Oral Histories

RG: Are there any other memories of your childhood that stand out in your mind? CS: No, I think you just kind of accept things as they are, and you don't question them or really see the value until you move on to another stage. Then you can see the importance of what you did have, and what we had,…

RG: Well, let's graduate from Northside - not Orange County Training School - and go on to Lincoln. I may repeat some of the same kinds of questions, but I want to understand what you remember about the characteristics of the teachers at Lincoln. CS: The characteristics that I remember of - the…

RG: Was it difficult for you at the high school, with your dad as principal? CS: Probably, yeah, (laughter) Eyes always on me. RG: Eyes always on you. CS: Yeah. RG: Did you think you got special treatment, or tougher treatment, or the same as everybody else? CS: I didn't get special treatment. And I…

RG: What is it that, what are the contributions that your mother made that allowed a school to be named after her? CS: Just the longevity of teaching in this community as long she did. RG: 1932 till — CS: What was it, I know they had taught over 60-some years in this particular community together,…

This interview was done as part of the “Histories of Homes” initiative of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History. The interview includes R.D.’s experience in WWII and his role in constructing their current home after the war. R.D. also held educator roles at Lincoln High…

The interviewees share their experiences with living in Northside, the1940s until today, and the lack of interactivity between Northside and the university. There is a lack of progress in preventing harmful change to Northside. R.D. Smith talks about his own experience on town council. They talk…

R.D. and Euzelle Smith have lived in Pottersfield in Chapel Hill since the 1940s. Both worked as educators in Chapel Hill for decades, and R.D. served as a member of the Town Council. They then became the namesakes for Smith Middle School when it was constructed. This interview was done as part of…

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 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…

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…

William E. Smith, also known as Smitty, grew up in Durham with his parents and seven brothers. His strongest influence growing up was his grandfather, who he spent a great deal of time with – including helping out on his farm in Orange County. He graduated from Hillside High School, which he…

William Smith: I was not an academic person so building was something that I could do and I could look at it after it was finished and brag about it because it was hands on and I enjoyed doing things with my hands. Danielle Dulken: And when you say brag about it, you must have been very good at…

William Smith: I had a masonry class in high school for one year and that was being a brick mason. Actually, I was trained as a brick mason, and I became a stone mason in the later years. Enjoyed doing stonework because it was very creative and that was the part that really interested me.

William Smith: With brick and blocks everything is straight, it is dimensional. With stone it is not dimensional. You have to develop an eye and when we say eye, that means you can pick up a rock and find a place in the wall for it. You know? So, that is an ongoing thing. So, if you were, we’d never…

William Smith: The term, “stone mason” is misunderstood. Sometimes, basically what we did in the local area is we were rock masons. Stone masons are different. Being a stone mason, you have to cut, shape, and make the stones fit. Rock mason is not that way. You just take a rock as it is and lay it…

William Smith: The art form is designing a project and having a finished project. The science is whether you are going to use S type model or pouring the cement. In some cases, you can do a rock wall that has neither mortar mix or concrete. It has no mortar at all, so there is a difference. So, if…