of handwritten and typed drafts for Mama Dip's Kitchen (University of North Carolina Press, 1999). The drafts contain extensive descriptions of farm life in North Carolina during the Depression of the 1930s; notes on Mildred Council's family in Chatham County, N.C., Chapel Hill, N.C., and elsewhere; and information relating to ingredients and preparation of various southern-style recipes.