Listening to History: A North Carolina Mosaic

Race and Desegregation: West Charlotte High School

Race and Desegregation: Asheville's Stephens-Lee High School

Tobacco, History, and Memory: Storytelling and Cultural Grieving in Eastern North Carolina

Environmentalism: Forests and Communities in Western North Carolina

New Immigrants and Labor: The Case Farms Strike in Morganton

New Immigrants and Neighborhood Change: Northeast Central Durham

Voices After the Deluge: Oral History Investigations of the Great North Carolina Flood

Whole Lives: The Durham HIV Life Review Project

The Brown Creek Correctional Institute Life Review Performance Project

Chatham County at the Crossroads




"Listening to History: A North Carolina Mosaic"

Whether they have cooked the best Brunswick stew in the Piedmont, tended an old Durham drugstore, or nursed wounded soldiers in World War II, the North Carolinians interviewed as part of the Southern Oral History Program's "Listening to History" series have each made important contributions to history. Intended as an overarching component of the SOHP's "Listening for a Change: North Carolina Communities in Transition" initiative, "Listening to History" offers a mosaic of interviews that vary widely in theme and geographical location. Coordinated by historian David Cecelski, the series uses individual life stories to explore how North Carolinians have been coping with the dramatic changes that have occurred in the state since World War II. Among the interviewees are a white minister who took a dramatic stand for racial equality in the 1960s, a Goose Creek Island oysterman, residents of the Dutch farming settlement of Terra Ceia in Beaufort County, a prison inmate who became the head chef at the governor's mansion, and a keeper of the Neuse River. By chronicling the diversity of North Carolina history, Cecelski hopes to broaden the collective understanding of that history among the state's residents. Drawing directly from this research, Cecelski wrote a monthly "Listening to History" feature for the Raleigh News & Observer. Links to these articles appear just below.

A native of Craven County, North Carolina, David Cecelski is an independent historian and writer. He is the author of Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina and the Fate of the Black Schools in the South and A Historian's Coast: Adventures into the Tidewater Past
.

 Cecelski's "Listening to History" Articles in the N&O
 Article Title  Date Published
Gretchen Brinson: A Born Nurse June 14, 1998
The Rev. Vernon Tyson: Miss Amy's Witness July 12, 1998
Hattie Brown: A Freedom Story August 9, 1998
Odell Spain: My Way of Life September 13, 1998
Allan Troxler: Shirley's Garden October 11, 1998
Ray Wells: There's A Man For You November 8, 1998
Kenny Davis: It's Like Being At War December 13, 1998
Georgia Rae Dickinson: Waves on the Beach January 10, 1999
Betty Ballew: The Place I Love Best On This Earth February 14, 1999
Harry Kittner: A Candle Is Lit March 14, 1999
Lois Epps Jones: Zan Epps' Daughter April 11, 1999
John McDonald: This Old Drugstore May 9, 1999
Willis Williams: Life And Death At Devils Gut June 13, 1999
Emma Crawford: A Good Life July 11, 1999
Leila Pigott: An Angry God August 8, 1999
Marta Galvez: We Can Outlast September 12, 1999
Ben Averett: Doing It Right October 10, 1999
Mabel Williams: Standing Up To The Klan November 14, 1999
David Harrell: A Rockyhock Christmas December 12, 1999
Hazel Reece: A Quilter's Life January 9, 2000
Margaret Wicker: The Coal Glen Mine Disaster February 13, 2000
The Van Wyks: Flower Fields and Muck Fires March 12, 2000
David Forbes: The Birth of SNCC April 9, 2000
Otis Hardy: Stars In The Sky May 14, 2000
Charles Wales: Always A Little Music June 11, 2000
Horace Twiford: A 12 Gauge And A Mullet Net July 9, 2000
Adell McDowell: A Frightful Time August 13, 2000
Jim Ellis: Putting In Tobacco September 10, 2000
E.R. Mitchell: Backyard Barbecue October 8, 2000




The Southern Oral History Program
Center for the Study of the American South
Love House and Hutchins Forum
410 East Franklin St., CB# 9127, UNC-CH
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9127
(919) 962-0455
info@sohp.org