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Oral History

Nate Davis - Construction of the Center (clip)

Interviewed by Alexander Stephens on April 17, 2012

Alexander Stephens (AS): This starts the sound. You can’t hear what people are saying. So I guess we can go ahead and start if that’s okay. Again, just imagine this (the recorder) is an extension of my body, don’t worry about it.

AS: So, could you talk a little bit about the history of the Center and when it was founded and all that?

Nate Davis: Well, actually, the construction of the Hargraves Community Center started back in the early 40s when the community felt like that the African American community, not just young people, but the community as a whole needed a place for recreation, to have meetings, to socialize, and do things like that. So that’s when the construction of Hargraves first started.

Nate Davis - Construction of the Center (clip)

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Oral history interview of Nate Davis conducted by Alexander Stephens on April 17, 2012 at Hargraves Community Center, Chapel Hill, NC.

Citation: Marian Cheek Jackson Center, “Nate Davis - Construction of the Center (clip),” From the Rock Wall, accessed September 13, 2026, https://fromtherockwall.org/oral-histories/nate-davis-construction-of-the-center-clip.

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In this Oral History

 Nate Davis - On the Hargraves Community Center

"...people in the community got together and said we need this facility. - Nate Davis Nate Davis remembers that during his childhood, the Hargraves Community Center as a safe space to hang out and play sports with friends, and now, after years of working first part time and then full-time for the…

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Nate Davis: The construction was delayed when the B-1 Navy Band, which was a band that came to Chapel Hill to perform on campus and throughout the state, for the governor and for the Navy ROTC. It was an all-Black navy band that were put together to come here to perform. When they came they didn’t…

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Nate Davis (ND): A lot of people look at a recreation center as just a location for people to go to do recreation programs. But again, it was used as a daycare center, which was located in the bottom of Hargraves. It was used for recreation programs, for meetings for the community, for special…

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Nate Davis (ND): …a parking lot. You know, we lost that outdoor court that we had. But we did get a gym. And we still have an outdoor court. But everybody came and played on the outdoor court at Hargraves. And we had, you know, our outdoor basketball league that everybody played in. We had people…

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Nate Davis (ND): Again it was a safe and fun place to come, again, we didn’t have the indoor gym, but we had the outdoor basketball court over here. Before the outdoor court was over here, it was over in that parking lot. And [it] was just one loose ball, basketball goal on a light pole, horse…

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Alexander Stephens: Do you have any favorite stories or memories of being here as a youth? Anything that you want on the record, I know there might be some things you don’t want recorded, [Laughter] but any stories you got from when you were young here? We can go in the shade if you want. Nate…

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Nate Davis: And, South Estes, which is off 15-501, the Estes Drive public housing used to be called Ridgefield. That’s one of the public housing areas, and when some of our friends had moved down that way we would go down there and–but, when we got ready to come home, as we were walking the police…

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Nate Davis: And at Hargraves, when Fred, we called him “Toro,” Fred Battle was working here. You know sometimes he would just come into work and say, “Davis let’s go.” And I said, “Where are we going Mr. Battle.” And he would say, “Today, we’re just going to get a bus.” We used to have a bus in…

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Alexander Stephens: What do you think is the significance of just being there to listen to what young people have to say and share ideas with them? Nate Davis: Well, it kept us out of trouble. It kept us out of trouble, you know not just with the police but with other people in the community. They…

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Nate Davis: So yeah, there was always something to do, always something for the young people to do, whether it was at Hargraves, or one of the churches or, you know, going on a picnic. Mr. Battle used to get a group together and we’d go to Camp New Hope and spend the night. We’d go to Lake Michie in…

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Nate Davis: The town has got a lot bigger now, so you got your police officers, they’re spread out throughout the town. They’re not stationed in one central location where they can sit and talk and have fun with the kids in the community. And I don’t think it’s that they don’t want to do it, but…

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Alexander Stephens: What do you think needs to be done for youth now? What do you think is missing in this community for youth? Nate Davis: I think the community needs to come together. I think the community needs to come together. You have different organizations of people in the community that…

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Alexander Stephens: It seems like you do hope, though, that it will be used more by people more from this specific community, these neighborhoods around here. I mean, it seems like that’s important to you in some… Nate Davis: Well, let’s look at Roberson Street. The people that used to live here are…

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Nate Davis: They would come into town. They would come to Hargraves, and talk about how nice the place is. And that’s because, once they found out it’s – this is Hargraves Recreation Center, it’s in a Black neighborhood, there should be something wrong with it. There should be broken windows. There…

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Nate Davis (ND): But next what’s gonna happen – all this gonna be commercial. Alexander Stephens (AS): Yeah, I know they’re trying to rezone it. ND: Yeah, and the gentlemen, the family that used to own that house. They were trying to get all this rezoned commercial. AS: Was that the Manns? Where did…

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Alexander Stephens: Well, thank you so much for taking time – again if you think of anything before we walk out of here I’m gonna leave the recorder on and if you start talking I’ll just move it towards you. This is, Again, this is Alexander Stephens, I’m here with Mr. Nate Davis, the director of…

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