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Jane Garrett

 Ezra Barbee - On masonry, his family, and creative endeavors

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Builders Series. Ezra Barbee, a stonemason and builder, was born in 1957 in Chapel Hill, where his family has worked in the construction and masonry trades for generations. He reflects on his introduction into the trades, and takes pride…

 Collene Rogers - On the importance of working together as a community and her involvement with civil rights organizations

In this interview, Collene Rogers begins by explaining the importance of working together as a community, standing up for oneself, and always working to improve one's own life. She then tells her experiences working for New York City banks, in which every branch had its own environment and diverse…

Collene Rogers

Collene was born and grew up in her family’s home on Merritt Mill Road. Her mother, Mary Neville Riggsbee, grew up on the Neville Farm in Orange County and her father, Walter Riggsbee, grew up on the Riggsbee Farm in Chatham County. In the mid-1930s, they each left home to work for the University…

Celebrations

Make a joyful noise (Psalm 100).  Celebration is an act of faith, triumph, unity, and renewal.  Joyful rituals abound across the past, in the present, and into the future of Black Chapel Hill/Carrboro.  Whether after church at the Dairy Bar, during the May Day Festival that marked the end of the…

Hargraves Community Center

You may think of a community center as something like your local YMCA.  Hargraves is that and so much more.  Community-built and community-led, Hargraves is the heart of Northside.  In 1939, with fiscal support from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), resident brick masons and carpenters began…

Education

Knowledge is power.  Since Reconstruction and the establishment of the first Freedmen’s School on the western edge of Chapel Hill (where Crook’s Corner is now) in the mid-1800s, the Black community has invested in the education of its youth.  Parents, teachers, and church members locked arms to…

Business

Before the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 required white restaurants and businesses to open to Black patrons, Black residents served themselves, whether in Durham’s bustling Black business districts or in the Black-owned shops, restaurants, hotel, movie theatre, and pool hall on the west end of…

Marion Phillips

Euyvonne Cotton

Food

Food is nourishment. Food is family. Listen to the ways people do, think, and experience food and you’ll learn about how food makes community, sustains families, and shapes identities. Search for food and foodways—and you may also find out how to kill a chicken or to make Mama Kat's incomparable…

 Headshot of Donny "Hollywood" Riggsbee

This is a black and white picture of Donny "Hollywood" Riggsbee smiling.

 Do You Want It

Created by Brentton Harrison when he was a member of the Marian Cheek Jackson’s inaugural season of its youth radio program, Fusion Youth Radio, and recipient of an award from PRX, this audio-documentary relies on oral histories to explore love of food and food as love.

 Troy Harrison - There's a struggle going on (clip)

In this short clip, Rev. Harrison talks about his dream for Chapel Hill.

 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…

 Albert Williams - I had to be interviewed (clip)

In this short clip, Rev. Williams tells the story of his 1968 interview for a position with the Chapel Hill Fire Department. Albert Williams: I had to be interviewed by a panel of five personnel. They were five chiefs, and five officers from various departments around the state. One of the questions…

 Gladys Pendergraph Brandon - Lemonade (clip)

In this audio clip, Ms. Gladys talks to Della Pollock about her approach to living the best life.

 Patricia Jackson - Fire Hose (clip)

Patricia Jackson: ...walk from this church and remember growing up as little kids we could walk from here and go to Big John’s pharmacy, which was just on the corner there of Franklin Street. But when segregation time came and when the students, and the white people that were in charge, now we…

 Linda Carver - I Used to Sit at the Counter (clip)

Linda Carver: We trusted him. So when, during Civil Rights, we found out that he was so racist. It was just such a shock. And when we were little, my father, he and my father were good friends. And so we could go into his drug store and he would say, you know, “Ah, y’all could sit there”. You know,…

 Ronnie Bynum - Carrboro Klan (clip)

In this audio clip, Ronnie Bynum talks to Heidi Dodson about what it was like in Carrboro before and after desegregation.

 Carolyn Briggs - Sit Ins (clip)

Carolyn Briggs: Most of the students that were in there, they- we- were like fourteen, fifteen years old. So, you marched, demonstrated, it wasn’t – the older ones I think experienced some hostilities- but the younger ones, it was fun to work, to grow, and know that you could make a difference, that…

 Andrea Harris - On building relationships and bridging divides

In her oral history, Andrea Harris discusses her parents and growing up in Henderson, NC. She attended segregated schools and went to Bennett College, where she began her community organizing career by experiencing first-hand the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. King and the became aware of the…

Andrea Harris

"At the same time I remember wanting to know why they had these water fountains that were “white” and “colored.” So my mother told me what was the difference: taste it. She made me taste both of them, right so I can see that there was no difference. Right?" - Andrea Harris

 Louis Wijnberg - On Europe during and after World War II

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s History Potluck Series. In this interview, Mr. Wijnberg shares photos and documents from his life. He begins by sharing photos taken at the end of World War II while he was still in Europe. He also shares documents he received from the…