Town of Chapel Hill Rights a Wrong in 2022 Council Meeting
Thirty-three years ago, local and state law enforcement, some wearing masks and carrying automatic weapons, swarmed a block of downtown Chapel Hill, forcing Black people to the ground for an illegal search.
In November, 2022, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to apologize for the town’s role in violating the public’s constitutional rights during the raid called “Operation Readi-Rock” and for the harm the incident caused to Chapel Hill’s Black community.
Mayor Pam Hemminger read a resolution before the vote, giving a hug when she finished to James Williams, the county’s former chief public defender who worked with town staff to bring the resolution to the council.
Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger
It is an important first step, Williams said, thanking the raid’s victims for filing a lawsuit and seeking justice “for the harm they suffered.”
On Nov. 16, 1990, officers sealed off the 100 block of North Graham Street around 9 p.m., using a blanket search warrant issued just two hours earlier to search every pedestrian, home, car and business. Some officers wore camouflage and black masks and carried automatic weapons with laser sights. The warrant said police were looking for five people identified during drug trafficking surveillance. However, they searched between 60 and 100 people that night, many of whom later said that they thought the masked men, who did not identify themselves, were attacking or robbing them, the lawsuit said. Some also reported being injured during the raid. “People were subjected to armed, assaultive behavior simply because they were Black. We know that this would have never happened in a number of other communities in the town of Chapel Hill.”
The planning for Operation Readi-Rock started at least a month before 45 officers with the Chapel Hill and Carrboro police departments, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and State Bureau of Investigation went to North Graham Street. The area was the last remaining piece of the town’s historic Black business district, Midway.
Today, it is home to the Midway Business Center, filled with numerous restaurants, shops and Arcade and restaurants.
Rumors resale shop in Midway district in Chapel Hill
