Hargraves Community Center

The Hargraves Community Center, originally known as the Negro Community Center, is a historic site located at 216 North Roberson Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.^[1] In July 1940, the land was deeded to the town of Chapel Hill to create a community center for Black residents.^[2]

In 1973, the center was posthumously renamed after William M. Hargraves, a former member of the Parks and Recreation Commission who played a pivotal role in implementing several programs at the Hargraves Center that greatly benefited the community.^[2]

Today, the center provides a variety of amenities, like an assembly for social and recreational events, showers, a day nursery, and meeting spaces for Black organizations and clubs.^[1]

During the Jim Crow era of the early 20th century, the town of Chapel Hill enforced systemic racial discrimination through both legal and de facto practices.^[3] These measures restricted the social mobility of Black individuals to specific neighborhoods during the evening. Furthermore, Black community gatherings were routinely shut down. As a result of these social barriers, Chapel Hill's Black community lacked access to safe spaces for recreational activity and social gatherings.^[3][4]

In 1937 a race riot occurred which caused police to become more heavily armed. Despite this setback, the government approved the building of the Negro Community Center in 1938, and Black stonemasons and carpenters began building in 1940. The land where the center would be constructed was purchased by the Town of Chapel Hill on September 8, 1939. It was deeded to the town on July 29, 1940, on the condition that it be used as a community center for black people. The original construction of the center was supported by a $16,000 grant from the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency. After determining that the WPA funds would be just enough to cover basic construction costs, over 400 local residents made donations to supplement the grant and provide additional funds to complete the project.^[5][6] Original plans for the center included a nursery for working mothers, kitchen, woodworking shop, event hall, club rooms, a headquarters for a local nurse, and showers that were to be open to all in the community. Construction officially began on January 9, 1941.^[7]

In August 1942 the Navy's Carolina Flight School's All-Negro Band arrived to Chapel Hill. The 40-man unit was made of sailors from all over the state. After being made a permanent addition to the flight school, the band played at naval functions. After being denied housing on campus because of their race, it was decided that the members would take up residence in the Negro Community Center.^[8]

The band needed somewhere to stay, so the project was halted and the Navy preflight school was placed on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's campus.^[8]

Following the finished construction of the center, the Chapel Hill NAACP held their first meeting in 1947, serving as a historic achievement for advocacy and community organizing for racial equality.^[3]

In February 1951, Lucille Caldwell was hired as the first paid director of the center and North Carolina’s first African American to work as a professional recreational administrator. She worked at the center for twelve years, resigning in 1963.^[2]

Many additions have been made to the Center since its initial construction was completed in 1945. In 1948, Frank Robinson and Edwin Caldwell Jr. met with the president of UNC in an attempt to gain access to the university's pool for black children at least one day a month.^[9] The meeting resulted in all children being banned from the university's pool. Shortly after this, an anonymous donor funded the construction of a pool at the Community Center.^[7] In 1959, the project was completed with funding from a $40,000 donation from Cornelia S. Love, and dedicated to Adolphus Clark in 1960 as the A.D. Clark Pool. In 1978, the Town of Chapel Hill's acquisition of land south of the Center led to the construction of tennis courts. Two years later, the Center building underwent renovation and expansion, including the creation of a 1,500 sq. ft. auditorium.^[10] After years of discussion and funding from a number of different sources, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted to issue over $3 million in bonds to complete the construction of a new gymnasium at the center.^[11] Today, the center offers a wide range of recreation facilities including a baseball/softball field, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, meeting rooms, picnic areas, and a playground.^[12]

May 9, 1960: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at various locations about racial justice through passive resistance within Chapel Hill, such as the university and the then-named African American Center.^[13] His visit was prompted by the Chapel Hill Nine, which were 9 African American students from Lincoln High who initiated a sit-in at the Chapel Hill restaurant, Colonial Drug Co., in which patrons must be white if dining-in.^[14]

Fred Battle: Known as the “icon of the local freedom movement,” former director Fred Battle was a well respected member of the Chapel Hill community.^[15] Growing up in the Northside neighborhood and attending Lincoln High School, Battle became a figurehead of the civil rights effort in the area. His involvement included being council member of the town of Chapel Hill, president of the town's NAACP chapter, along with the director of the Hargraves Community Center.^[16]

• Racial segregation in the United States
• Racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces
• Jim Crow laws