CHAPEL HILL - CHAPEL HILL -- For 37 years, the Rogers Road community has been at the center of a public debate about the impact of the Orange County Landfill, which borders the neighborhood.

An exhibit opening June 12, "We're all Family Here: Preserving Community Heritage in the Rogers Road Neighborhood of Chapel Hill," will tell a deeper story, uncovering more than two centuries of the community's history. The exhibit runs through Aug. 31 in the North Carolina Collection Gallery at UNC's Wilson Library.

In a free public program at 5:45 p.m. June 25 in the library, residents will discuss their history. Panelists for the program, "Documenting Neighborhood History in the Rogers Road Community of Chapel Hill," will include the Rev. Robert Campbell, other members of the community and researcher Emily Eidenier. The program will follow a reception and exhibit viewing at 5 p.m.

Campbell, a member of Faith Tabernacle Church on Rogers Road, co-chairs the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism and is president of the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association.

Eidenier, a Hillsborough native and UNC graduate student in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, wrote "Rogers Road," a book illustrating the community's growth over nearly 20 decades.

Eidenier received a Robert E. Bryan Fellowship from the Carolina Center for Public Service at UNC for work toward the book, which includes photographs, personal histories and public documents about the community's history.

The 75-item exhibit will focus on the development of the area between Eubanks and Homestead roads from an 18th-century white neighborhood into an African-American neighborhood, said Linda Jacobson, N.C. Collection Gallery assistant keeper. Some of the deep-rooted community families bear names familiar in Chapel Hill, including Hogan, Nunn, Rogers, Caldwell and Purefoy.

Early 20th-century photos show the daily life of community members. Maps from 1891 and 1944 display the evolution of community landmarks such as Hickory Grove Church, the Orange County Training School and Morris Grove Elementary School.

"It's about African-Americans bringing life to a farm-viable community in North Carolina after emancipation, and a celebration of a long-standing tradition of supporting one another through conflict and hardship," Jacobson said. "We'll focus on the recent conflicts, too, because that's why this neighborhood is in the news. That helped bring the residents together to pursue a number of goals."

Those goals include fighting placement of a proposed solid waste transfer station in the neighborhood area and advocating for installation of municipal water and sewage services.

A slide show of 50 photos donated from community members will also be on display, as well as information on researching ancestry in North Carolina using resources in the North Carolina Collection of Wilson Library.

"I was surprised by how much the history of community members on Rogers Road reflected stories I had heard told in my own family," Eidenier said. "I hope this research will bring to the public an expanded view of county history -- one that includes the histories of African-American citizens and African-American agriculture."

"Rogers Road" is available online at www.lulu.com, a self-publication resource. Eidenier received a grant from the Chapel Hill Historical Society to publish copies of the book and distribute them to public libraries and high schools in the county, and to Morris Grove Elementary School.

WHAT'S NEXT

Orange County is considering building a solid waste transfer station at one of two sites in the county, as well as planning to meet with Durham about possibly collaborating on an expansion of that city's transfer station. The Orange County Board of Commissioners has reports due at the following meetings:

June 16: Evaluation of Millhouse Road site, 7 p.m., Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill

Aug. 18: Wetlands analysis of Howell property on N.C. 54; 7 p.m. Battle Courtroom, Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough