Impact of the closed black schools on blacks in Chapel Hill
Regester explains the sense of cultural and communal loss the black community faced when the local black high school closed.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Charlene Regester, February 23, 2001. Interview K-0216. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- SUSAN UPTON:
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This might be before you would remember a lot about it, but whenever
Lincoln High School closed, do you remember much of the reaction about
that?
- CHARLENE REGESTER:
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Well I just remember when it closed, for awhile it was converted to a
school for like, it became like a sixth grade only school. So I remember
going there for like my sixth grade or something like that, and it was
like a pre-junior high school or something and then it was later
converted into an administration building which it is today. But in
terms of people feeling a sense of loss when the school was closed,
yes...I think the African American community very much felt that way
because what happened was that at Lincoln High School you had all black
teachers and many of those teachers did not have opportunities in these
integrated schools so I think the community very much felt a sense of
loss and a sense of community, because at Lincoln High School they had
you know, a marching band. Sports was a big thing and when integration
came a lot of that was lost so people did feel a sense of loss.