Oral Histories

"Chapel Hill and Carrboro have been fighting each other for a long time. Ever since I was born. About where the city limits are, what they do, and how they’re going to do this. That’s why you’ve got the mayor of Chapel Hill and the Mayor of Carrboro. Chapel Hill has been trying to take over Carrboro…

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…

“I would preface that by saying that our school was again so small that practically everyone had to do, I could say, had to play multiple roles because we simply did not have enough people to go around and to have the kinds of programs that we wanted to have.” - James Atwater James Atwater grew up…

This interview is part of a project conducted by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate and undergraduate students in a 2001 oral history course. Topics include Chapel Hill's efforts to end racial segregation in the public schools; the process of creating integrated institutions; and…

Ms. Atwater gives an overview of food access in the community when she was growing up and how her family’s attitudes toward food have developed over the course of her life. Starting with a discussion of her mother’s kitchen and garden, she describes the role of food in her family and in the…

In the beginning of the interview, Ms. Atwater describes the history of her home, growing up in her neighborhood, and the significance of keeping her home in the family in order to continue an ongoing legacy. To Ms. Atwater, a home is more than a place of residence; it is a memorial, it is the…

Kathy Atwater: Everybody was just family. I mean even in the neighborhood with the families that were in the neighborhood we all looked after one another- nobody was left to themselves. If I did something wrong, of course the neighbors would, you know, tell me “Kathy you shouldn’t do that,” and then…

"...informed me to take this letter home to your mama ‘Cause you are going to Chapel High School next year.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m not’. And they said, ‘Yes you are.’ Cause they hand-picked the Blacks that they would send to Chapel Hill High School." - Mae McLendon In this oral history, Ms. Mae and…

Bailey describes the family history in the house she grew up in around 1975. She goes on to explain the expansion and uniqueness of the craftsmanship. She shares the memories from the neighborhood and the change of neighborhood over time. She has service involvement in the neighborhood to keep the…

Audio recordings of interviews conducted by Yonni Chapman with participants in the African American freedom struggle and the civil rights movement in and around Chapel Hill, N.C.

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Life History Series.  Emily Banks, a current member and leader of St. Joseph CME Church, was born in 1946 in New York and migrated south to North Carolina in 1970.  She has spent the last few decades in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  She…

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Builders Series. Ezra Barbee, a stonemason and builder, was born in 1957 in Chapel Hill, where his family has worked in the construction and masonry trades for generations. He reflects on his introduction into the trades, and takes pride…

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…

At the time of the interview, Stephanie Barnes-Simms worked at Self-Help Credit Union. Simms grew up in Baltimore and has lived in NC twice. Her father is from Asheville, NC. Her mother is one of six children. Her maternal grandfather was from High Point, NC and her maternal grandmother lived in…