The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP held several events this last month as part of the chapter’s 75th anniversary. The group capped off a special schedule with its annual gala on Saturday night, but also held an important community event discussion on Sunday.
October 23 marked the official Founding Day for the local chapter, with many members gathering in the Hargraves Community Center in Chapel Hill to honor it. There was singing, scripture and an unveiling of a plaque dedicated by the Town of Chapel Hill in the chapter’s honor.
Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger presented the marker during the early stages of the gathering. She said she was grateful leaders of the local NAACP brought the idea to town council and encouraged other community members to continue thinking of ways the town can continue to honor, preserve and celebrate its Black history.
A temporary version of a plaque the Town of Chapel Hill dedicated to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP for the chapter’s 75th anniversary.
Additionally, though, the event was meant to examine the Chapel Hill and Carrboro community’s ongoing challenges and racial disparities. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP chapter was founded in 1947 – a year marked by the Journey of Reconciliation coming through town, the early work of the Civil Rights movement and efforts by white community members to maintain separation and suppression of the towns’ Black populations.
While many strides have been made, there is still much work to be done to address racial disparities, as discussed by NAACP members and community leaders on Sunday. A panel detailed both historical and current data reflecting how in housing, law enforcement, health and education, there remain gaps between the achievements, opportunities and systemic privilege for white residents compared to Black residents. Leaders in those four fields shared some of their local efforts to better address them, and afterward, the panel and attendants held discussions in small groups about the same topics.
From left to right: Rodney Trice, Quintana Stewart, Chris Atack, Chris Blue, Jennifer Player, Foud Abd-El-Khalick and Danita Mason-Hogans participate in a panel for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP.
Some attendants of Sunday’s community discussion begin to circle into small groups for further deliberation and expression of how Chapel Hill and Carrboro can better address racial disparities.
Paris Miller-Foushee, the NAACP chapter’s secretary, took part in one of the group discussions. She said much of the conversation was about because discrimination happened and persists across many fields, so must efforts to improve treatment and opportunities. Miller-Foushee, who is also a Chapel Hill Town Council member, said it means focusing on inclusion through united and consistent efforts across all areas of the towns.
“That was a really big takeaway for me: the solidarity,” Miller-Foushee described, “coming together as a collective to engage the systems to help eradicate many of the disparities that we see. And making sure we’re bringing and centering those [who are] most marginalized.”
The theme of Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP’s 75th anniversary was “Honor the past, Build the future.” Chapter treasurer and co-organizer of the anniversary celebrations Deborah Stroman said the slate of events throughout October did just that. The group held a reading event to celebrate literature and culture of the African Diaspora and a tour through Chapel Hill’s sites of critical Black history leading up to the Founding Day.
“Over the past month, we brought community together, we educated one another, we had fellowship together, we laughed, and we cried,” described Stroman. “And today was an example of how when we bring people together and talk about the issues – not brushing our challenges away, not masking things, but speaking truth to power – we can walk away with hope.”
Deborah Stroman speaks at the Umoja Reading at the Chapel Hill Public Library on October 8, officially beginning the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP’s month of celebrations for its 75th Anniversary. (Photo via Matheny Media.)
Participants of a “freedom journey” throughout Black history sites in Chapel Hill and Carrboro march down Franklin Street on October 15. (Photo via Matheny Media.)
Stroman said organizers wanted intentional inclusion of looking forward and advancement of the NAACP chapter’s original members initial goals. While she acknowledged conversations can only bring about so much change, she said she believes the event did justice to continue collaboration toward making the towns better for all people.
Miller-Foushee agreed.
“I see the work that we’re doing today as a continuum,” she said, “just as those in 1947 saw those who came before them as part of continuum of our struggles for both freedom and liberation.”
While such discussions and the search for solutions is not straightforward or comfortable, Stroman said she believed Sunday’s event reflected the community’s ultimate character.
“To close out with a day of conversation and being hopeful to the future,” she said, “that’s Chapel Hill and Carrboro. And I think anyone who participated today got a piece of that. We had the emotion, passion, intellect, brilliance, we had a wonderful panel of outstanding leaders who are committed to doing better for all people in this community.”
Miller-Foushee added that she believes it’s important empower the local youth to have that same passion and similar discussions. She said investment in their well-being is a central theme to how Chapel Hill and Carrboro can move forward together.
“That’s the future: making sure we’re centering the youth in a lot of this work,” said Miller-Foushee, “and making sure they have what they need to bring us to where we need to be for the future.”
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