Oral Histories

Nate Davis: So yeah, there was always something to do, always something for the young people to do, whether it was at Hargraves, or one of the churches or, you know, going on a picnic. Mr. Battle used to get a group together and we’d go to Camp New Hope and spend the night. We’d go to Lake Michie in…

Nate Davis: The town has got a lot bigger now, so you got your police officers, they’re spread out throughout the town. They’re not stationed in one central location where they can sit and talk and have fun with the kids in the community. And I don’t think it’s that they don’t want to do it, but…

Alexander Stephens: What do you think needs to be done for youth now? What do you think is missing in this community for youth? Nate Davis: I think the community needs to come together. I think the community needs to come together. You have different organizations of people in the community that…

Alexander Stephens: What has it meant to you to be the director of this place that you grew up going to, and that was so important to you, in your youth? Nate Davis: It means a lot, you know. I grew up here — I’ve seen a lot of things, good and bad, in the community. So it means a lot for me to be…

Nate Davis (ND): You know, Fred Battle, and Hank Ellison, Ms. Lucille Caldwell, we had another lady and I'm sorry if I'm forgetting her name–. [Interrupted] Alexander Stephens: Not Frances Caldwell, she–. ND: No, it was a white lady, she was the director here for a while. Ms Lindolph. Mhm, yes. Ms.…

Alexander Stephens: So, you were saying this was the… Nate Davis: Basketball court used to be out here. Just one light pole, like that and just a wooden backboard. This was where we played basketball at, horse shoes…you know they built the tennis courts. I don’t remember the exact date the tennis…

Nate Davis (ND): And then this is the pool. The money was donated by a lady named Ms. Cornelia Love. She donated the money to build the pool. It was named after Mr. A.D. Clark, and in the early 60s they built a pool so we had a safe place to swim. All we had [as a] place to swim – there was a little…

Alexander Stephens: It seems like you do hope, though, that it will be used more by people more from this specific community, these neighborhoods around here. I mean, it seems like that’s important to you in some… Nate Davis: Well, let’s look at Roberson Street. The people that used to live here are…

Nate Davis (ND): And this is part of the Holmes Daycare Center and Holmes Daycare Center has been here for as long as Hargraves has been here. [Recorder is turned off then back on] ND: And you know I could say the same thing about all these streets. You have families that live there. So, you…

Alexander Stephens: How do you feel about some – about the way it’s changed, I mean what is your feeling about that? Nate Davis: Well, you know I was talking with a lady the other day, and she called and she wanted to rent Hargraves for a family reunion, and I told her, you know, how much it costs…

Nate Davis: They would come into town. They would come to Hargraves, and talk about how nice the place is. And that’s because, once they found out it’s – this is Hargraves Recreation Center, it’s in a Black neighborhood, there should be something wrong with it. There should be broken windows. There…

Nate Davis (ND): But next what’s gonna happen – all this gonna be commercial. Alexander Stephens (AS): Yeah, I know they’re trying to rezone it. ND: Yeah, and the gentlemen, the family that used to own that house. They were trying to get all this rezoned commercial. AS: Was that the Manns? Where did…

Alexander Stephens: Well, thank you so much for taking time – again if you think of anything before we walk out of here I’m gonna leave the recorder on and if you start talking I’ll just move it towards you. This is, Again, this is Alexander Stephens, I’m here with Mr. Nate Davis, the director of…

Alexander Stephens (AS): Sorry, could you say that again? Nate Davis (ND): I said I probably would be here for another 2 or 3 years working. My oldest son lives in Durham and he has a 2 year old grandson, but that grandson has started coming to our house on weekends. Now, the first place that he…

In this interview, Shirley Davis speaks about her family history. She grew up in Chapel Hill on Merritt Mill Road. Her father worked thirty years for the Sigma Chi Sorority and her mother worked for Milton Julian. Her grandmother worked at University laundry, and her grandfather worked with the Town…

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…

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.

“Well I would say that [Black women] stood by the men and we also stood up for our rights. We knew a change had to come.” - Shirley Pendergraph Davis Civil rights activist, Shirley Pendergraph Davis, comments on the role of Black women in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s. Ms. Davis…

In this interview, Jarrett Dawson, a Chapel Hill local discusses his experiences with work, family, and church. Although originally from North Carolina, Dawson talks briefly about how his family moved to Patterson New Jersey for a time, and the experience of taking trips between North Carolina and…

This interview was part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s History Potluck series. Saundra Dockery, is a Northside native and daughter of Katherine Council better known as “Mama Kat”. Ms. Dockery shares photos and documents from her mother’s life as a way to commemorate her mother because of her…