HIST 4600: U. S. South 1860 to Present

Mr. Alexander is the son of local, state, and national NAACP leader and businessman, Kelly M. Alexander, Sr. and Margaret Alexander. He served as the local NAACP president in 1990. Born and raised in the Brooklyn and University Park communities, Alexander describes race relations in Charlotte, his family`s role in the community, and his activities as a youth in the context of the civil rights struggle. He talks about his personal experiences as a child during the bombing of his home.

Kelly Alexander Jr. is the son of local, state, and national NAACP leader and local businessman Kelly M. Alexander, Sr. and Margaret Alexander; he is the brother Alfred Alexander. He has been active on the civil rights scene in Charlotte for most of his life, including serving as president of the local NAACP in 1986. During the interview, Mr. Alexander discusses his work on the local level with youth in general and the NAACP Youth Councils in particular. .

Ben Chavis describes his experiences in civil rights activism during the 1960s at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and in the Charlotte, North Carolina community. Chavis also describes his hopes for the future of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the local community.

Dorothy Counts-Scoggins was the first African American student to attend the all-white Harding High School as part of the Charlotte City Schools’ first reluctant attempt at school desegregation in 1957. In this interview, Mrs. Counts-Scoggins reflects on her brief time at Harding and how things have changed for African Americans since that time.

Gerson L. Stroud recounts his experiences as a lifelong resident of Charlotte as well as his thirty-one year career with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system where, as principal of West Charlotte High School, he oversaw that school’s racial integration. Reflecting on his childhood, Mr. Stroud discusses the complete separation of black and white communities in Charlotte and the impact this had on children, who even from a young age understood that there were racial rules that must be followed. He also recounts how his father, who worked at some of Charlotte’s finest hotels and restaurants, provided employment opportunities to Johnson C. Smith students so they could finance their education. An army veteran of World War II, Mr. Stroud explains how segregation affected African American soldiers throughout their military career from induction to access to veterans’ benefits.

Charlotte attorney Julius L. Chambers, who represented the plaintiffs in the landmark case, Swann versus Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education, talks at length about the desegregation of schools in Charlotte during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to discussing the success of the Swann case, Chambers also explores the social and political implications of a reversal of the Swann decision. While Mr. Chambers acknowledges the accomplishments of the desegregation movement, he concludes the interview with the caution that there is still a lot of work to be done if remaining barriers to integration are to be removed.

Jonathan Scoggin, son of South Carolina Ku Klux Klan member and grand dragon Robert E. Scoggin,describes his father’s life and involvement with the Klan. Scoggin remembers his father as a strict disciplinarian with entrenched opinions who saw the Klan as a way to direct his political agenda. Scoggin describes his father’s opposition to violence within the Klan and the internal tensions between different factions of the organization.

T. Taylor Warren reflects on his life, his photography career, and the early days of photographing NASCAR racing. He recalls his budding interest in photography as a boy and describes his education at Rochester Institute of Technology and the teachers he met there. Mr. Warren explains how he began photographing stock car races and describes how his career developed over the years alongside the sport of stock car racing. He discusses in detail the craft of stock car photography from the techniques and procedures he developed to the different kinds of cameras he used in his work, most notably a Hasselblad medium format camera. He also speaks at length about the differences between sports photography and photography for advertising and publicity. From 1957 to 1971, Mr. Warren was the official photographer for Bill France Racing and he recounts his experiences working for the founder of NASCAR.

Thereasea Elder recounts her and her family’s experiences living in Charlotte throughout the twentieth century, as well as her forty-five years as a nurse. Growing up in a segregated Charlotte, she describes life in the close-knit African American community and details the central role of the church and the focus on education within the community. Ms. Elder’s medical career began at the white-only Charlotte Memorial Hospital, and after earning her nursing degree she went to work at Good Samaritan Hospital, Charlotte’s only medical facility for African Americans. She explains the disparities between the two and recounts the difficulties Good Samaritan’s staff faced due to the scarcity of resources. Joining the Mecklenburg County Health Department as a public health nurse in 1962, Ms. Elder was part of the pilot program in the 1960s to integrate Charlotte's community health program. This led to her experiences working in the Paw Creek area, an economically disadvantaged white community. Describing the region as 'Klan country', she recounts the racism she faced from residents and how ultimately she and her fellow nurses were able to make the program a success, leading to the full integration of the health department. Ms. Elder discusses the integration of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system from the perspective of a parent whose two sons were bused to a formerly all-white school. She discusses her views on the limited success of integration and the current state of race relations in Charlotte, with particular attention to the role housing policy could have played in producing a more fully integrated Charlotte with improved health and educational outcomes for disadvantaged Charlotteans of all races.

Lois Moore Yandle grew up in North Charlotte in the mill village surrounding the Highland Park #3 Mill. She provides vivid descriptions of life in this close-knit community including details of the housing, working conditions in the textile mills, and the North Davidson Street business district. Mrs. Yandle also describes recreational activities in the community such as music, storytelling and baseball.

The three Mack children talk about their involvement in their church, Friendship Baptist Church, and the influence of religion on their family life.

In this interview, Rex White recounts his early life and his career as a stock car driver from the 1950s to 1965. He begins by describing his life growing up in rural Taylorsville, North Carolina, including experience working on his father's Ford Model T as a boy. Mr. White recalls how he left home at an early age, married, and began working at a service station where he developed an interest in stock car racing. He began spending time in Frankie Schneider's pit, which gave him the opportunity to work on race cars in Brownie Brown's welding shop before officially starting his racing career in 1954. He recalls how he learned racing strategy and gained an understanding of the importance of the chassis from Mr. Schneider. White attributes some of his success as a driver to his understanding of a car's mechanics, which gave him an advantage over other drivers.

Dr. Jonnie McLeod, the pediatrician who pioneered the treatment of substance abuse and the teaching of sex education in Charlotte, reflects on her life and career. Growing up in a small town in Mississippi, Dr. McLeod explains how she assisted in her father's medical practice before going on to earn her M.D. and specializing in pediatrics. After moving to Charlotte in the early 1950s, she recounts how she was brought in as a consultant to teach sex education in the public schools and how that eventually led to her hosting the "Family Talk" television show on WTVI during the 1960s.