NC LIVE 2024 Annual Conference

Chapel Hill Public Library’s community history staff work with local people to document and share untold, ignored, and erased stories from Chapel Hill's history. This work is an intentional, collaborative co-creation with history makers, historians, local government, and community members. Our work is rooted in racial equity and seeks to flip the traditional model of collecting and sharing history. This program grew out of a 2017 local government task force charged with documenting local civil rights history from the community’s point of view. In the years since, interest and participation in this work has continued to grow.

In this presentation, history staff will walk through how we developed this program and our current practices. We’ll share several notable history projects, including a podcast, digital exhibits, summer programming, a reparations book club, and much more.