Thomas Merritt - On his father (clip)

MCJC Staff: “So, could you tell us what [growing up on Church Street] was like - sisters, brothers?”

Thomas Merritt: “Oh one sister older, one brother younger. We were pretty well off back then. My mother she worked for Danziger’s Old World gift shop. My father worked at different restaurants, and he brought food home so you could tell [laughter]. So, we were not underfed, we were pretty well off. He worked also at the School of Public Health and then he left there and went to the US Forestry Service.

MCJC Staff: “Oh the forestry service! What did he do for the forestry service?”

Thomas Merritt: “He did research. They went out into the field and took samples of trees in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and places like that, the western part of the state…He was pretty handy…The people that surrounded him, you know, encouraged him to move up. He was encouraged not to just sit in one place, but to move on. One year they offered him a job at the CDC. But he didn’t take that because he would have to move to Atlanta and he didn’t leave the family…He was good. He was good. He liked business, he liked to work with his hands. The house that we lived in, he built. Yes, he built that. Started that the year before I was born, and we’re still holding onto it.”

MCJC Staff: “That explains to me, or at least that gives me context, as to why he held on to like [reference to stolen land].”

Thomas Merritt: “So he bought the lot next door from us and that was left for my brother. And then he bought five and a half, six acres, down in Durham County – down near Barbee’s Chapel. And that was left to my sister. You know, he encouraged us to buy, buy. Buy land so we can hold on to it.”