No school bus. We walked to Lincoln every morning, and we walked back in
the afternoons. And in the process, we would always have to pass by
Chapel Hill High School, which was located on Franklin Street, and then
there was the elementary school there too, in order to get to Lincoln,
which was located on Merritt Mill Road. And it would always phase in our
mind, wouldn't this be a lot better, if we could attend this school,
rather than have to walk down to Lincoln. But Lincoln High School, under
the guidance and direction of Mr. McDougle, at the time, who was the
principal, but he's also, he was a surrogate father figure. Not only was
he concerned about you at school, he was concerned about you and your
well-being after school. And he would follow it up. And it was a great
relationship that you had. He was a disciplinarian, which he didn't
allow people hangin' out in the hall. You didn't have a hang-out in the
hall, without an excuse. And he would enforce these policies. And then
he would make sure that he was supportive of the teachers, and making
sure that the assignments, and that he had a working educational
environment that was conducive for all students to learn. Even though we
might not have had the best materials and I guess we were getting some
of our books which was passed down from the white Chapel Hill High
School to Lincoln. We were getting secondary books.
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But it was still, we were still able to utilize the resources that we had
to make and progress in those conditions. As I relate to the football
program as well as the band, under Clark Egerton
[unclear] they were one—and Mr. Bell—one of the best bands
in the state. They drew praises every time they performed. The same
thing with the football program, and I was fortunate enough to play
football at Lincoln for three seasons, and I was captain of the last
state championship football team, in 1961.
[unclear] We were fortunate enough to win two state
championships during my three-year tenure on the football team. And what
it boiled down to, it boiled down to makin' the best out of the
resources that you had. A lot of times we would practice, and would
practice late, and the coach would have to pull his car up there and
shine his lights so we could see what we were doin' at night, during the
course of the practice. We weren't fortunate enough to have lighted
fields that we could practice under, and also the turf that we would
practice on was just about clay. Red clay. And we made use of that, and
we took those disadvantages and made them into advantages, where we were
able to excel. A lot of my classmates and former football players went
on to play college ball. Some went on to coach at the college level.
And it inspired the inspiration where we figured that we were motivated,
we could do just about whatever we wanted to do, if we worked hard
enough at it. I would always look, as I would walk down the corridors of
the hall in Lincoln, and I could still hear some of the teachers
speakin' now. Giving guidance, giving direction, giving praise, and all
the motivation that we would need to be excelled as students and as
students and athletes, and I always use this tool now as a parent, and
dealin' with my kids. Lettin' them know that if they work hard, and if
they pay the price, they can be just about whatever they want to be. And
it has been a working tool for me. I use it on the job, I have a number
of employees that I supervise, and I try to give them the same type of
motivation. What we call it, the old school motivation. And it has been
a successful project. What Lincoln means to me, Lincoln is a home away
from home. This staff is surrogate parents. They dealt with you, they
were firm, but they were fair. And they gave you the type of inspiration
which made you want to succeed. There were no low expectations; they
made every student feel that if you're proud of yourself you can
succeed. And this is what benefited me the most.
The community as a whole at that time, everybody lived in one area. That
was the black community. It was strong. The church was strong. The
church provided the guidance and direction, and they were supportive of
the school. And I can recall when we played football out here at Lyons
Park in Carrboro, we would have just as many white spectators as we
would black. Because everybody come that want to see Lincoln play,
because they know Lincoln exemplified an excellence in sports. And you
would look up there, and the stadium would be packed. Every time. And
Chapel Hill is a unique place. We had our strength. Strength number one
has always been the school. We had the church, we had the community, and
then we had the community center. And that has always been a successful
project for us.