The first Northside Gateway is complete! At the corner of W. Rosemary and Roberson, this gateway honors our community’s Freedom Fighters. In time, we hope to see smaller versions in honor of our community’s educators and builders rising up at North Graham and on Sunset. The Gateway is built of Chatham stone and features eight black, granite slabs impressed with images of civil rights action in Chapel Hill and quotations from oral history interviews selected in an intensive, public process. The panels were installed just before the ribbon cutting at the Northside Festival in 2017!
The gateway offers what one local, civil rights leaders called “a beautiful glimpse” into the Freedom Movement. It is meant to let people know–loud and clear–that they have entered a unique community of people who have struggled for freedom their whole lives and to inspire similar determination. As lifetime resident, Clementine Self, said: “The battle is not over. We have not yet overcome.”
The gateway marks an entry into Northside neighborhoods and is just one more step in gathering and mobilizing our great history. We were thrilled to welcome Hilliard Caldwell (photographed above), longtime activist and longtime Carrboro Alderman, who traveled from Louisiana for the ribbon cutting. Thanks for all who participated in this creation and for the many folks who are visiting it each day!