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Oral History

Hilliard Caldwell - Churches, Schools, PTA (clip)

Interviewed by John Kenyon "Yonni" Chapman on March 26, 1991

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): As you were growing up you were saying that the schools and the church were very important.

HC: Back in those days…

YC: Tell me about that.

HC: See the church and the schools had a very good relationship with each other. Number one, they both meant a lot to Black families. The school had a good relationship with home. I remember many nights of PTA meetings in elementary and high school that the parking lot of the schools, for those who had cars, was packed. Those who didn’t have cars walked. For example, this was the high school. People who lived in the Northside area over by Northside office complex/social services area [Transcriber’s note: located on prior and current location of Northside Elementary School] they would walk here [location of former Lincoln High School] and you can visualize the distance from McMaster Street to here. There were plenty of parents who lived over there with high school kids here because this was the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grades. And all Black kids of the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grades came here to this building from as far away as Northside. From as far away as Hillsborough Street that way.

YC: That’s where Fred Battle and them live…

HC: That’s where Fred Battle’s home place is. As far out to the county line thisaway and the same back towards the Hillsborough school district line as I can recall.

YC: So, a lot of people would participate in PTA meetings even though they might have to walk.

HC: The PTA meetings in this building was packed on PTA nights.

YC: Packed?

HC: Packed. When there was a fundraising event for band uniforms which parents had to buy, any other activities, the place was packed. Black people took pride in their PTA. They took pride in whatever project the principal wanted to undertake whether it was here or at the old Northside building or at Lincoln High School.

YC: Did kids usually come to the PTA meetings?

HC: Some did. Some didn’t. It depended on the circumstances.

YC: But there was something for the kids to do there? Was there refreshments or entertainment?

HC: Not really. There were refreshments at times. The home economics class, the home economics department in those days, they prepared refreshments for PTA meetings if I can recall. And the PTA set up monies, I can remember, and I’m talking about when I was President of the Student Body, the PTA set aside money for refreshments during the PTA meetings. Very active PTAs too. Very active for many years.

Oral history interview of Caldwell, Hilliard conducted by Chapman, John Kenyon "Yonni" on March 26, 1991 at Chapel Hill, NC.

Citation: The Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, “Hilliard Caldwell - Churches, Schools, PTA (clip),” From the Rock Wall, accessed September 13, 2026, https://fromtherockwall.org/oral-histories/hilliard-caldwell-churches-schools-pta-clip.

Rights: Open for research. The Southern Historical Collection (SHC) welcomes non-commercial use and access that qualifies as fair use to all unrestricted interview materials in the collection. The researcher must cite and give proper credit to the SHC. The SHC requests that the researcher informs the SHC as to how and where they are using the material.

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In this Oral History

Back to Hilliard Caldwell - On the African American freedom struggle and Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill (Interview One)

Hilliard Caldwell - Churches, Schools, PTA (clip)

In this Oral History

Hilliard Caldwell - On the African American freedom struggle and Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill (Interview One)

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