Min. Robert Campbell

"It’s good to talk about what it took to generate economics for the community itself. It was always teaching the new guy on the block. This is what it’s going to take for the future."

- Minister Robert Campbell

Within his interview, Minister Robert Campbell’s lively spirit and storytelling ease shines through as he extensively details his family’s construction legacy in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. His grandfather, uncles, and other relatives played a large role in building the community. He notes that the skills he obtained working with them on building sites easily transferred over to the kitchen - where Min. Campbell learned how to approach the culinary arts from prominent women in his life. Additionally, he highlights family members who engaged in innovative entrepreneurship before commercial regulations were heavily enacted. He describes how building was a collective effort, with highly skilled Black workers from all trades building up the community. This communal mindset shines through in the way that children were looked after. Campbell ends his interview with a note on the community leaders who made sure he went to school and got there on time.

Minister Robert Campbell: “I miss him teaching us how to play the piano…My grandfather, he could blow, he could blow. He was our inspiration. Sometimes, sitting around telling the tales about growing up and the things he had to endure. I think it just made him a more persistent and stronger person. And, in doing so, to teach his children, as well as his grandchildren, how to fend for themselves. If you have a craft, the ability to do things, you can take the discipline from learning that trade and you can add it to another one. But I know that for me, I know when I was working with my uncles ̶ you know I loved working with them, they were fun working with, you learn different things working with them but I always said ̶ this is not for me. And I began to realize it wasn’t for me, I think it was around about 1963. My grandfather he passed away in ‘64 or ‘65, I can’t remember which it was, it was so cold. We would work with them when we were out of school, and I said, if you don’t make your money from springtime to late fall, you’ve got to have security, some funds prior to winter. Because with winter when the rain and the snow came, if you didn’t already have a structure where you had to build some inner walls on the inside, it’s hard to work outside, but I was fortunate enough. My Aunt Louise, she was one of those ladies that was excellent when she cooked. She could cook. And I had the opportunity with Mama Dip to watch how they did things. It was such an upbringing that they were not afraid to show you their skills. If I just listened to them and my grandmother, and just could’ve wrote some things down. My grandmother used to say, ‘go out there in the yard. You see that tree over there? That’s an animal tree, and that’s a beechwood tree there. I need some bark off that tree, I need some off that and bring me some of the leaves off of the willow tree.’ It’s too warm to build a fire, but she made a brew out of it. She would give it to us and said it would keep her from catching colds, keep our fevers down and things like that. But learning how to cook I decided that, well you know there’s one thing that’s always going to happen. People are going to want to eat, and some are not going to want to cook for themselves. And so that was one of the reasons why I went into the culinary arts.”

MCJC Staff: “Was there anything from learning on the build sites, from your uncles and grandfather that you transferred over to cooking? Like were there any skills that prepared you?”

Campbell: “Yes, yes! A recipe for anything is building or putting something together. So to experiment with all the different spices, you learn that when you get ready to put a meal together, that there are certain spices that work better in that meal rather than others. But also you prepare for how many people you are going to serve. And so it’s just like how many blocks is it going to take to build the foundation, how many bricks is it going to take to build the eve around the foundation and different things. How many two by fours you are going to need is just like how many teaspoons of this, how many cups, a half a cup of flour? It all depends. So you transfer those skills to the things you are doing. Yeah.”

Minister Robert Campbell: “Well, it all depends on the function. A residential home uses smaller rocks, a commercial type you have bigger rocks. And you can actually see that the rocks at Hargraves are a little bigger than the rocks that you see on the rock houses on Graham and Moore Street. And so it all depends on what you’re building for. Most of your rock walls, the base of them might start with larger rocks, but then as you go up, they’re smaller. They say, don’t get one as big as your head, get one a little smaller than your head. That is the way my uncles, that’s the way it worked…that’s one of the things Handy would say. If you want to make sure that we get it right, what’s your wife’s opinion. You’re not just building this for you, what is your wife going to say about it? Nine times out of ten, you have to have some reflection of nature. A lot of input comes in. Think about, I haven’t seen your wife now, is she short, tall? Because you don’t want a twelve inch step down and she has short legs. Because you’re tall and you can manage that, but think about even with your children. A lot of thoughts go into building your house…custom.

Min. Robert Campbell is a well-known local activist who was raised by his grandparents in the Northside neighborhood. He attended Northside and Lincoln and was in the first desegregated graduating class at Chapel Hill High School (Class of ’67). He moved to Rogers Road in the 1970s where he has been an environmental justice activist, advocating for clean water, a better sewage system, and the closing of the city dump which is adjacent to the neighborhood. He was President of the local NAACP chapter and is now the director of the Rogers Eubanks Neighborhood Association Community Center.

Min. Campbell ‘s family has lived in this area for generations. He was raised by his grandparents who lived on Graham Street in Northside. His grandfather was a mason and built many of the stone structures around town. He learned about the trade by working with his grandfather, and describes Northside as a place where everyone cared for everyone else’s kids and teachers lived in the community. Every kid was known by a nickname or two. Robert went by Peter, his middle name, and since he played baseball with some of the big kids he earned himself the nickname, “old man,” and, alternatively, “Peter Rabbit.” He has vivid memories of other kids in the neighborhood, of being able to work for other neighborhood adults to learn skills and trades. Because he was always interested in cooking, he took a home economics course in high school and was inspired by Mr. R.D. Smith to learn auto mechanics. He describes his high school experience as a very good one, where teachers encouraged contact across the color line and students got along. After graduation, he decided to apply to a Work Corps program in Kentucky where he learned both cooking and auto mechanics. Rather than wait to be drafted, he decided to join the Navy, following friends who did so, and rose through the ranks to petty officer, third class, on a large ship where he literally learned the ropes and later oversaw other sailors. When he returned to Chapel Hill, he worked first in construction, then as a cook at Shoney’s on Franklin St. He also worked at Burger King and at Lenoir dining hall. He attended Durham Tech on the GI Bill but did not graduate. He went through a difficult time and a few caring people convinced him to lose weight and join a church community. There, in a bible study group, he began to see that his talent lay in speaking and advocacy (what he calls “the gift of gab”). He attended various churches and settled on Faith Tabernacle on Rogers Road. His faith is at the root of his activism since he believes we are called to be stewards of the earth.

“All God's people coming together and then you hear the voice that said, "I went to the mountain top and what did I see?" I saw all God's people coming together, black, white, red, holding hands and chanting "peace and unity. What do you want? Justice!" And just to hear that echo and look around and see not just teenagers, not just middle-aged, but you saw the whole coming together, desiring the same thing."

- Minister Robert Campbell

Minister Robert Campbell , of Faith Tabernacle Oasis of Love International Church in Chapel Hill, was born and raised in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area; in this interview he speaks about growing up in the Northside neighborhood, his family, and values he was taught as a child. Campbell discusses his work as a member of the local NAACP and leader of RENA and how that has brought attention to environmental justice issues in the community, and provides some background information in this interview about why people have united in the faith community. Minister Campbell speaks about the Ministerial Alliance of African-American churches; his current congregation; the importance of compassion.

Adwoa Asare: Could you just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you’re involved in with the community?

Minister Robert Campbell: Yes. I’m Minister Robert Campbell. I was ordained at Faith Tabernacle in the ’80s. I am the president of the Roger-Eubanks Neighborhood Association, co-chair of the Coalition in Environmental Racism. I got involved basically ’cause of my spiritual upbringing. I got more involved in the community after the ’70s; my bishop, Bishop Ila McMillan, told us one day during one of her teachings, she said, “We must realize that we are here in the comfort zone. How do we get out of that comfort zone and find out what is our need in our community?” And we knew at the time that it was an issue with the landfill, we knew that was an issue with water, and she instilled in us the…the motivation. We had the desire, but the motivation to go into the community and really actually start doing more…we had saw that–and we had dealt with–the issues within the community. There was a lot of homeless people in the community, there was a lot of young men and women that really didn’t have anywhere to stay. And we began to look at all those issues and see that all those issues was confronting us within just this community. The Rogers-Eubanks [] community. And so we tried to figure out how could we help. And as we began to knock on doors, our question was: “How can we help?” And asking that question, there was a lot of things that some of us was not prepared to do. But we learned, as we went on, that that question had a lot of implications. When you ask someone, “how can I help you?,” or “what is it I can help you with?,” there’s a lot of answers. And we being so naïve, thought maybe, you know, somebody might say “Well I need prayer,” not knowing somebody would say “Well, you know, I really need my bathroom cleaned.” That’s a test. Well we was able to accomplish that. And from there, you know, we began to hear what they was, most of the residents was saying.