1825 — North Carolina State Literary Fund created to finance primary education for white youths

​1830 — Law passed in North Carolina making it illegal to teach a slave to read or write

1832 — The Reverend Joseph Caldwell advocated for education for white youths

1835 — North Carolina took away free Black people’s right to vote

1839 — North Carolina established free public schools for white youths

1840 — State public school system established

1852 — General Assembly attempted to divert resources from UNC to aid public schools

1853 — Orange County Public Schools developed

1865 — Equal Rights League established to ensure full citizenship and rights for Black North Carolinians

1866 — Freedman’s Convention in Raleigh

1866 — Quakers established a school in Chapel Hill

1868 — Wilson Caldwell, whose father was enslaved by UNC’s president, Joseph Caldwell,  founded the Caldwell School for Negroes

1869 —Freedman’s School established in Hillsborough

1871-1874 — Conservatives gained control of the General Assembly

1884 — 35 white schools and 31 Black schools present in Orange County

1887 — Hayes Tilden Compromise removes federal troops from the South and leaves Black people unprotected from terror

1891-1892 — Kemp Plummer Battle taught Biblical history and modern methods of research, such as developing “a logical view of the stream of human events and the evolution of races and nations”

1870-1906 — Statistical Record of the Progress of Public Education 1870-1906 was released

1890 — Quakers offered to donate building at St. Paul’s school if the town of Chapel Hill paid the teacher’s salaries

1896 — Plessey v. Ferguson

1898-1912 — Dr. L.H. Hackney established chronically underfunded Hackney school for Black children in Chapel Hill

1902 — Chapel Hill Public School opened in Orange County for white children

1909 — Chapel Hill school district chartered by NC General Assembly

1915 — Stuart Willis gave speech “What can we do?“ and organized volunteers from UNC to develop Black school to teach them to be better servants

1916 — Orange County Training School opened for Black students in Orange County

1921 -1922 — Black Orange County residents raised more than half of the money to fund Cool Springs School north of Chapel Hill

1922 — Orange County Training School destroyed by fire

1924 — Orange County added funding to expand school year

1924 — Henry Stroud donated land for Orange County Training School

1927 — Chapel Hill School district was made training school of UNC’s school of education

1929 — Orange County refused to add additional funding for Black schools to expand school term from 6 to 8 months

1930 — Black Chapel Hill residents vote to increase their taxes and join Chapel Hill School district

1933 — New Deal legislation made available $120 billion dollars in loans (worth a trillion dollars today) for white people and created jobs designed to eradicate unemployment

1933 — Home Owners Loan Corporation Invested in the cultivation of white neighborhoods with color-coded communities based on race and offered inexpensive homes for the white neighborhoods

1934 — The Federal Housing Act insured mortgages of lower-income Americans, helping white citizens acquire financing through private banks and other financial institutions

1935 — Social Security Act provided benefits to American workers except farm and domestic workers, the primary vocation of Black Orange County workers

1938 — Brick construction for Central High School (formerly Negro High School)

1939 — Chapel Hill’s white community had paved roads

1944 — GI Bill sent $95 billion dollars of educational, housing and employment benefits to mostly white soldiers coming home from war 2,255,00 soldiers received this “leg up”

1947 — Because of the GI Bill, student enrollment at UNC increased from 4,100 to 7,250

1947-1966 — Chapel Hill High educated white students

1948 — OCTS name changed to Lincoln High to indicate more academic rigor

1954 — Brown v. Board of Education

1955 — Pearsall Plan developed to offer school vouchers and delay school integration in  North Carolina and all 100 counties voted in favor

1959 — Stanley Vickers Lawsuit initiated to force desegregation of the CHCCS system

1960 — Committee headed by UNC professor Harold Langenderfer to study curriculum and transfers

1963 — Chapel Hill transfers allowed Black citizens to attend white schools. Most Black citizens were reluctant to apply out of fear of retribution

1964 — School district lines redrawn

1966 — Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools fully integrated

1969 — Disruptions at Chapel Hill High school over unfair treatment of newly integrated Black students result in Chapel Hill police, Orange County sheriff and riot-helmeted officers patrolling the school and injured Black high school students

1970 — United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare notified the UNC System it was in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to implement sufficient desegregation plans

1978 — Adams Criteria established to assist in creating programs to rectify past discrimination

1981 — UNC resolved consent decree from Adams v. Richardson in 1970 through an administrative proceeding, avoiding loss of $100 million of federal funds

1982 — NAACP Legal Defense Fund sought to re-open Adams lawsuit

1990 — Housekeepers threatened with job loss for joining the NAACP; the largest education advocacy organization in Chapel Hill

1994 — Leandro v. State of North Carolina lawsuit filed by five school districts in low wealth communities to ensure family wealth and residence should not be barriers to achieving a sound education

1996 — Controversy erupts over desire to open new high school, East Chapel Hill, in affluent neighborhood

1997 — N.C. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that access to a sound basic education is a constitutional right

2000 — North Carolina Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against requiring schools to be racially balanced

2002 — N.C. lower court found North Carolina to be in violation of providing a sound basic education for all students

2004 — N.C. Supreme Court upheld ruling that access to a sound basic education is a constitutional right

2017 — Governor Roy Cooper created Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education

2018 — The Govenor’s commission hired WestEd, an independent consultant group, to study and recommend a plan to remedy constitutional violation of basic education for students

2019 — WestEd released findings in 287-page action plan to target educational inequity