Jerry Carr

Leslie Gerald "Jerry" Carr was born in 1936 with curly red hair, the middle child of five.

In 1963, he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and entered their sociology master's program. In the summer of 1964, inspired by local protests against segregated facilities, he attended his first civil rights meetings. It was then that Jerry decided to dedicate his life to the struggle for racial and social justice.

In the fall of 1964, Jerry signed the required loyalty oath promising not to overthrow the state of North Carolina and began doctoral work in the Department of Sociology at UNC.

Soon after arriving in Chapel Hill, Jerry joined Students for a Democratic Society. We'd like to extend an apology on his behalf to anyone who purchased a lifetime subscription to "The Left Heel" from him. While with SDS, Jerry worked to overturn the Speaker Ban Law, held rallies against the war in Vietnam, joined the James Meredith March, and helped organize the North Carolina contingent for the 1967 March on the Pentagon, among many other activities.

In 1972, he fell in love with a woman with long brown braids named Janice Kohl.

Jerry spent the following years teaching at various institutions, eventually receiving tenure from ODU in Norfolk, Virginia. He taught there for 23 years.

While in Norfolk, Jerry supported protests against apartheid in South Africa and war in Iraq, advocated for the continued integration of elementary schools, and worked to prevent the displacement of poor people from low-income housing. He was on the board of the Rape Crisis Center and helped defend abortion clinics.

He retired from teaching in 2002. In 2011, Jerry and Janice, then both with gray hair, moved back to the place where they first fell in love all those years agoâ€"Chapel Hill.

Jerry was jailed, tear-gassed, received countless death threats from "right-to-lifers," and was targeted by the KKK, the FBI's COINTELPRO operations, and several college presidents. He published many articles, presented a number of papers, served on innumerable committees and coalitions, helped found an institute, and published one book ("Color-Blind" Racism, 1997). According to his former students, he changed quite a few lives. All of his teaching, his publications, and his activism stood on the side of equality and against inequality.

His FBI file can be found in the UNC archives.

Jerry loved photography, woodworking, homegrown tomatoes, chocolate anything, Drambuie, and cat videos. He passed away from cancer at home on July 1, 2022. True to his word, he never did overthrow the state of North Carolina. He will be missed dearly by his partner and comrade of 50 years Janice Kohl, daughter Sara Carr, son Eric Rogers, sisters Patty Patterson, Elaine Tietz, and Cherie Koch, and many others.

In lieu of flowers, please keep fighting the good fight.