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Valerie P. Foushee - on her learning experiences during integration (clip)

Interviewed by Tracey Barrett on March 26, 2012

Valerie P. Foushee - on her learning experiences during integration (clip)

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Oral history interview of Foushee, Valerie P. conducted by Barrett, Tracey on March 26, 2012 at Home of Valerie Foushee, Chapel Hill, NC.

Citation: Southern Oral History Program, “Valerie P. Foushee - on her learning experiences during integration (clip),” From the Rock Wall, accessed April 16, 2025, https://fromtherockwall.org/oral-histories/valerie-p-foushee-on-her-learning-experiences-during-integration-clip.

Rights: Open for research. The Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) 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 SOHP. The SOHP requests that the researcher informs the SOHP as to how and where they are using the material.

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In this Oral History

 Valerie P. Foushee - Speaking about her family, career, and race

This interview is part of a project of biographical interviews, 1979-2012, with men and women in North Carolina who have made significant contributions to business, the arts, education, and politics. Topics discussed in Valerie P. Foushee's interview include : growing up in Chapel Hill, N.C.;…

Valerie P. Foushee

More to explore

 Valerie P. Foushee - On her accomplishments with the School Board

Tracey Barrett (TB): What is something that you are most proud of? That, sort of, you feel like was an accomplishment during your time on the School Board, that you look back on and say, like “I’m glad that I was there for that” or “I know I made a difference in that way?” Valerie Foushee (VF): My…

 Valerie P. Foushee - On getting into politics (clip)

Tracey Barrett (TB): How did you decide to sort of get into politics? I mean, you described a long career in the Police Department, and obviously you were working your way up in many ways, from where you started to where you ended up as an administrator, but what led to your decision to -– am I…

 Valerie P. Foushee - On her career after leaving UNC (clip)

TB: So after you left you mentioned that you were working full time, what job were you working at? Valerie Foushee: I started out working part time while I was at Carolina for the Chapel Hill School system driving a school bus and being a bus monitor, and then I got a job at Blue Cross and Blue…

 Valerie P. Foushee - On her activism and social life while at UNC (clip)

Valerie Foushee: ...or I would just kind of like stay in my room, watch TV and study, but I was at Carolina, and that was important. Tracey Barrett: So did you, you lived on campus all four years? VF: I lived on campus for two years, and my roommate the first year was a sophomore from the Henderson…

 Valerie Foushee - On race relations at Chapel Hill High School (clip)

Valerie Foushee (VF): by the time we got through Phillips, my whole class, black and white, it was just a big friendship. We had come through a lot of those things that we went through when I was in seventh grade with boycotts at the high school that kind of like trickled down to the middle school,…

 Valerie Foushee - On race relations after desegregation in junior high school (clip)

Tracey Barrett (TB) : Right. So you, I mean, you sound like you changed schools a lot, in terms of school buildings and I’m assuming also the students you were in school with changed a lot too, how did that affect the way you viewed school, or do you think that it affected your education as a…

 Valerie Foushee - On how the first students integrated Chapel Hill schools (clip)

TB: So when you went to Frank Porter Graham then, at that point was your decision to go there that at that point that it was the closest, and so it was this sort of idea of a neighborhood school— VF: It wasn’t a decision. TB: Ok, so they districted— VF: We were still segregated— TB: --still that…

 Valerie Foushee - On attending segregated elementary schools (clip)

Valerie Foushee (VF): When I started elementary school I started at Northside, which has just been deconstructed. First grade at Northside, and when I went to Northside the district was preparing to close that facility and when I was there there was no cafeteria. And so for one whole year—now I…

 Valerie P. Foushee - Speaking about her faith, church, and family

This interview is in association with the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Life History Series. Senator Valerie Foushee, born May 7th 1956 is a lifelong member of the First Baptist Church. She began attending First Baptist at the age of two when her grandmother would bring her and her siblings to…

 Valerie P. Foushee - Speaking about her family, career, and race

This interview is part of a project of biographical interviews, 1979-2012, with men and women in North Carolina who have made significant contributions to business, the arts, education, and politics. Topics discussed in Valerie P. Foushee's interview include : growing up in Chapel Hill, N.C.;…

Terrence M. Foushee

Northside News Volume VI, Edition 7
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