Oral Histories

Charles Brooks: As far as young people getting into this right now. You don’t really see a lot of people going into the trades, like becoming plumbers, carpenters. For one thing the pay scale, I mean everything, it’s like everyone wants to do IT work, sit at home, got your computer, making a lot of…

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Life History Series. Ms. Virginia has grown up in Chapel Hill and lived here her entire life. She was born on Mitchell Lane. She is the 10th of 10 children. Her mother worked at UNC at Chase Hall and her father worked within landscaping.…

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…

BK: Yeah. And see then, I knew what, got my first taste of segregation mainly was when I started school. RG: Which school? BK: It was Orange County Training School at that time. And that's over there where Northside is now. Same building. OK. The white school was where the Town Hall of Carrboro is.…

RG: Do you still remember your teachers from Orange County Training School? BK: I remember, not back too far. I just went to one of them's funeral. She passed. Ruth Hope, I went to her funeral. One teacher, Miss Eziel ? Smith. She was my teacher. There's another one that's still alive and lives in…

RG: When did they change the name Orange County Training School to Northside and Lincoln. BK: When they built Lincoln. No. They changed Orange County Training School, I think, I'm not really sure, I think about 1949, 48-49, somewhere along there. And that was because the parents - we had some…

RG: Do you have any idea when you graduated, how many went on to get a college degree or started college? BK: Most of them that finished school went on. RG: Went on to college? BK: To college, yes. And a lot of them left Chapel Hill because there was no future for them in Chapel Hill. The only thing…

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…

Audio recordings of interviews conducted by Yonni Chapman with participants in the African American freedom struggle and the civil rights movement in and around Chapel Hill, N.C.

This short interview includes Lee’s description of what a good neighbor is. Lee says that a good neighbor looks out for the other’s wellbeing, health, safety, and financial hard times. He also describes his roommate experiences as a way to exemplify how to be a good neighbor.

This interview is part of a project conducted from 1973-1975 by Jack Solomon Bass and Walter De Vries with political leaders, journalists, editors, party officials, political scientists, campaign directors, union officials, and civil rights leaders from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,…

Lee, who was elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969, 1971, and 1973 talks about education policy, politics in Chapel Hill. Overview of Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools in early 1960s; closing of Lincoln High School; disparate concerns of black and white communities during his 1969 mayoral…

This interview is part of a project done from 1995-1997, aimed at understanding how North Carolinians have dealt with post-Great Depression changes. Overarching themes are the realignment in North Carolina party politics and the Republican reemergence, the evolution of African American political…

Nathaniel (Pee-Wee) Lee was a brick mason and laborer, and has worked and lived in the Chapel Hill area for most of his life. He was born in 1944 at UNC Hospital. When he was first born he lived with his grandparents on the farm that they sharecropped in Durham. Pee-Wee reflects on growing up on a…

"If you ask for help, you get it here." - Sharon Livingston Sharon is originally from New York and moved from Oklahoma to Chapel Hill, NC for medical training. At the time of the interview, she had been in Chapel Hill for three years. Her first impressions of Chapel Hill were positive given the…

Having lived in New York City before moving to Chapel Hill, Joyce Long has seen firsthand the differences between Northern and Southern cooking. Her father owned a restaurant in Harlem, but she and her mother did most of the cooking in the home. Her mother taught her to be a creative cook, and…

"People have got to stand up for themselves. Black or white. If you don’t stand up for yourself, ain’t nobody going to do it for you." - Edna Lyde Edna Lyde, born in 1928 in Darlington, SC, recounts how being Black impacted her experience within her family, at the workplace, and in her community in…

This interview is part of a group of interviews conducted by Susan Simone exploring the lives and struggle of various members of the Northside community: a historically black and primarily residential neighborhood located immediately northwest of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and…

“Everybody knew everybody, and it’s just like anywhere else, you could walk away from your house and not lock the door. You would know the neighbor would watch your house, and you would hook the screen in the back, and you go on downtown wherever you are going and come back, and your house is ok.…

“Church had a good influence on my life." - Mary Manning Mary Manning was born in Carrboro on Birch Street and moved to Chapel Hill. She reflects on her childhood and her life living in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. She mentions several memories of her growing up in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. She only…

Shari Manning discusses growing up in Chapel Hill and her education. She shares her experience with East Chapel Hill High School and her knowledge of Lincoln High School. She also discusses the adversity she has faced, and how she feels underrepresented in the school system and in course materials…

This interview provides an overview of Black communities in Chapel Hill during Mason's life. He notes the consequences of having segregated communities and outdated infrastructures. His employment was at UNC Chapel Hill and he was employed at an early age at several local restaurants. He talks about…