The James Cates Scholars program is a youth-led, elder-informed oral histories project dedicated to centering, exploring and sharing marginalized Black history in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Cates Scholars are students based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina ranging from 6th through 12th grade, college, and beyond.

In this project, the Scholars are interviewing Orange County residents about their or their families’ experiences with Jim Crow while living in Chapel Hill.

This oral history project is run by the non-profit organization Bridging the Gap in collaboration with UNC Chapel Hill’s On the Books project hosted through the UNC Libraries. On the Books is a Mellon-funded project to help to identify historical Jim Crow laws within the state of North Carolina. Future states hosting an On the Books project will be South Carolina and Virginia.