Oral History Interview with Brenda Tapia, February 2, 2001. Interview K-0476. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Brenda Tapia was one of the first African Americans to attend North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville, North Carolina. In this interview, she describes her experiences there and reflects on the effects of desegregation. Tapia's experience with desegregation was overwhelmingly negative. Moved from her black school after a successful sophomore year, she entered North Mecklenburg as an unknown, excluded from participating in clubs and marginalized in the classroom. By graduation night of her senior year, Tapia was furious. Her experience and observations led her to view desegregation as "one of the worst things that could have been done to [African Americans]." She maintains that though it changed the law, it did not change white Americans' attitudes, and she argues that its legacy is a black community sapped by discrimination.
Excerpts
A black student at a formerly white high school encounters discrimination
White traditions win out; light-skinned blacks gain acceptance
Desegregation shuts down black schools though they are newer than white ones
A subtle style of racism in North Carolina
Anger becomes understanding
Reflections on fear, ignorance, and racism
Desegregation damages the black community
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