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Windy Hill

"I was born in Chapel Hill, I was born on Hillsborough Street, which most blacks referred as Windy Hill. And...to enter Windy Hill, you had to go through the white community. And to exit Windy Hill you had to go through the white community. And it was just a segment of black homeowners that lived on Windy Hill. Chapel Hill is somewhat unique because what it did, it manifest people of the same economics being together. And we had a lot of interactions with the people that lived in the neighborhood, which would be classified in today's terms as poor white people. And they were friends, we looked after one another, they were pretty supportive in their role, and some of these friendships are lasting friendship...And then again, you had some extremists, where it wasn't nothin' to get up and see a KKK written in the middle of the road, saying, 'Get the hell out, niggers.' That was a pretty common practice in that time."

- Fred Battle

Windy Hill is a historically Black neighborhood off Hillsborough Road in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Windy Hill

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Citation: “Windy Hill,” From the Rock Wall, accessed November 21, 2024, https://fromtherockwall.org/places/windy-hill.

To learn more...

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

Doug Clark, Sr., a musician, was born in Chapel Hill in 1936, where he lived in a close-knit Black neighborhood and attended Orange County Training School, which became Lincoln High School. He reflects on his family life and experiences growing up, such as seeing lines of Black children walk to…

 Fred Battle - On his childhood, education, sit-ins, 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…

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

Mary Norwood Jones is a Chapel Hill Native that attended Lincoln High School while it was still Orange County Training School. She discusses her childhood in the Chapel Hill area around the time of World War II and how the community was close knit. She then goes on to talk about the school and how…
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