Oral history interview with Mary Wright, 2015 [text/print transcript]

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THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO
INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY COLLECTION
INTERVIEWEE: Mary Wright
INTERVIEWER: Lisa Withers
DATE: July 14, 2015
[Begin CD 1]
LW: My name is Lisa Withers and today is Tuesday, July 14, 2015. I am in the home
of Ms. Mary Wright, Class of 1973, to conduct an oral history interview for the UNCG [The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina] Institutional Memory Collection's African American Institutional Memory Project. Thank you, Ms. Wright, for participating in this project and for sharing with me about your experiences today. So, I would like to start off the interview by asking about your childhood. If you could please tell me when and where you were born?
MW: I was born in, well to be more specific, in the community of Iron Mine, which is in Duplin County, North Carolina, and I was born in 1952.
LW: Okay. Would you be willing to tell me a little bit about your parents and your
family?
MW: Yes. I have the three sisters and my mother, my mother's name is also Mary. Her
name is Mary Herring Wright. My father's name is James Wright and my three sisters are Linda, Carolyn, and Judy.
LW: Okay, so what was it like for you growing up, you know, in the 1960s and 1970s?
MW: Well, Iron Mine is a rural community, farming—or at least at that time [phone
rings], it was a farming community. Do you want me to just go on?
LW: If you want to.
MW: Okay [phone rings]. And so, I grew up actually engaging in a lot of farm work
during the summer when I was out of school. I went to segregated schools up until my senior year in high school, and for me growing up in the country was a good experience. At that time, children had free reign of the neighborhood. There wasn't any fear of children being abducted or anything of that sort. So, we were 2
able to just go to each other's houses. We played together. Went to school with the same children pretty much throughout the entire time that I was in school. So, for me, it was a lot of hard work, but, it was a good experience. The church, at that time, of course, was the center of the community along with the school. And so, I considered my experience to be one that was very fulfilling.
LW: Yes. Would you mind sharing what schools you went to growing up?
MW: Yes, my elementary school was Teachey, T-e-a-c-h-e-y, Elementary School and,
at that time, there weren't any middle schools. Teachey School, I went there from first through eighth grade. There wasn't a kindergarten at the time. So, I attended Teachey School from first through eighth grade and then I attended Charity High School for ninth grade though eleventh grade. And then, at that time, they forcefully desegregated the schools and converted my high school, Charity High School, as they did practically all of the black high schools into middle schools, and I had to attend Wallace Rose Hill [High School] and that's the school I graduated from. That was the previously all-white school.
LW: So you just mentioned it was a forceful desegregation.
MW: Yes.
LW: Would you mind sharing more about what that entailed? In what ways was it
forceful? How did desegregation happen in Duplin County?
MW: Well, some years earlier, they had developed what was referred to as the Freedom
of Choice Plan following Brown vs. the Board of Education [of Topeka, Kansas, 1954] because, of course, there was the resistance to desegregating the schools and so the initial response was to formulate the Freedom of Choice Plan, which was to allow blacks to choose to attend the white high schools, the white schools period. And, but very few blacks opted for that choice. And so, because the schools, as a result of that, were not being desegregated, then, in the summer—well, I'm sure it happened prior to the summer, but prior to my senior year, but that's when we learned about the fact that that's what they were, that it was actually going to happen. And—so they [phone rings] decided that they were going to desegregate the schools in the sense that they reassigned us and so at that point it was not about choice. We actually had to attend the schools. And again, for the most part, it was, of course, the black children who were being at that point bused to the white schools.
LW: So you had to go—they reassigned you and you, they sent buses. They took you.
MW: Well we were—because we were in the country, we always rode the bus to
school.
LW: Okay. 3
MW: It's just that at—in terms of how that was taking place prior to the schools being
desegregated, we weren't, of course, being bused to the closest school. We would be bused pass the white schools to the black schools. So, at that point in time, we then were just reassigned and we had to attend the white schools.
LW: Okay. Would could you share with me a little bit—what was your—what was it
like when you went to Teachey and Charity Schools? What were the academics like? What was it like being with, a mostly all-black school and what was your experience like when you were at Wallace Rose Hill, when they assigned you there?
MW: Okay, well my experiences at Teachey School and Charity School were
absolutely wonderful. I could appreciate being in a setting where I knew that the persons who were teaching me were persons who looked like me. They were role models within the classrooms, in terms of the principals of the schools. I enjoyed being in a setting where it was never any question about my abilities and I felt like that certainly had its impact in how I performed in school because I was never made to feel that I could not do anything less than what my capabilities were. So, I definitely appreciated that experience of being in an all-black setting. Clearly, we lacked in terms of the physical setting. At the time that I started Teachey School, actually before that time, there was a school in my community, Iron Mine School, and it was a school that my mother and my aunts and other members of my family had attended. So, they closed—it was actually a one-room school. And they closed that school and that was when—by the time I started school, that's when I started at Teachey School, which had all been previously an all-white private school for boys. It was for white boys. And, but it had closed, so through, I'm sure, the efforts of individuals within the community, they were able to, I guess, speak to the Board of Education and somehow they were able to acquire Teachey School as a school for us to attend. So, when I started at Teachey School, they actually did not have indoor toilets. The toilets were outside. But the—Mr. [Allen] Larkin, who was the principal, and his wife, Mrs. Larkin, who was a teacher at Teachey School, were both very instrumental in advocating to—for improvements to the physical facilities. And so through their efforts they eventually added indoor toilet facilities. I remember that it was the—in terms of the participation of the students, it was the practice for each graduating class to give a gift to the school and the gifts that I can recall consisted of such things—I know one class donated money for a flagpole. Another class donated money to put down brick, a brick sidewalk because before that, you know, it was just be kind of muddy when you would have to go into the building. The school was certainly inadequate in terms of the physical facilities because I remember that the classroom for the eighth graders, and it may have been seventh and eighth graders, was both the classroom, it was the dining room, and it was the library. So, during the lunchtime, we would actually have to move our chairs out into the hallway and sit in the hallway while the children were having lunch. So, there were clearly inadequacies in terms of the physical facilities. We would certainly 4
get the used books from the white children. But, the content of what were taught and the environment in which we were taught—what I think the children are getting today doesn't begin to compare with what I received in terms of my education. And that carried over into the high school with Charity High School. It was clearly, at that point in time, it was a part of the community. At that time, the parents felt vested in the schools and so they participated. My mother was a seamstress. And so, she would—whenever the school would have plays, she would come out to the school and she would spend the day sewing costumes for the children. Principal, Mr. Larkin, this is back at Teachey School, whenever they would have P.T.A. [Parent Teacher Association] meetings, he would, he had somehow gotten this activity bus, which was, again, not in very good shape at all. But, he would actually go around—and again, because this is a rural area, we're talking about traveling, probably all total for the trip, maybe fifteen, twenty miles to—he would come into the neighborhood and pick up parents on the activity bus to take them to the P.T.A. meeting. And, this was not something that someone said to do. This was what people did at that time. This is the, again, the investment that the teachers had in the school and the investment that the parents had. So, he would—and if the parents had a quarter of fifty cents or something that they could contribute towards gas, that was fine. If they didn't, it was no problem. And, so the parents actually after working, usually, in the fields or cleaning some white person's house all day, would actually come in and they would get dressed and they would go to the P.T.A. meetings. So, it was a totally different, different environment. And with Charity, it was about, again, knowing that this was our school. The spirit that was within the school, both within the children as well as the teachers and the administrators. Again, never having the feeling that I had to come in second to some white child. That all of my role models looked like me. All of the children who—however they did in school, the children who were at the top of the class looked like me. So, it was never a thought to me that the valedictorian or the salutatorian position belonged to a white child. Or that somehow white children were inherently more capable than I was. So, those kinds of things were invaluable to me and my educational experience because I never felt any limitations on what it was that I was able to do.
LW: Okay. So, how would you say your experience was at Wallace Rose Hill your
senior year?
MW: It was an awful year. I spent the whole year, along with my cousin, Lorey Hayes,
and a good friend of mine, Reynell Chasten. The three of us probably spent more time in the principal's office than anything else because when we went to Wallace Rose Hill, of course in anticipation of the desegregation, everything that particular year was "co." Because we had already had our elections for student council, class president, etc. before they desegregated the schools. So then, when we went to Wallace Rose Hill, we had, you know co-class presidents, co-student council presidents, co-chair of this or that. And, of course, it was a black student and a white student. And, I recall that whenever they had the, the senior play, because 5
they had a senior play at Wallace Rose Hill, and whatever the play was, my cousin, Lorey, and Reynell and I boycotted the play because it was a play centered around white characters and, of course, it was white students in the lead roles and we were relegated to marginal roles. And, so we objected to that. So, I remember we fought that. I recall that whenever I went into my, my English class, that's around the time that they also started having the advanced placement classes because once they lost the fight to desegregate the schools, then the next step that whites took was to try and maintain segregation within so called desegregated settings. And so they started creating these classes for—the remedial classes, which were filled up with black students, and then the advanced placement classes, which were filled up with white students, as a way of separating the students within the same school. And so, I was placed in an advanced, the advanced English class and I was the only black student in the class. And so when I went in the class, I remember that the chairs were set in rows in the class. And so I sat in the row of seats that was closest to the door. And so, that as the white students came into the class, no one sat in the same row of chairs that I was sitting in. And so, the English teacher, Mrs. Glasgow, and I will credit her with this, when she came in and she saw what was going on, she actually made the students arrange the chairs in a circle such that that way there was no way could sit without my being a part of the group. It wasn't something that I guess just because of my thought process, it wasn't something that made me feel bad when it happened because I had never, you know, never wanted to be around whites to begin with. But, she saw it as a wrongful act on their part and that was her way of remedying what she saw happening. I recall that whenever we were doing the yearbook that year, they had the, of course they would have the teachers in the yearbook. They had the custodial staff in the yearbook, had pictures. And they would have the names. So, I remember that when they had the names of the teachers, it was Mr. Jordan or Mrs. Powell or whoever. But when they had the custodial staff, it was Maola and Tom. So, we objected to that. And again, it wasn't like we as in the big "we" of black students in general but just a very small group of us. But we objected to that. And, so, for that yearbook for that particular year then they called them Mr. and Mrs. the same way they did with everyone else but that was, again, just a part of that thought process that we are somehow less than, to be treated in a subservient way. So, we fought those kinds of issues throughout my senior year at Wallace Rose Hill. So, it definitely was not my best year and I still, when I think about my high school, I consider Charity to be my school and we still have alumni gatherings of the students who attended Charity.
LW: Well I'm just curious because I know you were talking about Charity High
School that you had to use one room for multiple things. About how big was Charity High School?
MW: No this was Teachey School—.
LW: Oh, Teachey School.
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MW: Where we had to use the one room.
LW: Okay.
MW: Yes.
LW: So, about how big was that school?
MW: Teachey School? It had, from what I'm recalling, maybe about five classrooms.
Five or six classrooms because, like I said, some of the classes were multiple age classrooms. I'm going to say that maybe there were about seventy-five students. I really don't recall now how many students were at the school. But, I know it wasn't, it wasn't a lot. You know, considering.
LW: Okay, and so that was Teachey and both Charity and [phone rings] I'm assuming
[Wallace] Rose Hill were bigger schools.
MW: Charity and—yes, they were.
LW: They were bigger? Okay [phone rings]. And so, I just also wanted to ask, before
the big question, you know what were some of your favorite subjects or things that you enjoyed learning about while you were in school or things you enjoyed doing?
MW: Actually when I was, and this was at Teachey School, and this—of course I didn't
think about it at the time, but the teacher would actually, and this was in the first grade, she would have some students to assist other students. And that was one of the things that I would do. I would actually help students—she would have certain—there were certain students in the class who were, you know, not learning as quickly as others and she would assign certain students to then help those students. And I recall enjoying doing that. I loved—and the teachers, I remember as early as second grade, third grade, the teacher would allow me to fix her bulletin boards and I loved doing that as a creative project. In terms of subjects, I wouldn't—I can't recall that I would say that I had any favorite subject except that I loved to read. I would always check books out of the library. I would read on the bus to and from school. Absolutely loved reading. But, I don't recall that I had any particular subject that I favored over another.
LW: Well, that does lead up to, you know, one of my big questions. So, what was the
process, or what encouraged you to apply and decide to go to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro?
MW: Well, actually it was the guidance counselor that I had. Once I did go to Wallace
Rose Hill, Clara Wilkins is the name of the guidance counselor. She's actually—she was an alum of UNCG. And so, that was not a thought in my mind in terms of attending that school. I'd never heard of the school, had no interest in the school. 7
But she felt that it would be a good school for me and so she really kept encouraging me to apply to UNCG. She was actually instrumental in my getting the alumni scholarship to attend UNCG. And so, I eventually decided that I would attend that school. I'm glad—it was a good decision for me. Now, looking back on it, again, at the time, I wasn't aware enough of what was going on in the larger picture in terms of how I made decisions, but I felt like I was on the tail end of the Civil Rights and the Black Power struggles to open doors for my generation. And so, in a sense, it was like, well, folks fought for me to be able to attend this school so I felt like I was in that group where that was what the expectation was. We've opened the door for you. Now there's expectation you walk through it. If I had the decision to make today, knowing what I know today, I would have chosen a black university to attend. But, given the times and the information that I was operating with, I chose UNCG and given what I was working with in making that decision, it was a good decision for me. If I was going to attend a white school, then—because we had been on some type of trip up to UNC at Chapel Hill [The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina] and, again, at the time, it was this big campus and, you know, I was just mesmerized by just the size of the campus and just the experience. I probably would have chosen a school like that, which to me, would not have been my best choice at all. So, I'm actually glad that other choices that I had before me that I actually chose to attend UNCG.
LW: And I may—you were just comparing it to Chapel Hill. So, what, if you were
comparing UNCG to Chapel Hill, what made UNCG the better choice?
MW: It was a smaller setting. I felt like I had a relationship with my instructors.
Actually, I don't know if it was the first year of the college or not but when I attended UNCG, I was actually enrolled in the Residential College program, which made the experience good for me because that meant I was then—even within, on a smaller campus, I was within a much smaller setting because that was the experimental at the time, the college where they, first of all, they had the co-ed [co-educational] dorm. They had, instead of having a housemother, they had a family. One of the professors and his wife and their little girl and their dog lived in the dorm. We had certain classes in the dorm. I remember Linda Brown Bragg was my English teacher. She taught, the class was taught in the dorm. My history teacher, now I wish I could recall his name, he was very instrumental in my decision to attend law school. And he that class was also taught in the dorm. And, we also, the black students within the Residential College program, we were able to get together and convince this, an instructor Marie, I believe her last name was Darr, Marie Darr, to help us, and eventually Linda Bragg decided that she would also be of help to us. We actually set up a curriculum within the Residential College of—it was a black history, some black history courses and we structured the classes and came up with the book lists and had a major participation in the guest lecturers, the persons who would come on campus to teach segments of the class and that was really an excellent learning experience that I had.
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LW: Well, thank you for bringing part of the curriculum [laughter]. Wow, I'm just like
listening because this is all just—I love history and so hearing this first-hand account. I just—can't help but to be at awe some times. But I wanted to follow up and ask, because you mentioned, you know, looking back on it now, knowing what you know years later, you would have choose a black university. Why would that be? Why would a black university over UNCG?
MW: Because I feel like I would—it would have been, for me, a carry-over from my
experience at Teachey School and at Charity in an all-black setting. I felt like—I feel like I would have had an experience that I couldn't have possibly have had on a white campus. We had, when I was at UNCG, of course there was the Black Student Union [Neo-Black Society] and I—so in that sense, the black students, we were close knit as a community on the campus. I can't remember what the protest was about specifically but I remember we had a sit-in in the administration building at some point when I was at UNCG. So, it's, it's—the benefit to me of being in a white setting is that you are more aware at all times of your relationship to whites and you don't become complacent. As I think I could have within a black setting. I felt like—because I had a cousin who was attending A&T [North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, Greensboro, North Carolina] at the same time that I was at UNCG and I would go over and visit Lorey from time to time and I just felt like when I was on A&T's campus, it was clearly a much more sociable type setting. In—just what I observed—and I just felt like sometimes being on the white campus that you were constantly aware of what was going on with black folks simply because you were faced with it every day. And so, that, to me, would be the benefit of being in the setting that I was in.
LW: Okay. And so, you mentioned that, you know, you had a guidance counselor who
was an alumna of the university who encouraged you to go. Do you remember what your first days on campus was like?
MW: Well, I remember—first of all, I had to take the bus to school. My parents didn't
have a car. There was a white guy in my class who was also going to UNCG. And so, this, again Mrs. [Clara] Wilkins, arranged for his mother to bring some of my things, to take some of my things because she was, of course, driving him to school. And, then, the rest I just put on the bus and I remember when I got to Greensboro, I was at the bus station. I had to hail a cab and transfer whatever I had on the bus, you know, put it in the cab. And I took the cab to the dorm and that's how I moved in, unlike what I see today with, you know, parents rolling up with cars packed with all kinds of stuff and folks running out to move stuff in. Very different experience in terms of my first day on campus. And, I think, again, that's where being in the Residential College was good for me because it was like, sort of a sheltered—it was a more sheltered environment and coming from a very small community, I think it was very helpful to be in that setting, where I was able to get to know people much easier, to make the adjustments and the transition a lot easier because of that.
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LW: Okay, and so what residence hall was the Residential College in? Do you remember?
MW: It was Mary Foust [Residence Hall], I believe.
LW: And so did you stay in the Residential College all four year?
MW: I did.
LW: Okay, okay.
MW: I remember I attended summer school a couple of summers and during the summer I would have to live in another dorm. But, yes, I was there—oh it wasn't four. It was actually three years because I graduated in 1973. I mean I started in '70 and finished in '73.
LW: Oh, so you did it in three years?
MW: Yes.
LW: Oh, okay, okay, gotcha. And so, you've already talked a lot about the Residential
College. I was kind of curious—so, I guess it was a smaller setting and so—I guess I'm trying to figure the best way to ask. Did it always feel like those who were in the Residential College were always together? Had a good relationships? Kind of like with those—how were those interactions like?
MW: Closer relationships I would say. Of course in any setting, you are going to have
some folks to, you know, migrate towards each other, you know, have better relationships than others. But, overall, it was just a very—I would just say that it was a different setting being in the Residential College and I think that we did interact differently than, let's say, if I had been in just a regular dorm on campus.
LW: So, what was the—being that this was an experimental thing, you mentioned there
was a professor and his family who lived in the dorm instead of the traditional dorm mother. What was the dorm experience life like? Did you have the same rules and regulations that other people had in their dorms? Or, where there different—?
MW: Well, I'm thinking that they differed somewhat [chuckles].
LW: Okay, just trying to get a better, like, understanding kind of what made the—other
than it was a unique, being of the time period for teaching but just the living experience.
MW: Just the idea of having classes in the parlor for example in that very, it was— 10
because, of course, we had other classes that were, you know, in the campus in general.
LW: Okay.
MW: My biology class, for example, math class, those were just in the regular campus
setting. It was—so it was just some of the classes that were taught in the dorm. But, much more casual, informal, and it was an, and of course, again, it was on—kind of the front end of co-ed, the co-ed dorms. The notion of having co-ed dorms so even that was different in and of itself the idea of having both men and women living in the dorm, because I'm pretty sure we were the only co-ed dorm on campus. So, it was just, it was more close knit in terms of the community of students who were living in the Residential College. Yes.
LW: Okay, and so a question I was going to ask earlier and I actually forgot was, when
you made your decision to go to UNCG, what was the reaction of your family and friends and your community back home?
MW: I think, pretty much, the idea was that when I finished high school that I would go
to college, period. I don't think it was so much where I went but just that I went. Yes.
LW: Okay, and so, I guess, thinking about, you know, you talked about how it was—
going to UNCG was a very good—good choice because of the small, you were able to continue that small setting. So would you say that your transition from high school to college was easier because of that? How would you describe the transition experience?
MW: Well, I don't recall it being anything major. I don't recall it being traumatic in any
way or something I looked back on thinking I was really scared. Of course, just that idea of being that far away from home was different. But I had attended camps a number of years beginning with 4-H camp in the summer. I was accustomed to being away from for periods of time and then there were a couple of academic camps. I remember there was one at Livingstone [College, Salisbury, North Carolina] that I attended on summer. There was one on Bennett's campus [Bennett College, Greensboro, North Carolina] that I attended one summer. So, in that sense, I was, at least, accustomed to being away from home for some period of time.
LW: Okay, and so could you tell me a little bit more about, well I don't know if there is
anything else you could tell me about the courses because you've talked about, you know, the classes in the Residential College and the African American curriculum that was created.
MW: Yes, we created some classes and I can't recall now how many classes we set up, 11
but we actually—that's the idea that we were able to set up classes and get credit for, you know, taking these classes that we put together. So, yes, that was a major experience.
LW: You know, do you happen to know if those classes carried on? It wasn't just
something for your class? They kept offering them?
MW: I—probably not because they were within, again, the context of the Residential
College.
LW: Oh, okay.
MW: Because we actually met those classes in the dorm as well.
LW: Oh, so they were not offered to the regular—.
MW: To the population in general. I don't recall, I don't recall that they were. I don't
know it technically how they were set whether they were set up as independent classes or courses or what have you.
LW: Okay.
MW: But I just recall that we were able to take these classes.
LW: Gotcha. So what did you end up choosing as your major?
MW: I started with sociology only because it was—I knew nothing about sociology. I
just knew I was supposed to have a major and so I started taking these sociology classes. It sounded good and decided, no, not so much. And so, it was professor, actually he was my advisor. His name was David, I can't remember his last name. He was a professor in the Political Science Department and so somehow I transitioned over into Political Science and I think that he had something to do with that because—and one of the things that attracted me to, again, the Political Science major was, first of all, by having a political science major, I discovered that I just didn't have the interest in sociology. Okay, but with political science there were, I think there were fewer hours that were required for the major which allowed me to take more classes, more African studies type classes. And David taught a number of those classes. He just had an interest in African studies and so he taught it within the Political Science major but there was a number of African type studies that he taught. And so that basically drew me into that area.
LW: Okay, so there were other, I guess, individuals on campus who were starting to
bring more diversity into the curriculum in the various departments.
MW: Yes.
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LW: Okay, okay. Other professors that you remember or did you have a favorite or
could you speak to what was the interaction like between students and professors at the time?
MW: Well, I had good interactions with my professors, of course, within the Residential College. Marie Darr would stand out as, you know, a professor, one of my favorites and that was she was very politically active. And so, I really admired her for the kind of community work and political activism that she was engaged in. There were, and my history professor, the one that, like I said, was instrumental in my deciding to attend law school who was also a part of the Residential College program. There was another teacher, and I can't recall her name. She was in the Political Science Department and I had a good relationship with her. There aren't others that stand out to me. The only other experience I would say that just kind of stands out, once my history teacher, and he just asked me one day when I was applying to—what was I going to do when I graduated and I, at that time, David was pushing me towards a master's and Ph.D. in the Political Science areas because that was his area and that was when there—what was it called? Some type of urban studies program. Urban planning or something that was, you know, just beginning to come on board. So, those were the areas that I was looking at along with getting a master's in Black Studies. In particular there was one I think at Boston University or Boston College that I was applying to. So he just asked me one day, what was I planning to do and I told him and he said, he asked had I ever thought about applying to law school. And I said "no." And told me that he thought that I should apply and it was just based on that that I started doing some research on law schools and just added them to the other schools that I was applying to. And I remember I went to this professor's office who was supposed to be the pre-law advisor on campus, and he was out when I went to his office but when I went to his office, he had this magazine article cut out on his door that said there were too many lawyers. So, I'm thinking okay. I don't think he would be very helpful. So, I didn't try to contact him anymore but I just pursued, you know, pursued it on my own and—but no, I just, there aren't any other folks that stand out.
LW: How would you describe the relationship between the students and the
administration at the time, particularly, you know, James Ferguson was the chancellor at the time and some of those individuals?
MW: Well, it's like I said, it was certainly could be contentious at times simply because
I recall the sit-in that we had in the administration building. I wouldn't say that it was that way ongoing but I think that that was just part of what was going on in the late '60s, early '70s. You had a lot of turmoil on campuses around the country and I think we were just a part of that larger picture of what was going on. Yes.
LW: What—question, I know a few other alumni had mentioned the sit-in. Was it to be
recognized? For the Neo-Black Society to be recognized as a university student organization or for campus funding? 13
MW: I think that it had to with the funding, the funding issue. And I don't know if we
had like an office at that time. I know we eventually had one but I can't recall now whether we already had that or whether there was some concern about what we had versus what other student organizations were being allotted and being funded for. But, certainly, I know that in the larger sense it was about being marginalized on the campus, yes.
LW: Okay, so could you tell me a little bit about your involvement with the Neo-Black
Society or what that organization was like?
MW: I attended meetings. I didn't hold any office or anything of that nature. It was just
that I attended the meetings and I supported the activities.
LW: Okay.
MW: Yes.
LW: Some of these we've already talked about earlier. I guess in talking a little bit
about different aspects of campus life, did you go to the dining hall?
MW: The dining hall, yes I used to like to go to the dining hall whenever I was studying
and they would have the little late night snacks that you could go to the dining—usually it was stale cookies and punch or something like that but it was food.
LW: Yes.
MW: So, I mean, the dining hall. I wouldn't say that it was a bad experience. I mean,
you survive it. Actually one of the things that stands out about the dining hall to me, I know it has changed since then, it's a new structure and all of that, but I just recall in the fall there was just a beautiful tree that was right outside the dining hall. And it just, it had, it just looked like it was on fire in the fall. I, for some reason, that tree just stands out in my mind. It was just really gorgeous. But, the food, you know, just some days it was like—.
LW: It was cafeteria food.
MW: It was cafeteria food [chuckles].
LW: Okay, so what did you do on and off campus when you weren't studying or in
class?
MW: Didn't have a car, of course, the entire time that I was on the campus so some of
my friends or roommates and I would, we would walk downtown or—yes we walked downtown. We walked everywhere. We would walk to a church and, I think one time when I was back in Greensboro some years later and I saw 14
where—I couldn't believe we actually walked that far. But, we—we would walk to church. There was a park that was out by—I think it was the hospital. I don't know if it was Moses Cone or something like that. Some hospital and we used to, we used to walk to some park. We would catch the—there was a shuttle bus to the hospital for the students, I think who were in the nursing program. And then there was some shopping center that you could walk to from the hospital. So, we would catch the shuttle and then you had to cross over a creek literally to get to the shopping center. You know, you're young, you're not thinking. But we would actually go out there. We would have parties in the dorm. Yes, we would have parities in the dorm. So, we found ways to have fun.
LW: You know I have to ask.
MW: Yes.
LW: What were the parties like?
MW: Oh well [chuckles].
LW: You know, I imagine a party in the 1970s was different from the parties kids have
today [chuckles].
MW: Yes, they were pretty calm. You know, there weren't, you know, we would just do
the usual—we'd, you know, play games, and so, but yes, we managed to find some ways to have fun [laughter].
LW: Okay [laughter]. So, I know you came in 1970.
MW: Yes.
LW: That was your freshman year and the university just became co-ed [co-
educational] about seven years before, the '63/'64 school year. So, my understanding there were still a lot of traditions from when it was Woman's College [The Woman's College of the University of North Carolina] that still carried over. Are there some that you remember particularly?
MW: No, there's nothing that really stands out—.
LW: Okay.
MW: To me that would make me think—whenever I was there made me think, "Oh,
this was a woman's college." No, and again, I think because my most immediate experience was the co-ed experience that I was having at the Residential College.
LW: Gotcha, gotcha. Well are there any things that the university was doing annually 15
as UNCG that was just a part of being a student there? Like they would have—I forgot what it was called. I know there was a golf tournament that was held every year and other things. I didn't know if—or about the class jackets.
MW: No, not university-wide events. No.
LW: Okay. That is cool. And we already talked about the Neo-Black Society. Would
you say UNCG had any kind of political atmosphere when you were a student there or any kind of political consciousness being that it was, you know, the '70s and everything that was going on around the country.
MW: I would—I don't know whether that would be the case in general, again, on the
Campus, but clearly there was some because, like I said, that was what was propelling us to put together the courses that we had. It was about bringing folks in who were, you know, a part of the movement and—but just on, let's say, just on—and I recall there were films that were shown. I'm trying to think in terms of—I don't recall, not to say that there weren't, but I don't recall speakers necessarily coming to campus. You know, some of the folks who were coming in and actually just going to rallies and that sort of thing on a regular basis. Not that I don't recall.
LW: Okay, I was going to—I forgot one of my follow up questions. You mentioned
that Marie Darr was politically active.
MW: Yes.
LW: Was it known what organizations or activities she was involved in as far as being
an activist?
MW: It—I'm thinking that there were some things that were going on—I don't know, I
don't want to just mischaracterize it but I think it had to do—I mean some of the activities had to do with the Socialist Party. Seems like there were some things going on in Greensboro specifically around the time. Demonstrations, just some, some other activities that were happening. Yes.
LW: And then, one other question that I forgot to bring up. I know you mentioned that
you had a cousin who was at A&T.
MW: Yes.
LW: So, do you know if it was common that the African American students who were
at UNCG or if you could talk a little bit more about was there a lot of interaction with students who were at A&T and even those who were at Bennett being those were the two HBCUs [historical black colleges and universities] in Greensboro?
MW: If there were? 16
LW: Student interaction or things—.
MW: You mean formal interaction?
LW: Formal or informal.
MW: Well definitely informal interaction.
LW: Okay.
MW: Yes, definitely that. We had students from—well I would say more so from A&T
than Bennett. And, I think that—I can't remember now if they had already established the chapters before I got there or if it was when I was there but I know they started having chapters of the fraternities, well sororities definitely, at UNCG. I know that became something that folks started doing. I don't recall—not to say that it wasn't, I don't recall like formal things that were going on other than establishing those branches or whatever of these maybe the sororities, perhaps some of the fraternities. But, clearly, just hanging out on the two campuses that happened.
LW: Okay, so there was some, you know, some students would go and just hang out—.
MW: Yes.
LW: At those campuses and universities. Okay, so, I guess shifting a little bit forward
in time. What did you do after you graduated from UNCG. I know you mentioned law school.
MW: Yes, I immediately, that following year, enrolled George Washington University
in D.C. [Washington, District of Columbia] in law school.
LW: Okay, and then, did you continue on to practice as a lawyer?
MW: Well, I finished law school in '76 and I worked, at that time, it was called the
Department, I think, of Natural Resources in Raleigh [North Carolina]. I worked there for a year in their environmental division. And then, after that, I enrolled in, there was a master's, it was a master's in teaching at the Antioch School of Law in D.C. So, I—and it was two-year program. So I enrolled in that program and went back to D.C. and the—Antioch was a highly unusual law school in the sense that it was set up on the model of a medical school. Like medical schools have teaching hospitals. Antioch had a teaching law firm and the philosophy of the school, it was actually established by, it was a husband and wife, Jean and Edgar Cahn. And they believed very strongly and had a very deep background in community activism and they believed in training lawyers who would engage in that type of practice. So, being in that program, I actually was a supervising 17
attorney because, of course I had come down to North Carolina the summer after I finished law school, taken and passed the bar. So, I was a supervising attorney in that, in the family law clinic within the law firm at Antioch, and I taught classes. And really enjoyed the experience of teaching as well as working with the students in going to court. And so, it was so much so that I decided, I thought that was something that I would actually like to do. But, I had always wanted to work with legal services. I had tried to get a job with legal services whenever I was in law school but didn't get one. So, I finally did get a job with legal services in Winston-Salem [North Carolina]. So, I worked at legal services for a couple of years. Enjoyed that experience, again, that connection with the community in Winston-Salem. And then, went into private practice. Got married, my husband took a job in Atlanta [Georgia] so I moved to Atlanta and in moving to Atlanta, I was able to get a job at a law school in Atlanta. So, I was able to get back into teaching. And one of the reasons that I wanted to practice was because I felt like it would be important to be able to bring the experiences of actually practicing law into the classroom as a component of my teaching. And so, I went back into teaching in Atlanta. Moved back up to North Carolina, and this is when I got the job at Central [North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina] teaching and that's where I've been since that time.
LW: Teaching at Central's Law School.
MW: At the law school. Yes.
LW: Okay, so, have you been involved with UNCG since you graduated?
MW: No, not very much. There was, there was one time, and I can't remember now if
that was when I was working with legal services but I went back on campus, I think, I want to say I was doing some type of recruitment or something and I was on campus. But, no in terms of just going back to, you know, Homecomings or reunions and that sort of thing, no, I have not been involved in that way.
LW: Okay. And so, what would you like people to know about your time at UNCG or
what are some of the things you would leave as, you know, as reflections about your time at UNCG or the impact it had?
MW: Overall, it was, it was a period of growth for me. I felt like it was an excellent
academic experience for me. I felt that I had a variety of experiences that I was exposed to on the campus, and I would look at UNCG as being just a major part of my development. And, as I said, it was at UNCG that the seed was planted for me to do what I eventually did that became my profession in life. And, so, the people that I interacted with, both my peers as well as the professors, I don't have any negative experiences that come to my mind. I look at it as a good experience, as a positive one. One that, you know, I have with me and I will continue to take with me, so, I felt like, again, as I said earlier, it was a good decision that I made to attend UNCG. 18
LW: Alright, well Ms. Wright, I don't have any more formal questions. Is there
anything else you would like to add to the interview?
MW: I can't think of anything [chuckles].
LW: [Chuckles] Okay. Well, thank you so much. I know I've learned a lot and I definitely enjoyed listening to your stories and your experiences. So, thank you so very much for speaking with me today.
MW: You are welcome.
LW: Alright, so. I'm just going to press stop.
MW: Sure.
LW: On the recording.
[End of Interview]