This May 12, 1971 oral history interview with Ezell and Corene Blair, conducted by William Chafe, primarily documents Mr. and Mrs. Blair's experience with school and business segregation and desegregation from the late 1940s to 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ezell Blair provides a framework for understanding how the climate and culture of Greensboro in the 1940s and 1950s influenced the desegregation of schools in 1958 and the sit-ins of 1960. Topics of note include Ben Smith, Ralph Johns, Ed Zane, and other white leaders who were in support of desegregation; William Hampton and other school board members in the late 1950s; Ben Cone, Spencer Love, and other members of the white political power structure that did not take a stand on school desegregation; the local NAACP; and Blair's frustration at coming home to the segregated South after serving in WWII. The Blairs also provide details of the token desegregation on 1958, including persecution of the Boyds and the distance some black children had to travel to attend an all-black school; the quality of black teachers in Greensboro; the effect of segregation on their children; Ezell Sr's attempt in the late 1950s to be served at the downtown Woolworth's; and Corene's memories of learning about her son's plans to sit-in.
