Carol Brooks and Keith Edwards - On Civil Rights protests (clip)
Interviewed by Ben Barge on April 16, 2012
Keith Edwards: Yeah, 1966 when they fully integrated. Cause I went there in the seventh grade, and I was just eleven years old. We went on Franklin Street.
Carol Brooks: See that was back in ’64, in ’63…That’s when we were cheerleaders for Lincoln High School. Patricia Atwater, Evelyn Walker, and Carol Purefoy (then), and Charlie Foushee.
Ben Barge: So you think this would’ve been after school, or?
CB: Well it was after school, but not after I graduated, it had to be in ’64, but…it was during my school, I can’t remember exactly, but I know it was during when I was in school, and I graduated, well, in ’64. So it had to be before, doing the march and before ’64. Sixty-one, sixty-two, sixty–somewhere like that. Because that I do remember distinctly. Marching down Franklin Street.
BB: Of your friends at Lincoln, how many of them do you think, would you say were actively involved in the marches? Most of them?
KE, CB: Most of them.
CB: Yeah, it was most of them. Most everyone of them. I think she’s moved away, and she’s in New Jersey, she’s in California. Did Charlie one expire?
KE: Mm-mm. He’s in Greensboro. Greensboro, Winston-Salem.
CB: Greensboro. See most of them are from Chapel Hill.
KE: But these people, they are calling in, they want to get the book.
BB: Do you remember what it felt like, being in the march?
CB: Well like I told you, it felt wonderful. It was exciting, new, you know, trying to help integrate, wanting to be in the front door. Cause I remember at the bus station, you know, they had the Colored, the White, and we weren't allowed to go on the White side, and weren't allowed to drink from the fountain, down on the university. It was devastating, but it was exciting too, to kind of break the chain and start a new trend, it was wonderful. One thing I think–really what made it wonderful and exciting in Chapel Hill–it just wasn’t violent. You weren't afraid to walk down the street, you weren't afraid to sit in front of a car because…we knew…we would be safe. It was just wonderful here, in Chapel Hill. I can’t speak for other stays, but it was wonderful. I was excited, didn’t mind marching.
