While studying at UNC during the peak of the civil rights movement, former Daily Tar Heel photographer Jim Wallace captured images of Franklin Street marches, sit-ins and Ku Klux Klan rallies.
Now, Wallace has released a book that documents the many unpublished photos that he took in Chapel Hill while on the job that show the heart of the movement.
“It was not a Selma, it was not a Montgomery, but it was small communities and municipalities like Chapel Hill and others throughout the South where the civil rights movement began,” he said.
Wallace introduced his book “Courage in the Moment: The Civil Rights Struggle” to a full room at Carroll Hall on Monday evening.
Jan Yopp, a member of the Carolina Association of Black Journalists and also dean of summer school, described Wallace’s book as a “window into the South — past and present.”
Wallace said he had three goals for his book.
He said he wanted to showcase student work, highlight the level of importance of the Chapel Hill civil rights activists and recognize those by name who participated in the movement.
Wallace said his work at the DTH was particularly important because coverage of the movement at the time was slim. He said that the DTH elected to take an editorial stance in support of the movement.
“The Tar Heel covered it more than the regional and state newspapers and local papers,” he said.
