Harold Foster

Hudson Vaughn (HV): Were you involved also in some of the marches, like Harold?

Esphur Foster (EF): No he was at the forefront. I did march, in one or two of them. We had to take an oath, not to be nonviolent and mother always taught us to support each other if we were doing right. So we thought Harold was doing right. Mother was very upset because she had built this house and we were the only Fosters in Chapel Hill, Black or white, and his name was all in the paper. So they knew that. But she was afraid she was gonna lose her job! But they never said anything to her and she never suffered any repercussions because the people in charge, well most of them were Jewish and they were from up the way. So she did not suffer any repercussions, and so Charley and I, we marched because we were supporting him but mother never did because we broke the law, to her that was breaking the law and you just did not do it. But when he got arrested and stuff she sure saw that he got food and clean clothes and stuff. We were in the background but he was the one that was upfront, he was the one that started it, he and all the guys from over here there’s a rock wall right down here.

HV: That’s where they planned the sit in.

EF: That’s it.

HV: So you were one of the key planners there?

EF: Yeah he was.

HV: I said you were on that rock wall planning the sit ins?

Harold Foster (HF): Oh yeah. [inaudble]

HV: Sorry? How we’ve been?

HF: Yeah

HV: Things are going well, you know it's a struggle.

HF: Oh alright. Well if it’s a struggle, I know you’re trying. Long as you’re struggling just keep at it, just keep at it.

HV: What helped you keep going?

HF: What? It was the, I had a lot of support…(audio trails off)

Esphur Foster (EF): If you don’t know where you came from, you won’t know where you’re going.

Harold Foster (HF): Mhm-mm [in agreement]

EF: You gotta know where you came from.

Hudson Vaughan (HV): And Mrs. Jackson’s quote is “If you don’t know --Without the past, we have no future.”

EF: Future! That’s right, that’s right. And Charlie, [laughs] Charlie, these young people come up here, she’ll say to them “And now who is your people?”

[laughter]

EF: And we see a lot of favor, you know we’ll see family favor. And so, we’ll start asking—we’ll ask them questions until they come up with a name, and then we’d say “Oh, okay. We know…” and then we’ll tell them about their family, you know so yeah.

HV: If you had a… If you had a message for youth who were coming through and listening to oral histories and trying to learn about the community in St. Joseph’s, and this Pottersfield and Sunset or just have advice from folks who…

EF: We’re nothing without our history, we’re nothing. That is so… What is so incredible to me, and I love Maya who says “And yet we rise, like cream to the top.”. Because we were stripped of everything. You know, babies were taken from their mothers’ chests, you know. And we don’t know what tribes we came from. We don’t know where our --some of our people were sent. I mean just basic stuff that a lot of people take for granted. And just, we are nothing without our history, so. And that’s [why] I have begun with children, and I started with Douglas and so they have a new grandson. But by the time Douglas was two, he knew all his alphabets and the phonetic sounds. Because reading is so important to me, and I always say “If you think reading is not important, why do you think that people were killed for teaching slaves to read?”. Because not only were they enslaving our bodies but they were trying to enslave our minds too. So, when you learn to read, that’s a shackle that you have discarded.

Esphur Foster has lived on Cotton Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for 70 years.  In this interview, Foster discusses the powerful life of her mother, Hattie Mae Foster, as well as growing up in Chapel Hill during a pivotal time in history. She also describes much about life before, during, and after the Civil Rights movement within Chapel Hill as well. Specific topics in this interview include the following: The Fosters’ Family background; Esphur’s mother’s accomplishments as an African-American woman; attending Orange County Training School in the Northside community; memories of Lincoln High School; growing up in Chapel Hill as a African-American woman before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement, integrating Northside community with white college students and the unrest that it caused among the long-term African-American residents; the importance of having core values in your life; the different neighborhoods merging together to form the entire Northside community for voting precincts; the changes she has witnessed over the past 70 years on Cotton Street; her decision to go back to school at age 39; integration in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District; the Wake County School District’s problems with having diverse schools; the importance of understanding and appreciating the history in your family; the impact that faith has on a culture; President Obama’s healthcare plan; her brother, Harold Foster leading the Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill; the power of music; the biggest problems that face Chapel Hill today.