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Oral Histories

 Hilliard Caldwell - Brothers in law enforcement (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell: My brothers’ backgrounds are varied. The leading career in my family was law enforcement. I have two brothers who have many years of law enforcement experience. One of the older brothers was the first full-time Black policeman in Chapel Hill. Interviewer: Who was that? Hilliard…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Career in public administration (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - His parents (clip)

Interviewer: I’m going to try to get straight on a few of the things that he’s already mentioned. Could you tell me your birth date? Hilliard Caldwell: February 26, 1937 Interviewer: Were you born at home? Hospital? Hilliard Caldwell: Yes, I was one of those home babies attended to by a midwife back…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Fraternity work (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Janitor’s association (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Childcare while mother worked (clip)

Interviewer: Do you remember after your father died, which was during the war, and your mother having to raise the four of you on her own, that meant that she must have been working a lot, do you have any memory of what her hours of work would be? Hilliard Caldwell: She would be gone all day. She’d…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Punishment and role of school (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell: Child abuse was never mentioned. It was not even a word. Abuse was not even mentioned back in those days. We got many a [unclear.] And as Eddie Murphy used to say in one of his jokes, that his mom used to whup him and said, the louder he cried the louder she whupped. And he said,…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Churches, Schools, PTA (clip)

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): As you were growing up you were saying that the schools and the church were very important. HC: Back in those days… YC: Tell me about that. HC: See the church and the schools had a very good relationship with each other. Number one, they both meant a lot to Black…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Teachers in the community, integration (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell: Teachers lived in the community. Teachers attended churches of their choice within the Black community. Parents had a chance to see teachers, not necessarily at school. Teachers also attended the churches in their community. That is not the case today. A large contingency of our…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Dedication of teachers and his grades (clip)

Interviewer: Tell me more about the Black schools that you grew up in, not just when you were in high school but even before that. What were they like? What did that mean for you? Hilliard Caldwell: It meant that… I have to admit that we had darn good teachers. They cared. They were genuine. They…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Contradictions between civics education and segregation (clip)

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): Now, how would your teachers… okay… you studied the Constitution, you studied the Bill of Rights, studied the Declaration of Independence, probably all those things, right? How did that relate to the limits on you as Black people growing up in a segregated society?…

 Hilliard Caldwell - How teachers talked about segregation (clip)

Interviewer: How would your teachers teach you to deal with the society? Hilliard Caldwell: They said it’s wrong. We know it’s wrong, but this is the way the South is. This is the way society is here. That there would be two separate schools. That we have two separate churches and there will be…

 Hilliard Caldwell - R.D. Smith and other influential teachers (clip)

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): Was there any particular teacher that influenced you? Hilliard Caldwell (HC): Yes, RD Smith is the one that I can think of because RD took me under his wing as a ninth grader. He taught Agricultural and Industrial Arts and I took all of his courses, nine through…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Class size in schools and economic class divisions in the community (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Mother’s second marriage (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Church as food for thought (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Shifting from First Baptist to St. Joseph CME to United Church of Christ (clip)

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): That’s okay because it’s all related, but let me get back to church. Again, here we have a situation. Ministers are talking about what’s Christian and Christianity and teaching people lessons and talking about things in church and yet, living in a segregated…

 Hilliard Caldwell - The extent to which ministers addressed segregation (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Interaction between white and Black students in 1955-1956 at the Campus Y (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Students who were involved with the Campus Y meeting (clip)

 Hilliard Caldwell - Campus Y meeting between Lincoln and Chapel Hill High School students (clip)

Interviewer: Tell me about these meetings at the Campus Y. Hilliard Caldwell: They were heralded as human relations sessions between representatives of one high school and another. We talked about commonality among teenagers. We talked about how we could, if we were allowed to improve race…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Liberal white citizens in Chapel Hill (clip)

Yonni Chapman (YC): Ok, so when you were a junior and senior in high school you had some of these discussions. Did that change your life in any way? Hilliard Caldwell (HC): It pointed out–I remember my thinking was that there were white people who wanted changes and who wanted it very bad, who…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Harold Foster and his leadership ability (clip)

Interviewer: Tell me when did you first get to know Harold Foster? Hilliard Caldwell: I was a senior, and he was a freshman, I think. If I’m not mistaken, if I look at my high school newspaper for some reason it was either Harold or Mary Mason always had superlatives. Interviewer: You always had…

 Hilliard Caldwell - Mary Mason and Harold Foster (clip)

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): Okay, let’s see, we were talking about Mary Mason and Harold Foster. Did you know them well? Hilliard Caldwell (HC): I did, I knew them well. Mary and I knew each other– we moved into the same neighborhood many years later. She was married and I was married. And,…