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Oral History

Hilliard Caldwell - R.D. Smith and other influential teachers (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell - R.D. Smith and other influential teachers (clip)

Oral history interview.

Citation: The Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, “Hilliard Caldwell - R.D. Smith and other influential teachers (clip),” From the Rock Wall, accessed April 19, 2025, https://fromtherockwall.org/oral-histories/hilliard-caldwell-rd-smith-and-other-influential-teachers-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

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

“It was hard times, but it was good times. It was hard times, but it was fair times. It was hard times, but we appreciated what was there. We appreciated our parents, we appreciated the school structure, the community structure, the church structure. All of these were important components of growing…

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 Hilliard Caldwell - Role of adults in leading in the movement, conclusion (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Not allowing the white structure to control the Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Greensboro Sit-Ins and first sit-ins in Chapel Hill (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Late 1950s activism as PTA president to advocate for a safe crossing over a creek on the way to the school (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Watching the news on television in the 1950s (clip)

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): Did your family have a television? Hilliard Caldwell (HC): Mmm, later on in life, I think we bought—there was one about fifty-two, fifty-three I can’t remember ( )- YC: Do you remember hearing about or seeing on television the situation in Little Rock [Arkansas]…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Learning Black history, Brown v. Board of Education (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Grandma Flacks on the way to Northside School (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Violent August 1937 incident (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Mary Mason and Harold Foster (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Harold Foster and his leadership ability (clip)

Interviewer: Tell me when did you first get to know Harold Foster? Hilliard Caldwell: I was a senior, and he was a freshman, I think. If I’m not mistaken, if I look at my high school newspaper for some reason it was either Harold or Mary Mason always had superlatives. Interviewer: You always had…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Liberal white citizens in Chapel Hill (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Campus Y meeting between Lincoln and Chapel Hill High School students (clip)

Interviewer: Tell me about these meetings at the Campus Y. Hilliard Caldwell: They were heralded as human relations sessions between representatives of one high school and another. We talked about commonality among teenagers. We talked about how we could, if we were allowed to improve race…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Students who were involved with the Campus Y meeting (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Interaction between white and Black students in 1955-1956 at the Campus Y (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - The extent to which ministers addressed segregation (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Shifting from First Baptist to St. Joseph CME to United Church of Christ (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Church as food for thought (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Mother’s second marriage (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Class size in schools and economic class divisions in the community (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - How teachers talked about segregation (clip)

Interviewer: How would your teachers teach you to deal with the society? Hilliard Caldwell: They said it’s wrong. We know it’s wrong, but this is the way the South is. This is the way society is here. That there would be two separate schools. That we have two separate churches and there will be…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Contradictions between civics education and segregation (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Dedication of teachers and his grades (clip)

Interviewer: Tell me more about the Black schools that you grew up in, not just when you were in high school but even before that. What were they like? What did that mean for you? Hilliard Caldwell: It meant that… I have to admit that we had darn good teachers. They cared. They were genuine. They…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Teachers in the community, integration (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell: Teachers lived in the community. Teachers attended churches of their choice within the Black community. Parents had a chance to see teachers, not necessarily at school. Teachers also attended the churches in their community. That is not the case today. A large contingency of our…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Churches, Schools, PTA (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Living in rented homes (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Punishment and role of school (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell: Child abuse was never mentioned. It was not even a word. Abuse was not even mentioned back in those days. We got many a [unclear.] And as Eddie Murphy used to say in one of his jokes, that his mom used to whup him and said, the louder he cried the louder she whupped. And he said,…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Childcare while mother worked (clip)

Interviewer: Do you remember after your father died, which was during the war, and your mother having to raise the four of you on her own, that meant that she must have been working a lot, do you have any memory of what her hours of work would be? Hilliard Caldwell: She would be gone all day. She’d…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Mother’s domestic work (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Janitor’s association (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Fraternity work (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - His parents (clip)

Interviewer: I’m going to try to get straight on a few of the things that he’s already mentioned. Could you tell me your birth date? Hilliard Caldwell: February 26, 1937 Interviewer: Were you born at home? Hospital? Hilliard Caldwell: Yes, I was one of those home babies attended to by a midwife back…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Career in public administration (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Brothers in law enforcement (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell: My brothers’ backgrounds are varied. The leading career in my family was law enforcement. I have two brothers who have many years of law enforcement experience. One of the older brothers was the first full-time Black policeman in Chapel Hill. Interviewer: Who was that? Hilliard…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Introductions (clip)
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