Oral Histories

Chronological overview of Donna Bell’s life history; being raised in New Bern, NC; growing up in a single parent home; her undergraduate experience and involvement at UNC; career choices through studying English to working in Social Therapy; her move to Northside in 2001, her first house, her…

In this interview, Norma Bell describes her wedding experience and her rebelliousness towards perceived unfairness. She describes her personality as being fair, assertive, and opinionated. She also talks about her 44-year marriage to Thomas Bell and their children and grandchildren. Norma’s mother,…

Thomas Bell, a long time Northside community member and employee at Hillsborough Prison, attended Lincoln High School immediately before the desegregation of Chapel Hill public schools. He reflects on growing up in the Northside (walking to high school football games in Carborro, playing at…

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…

"We thought that since it’s a fight for the Black cause, it should be located in the Black community and establishment." - Mary Mason Boyd This interview is part of an oral history interview project conducted by Yonni Chapman with participants in the African American freedom struggle and the Civil…

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…

“If you have good football teams, it permeates throughout the entire school and it helps the other things that you’re going to do come up to par, come up to snuff or whatever you want to call it. It cuts down on a lot of discipline problems. Kids want to do more in school, because they see the…

In this interview, long-time local Chapel Hill resident Carolyn Briggs discusses her experiences growing up in Chapel Hill. While her family moved a couple of times during her childhood, Carolyn developed strong relationships with her family, friends, and mentors. Carolyn discusses the challenges of…

Carolyn Briggs: Most of the students that were in there, they- we- were like fourteen, fifteen years old. So, you marched, demonstrated, it wasn’t – the older ones I think experienced some hostilities- but the younger ones, it was fun to work, to grow, and know that you could make a difference, that…