Reginald Hildebrand - On his family, genealogy, race, and community

Dr. Reginald Hildebrand is an Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is also a member of St. Paul CME Church and an advisory board member of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History. This interview was conducted as part of the Jackson Center’s Facing Our Neighbors Initiative, and is part of the Jackson Center’s life history series. Topics include: family history and genealogy, especially in South Carolina; stories of great-grandparents out of slavery; memories of his grandmothers and the schools where they each taught; origination of name “Hildebrand”; ancestral connections and significance of generations of history; arguments about reparations; family reunions; importance of education to his family; his childhood in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City; consciousness of race in school; segregation in Atlantic City; Civil Rights Movement; draw to Durham and Chapel Hill; becoming a professor; membership at St. Paul AME Church; Rebecca Clark; black community in Durham; encounters with Greenbridge and local development; significance of UNC-Now partnership.