Oral history interview with Robert R. Sampson, October 9, 2002
Subtitle: interview R-0182, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Hornsby-Gutting, Angela, 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; African American pharmacists; African Americans; Commerce; Urban renewal; Economic conditions; African American neighborhoods; Social life and customs; Segregation
Other titles: Interview R-0182, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Robert R. Sampson, October 9, 2002; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: At the time of this interview, Robert Sampson was running a pharmacy on East Market Street in Greensboro, NC. Sampson describes how urban renewal in the late 1950s and early 1960s affected Greensboro's thriving black shopping district on Market Street. Sampson himself managed to stay ahead of redevelopment efforts, leaving areas destined for change for places he thought more secure. But most black businesspeople did not expect renewal efforts or see them as inevitable; as a result, they lost their businesses and often found it impossible to rebuild or relocate. While Sampson concedes that the dilapidated buildings on Market Street needed work, he suspects that the choice to seize and redevelop, rather than fund remodeling, was an effort by white Greensboro to dissolve a successful black business district. The effort worked, silencing a lively area and greatly damaging black businesses. This interview provides a look at a black business community's struggle to maintain its coherence in a changing economic climate.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on June 13, 2008).

Interview participants: Robert R. Sampson, interviewee; Angela Hornsby, interviewer.

Duration: 00:45:17.

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 Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 92 kilobytes, 82.9 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series R, Special research projects, interview R-0182, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Erin Baker. Original transcript: 21 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.