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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 20 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2,500 items) |
| Abstract | Joe Herzenberg (Joseph Alexander Herzenberg II) was born in 1941 in Franklin, N.J. He moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1969. Herzenberg was a politician; historian; advocate for social, environmental, and economic justice; and the first openly gay elected official in North Carolina. He died in October 2007 in Chapel Hill. The collection contains diaries, correspondence, subject files, photographs, and other materials relating to Joe Herzenberg. Diaries begin in 1954 during Herzenberg's early adolescence and continue through 2006. Entries are detailed narratives of Herzenberg's daily life during his teenage and college years. From the 1970s on, local and national politics play central roles in the diaries. Correspondence is chiefly incoming and concerns local and national politics and Herzenberg's personal life. Included are letters from Democratic Party politicians running for office; replies from politicians detailing stances on particular issues; letters from local and national non-profits; and letters concerning local politics, such as Chapel Hill Town Council meetings and the Chapel Hill City Greenway. There are also letters, postcards, and greeting cards from friends, family, and students. Subject file topics include politics, family, gay rights, home, hobbies, and social issues in Chapel Hill. Photographs are of Herzenberg's parents; Herzenberg at various stages in his life; school, social, and political events; friends, associates, and other individuals; and Herzenberg's cat and home. Also included are awards received by Herzenberg, his political pin collection, college class notes, and other items. |
| Creator | Herzenberg, Joseph A., 1941- |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
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.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Related Collections
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Biographical Information
Joe Herzenberg (Joseph Alexander Herzenberg II) was born 25 June 1941 in Franklin, N.J., to Marjorie and Morris Herzenberg. He was a politician; a historian; an advocate for social, environmental, and economic justice; and the first openly gay elected official in North Carolina. Herzenberg attended Yale University, receiving his B.A. in 1963 and M.A. in European history in 1965. One of his first major involvements with politics was working as a Freedom Summer volunteer in 1964 in Mississippi. He was briefly jailed as a civil rights protester that same year. From 1965 to 1967, Herzenberg worked as assistant professor and chair of the History Department at Tougaloo College, a historically African American school in Jackson, Miss., and a hotbed of civil rights activism in the 1960s. At Tougaloo, he met and was briefly married to an African-American woman at a time when interracial marriages were illegal.
Herzenberg moved to North Carolina in 1969 to enroll as a graduate student in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he wrote his dissertation on the career of local civil rights leader Frank Porter Graham. He first ran as a Democrat for Chapel Hill Town Council in 1979, but was narrowly defeated. Soon after, he was appointed to the Town Council to replace Gerry Cohen, who had stepped down mid-term. Herzenberg lost the reelection bid in 1981 and lost the election once again in 1983. In 1987, Herzenberg was elected to Chapel Hill Town Council, becoming the first openly gay elected official in North Carolina. He was re-elected by a wide margin in 1991, receiving an unprecedented vote total for Chapel Hill town council race. He remained in office until 1993. During his time in office, Herzenberg was a great proponent of civil rights, social justice, and environmental protection. Even after stepping down, Herzenberg remained involved in local politics and served on various town advisory boards, such as the Chapel Hill Greenways Commission. Herzenberg was a founding member of Pride PAC (later called Equality N.C. PAC), a state-wide advocacy organization working for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender North Carolinians. He played a great part in the enactment of Chapel Hill's tree protection ordinance, the creation of the Chapel Hill Greenways, and the preservation of the Chapel Hill downtown historic district. Herzenberg received the first Citizen's Award from the Independent Newsweekly in 1984. He died at the age of 66 on 28 October 2007 in Chapel Hill from complications of diabetes.
Adapted for the most part from Orange Politics blog: http://orangepolitics.org/2007/10/well-miss-you-joe/ (Date accessed: 30 January 2008)
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Scope and Content
The collection contains diaries, correspondence, subject files, photographs, and other materials of Joe Herzenberg, politician, historian, and social activist of Chapel Hill, N.C. Diaries begin in 1954 during Herzenberg's early adolescence and continue through 2006. Entries are detailed narratives of Herzenberg's daily life during his teenage and college years. From the 1970s on, local and national politics play central roles in the diaries. Correspondence is chiefly incoming and concerns local and national politics and Herzenberg's personal life. Included are letters from Democratic Party politicians running for office; replies from politicians detailing stances on particular issues; letters from local and national non-profits; and letters concerning local politics, such as Chapel Hill Town Council meetings and the Chapel Hill City Greenway. There are also letters, postcards, and greeting cards from friends, family, and students. Subject file topics include politics, family, gay rights, home, hobbies, and social issues in Chapel Hill. Photographs are of Herzenberg's parents; Herzenberg at various stages in his life; school, social, and political events; friends, associates, and other individuals; and Herzenberg's cat and home. Also included are awards received by Herzenberg, his political pin collection, college class notes, and other items.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Diaries, 1954-2006.
Arrangement: chronological.
Diaries begin in 1954 in early adolescence and continue through 2006, shortly before his death. During Herzenberg's teenage and a college years, the diaries relate detailed narratives of his daily life and routine, including accounts of conversations, school, parents, friends, activities, and readings. After college, the diaries pay increasing attention to politics. By the 1970s, local and national politics play central roles in the diaries. In later decades, diary entries are far less detailed, though they still track the events of daily life. There are no diaries from 1968 to 1974.
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Series 2. Correspondence, 1940-1997.
Arrangement: as received.
Correspondence is chiefly incoming and concerns local and national politics and personal life. Included are letters from Democratic Party politicians running for office; replies from politicians detailing stances on particular issues; letters relating to the Chapel Hill Town Council; letters relating to local projects such as the Chapel Hill City Greenway; and letters from local and national non-profits such as PridePac, the ACLU, the Nature Conservancy, the AIDS Service Agency NC, and others. Letters trace the campaigns of local and national Democratic candidates including Bill Clinton, Harvey Gantt, Ellie Kinaird, Jose Medina, Mike Nelson, and David Price.
There are also postcards, greeting cards, and letters from friends, family, and students. Though the letters are chiefly incoming, there are a few originating with Herzenberg, including a June 1995 letter documenting the refusal of a Chapel Hill, N.C., restaurant to serve him due to his sexual orientation.
Many letters were annotated by Herzenberg. These annotations include information such as whether or not Herzenberg responded to the letter, whether he voted for a particular politician and his opinion of the politician, what his answer was to a question in the letter, or how much money he donated to a specific organization. Filed among the letters are official documents such as Herzenberg's voter registration certification, GRE and other test scores, Chapel Hill Town Council documents, and tax information.
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Series 3. Subject Files, 1883-2005.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Subject file topics include politics, family, gay rights, home, hobbies, and social issues in Chapel Hill, N.C. Materials are letters, photographs, publications, and clippings.
Note that original file folder titles have, for the most part, been retained. See Series 4. Photographs for other photographs.
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Series 4. Photographs, 1942-2006.
Arrangement: by subject and date.
Childhood photographs of Herzenberg's parents; photographs of Herzenberg throughout his life; photographs of school, social, and political events; photographs of other individuals; and photographs of Herzenberg's cat and home. See Series 3. Subject Files for other photographs.
| Image Folder 1-7 |
#05367, Series: "4. Photographs, 1942-2006." 1-7Joe Herzenberg Imagefolder 1Imagefolder 2Imagefolder 3Imagefolder 4Imagefolder 5Imagefolder 6Imagefolder 7 |
| Oversize Image Folder 1 |
School photograph, undated #05367, Series: "4. Photographs, 1942-2006." 1 |
| Image Folder 8 |
#05367, Series: "4. Photographs, 1942-2006." 8Photographs depicting individuals and Herzenberg's house, yard, and cat. Herzenberg does not appear in these photographs. |
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Series 5. Other materials, 1907-2005.
Awards received by Herzenberg, his political pin collection, college class notes, his parents' marriage certificate, and other items.
| Folder 200-211 |
Other materials #05367, Series: "5. Other materials, 1907-2005." Folder 200-211Folder 200Folder 201Folder 202Folder 203Folder 204Folder 205Folder 206Folder 207Folder 208Folder 209Folder 210Folder 211 |
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Items Separated
Processed by: Joyce Chapman, January 2008
Encoded by: Joyce Chapman, January 2008
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