Carrboro names library complex after former Mayor Robert Drakeford

The Orange County Board of County Commissioners voted on Nov. 7 to name Carrboro's new public library after Robert Drakeford, the Town's mayor from 1977 to 1983. 

The Drakeford Library Complex, previously known as the 203 Project, will serve as a cultural center and open in February 2025. 

Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee said Drakeford was Carrboro’s first Black mayor, and is remembered for his progressive policies as well as his contributions to Carrboro’s bus systems and bikeways. 

“Drakeford perceived another vision of how Carrboro could be mightier and punch above her weight, in terms of being engaged with Chapel Hill and engaged with the kind of vitality a more vibrant town would have,” Carrboro Town Council Member Randee Haven-O’Donnell said.

Foushee said that it's important for Carrboro to move away from the racist history of its namesake Julian Carr, by honoring the Black figures central to the town’s history.

“I know I stand on Mayor Drakeford’s shoulders, as well as on my own husband’s, to be able to serve on the Carrboro Town Council and ultimately to serve as the first Black woman mayor,” she said.

Commissioner Sally Greene said the new name of the complex was suggested by members of the town via an online survey requesting suggestions of people influential to Orange County. 

Then, she said a committee selected a name from the suggestions. The naming committee was comprised of Council Members Catherine Fray and Eliazar Posada; Commissioner Sally Greene and Commissioner Anna Richards; and Friends of the Southern Branch Library Board Members Alexandra Brown and Nerys Levy. On Oct. 15, the Town Council approved the committee's selection. 

“All of our colleagues on both boards were enthusiastic about supporting the name,” Greene said. 

She said of all of the people suggested, the naming committee decided to pick someone who had been in public office because the library is a public building.

“[Drakeford] was distinctive because he really was a great mayor in a kind of transitional or pivotal time for Carrboro’s history,” Greene said.

According to the Town's website, the Drakeford Library Complex will also be a home for Carrboro's recreation, parks and cultural resources department, Orange County's Skills Development/JobLink Center, the WCOM radio, a teen center, performance spaces and other multipurpose uses.

Foushee said the library will be a civic building open to everybody, and there will be opportunities for education and connection. 

When the complex is completed, Carrboro will officially have a free-standing public library, Haven-O'Donnell said. 

“It didn’t make any sense to me that — with all of the folks who could access downtown Carrboro and who lived in Carrboro — we didn't have a public library available to us,” she said. 

Various task forces and members of the Town have been working very hard to complete the library, Greene said. Levy, specifically, has been advocating for the southern branch of the Orange County Library for over 30 years.

“It's momentous that Carrboro and Orange County have built a library,” Haven-O’Donnell said. “It signifies commitment to freedom of thought, public access to information, history and diversity of perspectives that we need to stand firm and stand with and fortify.” 

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