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 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Family history (clip)

Yvonne Cleveland (YC): How far back does your family go in this brickmasonry? Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): I think it was just my uncle. YC: Just your uncle? ABW: Yeah, uh huh. And I forget who he worked for around here in Chapel Hill, but I can just remember him being around the house, filling…

 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Advice (clip)

Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): Well they need to make sure that they get their money for their labor. That’s what they need to do. Because the government has got it set up where you have to pay so many taxes and general liability and insurance and stuff like that, you know. So they just need to…

 Albert "Bruce" Washington - Gateway (clip)

Albert “Bruce” Washington (ABW): I would like to see something like that, you know, I would like to see the picture of George Tate and Donny Brooks, and Charles Brooks, and people like that. And David Rankins, I’d like to see, because they were the ones who started us and taught us what to…

 Dolores Clark - On the history of Black builders in her family

"They were devout Christians...and so, we survived. We survived by faith. They had a lot of faith." - Dolores Clark This interview is part of a series on Black builders in Orange County. Dolores Clark, a long-term resident of Chapel Hill, explains how her family has a history of building several…

 Eugene Farrar - Uncle James Blacknell (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): Yes, the family member in the photo is my uncle, who is my grandfather’s son, and what I know from growing up, he was a rock layer – he laid rocks – which was a really tough job. You had to break rocks and small rocks and things like that to fit – like a puzzle really. It was a…

 Eugene Farrar - Family helping family (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): I used to help when I was 12 or 13 years old, but I couldn’t handle big rocks like grown men could, but I would go out and give my hand every once and a while, and of course, I didn’t get paid, but it was a thing of family helping family. And of course, if I didn’t get paid,…

 Eugene Farrar - Early work (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): But those were days where they would start working in the morning before the sun came up and work till the sun went down in a lot of cases because they wanted to put in long hours – they were getting paid by the hour, not by the job. So – George Barrett (GB): And Mr. Farrar, you…

 Eugene Farrar - Cement (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): My daddy was a self-made cement finisher who did it for over 50 years. George Barrett (GB): What was your dad’s name? EF: Toy Farrar, Sr. And he worked in Virginia because there wasn’t any work in Chapel Hill, and he worked for the university when they were building the hospital.…

 Eugene Farrar - UNC rock work (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): You know, like I say, doing this rock work was something to behold. My grandfather did – my family and I’m sure probably some other people did it – but I do know my family laid most of the rock down on the University. And they’re still there. George Barrett (GB): And by your…

 Eugene Farrar - What makes you the best (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): Because you could trust him to do it. What makes you the best is knowing your craft. He didn’t go to school to learn how to pour cement – he taught himself how to do it. So that made him one of the “go-to” people in Chapel Hill. There were other people finishing cement – Mr. Earl…

 Eugene Farrar - Sources of rock (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): They would buy some rocks. I’m sure that they had places where they were buying them. I never knew where they bought rock and things like that. I don’t think we had a rock yard. There may have been a rock yard around here somewhere, but I don’t know where it was. They built…

 Eugene Farrar - Hard working (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): I think hard work, but struggle of course, hard work and struggle back then. Perseverance – we had to make it, so we made the best out of what we had, and that wasn’t very much. Very few cars were in Chapel Hill.

 Eugene Farrar - Family support (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): My family was a very large family, and we sacrificed, and we would help each other, give each other – if you raised a garden and you had peas, string beans, potatoes, and somebody else raised a garden that had cucumbers, tomatoes, and something else, we would exchange. If you had…

 Eugene Farrar - History (clip)

Eugene Farrar (EF): I just want to say thank you all for what you’re doing. The only way our history can get told right is that we have to tell it. So I appreciate what you all are doing to explore that avenue of telling history like it’s supposed to be told, from the people who lived it. We’re the…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Family history (clip)

Robert Campbell: He was our inspiration. Sometimes sitting around telling the tales about growing up and the things they had to endure – I think it just made him a more persistent and stronger person, and in doing so, to teach his children as well as his grandchildren how to fend for themselves. If…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Buildings constructed by family (clip)

Robert Campbell: There are several homes, if you take the long journey around. There are some houses on Jones Ferry Road. It all depends on what end of Jones Ferry Road you start on. If you start over there by Terry’s Creek, you’ll see some of his handiwork. But over here in Chapel Hill there’s…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Ingenuity (clip)

Minister Robert Campbell: My cousin Gloria – my grandfather was teaching us all how to be a part of the work he was doing – she also helped put that wall together. She also made a different mixture of concrete – well, cement – with a mixture of lime in it. There’s a rock in there, it’s huge, and…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Mortar and cement (clip)

Minister Robert Campbell: In the mortar and cement, there’s a certain amount per bag that you mix with sand to enhance and strengthen the mixture. In the cement, you would have more sand in it than you would in the mortar mixture itself. When it comes to the concrete, it would be a mixture of…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Process of building (clip)

Robert Campbell: The first thing is you got to have your plans. You got to have your concept, so that you can basically make sure that you’ll be able to find all the material for that building and how far you might have to ship it. And I will say that fortunately for most of the construction that…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Signatures (clip)

Minister Robert Campbell: My grandfather used to put signatures in his house. You can easily find the one in Mr. Neville’s house. I haven’t been able to find that, but I know what I'm looking for. Those type of things let you see the ability, the craftiness…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Teaching others (clip)

Minister Robert Campbell: My grandfather and most of the builders were eager to be tutors and train other people how to do their type of work. It came in handy for us because we didn’t have to look for a summer job – because we already knew what we were going to be doing. We found out to have fun –…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Inspiration (clip)

Robert Campbell: He was our inspiration. Sometimes sitting around telling the tales about growing up and the things they had to endure – I think it just made him a more persistent and stronger person, and in doing so, to teach his children as well as his grandchildren how to fend for themselves. If…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Blueprints (clip)

Minister Robert Campbell: We did blueprints. It was easy to do the sketches first, because you could say well, this is what we got, do we want the storage room a little bit bigger? So, it gave people the opportunity to change their minds. Do you want the front and back door to be centered, or do you…

 Minister Robert Campbell - Slinging bricks (clip)

Robert Campbell: Going back to constructing some of the houses. Uncle Leo and Uncle Handy and Uncle Bill taught us how to sling bricks. George Barrett: Ok. RC: Sling bricks. Sometimes you could take a flat board, almost like a paddle, you could throw the bricks up and somebody could catch them and…