Exhibit Reveals Rich History of Rogers Road Neighborhood
We're All Family Here: Preserving Community Heritage
in the Rogers Road Neighborhood of Chapel Hill
North Carolina Collection Gallery, Wilson Library
June 12 - Aug. 31, 2009
Free and open to the public
Information: (919) 962-1172 or wilsonlibrary@unc.edu
Listen Now: D.G. Martin interviews Emily Eidenier and Rev. Robert Campbell on WCHL-1360 radio (June 24, 2009)
Unidentified couple from the
Walker Family photos, ca. 1920s.
North Carolina Collection.
The free, public exhibit, We're All Family Here: Preserving Community Heritage in the Rogers Road Neighborhood of Chapel Hill, will be open June 12 through August 31 in the North Carolina Collection Gallery, on the main floor of Wilson Library.
The 75-item exhibit focuses on the development of the area between Eubanks and Homestead roads from an 18th-century white neighborhood into an African American neighborhood, says Linda Jacobson, North Carolina Collection Gallery assistant keeper. Some of the deep-rooted community families—the Hogans, the Nunns, the Rogers, the Caldwells, and the Purefoys—bear names familiar in Chapel Hill.
Early 20th-century photos show the daily life of community members, and maps from 1891 and 1944 display the evolution of community landmarks such as Hickory Grove Church, the Orange County Training School, and Morris Grove Elementary School.
"It's about African Americans bringing life to a farm-viable community in North Carolina after emancipation, and a celebration of a long-standing tradition of supporting one another through conflict and hardship" Jacobson says. "We'll focus on the recent conflicts, too, because that's why this neighborhood is in the news. That helped bring the residents together to pursue a number of goals."
Those goals include fighting placement of a proposed solid waste transfer station in the neighborhood and advocating for installation of municipal water and sewage services.
A slide show of 50 photos donated from community members will be on display, as well as information on researching ancestry using resources in the North Carolina Collection at Wilson Library.
The exhibit was sparked by the work of Emily Eidenier, author of Rogers Road, a history of the community's growth over nearly 20 decades. Eidenier, a Hillsborough native, is a UNC graduate student in the Gillings School of Global Public Heath.
"I was surprised by how much the history of community members on Rogers Road reflected stories I had heard told in my own family," Eidenier says. "I hope this research will bring to the public an expanded view of county history—one that includes the histories of African-American citizens and African-American agriculture."
Rogers Road is available for free download at lulu.com, a self-publication resource. Eidenier recently received a grant from the Chapel Hill Historical Society to publish copies of the book and distribute them to public libraries and high schools in the county and to Morris Grove Elementary School.
Releated Links
- Exhibit, program to share history of local black community (news release from UNC News Services, May 26)
- Rogers Road, by Emily Eidenier on lulu.com (available for free download)
- Projects capture the history of Rogers Road (article by Emily Eidenier in the Chapel Hill News)
- Rogers Road - A series (news articles from the Carrboro Citizen highlighting the Orange County landfill and waste transfer station controversy)
- Rogers-Eubanks Coalition blog site
- North Carolina Collection Gallery in UNC's Wilson Library
