This oral history interview conducted by William Chafe circa 1977 with Otis Hairston Sr. documents Hairston's recollections of business desegregation in Greensboro, North Carolina. Of the 1960 sit-ins, he recalls Jibreel Khazan and David Richmond using his church's office equipment, how they organized other students' participation, and his own efforts to promote a boycott of segregated restaurants, especially at Meyer's Tea Room. Of the 1963 protests, Hairston describes forming a coordinating committee to promote adult support of the student protests, organizing the the Silent March, trying to negotiate with Mayor David Schenck; Bill Thomas' role; the city's financial burden in housing students after the mass arrests, and Willa Player and Lewis Dowdy's response to the arrests. Of the 1969 Dudley/A&T protest, he discusses his participation in Community Unity Council hearing, Al Lineberry's support of students, and Dudley principal Franklin Brown's fear of the students. Hairston also mentions a boycott of segregated theatres in the 1930s and African Americans who ran for local office in the 1940s and 1950s, especially William Hampton. Other topics include the increase in local NAACP membership in '59-'60 while he was membership chairman, other NAACP leaders, Ed Zane, Vance Chavis, Hairston's opinion that the Pearsall Plan was "silly", and the community programs at Shiloh Baptist Church.
