Oral history interview with Sheila Florence, January 20, 2001
Subtitle: interview K-0544, 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; African Americans; Social life and customs; Segregation; African American students; School integration; Segregation in education; Civil rights demonstrations; Lincoln High School (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Other titles: Interview K-0544, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Sheila Florence, January 20, 2001; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Sheila Florence, among the first African Americans to desegregate Chapel Hill High School in Chapel Hill, NC, remembers growing up in the segregated South and working to end desegregation. She recalls the poor conditions at all-black schools in Chapel Hill and the harassment she endured when she entered the formerly all-white Chapel Hill High School. Although she was courageous enough to be a part of the desegregation of a school, she asserts that she was not brave enough to face arrest in protests. She did, however, picket with other civil rights marchers.  Researchers interested in the details of life in a low-income African American community after World War II should look to the beginning of this interview for unexcerpted information.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 29, 2007).

Interview participants: Sheila Florence, interviewee; Bob Gilgor, interviewer.

Duration: 01:39:54.

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 Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 150 kilobytes, 182 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0544, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 19 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.