Chapel Hill will be honoring a trailblazing elected official on Saturday.

The town will hold a public art dedication to the first openly gay Town Council member on Saturday.

Joe Herzenbger – who is described in a release from the town as the first openly gay elected official in the South – served on the Town Council from 1979-81 and then again from 1987-93. He is one of nine civil rights advocates recognized at Peace and Justice Plaza in Chapel Hill.

Council member and civil rights attorney Allen Buansi made a point at Wednesday’s Town Council meeting to invite the public to the dedication ceremony this weekend.

“[Herzenberg] made a lot of contributions in the way of our parks and recreational services,” Buansi said. “So, I encourage folks, if you can make it out there, to be out there in support and memory of him.”

Herzenberg was a history professor who served as chair of the Town Greenway Commission and the Merritt’s Pasture Committee. Officials said he “continued to advocate for open space and environmental preservation” even after leaving the council.

The public art being dedicated to Herzenberg is a concrete and bronze bench on a new portion of the Bolin Creek Trail just west of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. The bench was funded by the Friends of Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department and was designed by the artists famous for the bronze sculpture of Major the Bull in downtown Durham – Michael Waller and Leah Foushee Waller.

The dedication is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, March 10, and staff from the parks and recreation department will be leaving from the Umstead Park parking lot at 9:30 a.m. and answering any questions about the trail and the project along the way for any residents interested in joining.

Photo via Town of Chapel Hill

Related Stories
‹
Local Officials Denounce Violence Against LGBTQ+ Community
On November 14, over 125 elected officials and organizations in North Carolina crafted and signed a statement denouncing violence and hateful rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community.
Downtown Chapel Hill To Diversify Pride Flags, Will Add Lesbian Flag
At the start of Pride Month, downtown Chapel Hill is decorated with all the colors of the rainbow. Pride flags hang throughout town representing different factions of the LGBTQIA+ community. But, community members noticed the pink, orange, red and white of the lesbian flag is missing.
Supreme Court Takes Up Cases About LGBT People's Rights
The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard highly anticipated cases on whether federal civil rights law should apply to LGBT people, with Chief Justice John Roberts questioning how doing so would affect employers. In the first of two cases, the justices heard arguments on whether a federal law banning job discrimination on the basis of sex […]
N. Carolina Governor Moves to Block Conversion Therapy Funds
North Carolina’s state health department is barred from allowing public funds to pay for conversion therapy for minors, a controversial practice aimed at changing young LGBT people’s sexual orientations, under an order signed Friday by Gov. Roy Cooper. Advocacy groups praised the Democratic governor’s executive order as a pioneering step to restrict the therapy in the U.S. […]
Big Business to Supreme Court: Defend LGBTQ People from Bias
More than 200 corporations, including many of America’s best-known companies, are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that federal civil rights law bans job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The corporations outlined their stance in a legal brief released Tuesday by a coalition of five LGBTQ rights groups. The […]
50 Years After Stonewall, LGBT Rights are a Work in Progress
They didn’t set out to change history; they weren’t the first LGBT Americans to mobilize against bias. Yet the June 1969 uprising by young gays, lesbians and transgender people in New York City, clashing with police near a bar called the Stonewall Inn, was a vital catalyst in expanding LGBT activism nationwide and abroad. This […]
Bills Opposing "Conversion Therapy," HB2 Remnants Filed
Gay rights advocates and their supporters at the legislature said Thursday that expanding antidiscrimination laws and repealing remnants of the North Carolina “bathroom bill” will make clear that LGBT people in the state aren’t second-class citizens. Democratic lawmakers unveiled three new pieces of House legislation, one of which also would prohibit so-called “conversion therapy” for minors. It […]
United Methodist Delegates Reject Recognizing Gay Marriage
The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, faces a likely surge in defections and acts of defiance after delegates at a crucial conference voted Tuesday to strengthen the faith’s divisive bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy. Emotions were high throughout the third and final day of the UMC’s meeting. Some supporters […]
Catholic School Cancels Class Over Protest of Lesbian Guest
A Catholic school in North Carolina invited a black lesbian alumna to speak at a Black History Month event, but canceled the event and classes due to threats of protest. The Herald-Sun reports Immaculata Catholic School canceled classes Friday after officials learned “a number of groups” planned to protest the talk by Durham councilwoman Vernetta Alston. Alston […]
Chapel Hill Honoring First Openly Gay Town Council Member with Public Art Dedication
Chapel Hill will be honoring a trailblazing elected official on Saturday. The town will hold a public art dedication to the first openly gay Town Council member on Saturday. Joe Herzenbger – who is described in a release from the town as the first openly gay elected official in the South – served on the […]
›