Merian Campbell (Harris, Jade)
JH; Hey I’m here with my grandma, Merian Campbell and umm so, where were you born?
MC: In Whiteville, North Carolina.
JH: So, do you think you faced racism more in North Carolina than in Philadelphia?
MC: I-I faced it more in Philadelphia I think.
JH: What makes you think that?
MC: Well, it’s really hard to say actually- because being born in the 50s um whenever a whole lot of racism was going on, I wasn’t around it um... I wasn’t around it. Only when we went into the city. And, nobody actually bothered us, we had no problems even though we wasn’t allowed to go in the restaurants and sit down and stuff like that, but that didn’t matter because we never went to restaurants.
JH: Did you ever signs- segregation signs that said whites only and blacks only?
MC: Uh, I’ve saw signs that said um, whites only bathroom at the bus station, um basically that’s it.
JH: Did you understand like, why did anybody ever tell why they had those signs?
MC: Not really, it was just that we don’t go in that bathroom.
JH: So, Jim Crow laws never really impacted you.
MC: No, nope.
JH: Well, what year did you come to Philadelphia?
MC: I came to Philadelphia in 1970.
JH: So, segregation was over by that time, so what racism- did anybody say anything?
MC: Uh, Segregation was over at that time, but where we came from schools did not mix until 1970.
JH: So, besides black people in your school were there any other races.
MC: No.
JH: You told me that there were Native Americans in your um… near your hometown. They didn’t go to your school or anything?
MC: They had their own school.
JH: Did you ever talk, like were you ever friends with someone outside your race.
MC: Uh, nope.
JH: Well-
MC: Well Native Americans yes, I’m sorry. With some Native Americans, but that was it, that was only because they lived in the community.
JH: Did any other- any whites live in your community, was your neighborhood diverse?
MC: Nope. All Black. Even it was segregated, I mean, the Native Americans lived in one section of the community and the blacks in the other. The Native Americans and the Blacks, they did you know socialize.
JH: So, they didn’t like hate each other?
MC: No.
JH: Were there any racist remarks to each other?
MC: No.
JH: Well, in my school there is a lot of self-segregation, why do you think that is?
MC: I really don’t know, maybe because they think they’re different.
JH: Well, I know there was self-segregation in your school, but you told me about our uncle, who went to an all white school. How do you think that was for him?
MC: That was when they first started mixing the schools, and he went and it was only a few blacks, uh he faced uh racism. I didn’t, because I didn’t go there.
JH: Did- Did he ever come home and like was angry or upset about what they said?
MC: At first, um, maybe the first month he had a pretty rough time, uh he didn’t really talk about it a lot it was just uh I know he got in trouble a couple of times, over somethings that was said to him.
Abstract
My grandmother, Merian Campbell, told what it was like for her in school before they stop segregated school. She also talked about my uncle going to an interracial school and the struggles he had to face. Since, she had a brother she got to see how different the education was between white and colored school.
Research
North Carolina, though not one of the major states during civil rights movement, still faced segregation. In 1954, public schools were determined unconstitutional for being segregated. But in North Carolina the desegregated slowly. In fact, Greensboro school was the first to agree with the Brown vs Board of education laws. “In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, a federal court ruled that busing could be used as a tool to help integrate the public schools,” which was attempt to desegregate schools.
Sources:
http://ncpedia.org/history/20th-Century/african-american-civil-rights
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