Black girl has no white friends
In this excerpt, Nickerson recalls that she had little or no contact with white people until she entered the integrated Chapel Hill High School. When she attended CHHS, she says she was focused more on graduation than making white friends.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Stella Nickerson, January 20, 2001. Interview K-0554. 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
BG: You have a big smile on your face, like you’re remembering happy times. Did you feel like your childhood was a happy time?
SN: It was.
BG: Were your friends all black?
SN: All black.
BG: When did you first meet up with white children?
SN: When I started working.
BG: So you went through your youth almost--?
SN: Well, let me rephrase that. My first year—when I was at Chapel Hill High, my last year, as far as going to school or being around whites a lot, was my last year at Chapel Hill High. Because they were in the classes with me, and I had for the first time white teachers.
BG: Did you have an opportunity to develop friendships with whites at that time in school?
SN: That wasn’t my goal at that time. My goal was to finish. And so that’s basically what I concentrated on, finishing school. It was my last year, we were in a new location, and so I just concentrated on--.
