Oral history interview with Nate Davis, February 6, 2001
Subtitle: interview K-0538, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Gilgor, Bob, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Race relations; School integration; African Americans; Attitudes; Social life and customs; African American students; Education; Civil rights demonstrations; Chapel Hill High School (Chapel Hill, N.C.); Lincoln High School (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Other titles: Interview K-0538, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Nate Davis, February 6, 2001; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: 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.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on July 2, 2007).

Interview participants: Nate Davis, interviewee; Bob Gilgor, interviewer.

Duration: 01:34:32.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Natalia Smith.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 101 kilobytes, 165 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0538, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 32 p.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.