Oral History

William Gattis - On violence (clip)

Interviewed on March 26, 2025

William Gattis: White men thought it was their point of duty to cross over into Northside or Pottersfield to rape Black women and kill Black men and then go back to the other side of town and not have to pay a price for that balance. And that is why, as we move along, parents would tell us: “There are certain places after dusk [where] you need to be at home” – because of the violence that these students would perpetrate with no reprisals from anybody.

William Gattis - On violence (clip)

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Oral history interview of Gattis, William on March 26, 2025 at St. Joseph CME Church Fellowship Hall, Chapel Hill, NC.

Citation: Marian Cheek Jackson Center, “William Gattis - On violence (clip),” From the Rock Wall, accessed September 13, 2026, https://fromtherockwall.org/oral-histories/william-gattis-on-violence-clip.

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