Oral Histories

This interview is part of a project done from 1995-1997, aimed at understanding how North Carolinians have dealt with post-Great Depression changes. Overarching themes are the realignment in North Carolina party politics and the Republican reemergence, the evolution of African American political…

Nathaniel (Pee-Wee) Lee was a brick mason and laborer, and has worked and lived in the Chapel Hill area for most of his life. He was born in 1944 at UNC Hospital. When he was first born he lived with his grandparents on the farm that they sharecropped in Durham. Pee-Wee reflects on growing up on a…

"If you ask for help, you get it here." - Sharon Livingston Sharon is originally from New York and moved from Oklahoma to Chapel Hill, NC for medical training. At the time of the interview, she had been in Chapel Hill for three years. Her first impressions of Chapel Hill were positive given the…

Having lived in New York City before moving to Chapel Hill, Joyce Long has seen firsthand the differences between Northern and Southern cooking. Her father owned a restaurant in Harlem, but she and her mother did most of the cooking in the home. Her mother taught her to be a creative cook, and…

"People have got to stand up for themselves. Black or white. If you don’t stand up for yourself, ain’t nobody going to do it for you." - Edna Lyde Edna Lyde, born in 1928 in Darlington, SC, recounts how being Black impacted her experience within her family, at the workplace, and in her community in…

"See, all you got to do is wait for the change. You have the faith that that change is gonna happen. I can’t see it, I can’t feel it, I can’t taste it, but I know it’s there and it’s coming possible for me." - David Lyles This interview is a part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s faith series. In…

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…

“Everybody knew everybody, and it’s just like anywhere else, you could walk away from your house and not lock the door. You would know the neighbor would watch your house, and you would hook the screen in the back, and you go on downtown wherever you are going and come back, and your house is ok.…

“Church had a good influence on my life." - Mary Manning Mary Manning was born in Carrboro on Birch Street and moved to Chapel Hill. During the interview she reflects on her childhood and life in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. She only attended segregated schools, and speaks on her time at Lincoln High…

Shari Manning discusses growing up in Chapel Hill and her education. She shares her experience with East Chapel Hill High School and her knowledge of Lincoln High School. She also discusses the adversity she has faced, and how she feels underrepresented in the school system and in course materials…

This interview provides an overview of Black communities in Chapel Hill during Mason's life. He notes the consequences of having segregated communities and outdated infrastructures. His employment was at UNC Chapel Hill and he was employed at an early age at several local restaurants. He talks about…

David Mason, Jr. a lifetime resident of Chapel Hill, is one of the leaders of the Lincoln High Alumni Association, an active member of St. Joseph CME, and a community historian. This interview, conducted as part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History’s local Life Histories…

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…

David Mason: And, ‘til when I guess it must have been February or March of 1960. 1960. Shortly after the demonstrations in the city, as I shall say, in Greensboro. I was the president of my class, and then there was another fellow that was a year older than me. His sister goes to our church now.…