Oral History Interview with Nate Davis, February 6, 2001. Interview K-0538. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Nate Davis discusses being among the first African American students to integrate public schools in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He describes a happy childhood, though one circumscribed by segregation, and an experience in integrated schools so unpleasant that he was truant for months on end. Segregation made Davis and his peers particularly dependent on black community institutions to maintain healthy social and emotional lives. One of these institutions was the Hargraves Community Center, where Davis spent, and apparently still spends, a great deal of time. This interview offers a look at the discomfort that many African Americans felt when they entered an integrated environment.
Excerpts
Black parents work low-wage jobs
Childhood in segregated South
Black interdependence under segregation
Harassment drives student to skip school
Racist harassment plagues black student
Black kids' routes to avoid white harassment
Zora Rashkis reaches out to black student
Integration makes black student deeply uncomfortable
Looking forward to attending Lincoln High
Reminders of segregation
Racism demeans black teachers and students
Children learn about segregated society
Success is about personhood, not race
Black teachers at segregated schools invest in black students' lives
White gang murder
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Subjects
Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Race relations
School integration--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
African Americans--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
Lincoln High School (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Orange County Training School (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Davis, Nate
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