Oral Histories

Carolyn Briggs describes writing essays in school to convince people to build the pool. She also describes being saved from drowning in the pool and remembers several of the lifeguards at A.D. Clark Pool.

“In the Black community, regardless of who you were, everyone socialized together to a certain degree.” - James Brittian James Brittian was born in 1944 on Rosemary Street and grew up in Chapel Hill. He talks about his family, growing up with his brothers and sisters, being a middle child, and his…

Charles Brooks: My grandfather and my father, they started out as subcontractors and they used to do a lot of work for like JP Co. Force Security Builders. They even did some framing for Tate Construction. In the early 70s my father ended up obtaining his contractor’s license and that is when they…

Charles Brooks: Subcontractors usually they are not licensed, especially for like my grandfather and my father, they were carpenters. So, like when I say they subbed that means they would go in once the foundation was put in on a house, they would go in and do all of the framing, do all of the…

The interviewees provide an overview of the Chapel Hill Civil Rights Movement. They specifically note the emotion of CRM marches of Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham in 1963. They speak on Watt’s Hotel discrimination and Civil Rights leadership in the area, especially of the friendly Pottersfield…

Ben Barge: Do you remember what it felt like, being in the march? Carol Brooks: Well like I told you, it felt… wonderful, it was exciting, new, you know, trying to help integrate, want to be in the front []. Because I remember the bus station, you know, they had the colored, the white, you weren’t…

Keith Edwards: Yeah, 1966 when they fully integrated. Cause I went there in the seventh grade, and I was just eleven years old. We went on Franklin Street. Carol Brooks: See that was back in ’64, in ’63…That’s when we were cheerleaders for Lincoln High School. Patricia Atwater, Evelyn Walker, and…

Dr. James A. Bryan II, age 86, is currently writing a memoir about his life and medical career. This interview was conducted, while Dr. Bryan is in the process of reflection, to document his memories of Northside residents and their relationships.From 1964 to 2014, Dr. Bryan taught at UNC-Chapel…

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.

“Something I’ve been thinking about lately is that I think of myself as a student that’s here for four years. I think of my contributions, both negative and positive to this area and people who live here, as a temporary thing. I think that’s really problematic, because I’m a temporary student, but…

In this interview Deloris Bynum recounts being in the 8th grade when black students were integrated into Chapel Hill High School. Bynum says that she loved to teach children. She worked as a Nurse’s Aide in Assisted Living homes and loved older people. Bynum was an usher for the St. Joseph’s CME…

This interview was conducted for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Facing Our Neighbors Initiative. The interview focuses almost entirely on the importance of community in the lives of the Bynums. Topics Include: Growing up in area, Mr. Bynum’s experience in the fire department, Lincoln High,…

In this interview, Ronnie Bynum discusses his family history, including the career of his grandmother as a midwife and the changes she witnessed on Airport Road, which is now MLK Boulevard. He talks about how much he learned from his grandmother, and how easily it is for the fabric of an extended…

In this audio clip, Ronnie Bynum talks to Heidi Dodson about what it was like in Carrboro before and after desegregation.

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…