BECAUSE WE’RE STILL HERE (AND MOVING)
The ArtsCenter performance
In this historic performance, local residents, family members, and students bring to life 140 years of stories, histories, maps, images, and music from the historic communities of color in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
EXHIBIT PANELS
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Because We’re Still Here (and Moving): Mapping a world of Black History in our own backyard.
This story is dedicated to all the elders that told me I was the force of history; To all the marble slabs at Memorial Hall Founders of the UniversityBattle, Norwood, Swain, CaldwellSame names as my community Hogan, McCauley, Farrington, Edwards, Barbee, Weaver, and FousheeYou hear what I'm saying?Merritt, Atwater, Mason, Stroud, Foster, McCauley, Hargraves, Cotton,Purefoy, Riggsbee, Jones, McMasters, Cole, Sellars, Craig, and Pratt . . .
— Because We’re Still Here (and Moving)
Black History happened here and it wasn’t just a month. From Tin Top to Windy Hill to Pottersfield; from the Lincoln High Band to the Starlite Motel to the Orange County Training School; from slavery to sit-ins to urban renewal; this community-based project explores the dynamic relationship between local African-American neighborhoods, the oldest state University in the country, and the ongoing development that is altering it all.
Throughout slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, the University played a central role in shaping the lives of African-Americans in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, as well as much of the state. Although the University never owned slaves, the professors and students did, and the University profited from renting and selling slaves who belonged to escheated estates. Equally important, as the flagship institution for the state of North Carolina, university men and women were the great influencers of policy and legislative decisions made in Raleigh. After freedom, former slaves took their place in Chapel Hill as leaders in a developing community, but the promise of Reconstruction led quickly to the ravages of Jim Crow and segregation. People of color in Chapel Hill continued to provide the skills and effort required to run the university even as they were banned from using any of the facilities. Despite constant obstacles, those residents created their own institutions and their own community “out of what was possible and free.”
In Because We’re Still Here (and Moving), Granny Flack insists that history is the people’s memory. Too often that memory is lost beyond telling when the landscape of recorded history and monument ceases to express those stories. University and town policies over the century and a half have often contributed to the loss of the land and structures that marked this community and gave institutional life to its memories. We are grateful to the community elders who shared their scrapbooks and photos, reflections and concerns, in the hope that “people would know we existed” and that “the children would know their story.” We continue to search for pathways to expand the audience for these histories and hope that Because We’re Still Here (and Moving) provides a residence for new ones. You can tear down the buildings, but when you bury the stories, you rob the people of their power.
Since the initial interviews almost four years ago, Because We’re Still Here (and Moving) has grown to include performances at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro and the Department of Dramatic Arts as the Spring 2009 Mainstage production; the development of a walking tour map now in its third printing; an interactive community map and photography exhibit; a text message tour with scheduled walks; a video contest about the neighborhood; performances for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System, and an exhibit at the Graham Student Union. We hope this is just the beginning.
In addition to the community of storytellers, this project took shape with help from SCALE; Dr. Judith Blau and the Sociology 111 class; the Department of Dramatic Arts; the UNC Campus Y; The Wilson Library and the North Carolina Collection; the Southern Oral History Program; UNC-NOW; the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro; the Avid Blue Ribbon Mentor staff; The Chapel Hill Public Arts Office; The Chapel Hill Historical Society; Chapel of the Cross; the Hargraves Center; EmPOWERment; Strowd Roses; the North Carolina Humanities Council; the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; photographers Robert Breen, Peter Geoffrion, Titus Heagins, Tom Hurley, Christine Nguyen, Maurice Noble, Ellen Ozier, Elena Rue, and Hudson Vaughan.
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We know who you are, we know very well Tin Top, Sunset, Knolls, and Pottersfield, Windy Hill,Rock walls, street names shout our historyHidden stories are the bones of community.
Hidden stories are the bones of community.
Hidden stories are the bones.
Many individuals generously shared their time and histories with the project. These images are some of the photographers’ favorite shots. To see more people involved in the project, please page through one of the scrapbooks.
Martha Norwood Barbee was born where Performance Bicycles is now located. Her family background is primarily Native American; she grew up as a person of color during segregation and became an early advocate for disability rights.
James ‘Bubba’ Norwood’s family owned the land from the railroad tracks to the creek. Inspired by local legend Doug Clark, Bubba formed his own band while a student at Lincoln High and went on to play with Ike and Tina Turner, the Monkees, James Brown, and everyone else you can think of.
Rebecca Sellars Clark was born in a log cabin on a 100-acre farm near University Lake. She worked at the University in many capacities, helping to organize the housekeepers, and was well-known as a community activist and advocate for voter registration.
Dolores Hogan Clark grew up in Carrboro in the house originally built by her great-grandfather, Tony Strayhorn, and great-grandmother Nellie Strowd Strayhorn as a log cabin. Former slaves, Nellie Strowd and Tony Strayhorn passed along stories of old times to the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren they helped raise. Her daughter, Lorie Clark, is the Blue Ribbon High School Specialist and advisor to the Blue Ribbon Youth Leadership Institute.
Nate Davis grew up as a young child on School Lane and played at the Community Center. Now he runs it. For many years the Supervisor of Hargraves, Nate Davis is a well-known and respected presence in the neighborhood.
Velma Louise Perry’s family has been in Chapel Hill for centuries. Her great-grandfather, Jerry Hargraves, a former slave, owned the land around Franklin Street, Main Street, Merritt Mill, and South Graham and donated a portion for St. Paul AME church in the late 1800s. Her grandfather, Luther Hargraves, was a carpenter who ran the first black funeral home from his backyard barn, as well as a silent movie theatre.
Curtis and Ethel Jackson have lived in Chapel Hill for decades, and Ethel’s family (Hargraves) for generations. They serve the neighborhoods as health educators and community advocates.
Alice Page Battle grew up in the home of Alice and Henry Neal, who were parents to Frances Neal Hargraves and grandparents to Ed Caldwell. Their two-story home with garden and goldfish pond was at 407 W. Franklin Street where McDonalds is now located.
RD and Euzelle Smith were beloved teachers in the segregated and consolidated school systems for nearly 40 years. Residents of Northside, RD Smith served on the Town Council for 23 years. Smith Middle School is named in their honor.
Esther Atwater McCauley, long-time President of the Lincoln High School Alumnae Association, grew up on Church Street in a home still owned by her family. The ArtsCenter in Carrboro located on property that belonged to her grandparents.
Estelle Mabry attended UNC in the 60s and has lived in Pottersfield ever since. She is an active community member.
Barbara Simmons Foggie has lived in the community for 45 years. Her sister Ruth ran the Hollywood Grill on Franklin Street, where her mother was a cook. The Hollywood had, according to all accounts, the “best food in the world.” Like most residents in the neighborhoods, the Simmons raised almost all their own food in their gardens.
Esphur Eudean Foster grew up in Pottersfield and was in the first kindergarten class for black children. She worked in the Law School at UNC for 28 years. Eunice Delores James Farrington is a life-long resident whose father, Jacob James, owned the first black cab company in Chapel Hill, operated from the house where Delores still lives.
Mia Brown, Keshia Brown, and Lilly Brown are three generations of the same family still singing and worshipping together at O’Bryant Chapel, located on Cotton Chapel Lane. Joining them are choir members Faith Council and Kenny Alston.
PERFORMANCE PHOTOS
