The 1994-1999 volumes of The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.) are now available, thanks to our partner UNC Chapel Hill. With this batch, volumes from 1937-1943 and 1949 through the rest of the 20th century are now searchable on Digital NC. Researchers can trace the evolution of this powerful voice for Durham’s Black community, which continued its tradition of advocating for accountability and equity into the 1990s.

The paper’s major concerns from the second half of the decade include police brutality, hate crimes and burnings of Black churches, and education issues — including charter schools, affirmative action, funding of HBCUs, and inequities in standardized testing. Many of the volumes reflect anxiety about the displacement of and underinvestment in Durham’s Black community in the post-“urban renewal” era. These issues and the manner in which they were addressed continues to reverberate in our present day. National news from this era includes the development of effective treatment for HIV/AIDS, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, and the death of Betty Shabazz, Malcom X’s widow.

While the potential disaster of Y2K was avoided, the new millennium would bring many changes and challenges for The Carolina Times, including the retirement of its publisher Vivian Edmonds in 2002 and its ultimate closure in 2020. Future batches will document these changes and the continued prominence of The Carolina Times in North Carolina’s Black press landscape.