Ruth Booth
Ms. Ruth Booth was born and raised in Chatham County on a 100 acre private farm owned by her grandfather. At the age of 17 she was tired of picking cotton and corn and decided to leave Chatham and move to Chapel Hill. Ms. Booth was a former member of Hamlet Chapel. When she moved to Chapel Hill she became a member of St. Paul, Mr. Booth was also a member. She dated Mr. Booth for several years got married and moved into the house they currently live in. They had one daughter, Anita Booth. Ms. Ruth was also a seamstress and repaired pants for soldiers in the war.
Ruth, Charles, and Anita Booth
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.
