Documenting the American South Logo
powered by google
Collections >> Oral Histories of the American South >> Document Menu
Oral History Interview with Sheila Florence, January 20, 2001. Interview K-0544. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
Audio Options
  • Listen Online with Text Transcript
  • Download Complete Audio File (MP3 format / ca. 182 MB, 01:39:54)
  • Transcript Only (19 p.)
  • HTML file
  • XML/TEI source file
  • Abstract
    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.

    Learn More
    This interview is part of the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), a collection of over 4,000 interviews housed at the Southern Historical Collection.

  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • School integration--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
  • African Americans--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
  • Lincoln High School (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
  • Segregation in education--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
  • Civil rights demonstrations--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
  • Florence, Shelia
  • Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.