UNC Foodworkers’ Strikes of 1969

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When two students pursuing minors in social and economic justice began their internships at the Southern Oral History Program, they decided to focus their efforts on one of the largest instances of collective action in UNC Chapel Hill’s history: the UNC Foodworkers’ Strikes of 1969.

A Data Visualization Librarian at the Research Hub helped Sydney Lopez and Liv Linn use the ArcGIS Story Maps tool to create a digital exhibit featuring maps, historic newspapers, archival documents and compelling audio clips from the SOHP database. The majority of primary sources used in this project are from the Louis Round Wilson Library Special Collections, which is part of the University Libraries. For more information, see the Southern Oral History Program Collection.

In addition to the exhibit, the students produced and narrated an audio documentary with music from Harmonyx, an a capella group affiliated with UNC’s Black Student Movement. Paired with the digital exhibit, the resulting educational experience is a deftly woven and humanized analysis of a principal event in UNC’s activist history.