- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Jeff Black, March 29, 1999
- Creator:
- Black, Jeff, 1981?-
- Contributor to Resource:
- Grundy, Pamela
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1999-03-29
- Subject:
- School integration--North Carolina--Charlotte
Charlotte (N.C.)--Race relations
Schools--North Carolina--Charlotte
African Americans--North Carolina--Charlotte
African American students--North Carolina--Charlotte
African American students--North Carolina--Charlotte--Attitudes
West Charlotte High School (Charlotte, N.C.) - People:
- Irons, Ned
Black, Jeff, 1981?- - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, Charlotte, 35.22709, -80.84313
- Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- African American senior Jeff Black reflects on his experiences at West Charlotte High School. Black felt West Charlotte's ties to his community well before he set foot on the school's campus, and like many of his peers, he eagerly anticipated beginning school there. He was not disappointed: at West Charlotte, Black found an intellectually stimulating, socially energizing, and racially diverse environment that allowed him to commit himself both to reaching his individual goals and strengthening his community. But Black admits that West Charlotte is not immune to the legacies of segregation: students tend to self-segregate in the cafeteria, there are few minorities in advanced classes, and the administration limited marching band routines because, surmises Black, they reflect an aspect of black culture the school does not want to associate itself with. He nonetheless believes that West Charlotte's "contagious" sense of belonging outweighs racism. Black's experiences at West Charlotte have been so positive that he tells the interviewer that "the race relations issue tends to be stressed a little bit too much." He believes that individuals have to choose to mingle with people from different backgrounds.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/K-0276/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Duration: 00:43:26
- Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
