One year later: mental health impact of UNC-CH shooting and lockdowns; Golden Leaf series: history of NC tobacco warehouses

Due South

One year ago, Associate Professor Zijie Yan was fatally shot at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The campus was locked down for several hours as authorities searched for the suspect. The community was still in mourning when just over two weeks later a report of an “armed and dangerous person” triggered a second lockdown.

UNC-CH clinical psychology graduate student Joe Friedman wanted to understand the mental health impact of the shooting and lockdowns on members of his campus community, so he designed a study called the “UNC Coping Study.” He spoke with co-host Leoneda Inge last fall about the preliminary findings, and he joins her again to share the longer-term results of his research.

Then, Due South presents another conversation in our occasional series “Golden Leaf” about tobacco’s deep roots in North Carolina. The focus today is the history of tobacco warehouses in early and mid-20th century North Carolina.

By day, the work done in these warehouses was governed by the brutal racial injustices of the South. But, on some summer nights, those cavernous buildings were transformed into a different world, says Auburn University history professor Elijah Gaddis. Black music promoters rented the warehouses, invited some of the most famous musicians of the era to perform, and Black party goers danced the night away in a space filled with rich music and glorious decorations – and in doing so, challenged Jim Crow.