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English and Comparative Literature 225 Anniversary Timeline

1969 - Blyden Jackson (1910-2000) Joins the Faculty

Blyden Jackson, begins teaching in the English department. Professor Jackson was the first tenured Black faculty member at UNC, and developed and taught the first courses in African American literature at UNC. Additionally, he chaired the advisory committee overseeing the curricula that eventually became the Department of Afro and African American Studies. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School from 1973 to 1981, helping to recruit and retain Black graduate students and faculty members.

Blyden Jackson, formerly of Fisk University, begins teaching in the English department. The first tenured Black faculty member at UNC, he developed a range of courses in African American and southern literature. His courses on African American literature were the first at UNC. He also served as associate dean of the Graduate School from 1973 to 1981, helping to recruit and retain Black graduate students and faculty members. A pioneer in Black literature studies, Jackson published scholarship on the Harlem Renaissance, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Ralph Ellison. He chaired the advisory committee overseeing the curricula that eventually became the Department of Afro and African American Studies and completed in retirement the first of a planned four-volume history of African American literature. The UNC admissions building is named for Blyden and his spouse Roberta Jackson (1920-1999), the first Black female faculty member of UNC’s School of Education.

SOURCES

Banks, Lindsey.  “UNC’s first Black tenured professors left behind an impactful legacy.”  The Daily Tar Heel, 7 Feb. 2019, https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2019/02/first-Black-tenured-faculty-members-at-carolina-0208.

“Jackson, Blyden.”  Civil Rights Digital Library.  Digital Library of Georgia, 2020,http://crdl.usg.edu/people/j/jackson_blyden/?Welcome&Welcome.

“Jackson, Blyden.”  Notable Kentucky African Americans Database.  Reinette Jones & University of Kentucky Libraries, http://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/114.

University Communications.  “225 years of Tar Heel: Blyden and Roberta Jackson” in “Academics.”  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Feb. 4, 2019, https://www.unc.edu/posts/2019/02/04/225-years-of-tar-heels-blyden-and-roberta-jackson/.

Wallsten, Peter.  “Building to be named for pioneers of faculty integration.”  The Daily Tar Heel June 25, 1992: 1A, 5A. Rpt. in North Carolina Newspapers, http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073228/1992-06-25/ed-1/seq-1/.

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1. 1795, January 15 - University Opens On January 15, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opens its doors. However, no students would arrive until mid-February. David Ker (1758-1805), a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland, was the only professor teaching at the University and held the title of presiding professor, an equivalent to the president of the University. In April the faculty doubled with the addition of Charles Wilson Harris (1771-1804), a tutor of mathematics.
2. 1796, July - David Ker (1758-1805) Resigns
3. 1875, September 15 - The University Reopens with a College of Literature
4. 1818 - William Mercer Green (1798-1887) Graduates
5. 1844 - The University Magazine of 1844
6. 1996 - Mae Gwendolyn Henderson joins the Faculty
7. 1829 - George Moses Horton (born c. 1797) Publishes Poetry Collection
8. 1805 - Curriculum Changes Become Effective
11. 1826 - Caroline and Nicholas Hentz
12. 1795, December - Davie's Plan of Study Proposed
13. 1935 - Josefina Niggli
14. 2020, February 12 - Greenlaw Gameroom Launches
15. 1796 - The Preparatory School Established
16. 1999 - María DeGuzmán joins the faculty In July 1999, María DeGuzmán (1964-) joins the faculty. Together with Tyler Curtain and Erin Carlston, the three bring the study and teaching of queer theory to the department. Additionally in that same year, DeGuzmán taught the first Department of English courses in Latina/o literature, photography, and film. Fall 1999 she establishes The UNC Latina/o Cultures Speakers Series and later, in 2004, The UNC Latina/o Studies Program, the first of its kind in the Southeast.
17. 1965 - Karen Lynn Parker (1943- ) Graduates
18. 1864 - Edwin Wiley Fuller (1847-1876) Enrolls
19. 1918 - Frederick Koch (1877-1944) Founds the Carolina Playmakers
20. 1927 - Construction of Wilson Library Begins
21. 1795, February 2 - First Student Arrives On February 2 1795, the first student, James Hinton from Wilmington, North Carolina, arrives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Two weeks later, Hinton is joined by Maurice Moore, Alfred Moore, Richard Eagles, John Taylor, William M. Sneed, Hutchins G. Burton, Francis Burton, and Robert H. Burton, Junior. By the end of the first year, the student body consisted of 41 young white men.
22. 1849 - Albert Micajah Shipp (1819-1887) Becomes Professor of English Literature
23. 1920 - Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) Graduates
24. 1852, February - The North Carolina University Magazine Published A successor to The University Magazine of 1844, the student-led North Carolina University Magazine is published from February 1852 until May 1861. After the Civil War, it reappears as University Magazine but fails after seven issues. Revived in February 1882, it enjoyed uninterrupted success until June 1895. Revived again in November 1897, it continued publication under various titles and sponsorships until 1948, when it became the Carolina Quarterly.
26. 1856, December - Hildreth Hosea Smith (1820-1908) Becomes Professor of Modern Languages
27. 1887 - Stephen B. Weeks (1865-1918) Receives First Earned Graduate Degrees in English
28. 2020, Spring - 2021, Fall - COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts UNC
29. 1838, August - John DeBerniere Hooper (1811-1886) Becomes Professor of Latin and French Languages In August the professorship of modern languages, held by John DeBerniere Hooper since 1836, is retitled the professorship of French. The professorship of ancient languages is abolished and separate professorships are created for Greek and Latin. Hooper continues to teach both Latin and French for several years, although his teaching of French is occasionally assigned to other instructors whose tenure was usually short-lived.
32. 2018 - English and Comparative Literature Major Redesigned To reflect the variety of offerings within the department and provide students with an opportunity to customize their major, the curriculum was redesigned with six new concentrations: British and American literature; comparative and world literatures; creative writing; film studies; science, medicine, and literature; social justice and literature; writing, editing, and digital publishing. The new major also promotes the benefits of double majoring.
33. 2021 - 225th Celebration
34. 2015 - M.A. in Literature, Medicine, and Culture In 2015, the Department of English & Comparative Literature launches a new Masters program in English & Comparative Literature with a concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture alongside the HHIVE Lab, a health humanities research lab founded by Professors Jane Thrailkill and Jordynn Jack. Together, the LMC MA program and HHIVE Lab work closely with the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Social Medicine to offer an interdisciplinary curriculum in health humanities and support student and faculty research that combines humanities and health.
35. 1885 - Thomas Hume (1836-1912) Becomes Professor of English Language and Literature
37. 1927 - Howard Mumford Jones (1892-1980) Establishes The Bull’s Head Bookstore
38. 1865, April 16 - May 2 - Chapel Hill Occupied Approximately 450 Union cavalry troops commanded by Gen. Smith Dykins Atkins (1835-1913) occupy Chapel Hill from April 16 to May 2. Classes are suspended and some of the officers are quartered in University dormitories. Atkins posts guards from the Ninth Michigan Regiment at all houses requesting protection, and Union Gen. Francis Blair (1821-1875), a UNC alumnus, sets a Federal guard over the University campus.
39. 1921 - Paul Green (1894-1941) Graduates
40. 1945 - Two Japanese American students come to UNC after internment camps
41. 1795 - The Debating Society Founded
42. 1818 - Addition of Professorship of Rhetoric and Logic
43. 1962 - 1973 U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War Prompts Student Protests U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1954, when American advisors and military aid were sent to South Vietnam to support the government in its war against communist North Vietnam. President Kennedy increased the American military presence in 1962, and President Johnson escalated the war in the mid-1960s, sending hundreds of thousands of combat troops to support the South Vietnamese army. A growing anti-war movement and rising death tolls eventually led to a peace agreement between the U.S. and North Vietnam in January 1973. However, hostilities between North and South Vietnam continued until April 30, 1975. More than three million people, including 58,000 Americans, died over the course of the war, more than half of them Vietnamese civilians (Britannica).
44. 1979 - Thadious Davis (1944- ) Joins the Department of English Professors Thadious Davis together with Professor Trudier Harris, who was hired in the same year, become the first Black women on the English faculty. She is currently the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published extensively in African American literature and Southern literature focusing on race, region and gender.
45. 1913 - Edward Kidder Graham (1876-1918) Becomes UNC President
46. 1914 - Edwin Greenlaw (1874-1931) Becomes Chair of the Department of English
47. 1947 - Jesse Rehder (1908-1967) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
48. 1931 - Charles Phillips Russell (1884-1974) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
50. 1951 - Harvey Beech (1924-2005), James L. Lassiter (1909-2003), J. Kenneth Lee (1923-2018), Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), and James Robert Walker (1924-1997 )
52. 1905 - Louis Round Wilson (1876-1979) Receives English Department's Second Ph.D.
53. 1931 - Contempo Published; the Intimate Bookshop Opens
55. 1924 - Department of Journalism Established Professor Louis Graves (1883-1965), who taught journalism courses in the Department of English, resigned in 1921 to found the Chapel Hill Weekly. He was succeeded by Professor Gerald Johnson (1890-1980), who became the first head of the Department of Journalism in 1924. The department would become the School of Journalism in 1950 and is currently known as the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
57. 1966 - Doris Betts (1932-2012) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
58. 1979 - Trudier Harris (1948- ) Joins the Department of English Professor Trudier Harris together with Professor Thadious Davis, who was hired in the same year, become the first Black women on the English faculty. Professor Harris remained with the department, with the exception of a brief stint at Emory University from 1993-1996, until her retirement from UNC in 2009. She held the J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professorship of English from 1988-1993 and 1996-2009. The author and editor of 24 books and numerous articles, Harris has published widely on African American literature and folklore.
60. 1897 - The Concept of a Major Introduced
61. 1997 - SITES Launches
62. 2006 - The William Blake Archive Arrives at UNC
63. 1948 - The Carolina Quarterly Launches
64. 1955 - LeRoy Frasier (1937-2017), Ralph Frasier (1939?- ), and John Lewis Brandon (1938?-2018)
66. 1998 - Rashmi Varma Joins the Faculty
67. 2008 - The Department of American Studies Formed The Curriculum in Folklore and the Curriculum in American Studies are merged to form the Department of American Studies. Professor Joy Kasson (1944- ) becomes the department’s first chair. The Department offers undergraduate majors and minors in five areas of study—American Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Folklore Studies, Southern Studies, and Global American Studies—together with graduate degrees.
68. 1949 - C. Hugh Holman (1914-1981) Joins the Department of English
69. 1957 - O.B. Hardison, Jr. (1927-1990) Joins the Department of English
70. 1996 - UNC Libraries Launches Documenting the American South
71. 1967 - Louis D. Rubin (1923-2013) Begins Teaching English
72. 1980 - Erika Lindemann (1946- ) Becomes Director of Composition
74. 1999 - Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture Established
75. 2008 - Beverly Taylor (1947- ) Becomes Chair of Department of English
76. 1967 - The First Film Course Offered The Department of English offers the first film course in the 1967-1968 academic year. English 42, “Movie Criticism,” cross-listed with RTVMP 42 in the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures, is taught by Professor Kimball King (1934-2019) and Martha Nell Hardy (1925-2005). Professor Howard Harper (1930-2019) begins teaching the course the following year as part of his regular assignment until his retirement.
78. 1901 - Yackety Yack First Published
79. 1929 - Henry Owl (1897-1980) Graduates with an M.A.
80. 1936 - A Handbook to Literature Published by Doubleday
81. 1946 - Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) Becomes Dean of Women
82. 2011 - The Digital Innovation Lab Launches Established in 2011, the Digital Innovation Lab (DIL) aims to “integrate project-based, digital methodologies into humanities scholarship and to promote public humanities through digital innovation” (“Our History”). The DIL is a function of the Carolina Digital Humanities, a set of partnerships and programs promoting “innovation in digital teaching, research and outreach in the arts and humanities” (“About CDH/DIL”)
83. 1963, June 26 - Speaker Ban Law Passes; Protests Ensue The Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers is adopted on June 26, 1963, and bars speakers on any UNC system campus who are members of the Communist Party, among other alleged activities. Students protested the so-called Speaker Ban Law and challenged it by inviting Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak on campus in March 1966. Students listened as the speakers stood on the public sidewalk bordering McCorkle Place. A lawsuit, Dickson v. Sitterson, overturned the law in 1968.
84. 1968 - Daphne Athas (1923-2020) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
85. 1973 - Cellar Door Established In 1973, Cellar Door, an undergraduate literary journal at Carolina, begins publication. Published each fall and spring in print and online, the magazine seeks to showcase undergraduate students’ outstanding poetry, prose, and art. Students can apply to join the reading staff, and creative writing faculty members such as Max Steele (1922-2005) and Randall Kenan (1963-2020) have served as judges for work submitted by UNC students. English Professor Michael McFee (1954- ) is currently the student advisor for the journal.
86. 1983 - Louis Rubin (1923-2013) Founds Algonquin Books
87. 1871, February 1 - The University Closes for Four Years
88. 1890 - The Hellenian First Published
89. 2013 - Jane Austen Summer Program Inaugurated
90. 1969 - Blyden Jackson (1910-2000) Joins the Faculty Blyden Jackson, begins teaching in the English department. Professor Jackson was the first tenured Black faculty member at UNC, and developed and taught the first courses in African American literature at UNC. Additionally, he chaired the advisory committee overseeing the curricula that eventually became the Department of Afro and African American Studies. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School from 1973 to 1981, helping to recruit and retain Black graduate students and faculty members.
93. 2003 - Randall Garrett Kenan (1963-2020) Joins the Faculty
94. 1975, April - Women’s Studies Program Approved
95. 1877 - The Summer Normal School Opens
96. 1799 - Faculty Members Resign
97. 2004, September 20 - Latina/o Studies Program Founded The Latina/o Studies Program, the first program of its kind in the Southeast, is inaugurated on September 20. Professor María DeGuzmán (1964- ), who joined the faculty in July 1999, is the founding director of the program. The program, housed in the Department of English & Comparative Literature, offers undergraduate and graduate level classes across multiple departments and hosts an undergraduate minor, several speaker series, undergraduate and graduate symposia, instructional support for graduate students, working groups, a film database, and literary and cultural studies events.
98. 1893 - Shinzaburo Mogi
99. 1965 - The Writing Center Begins with English UNC institutes a temporary grade CC (composition condition), which prevents students from graduating until they complete English C, a tutorial, noncredit “review of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and composition” (Catalogue 1965-1966, 191). Seen as punitive, English C was discontinued in the 1980s, and the one-person Writing Laboratory became the Writing Center to help students with all elements of academic writing.
101. 1877 - Modern Graduate Degrees Established
102. 1917-1918 - World War I
104. 1943 - Post-War Committee
105. 2006 - The Department of English and Comparative Literature
106. 1948 - David Henry Malone (1919-2003) Defends First Comparative Literature Dissertation
107. 1954 - The Honors Program Established
108. 1971 - Graduate Students Form the English Club
112. 1966 - Curriculum in American Studies Established
113. 1971 - Leroy Martin (1943-1988) Earns Ph.D. in English
114. 1936 - Department of Dramatic Art
116. 1972 - First Class on Women in Literature
117. 1886, October - The Shakespeare Club Founded
121. 1972 - Patsy Brewington Perry (1933- ) Earns Ph.D. in English
122. 1922 - Enrollments Increase to Over 2000 Students
127. 1930 - Orpah Cummings (1908-1994) Joins the Department as Secretary
128. 1861, May 20 - North Carolina Secedes
129. 1986 - The Southern Folklife Collection Established The Southern Folklife Collection is created in 1986 by merging the UNC Folklore Archives, established by faculty members in the Curriculum in Folklore in 1968, and the John Edwards Memorial Collection, purchased in 1983. A component of the Manuscripts Department of the UNC-Chapel Hill University Library, the Southern Folklife Collection houses a remarkable collection of archival resources for the study of American folk music and popular culture.
131. 1915 - UNC Enrollment Tops 1000 Students for the First Time
132. 1923 - Majors and Minors Established
133. 1990 - Pamela Cooper Joins the Faculty
134. 1969 - Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Established In response to increased activism on the part of students, the Faculty Council voted to establish a curriculum in African studies in 1969 and a curriculum in African American studies in 1972. The curricula were merged in 1979 and became the Department of Afro and African-American Studies in 1997, renamed the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies in 2013. English Professor Trudier Harris (1948- ) chaired the curriculum from 1990-1992.
135. 1893, January 20 - The Philological Club Organized
137. 1924 - Irene Dillard Elliott (1892-1978) Earns a Ph.D. in English
140. 1993 - Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program Established The Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program is established with Shelby Foote becoming its first writer-in-residence. In 2013 it became the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Program, and in 2016, the Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence program. The program brings “significant contemporary writers to campus to meet with students and faculty, to visit classes, and to give readings, talks, and symposia” (“Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence”).
142. 1979 - English 131 Established

This page references:

“225 years of Tar Heel: Blyden and Roberta Jackson”