Oral History interview with Carolyn Mark by William Chafe
Item description
This transcript of an October 10, 1974, interview conducted by William Chafe with Carolyn Mark primarily documents Ms. Mark's recollections as a student at North Carolina A&T State University and as an employee of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. Of her time at A&T, Mark discusses the separation between the university and the city; the presence of Winston-Salem Black Panthers on campus; students sitting-in at the administration building to protest school policies; fighting for women's rights on campus; the march after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death; the 1969 Dudley High/A&T protest, including the speed at which it moved, the National Guard using smoke bombs to evacuate dorms, and factors the fueled the protest; students' opinion of Dr. Lewis Dowdy, Cleo McCoy, John Marshall Kilimanjaro, and Nelson Johnson; and the conservative nature of the A&T faculty. Mark also describes how she became involved with the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce; the power structure in Greensboro; effort to camouflage the fact that business elite run the city; business leaders' reaction to school desegregation; human relations and cell meetings at the Hayes-Taylor YMCA; the Community Unity Committee; Hal Sieber's support in the chamber and in the community; and the improvement of race relations in the city.