Mary Manning
Mary Manning - On her childhood, education, and segregation
“Church had a good influence on my life."
- Mary Manning
Mary Manning was born in Carrboro on Birch Street and moved to Chapel Hill. She reflects on her childhood and her life living in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. She mentions several memories of her growing up in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. She only attended all-Black schools and thus, never really experienced integration in schools. She was a part of a big family but lived in a small house. Sometimes, they faced money problems but they were happy. She also discusses how definitions of child abuse have changed during her life. She goes on to talk about her parents who pushed her and her siblings to study more. She talks a lot about her memories from attending Lincoln High School. She also describes how church was an important part of there family.
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.
