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Orange County Training School

"The OCTS is over here, on Caldwell. And my mother’s father was one of the ones that laid the cornerstone, they were all masons. And so I went to what they called Northside, but was OCTS, from 1945 which was when I started...and so my class was the first class that went all the way through from the 7th to the 12th grade."

- Esphur Foster

In 1916, the Chapel Hill School District Board of Directors took over the Hackney School on Merritt Mill Road and the local Quaker primary school for African American students, consolidating the two schools under the name Orange County Training School. The school burned down in 1922 as the result of a fire that started at a nearby boarding house. Students were taught in various locations for the next two years until a new brick Rosenwald-funded building was constructed in 1924. The school served grades 1-12 and an addition was added in 1935 to allow for a separation of the high school from the lower grades. When Black students and their families objected to the school's name in 1948, it was renamed Lincoln High School, and when a new Lincoln High School building was constructed in 1951, it was renamed and repurposed as Northside Elementary, which it remained until the school was closed and used as office space after the integration of the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools in 1966. Today, the site is home to a new Northside Elementary, which opened in 2013.

Orange County Training School
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Citation: “Orange County Training School,” From the Rock Wall, accessed November 21, 2024, https://fromtherockwall.org/places/orange-county-training-school.

To learn more...

 Burnice Hackney - On family, school integration, and inequality in Chapel Hill

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…

 Catharyne Butler - Speaking about her family and teaching

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Oral Histories. Catharyne Butler grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She was a teacher at the “old” Northside Elementary School, called Orange County Training School, prior to its desegregation. She began teaching in 1961 and taught…

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 Clyde Perry - On his childhood, family, education, and integration

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 Doug Clark, Sr. - On growing up in Chapel Hill and high school

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 Esphur and Harold Foster - On her mother, education, and impact of the Civil Rights Movement

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 Euzelle and R.D. Smith - On changes in Northside

The interviewees share their experiences with living in Northside, the1940s until today, and the lack of interactivity between Northside and the university. There is a lack of progress in preventing harmful change to Northside. R.D. Smith talks about his own experience on town council. They talk…

 Euzelle and R.D. Smith - On Pottersfield and Smith Middle School

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 Frances Hargraves - On childhood, family, education, and teaching

"I remember my mother always told me, 'Whatever job you must do, be sure you give it your best.' She said if it’s sweeping the floor, washing dishes, anything, do it your best. And as I grew, that was her philosophy - always give it your best. And I still carry that philosophy." - Frances…

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 Hilliard Caldwell - Speaking about his childhood, family, and race

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 Isabel Atwater - On growing up during World War II, Black businesses, and Civil Rights

Ms. Atwater speaks about life growing up in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area during World War II. She shares her experiences with her husband, Roy Atwater and her education at the rural Merritt School and Orange County Training School. She was familiar with food rations throughout the time and had…

 Mary Norwood Jones - On growing up in Carrboro and her experiences at North Carolina Central University

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 Mary Norwood Jones - On her experiences at Orange County Training School

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 Polly McCauley - On growing up in Chapel Hill and her educational experiences

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 Program from a memorial service for Orange County Training School and Lincoln High School alumni

This is a scan of the program for the 1995 memorial service for O.C.T.S. and Lincoln High alumni. Item courtesy of Mrs. Pat Jackson

 R. D. Smith - About his childhood, career in education, and school integration

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 Rebecca Clark - On her childhood, education, and school integration

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 Ted Stone - On his childhood, values, and school integration

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"We’re writing our own history, thank you!"

Ms. Esphur Foster

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