Hilliard Caldwell - Speaking about the integration of Chapel Hill High School
Interviewed by Bob Gilgor on October 24, 2000
“As R.D. Smith would tell you, I had a chip on my shoulder. I thought everybody was against me because… I didn’t have the finer things in life. But R.D. saw that chip and he told me, 'One day I’m going to knock that chip off,' and he did. And as a result, I ended up in 1955 getting elected president of my student body at an all-Black high school.”
- Hilliard Caldwell
Hilliard Caldwell discusses the process of Chapel Hill High School’s (CHHS) integration and the attitudes of both Black and white communities at the time. Caldwell speaks on how he remembers the demographics of the School Board, mentioning an old role model, Mr. R.D. Smith, who took special care of Caldwell. Additionally, Caldwell lists the problems which arose during this period of integration and how steps could have been taken to ensure a smoother integration of CHHS. He speaks about his hiring process at CHHS and how his career unfolded, as well as his experience as the PTA President at his son’s school in Carrboro.
This interview is part of an oral history project called Southern Communities: Listening for a Change: Mighty Tigers--Oral Histories of Chapel Hill's Lincoln High School. The interviewes were conducted from 2000-2001, by Bob Gilgor, with former teachers, staff, and students from Chapel Hill, N.C.'s Lincoln High School, the historically black secondary school that closed in 1962 when a school desegregation plan was implemented. Interviewees discuss African American life and race relations in Chapel Hill, as well as education, discipline, extracurricular activities, and high school social life before and after integration.
