Oral Histories

Terrence Foushee (TF): I taught at Northwood for about 8 and a half years. Kathryn Wall (KW): Did you go from that to a different school to teach English or to a different role? TF: I transitioned to the job that I’m in now, and that is the Blue Ribbon Specialist for the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate…

Kathryn Wall (KW): Can you tell me about the Blue Ribbon Program and how it came to be and what all it entails? Terrence Foushee (TF): I think that the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocacy Program started in ‘95 with the main goal of closing the achievement gap. The program is an opportunity access program…

Kathryn Wall (KW): What kinds of things do the Blue Ribbon Scholars who have the individual mentors, what sorts of the things do they tend to, what are some of the things that they do together, with their mentor? Terrence Foushee (TF): A lot of times the mentors bring their scholars, and it also…

Kathryn Wall (KW): What do you love about this role? Terrence Foushee (TF): I love a lot of things about this role. One, I get to experience what I might consider like life-changing moments with them. And in the classroom I loved, I used to love seeing their “Aha!” moments. But in this role, it…

Kathryn Wall (KW): … in part to try to address the achievement gap, what else do you think needs to happen in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system to reduce that gap and eliminate that gap in the future? Terrence Foushee (TF): What I think, and I don’t know how this happens, but it’s the…

Kathryn Wall (KW): If you [Gillian] have any questions, I’d love for you to jump in, and also, if there’s anything you [Terrence Foushee] want to add before we wrap up that would be great. Gillian Kepley (GK): You had mentioned a while ago about your sleep schedule, and stuff like that, when you…

Kathryn Wall (KW): Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap up? Terrence Foushee (TF): One, I definitely appreciated this conversation because there are so many things that I got to think about and I really just want to show appreciation for a lot of the teachers, a lot of the Black women…

“Servant leadership is, to me, learning who you are to find out what you can contribute to make your community better.” - Terrence M. Foushee Terrence Foushee is the Blue Ribbon Specialist for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. During the interview, he reflects on his experiences navigating Chapel…

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…

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…

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 (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,…

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.;…

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 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

This interview provides into Fowler's life growing up in Chapel Hill, her church attendance, and her education at Northside Elementary School. She goes into the neighborhood and family dynamics as well. She shares that her father worked for UNC. She spends her leisure time playing music and learning…

And that’s my life, it's all about Ms. Kay, and I’m still going to help until the day I die. If they need help, I’m going to do it. - Kay Gattis Ms. Kay Gattis describes her upbringing in Chapel Hill, with her parents and eight siblings. She described how she took on the role of the caregiver after…