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 Janie Alston - On her memories of A.D. Clark Pool (clip)

Jerdene Alston

"We would always be singing at the time we were marching. We would just march and sing and that was it." - Jerdene Alston

 Jerdene Alston - On the African American freedom struggle and Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill

Jerdene Alston is a Chapel Hill native that was born in 1944. She grew up having no issues with others regarding race, but when she learned about racial injustices facing fellow Black Americans across the country, she joined the civil rights movement. This was after graduating second in her class in…

 Mr. Joe Alston

Joe, a long-time resident of Northside, is known for the care with which he maintains his yard and the way he looks out for elderly neighbors on Lindsay Street.

Joe Alston

Joe, a long-time resident of Northside, is known for the care with which he maintains his yard and the way he looks out for elderly neighbors on Lindsay Street.

Lillian Alston

 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,…

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…

 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 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 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 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 - 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 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…

 Amanda Ashley - On food during her childhood and learning to cook

Amanda Ashley describes her experiences with food in her childhood as the interviewer introduces the Food Ministry. Amanda shares how her mother’s occupation as a nutrition teacher influenced her food intake. Food in her household was less processed. Amanda describes her learning experiences in…

Amanda Ashley

Amanda Ashley grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother was a home economics teacher, and so she grew up with a strong understanding of nutrition. In the summers, they would sometimes visit her grandmother who had a farm in Georgia, where they enjoyed fresh pecans, corn, and scuppernong…

 Gwen Atwater - On family, faith, segregation, and Frank Porter Graham Elementary School

Gwen Atwater came to Chapel Hill, her husband’s hometown, after he got out of the military. Following a brief stint in customer service and time working in the school district’s administrative offices, she took a job teaching at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in 1973. She became an FPG…

Gwen Atwater

Gwen Atwater came to call Chapel Hill home after moving here with her husband, who had spent his childhood playing in these streets. She began teaching at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in 1973, where she spent the next three decades engaging with bright, young minds. To this day, she is…

 Gwen Atwater - On the importance of planning (clip)

 Gwen Atwater - On taking care of students (clip)

Gwen Atwater: I would give this spiel the last day of school and I would always tell my children, you know you’re not just mine for this year. Once you cross that door, you’re mine for the rest of your life. You are my family member. I’d say I care about you, and I want to know what you are doing. I…

 Henry Atwater and Charles Weaver - On the African American freedom struggle and Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill

"Chapel Hill and Carrboro have been fighting each other for a long time. Ever since I was born. About where the city limits are, what they do, and how they’re going to do this. That’s why you’ve got the mayor of Chapel Hill and the Mayor of Carrboro. Chapel Hill has been trying to take over Carrboro…

Henry Atwater

"I told them that the Orange County Training School was the only school that Black people had...I was the only one to kick when they built that train that went by the back of the school." - Henry Atwater

 Isabel Atwater - On growing up during World War II, Black businesses, and Civil Rights

Ms. Atwater speaks about life growing up in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area during World War II. She shares her experiences with her husband, Roy Atwater and her education at the rural Merritt School and Orange County Training School. She was familiar with food rations throughout the time and had…

Isabel Atwater

Born in 1925, Isabel Atwater has near a century of lived experience in Orange County. A self-described “country girl,” she grew up raising animals and building gardens. Atwater remembers growing up in the Jim Crow South and finding strength in the Black community and the Black-owned businesses that…