The indoor gym and basketball court at the Hargraves Community Center have been renamed in honor of longtime community leaders from Chapel Hill’s historic Northside community.
The Northside Gym at the center is being dedicated in honor of Nate Davis, while the indoor basketball court is being renamed after Fred Battle.
Both men served as director at the Hargraves Center. Davis held the position for over three decades until his retirement in 2019, while Battle held the position from 1970 to 1987.
Chapel Hill’s town council unanimously approved the renaming last Wednesday on the recommendation of the town’s Naming Committee.
Nate Davis (Photo via the Marian Cheek Jackson Center.)
Fred Battle (left) and Ida Battle Witherspoon in 2014.
John French, the Recreation Supervisor at Hargraves, said Davis and Battle made a positive impact on countless young people in the community.
“Both of these gentlemen are synonymous with Hargreaves,” French told the council last week. “Their acts of humanity not only benefited the African American community for generations to come, but the entire town of Chapel Hill benefited from their service.”
The Hargraves Community Center on North Roberson Street has served many purposes since its construction in the early 1940s.
“B-1 Band, African American Navy Band assigned to Chapel Hill, 1942-1945.” (Photo via ‘Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History.’)
The building housed the B-1 Navy Band, a group of Black musicians stationed in Chapel Hill during World War 2 who were the first to break the Navy’s color barrier. Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the Hargraves Center in May 1960. Over the decades, the center served as a center for community life for the historically Black neighborhood of Northside.
In addition to their work at Hargraves, Davis and Battle served as tireless civil rights advocates.
Nate Davis is a longtime member of the NAACP, served on several Town and County Boards and received the Cal Horton Award for Employee of the Year with the Town of Chapel Hill in 2011.
French said he saw Davis’ impact in the community firsthand.
“There’s not a day that goes by that somebody does come back and talk about how Mr. Davis made an impact on their lives,” he said. “And I will say, he made an impact in mine.”
Battle, who died in 2019, was a lifetime member of the NAACP, and an active member of the 1960s civil rights movement. Battle attended the segregated Lincoln High School in Chapel Hill and graduated with the class of 1962.
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