Dolores Clark - Strayhorn family (clip)

Dolores Clark: Well I’ll start first with the Strayhorn family because I was raised in the home that my great grandparents Toney and Nellie Strayhorn built in 1879. And I was born in 1933 and lived in that home for about maybe 20 years or 18 years, I would say, until I left and went to college and then got married and had a family. But since then I have moved back into the home, about twenty years ago, and because of my mother and some of her siblings who were ill and to take care of them. And so I’m trying to preserve the home because it’s a very historical home that my great grandfather and great grandmother built and they built it from scratch. They first built one room that was made out of logs, and that particular room they cooked, ate, slept, and did everything until they were able to add on and make additions. And they became farmers. They bought 30 acres of land in Carrboro; one of the first Black owners in Carrboro. They bought 30 acres and started to farm and when they started to farm, they added additions to their home because they started to raise their family. So one the planta-...well, it wasn’t a plantation…on the land we had cows and horses and chickens and hogs and pigs and all kinds of vegetables that you could name and just lots of things, and that’s how they they made their living. They sold milk and butter around the town of Carrboro and that gave them some income also. And they did that for many years. My great grandfather – they both were slaves on different plantations in Orange County. And my great grandfather was on the Strayhorn plantation and my great grandmother was on the Andrews plantation.