To Drink from the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation’s Oldest Public University Paperback – September 21, 2021

Ms. Kapur's gripping narrative of racial equality at UNC-Chapel Hill gives voice to a painful, and at times gruesome, hidden history that we must learn and collectively mourn. I could not put down the work as I learned about the gap between the beautiful myth of UNC-Chapel Hill and its painful legacy of racial injustice. I was particularly grateful for the passages about Saint Pauli Murray and a full explanation of the struggle to remove a statue that had, at its dedication, a proud, detailed description of racial torture. As a reader who spent most of her life outside of North Carolina, I had thought highly of the state's flagship school until the NCAA controversy. When I learned about the Silent Sam dedication, I was appalled. And now we are learning the rest of the story due to Ms. Kapur's excellent research and reporting. This is a must-read for people who care about social cohesion and justice.

This book is a triumphant historical and scholarly work. The writing style is powerful and accessible. When my experience caught up with the history, and I knew some of the heroes and villains in this heart-wrenching story, I was often sad and angry. Perhaps the most frustrating reality is that the oldest public university in the United States still struggles with racism, political interference, and governance by people who mostly know nothing about higher education.

Much of this UNC story was known only in rough outline, some well, some not at all. Getta Kapur’s research gives her the detail to fill out a portrait of both a university and the people who fought its battles over justice and rights of Black people — the heroes, and those who bitterly opposed desegregation. Anyone seeking to understand UNC today will find antecedents (issues and people) in “To Drink from the Well.”

I purchased this book after following Geeta's work with the Moral Monday. Rereading the intro slammed me in my gut. That is worth the price of the book. This is very much a labor of love and grieving. Thank God for her voice and her work. Read this book. The truth shines bright.

I learned a great deal about brown v board of education

As a UNC alum, I was familiar with parts of this troubling history: the food service workers' strike, the legend that Zora Neale Hurston took classes with Paul Green but only at his off-campus home, Pauli Murray's unsuccessful effort to enroll in graduate school while the liberal Frank Porter Graham was at the helm, the fact that Judge Thomas Ruffin, author of State v. Mann, served on the Board of Trustees. But the story that Kapur tells is relentless and unforgiving, and it has only one theme: white supremacy. The university has so much to answer for. This well-written and deeply researched book leaves no doubt about that.

This book is required reading for everyone in North Carolina—and for anyone concerned about state universities in the South (and, surely, elsewhere). I’ve been teaching at UNC Chapel Hill for 22 years, and knew very little of this terrible history. It is hidden in archives and in memory, and Geeta Kapur has uncovered it. A must-read.