Carrboro is dangerous for blacks
In this excerpt, Norwood describes Carrboro, North Carolina. After dark, it was a dangerous area for African Americans, and Norwood remembers that a gang of whites beat up a black friend.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Raney Norwood, January 9, 2001. Interview K-0556. 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: Were there other things that stand out in your mind about growing up in Carrboro?
RN: Yes. For a long time in Carrboro, blacks could not walk past the railroad tracks out in Carrboro at night. I had a friend that was coming from ( ) and a group of whites beat him up real bad, real bad, put him in the hospital and everything. When we moved to Lincoln Park, I had decided that, hey, I’m going to walk from home. I’m going to take on whatever I have to take on, and I’m going to let them stop me from walking. Things were beginning to change, anyway. It wasn’t as bad as it was when my friend got beat up but—you had a side of the track you really had to stay on after dark.
But this went on for a long time. When we went to the high school football games, the stadium was located out in Carrboro. ( ) whatever the park is, out in Carrboro. We just had to walk back as a group. You ran the risk of being attacked by whites.
