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Northside News Volume VIII, Edition 10

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Citation: “Northside News Volume VIII, Edition 10,” From the Rock Wall, accessed July 28, 2025, https://fromtherockwall.org/documents/northside-news-volume-viii-edition-10.

"We’re writing our own history, thank you!"

Ms. Esphur Foster

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In this Document

David Mason, Jr

Harold Foster

Willis Farrington

Born and raised in Northside, Reverend Willis Farrington recounts the community of Northside and the Roberson Street Community Center as his childhood home. As an integral individual in Northside, the community supported his decision to become a minister and lead jail and street ministries. Now,…

Kathy Atwater

"There would not be a University if there had not been the Blacks in this community to help build the University." - Kathy Atwater Kathy Atwater is a native of Chapel Hill and has lived in the Northside Community all of her life. Having retired from the State of NC after 30 years of service, Kathy…

Freda Andrews

Since she was a child, Freda Andrews knew that she wanted to pursue a career in education. Her experiences at Northside Elementary, alongside her involvement in the Southern Freedom Movement, influenced her desire to carve out spaces to teach Black history and inspire her students to feel empowered…

More to explore

Collection: The Northside News

The Northside News is our monthly "print link." Delivered hand-to-hand to more than 1000 households in Northside and Pine Knolls, 6 local churches, dozens of local businesses, Northside Elementary, and Hargraves each month, the Northside News connects neighbors around issues and opportunities of…

 David Mason, Jr. - on attitudes in Chapel Hill (clip)

 David Mason, Jr. - on Carrboro (clip)

 David Mason, Jr. - on teachers at Lincoln High (clip)

 David Mason, Jr. - on protesting and the Vietnam draft (clip)

 David Mason, Jr. - on relationship with Big John (clip)

 David Mason, Jr. - On what happened after the sit-in (clip)

Matthew Miller: Were you arrested, were you taken away? Or did they just take your name? David Mason, Jr.: They just took our names, okay. But he said, if you— MM: If you do— DM: Well, we weren’t arrested at that time, I should say. MM: Okay. DM: What happened—I didn’t tell my father, and, the next…

 David Mason, Jr. - On the sit-in at Colonial Drugstore (clip)

David Mason, Jr.: And I remember when we went in, we sat down and Big John said, “Mason, you, you know y’all are not supposed to be sitting down here.” And I said, “Why? We just want a soda.” And he said, “well y’all can get your sodas, and y’all have to leave.” And Harold said “No, we aren’t going…

 David Mason, Jr. - On why the sit-in happened (clip)

Matthew Miller: So you were allowed to go there, but you weren’t allowed to sit at the counter? David Mason, Jr.: Absolutely! Absolutely. MM: Okay. DM: Yeah, yeah. That’s exactly right. So that was the most logical place. MM: Yeah. DM: ‘Cause that’s where we all put our money, and, so that was…

 David Mason, Jr. - On planning Chapel Hill's first sit-in (clip)

David Mason: And, ‘til when I guess it must have been February or March of 1960. 1960. Shortly after the demonstrations in the city, as I shall say, in Greensboro. I was the president of my class, and then there was another fellow that was a year older than me. His sister goes to our church now.…

 David Mason, Jr. - On swimming holes (clip)

 David Mason, Jr. - On Hargraves Community Center (clip)

 David Mason, Jr. - On Black communities in Chapel Hill

This interview provides an overview of Black communities in Chapel Hill during Mason's life. He notes the consequences of having segregated communities and outdated infrastructures. His employment was at UNC Chapel Hill and he was employed at an early age at several local restaurants. He talks about…

 Esphur and Harold Foster - On supporting Harold Foster during the civil rights movement (clip)

Hudson Vaughn (HV): Were you involved also in some of the marches, like Harold? Esphur Foster (EF): No he was at the forefront. I did march, in one or two of them. We had to take an oath, not to be nonviolent and mother always taught us to support each other if we were doing right. So we thought…

 Harold Foster - On the African American freedom struggle and Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill

Audio recordings of interviews conducted by Yonni Chapman with participants in the African American freedom struggle and the civil rights movement in and around Chapel Hill, N.C.

 Esphur and Harold Foster - Nothing Without Our History (clip)

Esphur Foster (EF): If you don’t know where you came from, you won’t know where you’re going. Harold Foster (HF): Mhm-mm [in agreement] EF: You gotta know where you came from. Hudson Vaughan (HV): And Mrs. Jackson’s quote is “If you don’t know --Without the past, we have no future.” EF: Future!…

 Harold Foster and others pointing to a segregated restaurant

Harold Foster and other marchers with the Chapel Hill Freedom movement point to a segregated restaurant.

 Harold Foster rallies demonstrators at St. Joseph CME

Harold Foster rallies demonstrators in front of St. Joseph CME church before marching through Chapel Hill.

First row left to right:
Harold Foster, Anita Booth, Larry Foushee, Wilbert Jones, (unknown), (unknown child), Bernard Foushee, Maxene Mason

 Esphur and Harold Foster - On her mother, education, and impact of the Civil Rights Movement

Esphur Foster has lived on Cotton Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for 70 years.  In this interview, Foster discusses the powerful life of her mother, Hattie Mae Foster, as well as growing up in Chapel Hill during a pivotal time in history. She also describes much about life before, during, and…

 Ms. Esphur Foster, Mr. Harold Foster, & Ms. Charley Mae Norwood

Still living in the house their mother had built 70 years ago, the Foster siblings have dedicated their lives to justice. Harold was a leader in the local civil rights movement; Esphur is a community historian known everywhere in North Carolina for her leadership at UNC’s law school; Charley is a…

 Willis Farrington - On his prison ministry (clip)

 Willis Farrington - On Mr. White Bynum building A.D. Clark Pool (clip)

 Willis Farrington - On renaming Hargraves Community Center (clip)

 Willis Farrington - On events at Hargraves Community Center (clip)

 Willis Farrington - On Hargraves being a home away from home (clip)

 Willis Farrington - On the changes at Hargraves Community Center (clip)

 Willis Fearrington Leads Vigil

 Willis Farrington and Jim Wallace

 Willis Farrington and Regina Merritt

 Willis Farrington - On growing up in Northside, his ministry, and changes in Chapel Hill

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Life History Series. Reverend Willis Farrington, a leader of St. Joseph CME Church, was born in Chapel Hill and spent the entirety of his childhood running the streets of Northside and the Roberson Street Community Center. Reverend…

 Willis Farrington - On growing up in Northside, local businesses, and Northside neighbors

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Life History Series. Minister Willis Farrington, an associate pastor at S. Joseph CME Church, grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He grew up going to St. Joseph CME all his life and has never been a member of another church. In 1975 he…

 Kathy Atwater and Mae McLendon - On their school experiences

"...informed me to take this letter home to your mama ‘Cause you are going to Chapel High School next year.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m not’. And they said, ‘Yes you are.’ Cause they hand-picked the Blacks that they would send to Chapel Hill High School." - Mae McLendon In this oral history, Ms. Mae and…

 Kathy Atwater - On faith

 Kathy Atwater - Everybody was just family (clip)

Kathy Atwater: Everybody was just family. I mean even in the neighborhood with the families that were in the neighborhood we all looked after one another- nobody was left to themselves. If I did something wrong, of course the neighbors would, you know, tell me “Kathy you shouldn’t do that,” and then…

 Kathy Atwater - On gardens (clip)

 Kathy Atwater - On the kitchen (clip)

 Wanda Weaver and Kathy Atwater - Speaking about family and the Northside community

This interview mainly focuses on Wanda Weaver’s mother and father/Kathy Atwater’s aunt and uncle, as well as the past and present dynamics of the Northside community. Ms. Wanda and Ms. Kathy show pictures of their mother and father/aunt and uncle, as well as discuss what they did for the community.…

 A History of Resistance

Ms. Kathy Atwater, long-term Lindsay St. resident, gives a passionate speech on the history of Amity Station development. Her words gave both historical context and emotional power to the issue facing her community and neighbors.

 Kathy Atwater

 Kathy Atwater - On food

Ms. Atwater gives an overview of food access in the community when she was growing up and how her family’s attitudes toward food have developed over the course of her life. Starting with a discussion of her mother’s kitchen and garden, she describes the role of food in her family and in the…

 Lifetime resident and community scholar, Kathy Atwater, speaks at the culminating dinner of the Civil Rights in Chapel Hill weekend celebration, 2012.  

 Kathy Atwater - On home, community, and Northside

In the beginning of the interview, Ms. Atwater describes the history of her home, growing up in her neighborhood, and the significance of keeping her home in the family in order to continue an ongoing legacy. To Ms. Atwater, a home is more than a place of residence; it is a memorial, it is the…

 Freda Andrews - on early experiences teaching and cultural differences (clip)

Freda Andrews (FA): It wasn’t Durham Public Schools, it was Durham City Schools. I had my first teaching job at Fayetteville Street School in Durham. The ironic thing is, about that, as a Black teacher, I had to learn the culture of my own people because of the difference. When I was in Person…

 Freda Andrews - teaching during the civil rights movement (clip)

Freda Andrews: Everything was like, all the children wanted to do is to grow up and be farmers. They had no aspiration other than that. Drive a big tractor. They could describe that tractor and tell you what it was going to be like because they worked on the farm. That was all they knew. I felt so…

 Freda Andrews - On poetry she would always read to her students (clip)

Freda Andrews: I realized that for my children to feel what I felt, I had a couple of poems that I remember the most. I would have them learn and recite. Poems like “Harriet Tubman”.Harriet TubmanDidn’t take no stuffAnd wasn’t afraid of anything either. Didn’t come into in this world to be no…

 Freda Andrews - on her work as a remediation specialist (clip)

Freda Andrews (FA): Folk like me, they don’t have to pay us full salary. They hire us to come in and do remediation for a grade level to help them because many of the students don’t do well on the End of Grade tests. We are like a faux tutor in the public schools. We remediate them. I work four days…

 Freda Andrews- on the impact her teachers had on her life (clip)

Freda Andrews: The schools were, as I said, full of caring teachers and the reason I chose to be a teacher today or an educator was because of some of those teachers then that taught me and instilled in me that you want to be somebody. So, when you want to be somebody, you have to grow up and watch…

 Freda Andrews - On her experience at Northside (clip)

Freda Andrews: I grew up walking to Northside Elementary School because that’s the mode of transportation in those days. And I would cross a little branch everyday going to Northside, which was 20 minutes from my house, if that much. The only difficulty with that sometimes, the little water would…

 Freda Andrews - On education, teaching, and the Freedom Movement

Freda Andrews is a daughter of the Northside. Notably, her primary and secondary school education transformed her life immeasurably. Her teachers, especially at Northside Elementary, created a classroom setting that directed individual attention to each student. Fostered by these nurturing teachers,…

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