Joe Herzenberg
Encyclopedia
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
elected official in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. Herzenberg was named Joseph Paul Herzenberg at birth, but took his grandfather's name when he was bar mitzvahed. His parents were Marjorie and Morris Herzenberg.
Biography
Herzenberg was a native of Franklin, New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. He received a B.A. in 1963 from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and an M.A. in European History from Yale in 1965. Herzenberg was a Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...
volunteer in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
in 1964. He was appointed instructor and chair of the History Department at Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts institution of higher education founded in 1869, in Madison County, north of Jackson, Mississippi, USA.Academically, Tougaloo College has received high ranks in recent years...
(a historically black college in Jackson, Miss.) in 1965, and was promoted to Assistant Professor at Tougaloo in the 1966-67 academic year.
In 1969 Herzenberg moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
, where he enrolled as a graduate student in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, and completed his dissertation on the career of local civil rights leader Frank Porter Graham. He was narrowly defeated in a 1979 bid for the Chapel Hill Town Council, but was later appointed to the town council when councilmember Gerry Cohen
Gerry Cohen
For the Marxist academic, see Gerald Cohen. For the director Gerry Cohen, see Gerry Cohen . For the CEO Gerald D. Cohen, see Information Builders....
stepped down following a failed bid for mayor. Herzenberg lost his reelection bid in 1981, and was unsuccessful again in 1983. In 1987, he ran again, and his victory that year that made him the first openly gay elected official in the state. He was reelected with overwhelming support in 1991, receiving an unprecedented vote total for Chapel Hill town council race. Herzenberg resigned from the town council in 1993 after it was reveled that he had not paid state income tax for the previous 14 years.
Herzenberg was a noted advocate for the environment, civil liberties, and the interests of low-income people. He was a founder of Equality NC PAC (originally NC Pride PAC), a statewide advocacy organization for lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay, bisexual
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
, and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
North Carolinians, and he served on its board for more than a decade.
After leaving the council in 1993, Herzenberg continued to serve the town on several advisory boards, including chairing the Town Greenways Commission and serving on the committee to rename Airport Road in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
He played a great part in the enactment of Chapel Hill's tree protection ordinance, the creation of the Chapel Hill Greenways, and the preservation of the Chapel Hill downtown historic district. Herzenberg received the first Citizen's Award from the Independent Newsweekly in 1984. He died at the age of 66 on October 28, 2007 in Chapel Hill, from complications of diabetes.
An oral history conducted with Herzenberg in 1985 on the subject of the local Chapel Hill debate regarding the Cane Creek reservoir project is available with a full transcript for online listening at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/K-0008/menu.html. Herzenberg's diaries, personal and political papers are archived and fully accessible to the public at the Southern Historical Collection
Southern Historical Collection
The Southern Historical Collection is a repository of distinct archival collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which document the culture and history of the American South...
in Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A description of the collection can be viewed online at: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/h/Herzenberg,Joseph_A.html
External links
- Inventory of the Joseph A. Herzenberg Papers, 1883-2006, in the Southern Historical CollectionSouthern Historical CollectionThe Southern Historical Collection is a repository of distinct archival collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which document the culture and history of the American South...
, UNC-Chapel HillUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States... - "Equality North Carolina Mourns the Loss of Joe Herzenberg" - obituary on Equality NC website
- "Former Chapel Hill councilman Herzenberg dies" - obituary in The News & ObserverThe News & ObserverThe News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of the U.S. State of North Carolina. The N&O, as it is popularly called, is based in Raleigh and also covers Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill. The paper also has substantial readership in most of the state east of...
, October 29, 2007 - "We'll Miss You, Joe!" - comments and remembrances from friends and supporters on OrangePolitics.org
- Remembering Joe Herzenberg - blog celebrating Joe's life and times, including photos, audio links to Joe's oral history interviews, news articles, and video footage
- Oral History Interviews with Joseph A. Herzenberg http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/K-0008/menu.html, http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/K-0196/menu.html from Oral Histories of the American South