00:00:00
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
00:01:00your 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
00:02:00work 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 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.
00:03:00
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.
00:04:00
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
00:05:00summer--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.
MW: It's just that at--in terms of how that was taking place prior to the
00:06:00schools 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
00:07:00enjoyed 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
00:08:00the 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
00:09:00remember 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
00:10:00sit in the hallway while the children were having lunch. So, there were clearly
inadequacies in terms of the physical facilities. We would certainly 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
00:11:00P.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
00:12:00totally 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
00:13:00I 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
00:14:00whenever they had the, the senior play, because 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
00:15:00were 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
00:16:00because 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
00:17:00small 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.
MW: Where we had to use the one room.
00:18:00
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?
00:19:00
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
00:20:00I 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
00:21:00terms of attending that school. I'd never heard of the school, had no interest
in the school. 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
00:22:00be 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
00:23:00experience. 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
00:24:00because 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
00:25:00Marie, 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.
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?
00:26:00
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
00:27:00times 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
00:28:00the 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
00:29:00whatever 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.
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?
00:30:00
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
00:31:00to 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.
00:32:00
MW: Just the idea of having classes in the parlor for example in that very, it
was-- 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
00:33:00dorm 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
00:34:00transition 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
00:35:00American curriculum that was created.
MW: Yes, we created some classes and I can't recall now how many classes we set
up, 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.
00:36:00
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.
00:37:00Okay, 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.
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
00:38:00of 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
00:39:00asked 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.
00:40:00And 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?
00:41:00
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?
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
00:42:00and 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
00:43:00mean, 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
00:44:00walked 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 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
00:45:00have 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-
00:46:00educational] 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 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.
00:47:00Would 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
00:48:00terms 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
00:49:00some 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?
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
00:50:00definitely, 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.
00:51:00
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
00:52:00unusual 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 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
00:53:00Antioch, 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
00:54:00moved 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
00:55:00if 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
00:56:00that 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
00:57:00me 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.
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]