Oral Histories

This interview provides Brentton Harrison’s early biographical information, reflections on his father’s life as a Reverend and his life growing up in Northside including participation in a band while in high school. He shares his involvement with Heavenly Grocery, overseeing the Pancake Jamboree at…

“It doesn’t feel like work, it feels like a calling, a mission, or a purpose." - Brentton Harrison Mr. Harrison is bidding farewell to the Jackson Center after 10 years of service to join the Hargreeves Community Center. With the whole staff bidding him farewell and asking questions, it leads to…

In this short clip, Rev. Harrison talks about his dream for Chapel Hill.

Listen to Rev. Troy Harrison, former pastor of St. Joseph CME Church, speak about how faith sustained the Black communities of southern Orange County.

Danina Henley: I’m still getting used to the diversity as far as feeling like I belong here. Growing up, I was around people that were just like me. It’s just different. We were all alike. We all had the same interests. How do I want to say it? Our way of life was just real similar. We shared a lot.…

Danina Henley: The community is what got people through, you know neighbors is what got each other through hard times when my grandmother was coming up and when her mother was coming up. It was neighbors that got people through hard times. I know with the recent recession scare and all the things…

Reginald Hildebrand (RH): The other connection I have, I developed in Chapel Hill around that time the church. And how that developed, I was living in Durham and had really wanted to attend a church in Durham, to establish myself in that community. I visited the best known AME church in Durham,…

Rob Stephens (RS): And you say you did talk to elders about it? Reginald Hildebrand (RH): Yeah. Elders, I mean older people, not officials of the church. RS: Yeah. RH: Yeah. But these are the same people you’re talking to. Velma Perry and Rebecca Clark and others like that and they had, well it…

Reginald Hildebrand (RH): My grandmother’s parents, my great grandparents, on my father’s side, were slaves. Often heard stories of him coming out of slavery and his master providing some land that was actually in the family until like the 1980s. It was not common, but it happened enough that it was…

Reginald Hildebrand: This is the story that’s handed down in the family, that at the time of emancipation they were on a plantation in South Carolina owned by a family named Wannamaker. Most of the slaves on that plantation took the name Wannamker and for that first generation, all of the slaves –…

Reginald Hildebrand (RH): And so, I was very much aware of her, and her as a force in that church, and in that community, and was very much aware of her supportive involvement and engagement with any young – at that time, I was relatively young – person who appeared to be trying to make something of…

Rob Stephens (RS): And was there any so… what did you think when this, when this St. Joseph’s partnership with students, the UNC-NOW group, came up? Reginald Hildebrand: I was amazed. I was ama– ‘cause there’s nothing in my experience since the 1960s to prepare me for that. There was no, there’s no…

Reginald Hildebrand (RH): In the 4th grade, go to my parents, there was a Quaker school in Atlantic City. They had a good experience, thought it was worth the investment sending me to a Quaker School in Philadelphia, they wanted to do the same there. I went there, took exams, and the head mistress…

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…

"And that was another way that the church related to the community. Providing a place, a home to affirm, and to the degree we could, assist people who were members of the community whatever their particular situation might be, economically or educationally." - Dr. Reginald Hildebrand Dr. Reginald…

Rachel Broun: I know you’ve been at St. Paul through several pastors, what are the transitions like and how has that defined your relationship with the church throughout so many different leaders? Reginald Hildebrand: Again this is one of the strengths and weaknesses of the Methodist Tradition.…

Reginald Hildebrand: When moving around the community when Ms. Perry’s name came up and she was designated a Town Treasure at one point. Again, the kind of respect and accomplishment she had—I think she spent one year at Bennett and then she had to come back and take care of her mother who was ill.…

Mr. Hines describes getting sick from swimming in the creek. He also talks about needing to be saved by a lifeguard on a church trip to a pool. He later became a lifeguard and describes his own experiences.

She describes coming back to the community and seeing so many people she knew as a child and talks about Ms. Lucille at Hargraves. “You didn’t play with Ms. Lucille.”

The first interview features Antonio Vinson as a narrator, and lasts about 19 minutes. A chef by trade, Antonio Vinson left Chapel Hill for 25 years before recently returning. Upon returning, he became a taxi dispatcher for Tar Heel Taxi, despite his lack of experience. Throughout the interview,…

History of family at St. Joseph; Mr. Henry Baldwin donating to church; changes in church; fast pace nature of new generation; church’s role in community and individual’s role in church; meaning and power of singing and why singing is such a big part of St. Joseph; feeling of gratitude among…

“I still feel that many predominantly white institutions are somewhat insensitive, particularly to African-American students…and I think the last institutions which will make changes are the major white institutions because they are benefitting from the privilege of being white institutions.” - Fran…

This interview is part of an oral history project called Southern Communities: Listening for a Change: Mighty Tigers--Oral HIstories of Chapel Hill's Lincoln High School. The interviewes were conducted from 2000-2001, by Bob Gilgor, with former teachers, staff, and students from Chapel Hill, N.C.'s…