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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 dedicated food justice volunteer.

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

Image of Foster, Esphur and Foster, Harold and Norwood, Charley Mae.

Citation: Marian Cheek Jackson Center, “Ms. Esphur Foster, Mr. Harold Foster, & Ms. Charley Mae Norwood,” From the Rock Wall, accessed July 28, 2025, https://fromtherockwall.org/images/ms-esphur-foster-mr-harold-foster-ms-charley-mae-norwood.

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

Ms. Esphur Foster

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In this Image

Esphur Foster

"We are nothing without our history." - Esphur Foster

Harold Foster

More to explore

 Esphur and Harold Foster - On What Makes a Neighborhood a Real Community (clip)

Hudson Vaughan: All these stories, I feel like, speak to really what makes a neighborhood. But could you talk a little bit about what you feel like have been the most valuable aspects of the neighborhood you’ve grown up in? And if maybe it has changed then what that change has been like. Esphur…

 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…

 Esphur and Harold Foster - On their mother, Hattie Mae Foster's passing, and the community response to her death (clip)

Esphur Foster (EF): So when we took her down to the hospital that next morning Charley sent word over to the dental school and she said, tell everybody if they want to see Hattie for the last time to say goodbye, to come over. So when we got ready to leave Hudson, the whole Emergency Room dock was…

 Esphur and Harold Foster - On their family home (clip)

Harold Vaughan: So how long have y’all lived in this, this neighborhood? Esphur Foster: Seventy years. HV: Your whole life. EF: Yeah. We have, we had a cookout one night and we brought all of our, a lot of old pictures out and were showing them to everyone at the cookout. We got and left them out,…

 Esphur Foster - On May Day (clip)

 Esphur Foster - On swimming holes (clip)

Esphur Foster: And then the boys used to go to the trestle and jump in that sewage water and learn to swim because there was no way- you know, for us- to learn to swim. Hudson Vaughan: Mhm EP: So, they- the girls didn’t play that- so they would go over there and swim in the trestle.

 Esphur Foster and Friends - On the African American freedom struggle and Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill (Yonni Chapman Recording)

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.

There are two interviews with Esphur Foster and friends, with one recorded on Yonni Chapman's side of the room and the…

 Esphur Foster and Alberta Neely - 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 Foster

 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!…

 Esphur and Harold Foster - Children Create Community (clip)

Esphur Foster (EF): Cause children always… Hudson Vaughan (HV): Create EF: Yeah they do, yeah they do. Chante, had met a little girl and her father was wonderful. He taught science at Chapel Hill High. He was the most incredible man and they just fell in love with each other. So then, she wanted,…

 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…

 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.

 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

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