Title: Oral History Interview with Walter Durham, January 19 and 26, 2001. Interview K-0540.
Identifier: K-0540
Interviewer: Gilgor, Bob
Interviewee: Durham, Walter
Subjects: Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Race relations    School integration--North Carolina--Chapel Hill    African Americans--North Carolina--Chapel Hill    Lincoln High School (Chapel Hill, N.C.)    Durham, Walter    
Extent: 00:00:01
Abstract:  Walter Durham, an African American community member of Orange County, North Carolina, recalls his experiences growing up in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. Born in the late 1940s into a land-owning family, Durham attended all-black schools in Carrboro until 1966, when the African American high school, Lincoln, merged with the newly integrated Chapel Hill High School. For Durham, school integration was largely a negative experience. He fondly recalls Lincoln High School as an extremely well-ordered and disciplined school with strong ties to the community and pride in students' accomplishments, particularly in football. According to Durham, black students' traditions were lost when the Chapel Hill schools integrated. This, along with tensions between white and black students, led Durham to participate in the 1968 "riot" at Chapel Hill High School.