Editing Orange County, North Carolina (section)

===20th century===
[[Occoneechee Speedway]], just outside Hillsborough, was one of the first two [[NASCAR]] tracks to open, and is the only track remaining from that inaugural 1949 season. [[Bill France Sr.|Bill France]] and the early founders of NASCAR bought land to build a one-mile oval track at Hillsborough, but opposition from local [[religion|religious]] leaders prevented the track from being built in the town and NASCAR officials built the large speedway [[Talladega Superspeedway]] in [[Talladega, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historichillsborough.org/images/Speedway-Complete.pdf|title=Racing vs. Religion|access-date=July 16, 2007 |publisher=Historic Hillsborough |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008210038/http://www.historichillsborough.org/images/Speedway-Complete.pdf <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=October 8, 2007}}</ref>

Chapel Hill, along with [[Durham, North Carolina|Durham]] and [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], makes up one of the three corners of the [[Research Triangle]], so named in 1959 with the creation of [[Research Triangle Park]], a research park between Durham and Raleigh.

The [[Morehead Planetarium]] at UNC opened in 1949, when it was one of only a handful of [[planetarium]]s in the nation. It continues as an important town landmark and destination for Chapel Hill. During the United States' [[Mercury program|Mercury]], [[Gemini program|Gemini]], and [[Apollo program]]s, astronauts were trained there.

[[File:Franklin Street Chapel Hill NC.jpg|300px|left|thumb|The intersection of [[Franklin Street (Chapel Hill)|Franklin Street]] and Columbia Street in Chapel Hill]]
During the 1960s, the UNC campus was the location of significant political protest. Prior to passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], protests about local [[racial segregation]] began quietly in [[Franklin Street (Chapel Hill)|Franklin Street]] restaurants; activists increased in influence and led mass demonstrations and civil disturbance.<ref>Snider, William D. (1992), p. 269.</ref>

Always suspicious of communist influence in the civil rights movement, the legislature passed the 1963 [[North Carolina Speaker Ban|Speaker Ban Law]], prohibiting speeches by [[Communism|communists]] on state campuses in North Carolina.<ref>Snider, William D. (1992), p. 270.</ref>  University Chancellor [[William Brantley Aycock]] and University President [[William Friday]] criticized the law, but it was not reviewed by the North Carolina General Assembly until 1965.<ref>Snider, William D. (1992), pp. 272–273.</ref>  Small amendments to allow "infrequent" visits failed to placate the student body, especially when the university's board of trustees overruled new Chancellor Paul Frederick Sharp's decision to allow speaking invitations to [[Marxist]] speaker [[Herbert Aptheker]] and civil liberties activist [[Frank Wilkinson]]. The two speakers came to Chapel Hill anyway. Wilkinson spoke off campus, and more than 1,500 students watched Aptheker's speech across a low campus wall at the edge of campus, christened "Dan Moore's Wall" by ''[[The Daily Tar Heel]]'', referring to Governor [[Dan K. Moore]].<ref>Snider, William D. (1992), pp. 274–275.</ref> A group of UNC students, along with Aptheker and Williamson, filed a lawsuit in [[United States federal courts|U.S. federal court]] based on the right to free speech. On February 20, 1968, the Speaker Ban Law was ruled unconstitutional.<ref>Snider, William D. (1992), pp. 267–268.</ref>

In 1968, a year after its public schools became fully integrated, Chapel Hill elected [[Howard Nathaniel Lee|Howard Lee]] as mayor. This was the first predominantly white municipality in the country to elect an African-American mayor. Lee served from 1969 until 1975. Among other achievements, he helped establish [[Chapel Hill Transit]], the town's [[bus]] system.
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