Nate Davis
Nate Davis was born and raised in Northside and graduated from Chapel Hill High School. He stayed in the area and was drawn into working with youth by his mentor, Fred Battle. He went on to become the director of the Hargraves Community Center, dedicating his life to supporting young people in Northside, and held that position for 47 years before retiring in 2018.
Nate Davis - On the Hargraves Community Center
Nate Davis remembers that during his childhood, the Hargraves Community Center as a safe space to hang out and play sports with friends, and now, after years of working first part time and then full-time for the Center, he is the director. Davis tells the story of Hargraves starting in the 1940s. It was a place for recreation and site of important community functions. After World War II, the Center housed the B1 Navy Band when they came to Chapel Hill. Hargraves has meant a tremendous amount to the Northside, Chapel Hill, and Orange County communities, as well as Davis himself and his family. Other topics include the Neighborhood Youth Corps program, marriage, fatherhood, and police relations,
Nate Davis - On his childhood, education, and school 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.
