Oral history interview with John Harris, September 5, 2002
Subtitle: Interview R-0185, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Taylor, Kieran Walsh, 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: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; African American businesspeople; Taxicab drivers; African American neighborhoods; African Americans; Social life and customs; Economic conditions; Urban renewal; Civil rights; Race relations
Other titles: Interview R-0185, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with John Harris, September 5, 2002; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: John Harris's father founded the Royal Taxi Company in 1934, serving the black community in Greensboro, NC. After a childhood of work and play in the streets of segregated Greensboro, Harris followed his father into the profession, and at the time of this interview in September of 2002, the septuagenarian Harris was still driving. In this interview he describes his childhood in segregated Greensboro, rich in recreation but also redolent with the influence of a workaholic father; his experiences as a cab driver, including his escape from a hold-up; the effects of redevelopment on Greensboro's black community; and the civil rights movement. Harris, after many decades as a cab driver, remains a stable center in a changing community, the proprietor of a black business that weathered the economic pressures of urban renewal and growth. His position enables him to reflect on the pressures on businesspeople in the context of segregation and civil rights.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 20, 2008).

Interview participants: John Harris, interviewee; Kieran Taylor, interviewer.

Duration: 02:05:33.

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

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 164 kilobytes, 229 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series R, Special research projects, interview R-0185, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by L. Altizer. Original transcript: 33 p.

Funding from the Institute of 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.