Edwin Caldwell, Jr.

This interview is part of a project conducted by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate and undergraduate students in a 2001 oral history course. Topics include Chapel Hill's efforts to end racial segregation in the public schools; the process of creating integrated institutions; and the ways in which the memory of those experiences shapes schools to this day. Interviewees include former teachers, students, and administrators from Lincoln High School, the historically black school that closed when the desegregation plan was implemented, and Chapel Hill High School, which was integrated in 1962.

“One of the most difficult times I had was looking [after] and protecting teachers. I felt like that was my job. Man, you know, teachers need to have some independence to be able to do what they need to do, and I let them know that I was going to protect them. That’s why teachers came to me when I went to lunch because they knew that I was in their corner.”

- Edwin Caldwell, Jr.

Edwin Caldwell has been a member of the Chapel Hill community his whole life. He reflects on the time when the Chapel Hill high schools were integrating, along with discussing the community response to integration. He discusses the school board’s decision to allow white students to attend the newly integrated school for one year before allowing Black students to attend. This sparked community outcry and activism in the Black community, advocating for Black and white students to attend the high school at the same time. Mr. Caldwell speaks of the activism the Black community, along with members of the white community, did to change the school board's mind in allowing all students to attend the school at the same time. He speaks of the lack of consideration the previous all-Black high school, Lincoln High received as the new high school lacked to incorporate their principles, staff, traditions, school colors, mascots, and trophies. He acknowledges that the integration of the Chapel Hill high schools came with complications for the whole community.

He discusses the importance of sports for him and other Black students, as leagues provided them with mentors. Mr. Caldwell discusses the schools, organizations, and churches that were powerful support systems for Black students. The structure and rules in the integrated schools were different and less conducive to Black students’ success. When discussing his time on the Chapel Hill Carrboro School Board, he talks about how tenacious white parents with connections would advocate for their children. Black students often lacked advocates. In his work to protect Black educators, Mr. Caldwell had to threaten to involve Civil Rights attorneys for the unfair sanctioning and demotion of Black teachers.

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 Lincoln High School, the historically black secondary school that closed in 1962 when a school desegregation plan was implemented. Interviewees discuss African American life and race relations in Chapel Hill, as well as education, discipline, extracurricular activities, and high school social life before and after integration.

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 Lincoln High School, the historically black secondary school that closed in 1962 when a school desegregation plan was implemented. Interviewees discuss African American life and race relations in Chapel Hill, as well as education, discipline, extracurricular activities, and high school social life before and after integration.

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 Lincoln High School, the historically black secondary school that closed in 1962 when a school desegregation plan was implemented. Interviewees discuss African American life and race relations in Chapel Hill, as well as education, discipline, extracurricular activities, and high school social life before and after integration.

"I was for all kids, not just Black kids. My philosophy was if it's good enough for white kids, it ought to be good enough for Black kids."

- Edwin Caldwell, Jr.

Edwin Caldwell, Jr. talks about his time working at a biomedical lab and eventually becoming in charge of the lab after excelling in his role for a number of years. He also talks about the time that UNC-Chapel Hill did not accept his application for a superintendent position at the hospital because he was Black, leading him to take a job at Research Triangle Park. Mr. Caldwell also discusses his time working for the Democratic Party and their campaigns. He goes on to recall the time he worked on the school board and the conflicts he and the Black community overcame. He discusses a number of issues that he addressed as a school board member, including diversity, new bus routes, and giving Black students the opportunity to visit all-Black colleges.

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 Lincoln High School, the historically black secondary school that closed in 1962 when a school desegregation plan was implemented. Interviewees discuss African American life and race relations in Chapel Hill, as well as education, discipline, extracurricular activities, and high school social life before and after integration.

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 Lincoln High School, the historically black secondary school that closed in 1962 when a school desegregation plan was implemented. Interviewees discuss African American life and race relations in Chapel Hill, as well as education, discipline, extracurricular activities, and high school social life before and after integration.

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 downtown Chapel Hill, NC. The community has long been involved in a struggle to prevent developers from buying up property to build new and expensive housing developments that would break up the black community and drive low-income residents out of Chapel Hill, as Northside contains the majority of the remaining low-income housing in the city.

Edwin Caldwell, Jr.: One of the things that I remember when I was about twelve years old was Frank Robinson- whose father worked for Frank Graham, my grandmother worked for Frank Graham- we used to go and watch the white kids swim in the swimming pool- the one right behind Carmichael Hall. Carmichael Auditorium has an outdoor swimming pool that the Navy built for the University and whatever. And so, all the white kids used to be able to swim and we’d have to go and look.

We had nowhere to swim, we had to swim in the swimming holes and most of the swimming holes were polluted. Sewage dumped in those swimming holes but that was- we had swimming holes. And many of our friends developed typhoid fever and they died. We didn’t know why they were dying, the only thing we knew is we wanted to swim and when we found a swimming hole deep enough that got to be our swimming hole.

We found out that these things were polluted- they didn’t have sewer pipes, everything got dumped into the streams.

Well we made a proposal-me and Frank and another fellow by the name Nelson Rigsbee-we said let’s go to Frank Graham with this proposal that since the white kids are swimming, they are allowing the white kids to swim thirty days a month, if they let us swim one day a month then we’ll empty the water. They worried about water being polluted because Black kids are in the swimming pool, we will clean it. We will sweep it out and we’ll clean it, you give us one day.

I remember Frank Graham saying, “You know, Eddie this is not my jurisdiction, you really need to go over to talk with the athletic department.” And they gave us the runaround. The athletic department said, “Well, I’m in charge of the swimming pool but I can’t make that decision, you know, you really need to go talk with the athletic director.”

We go talk with the athletic director and he said “Well, this is highly unusual. I can’t give you that kind of permission, you really need to go talk with the Chancellor of the University,” which was R.B. House, and I knew it was ended there. We did go see him, okay, he did meet with us. He didn’t want to meet with us because he did not feel- the others treated us with respect- and you could feel that he didn’t treat us with respect, so we let it go at that point. But we had developed. People at this University knew that we’re on, and the question started to circulate, “What are they going to do about this?” Are they going to stop the white kids from swimming or are they going to let us swim? That was unofficial and we heard that.

Well, they didn’t stop the white kids from swimming, they built us a swimming pool. Miss Cornelia Love anonymously gave money to build us a swimming pool at Hargraves- that’s how that money came. I mean, she didn’t just up out of the goodness of her heart said, “Oh I want to be good to Black folks,” it’s because we raised the question: “Okay if we can’t swim then I don’t think that the white kids can swim. They got no business in that swimming pool because they don’t go to this University as we do.”

And so, you know, negotiations got started- that’s how that got started, okay. There’s nothing in history books that’s going to say that got started because she just had this swell of emotion that that was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do because we raised the point.

This interview is part of a project from 1982 onward that focuses on notable individuals connected to the University of North Carolina.

“We wanted integration, so we could have the same opportunities."

- Ed Caldwell, Jr.

During this oral history, Ed Caldwell, Jr. recounts his youth and adult career in Chapel Hill. Main focuses were the discussion of African American education, differences between areas and groups in the town, and a discussion of the Civil Rights Movement and its effects in Chapel Hill. Born and raised in Chapel Hill, Ed Caldwell’s life was marked by interest in educational attainment fueled by his family ties. He discusses how Chapel Hill and Carrboro were extremely different and held hatred for one another. Mr. Caldwell discusses the importance of African American schooling in Chapel Hill and the effect that the Civil Rights Movement had on outcomes. Additionally, he discusses his role as a member of the School Board and the struggles he fought for decades to overcome. Throughout the interview, there is a theme of emphasizing the importance of African Americans' impact on Chapel Hill as they were the ones who helped build the town and shaped it into what it is today.

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.