African American Institutional Memory Oral History Project

Pages

Oral history interview with Willa Neal Cline, 2015
Willa Neal Cline (?-present) was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina, and grew up in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Cline was a part of desegregating the schools in Southern Pines and attended both the formerly all-black East Southern Pines High School and the formerly all-white Pinecrest High School. Cline graduated from UNCG in 1973 with a bachelor's degree and in 1978 with a master's degree. Cline had a varied career in multiple industries and has been active in alumni events. This interview contains information about transitioning to UNCG, the Residential College and academics at UNCG, comments about the African American experience at UNCG, Neo-Black Society, social life on campus, drugs and drug use on campus, the dining hall, extracurricular activities and campus traditions, men at UNCG, dorm life, and interactions with students at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (A&T).
Oral history interview with Yvonne Cheek, 2012
Yvonne Cheek (1945 - ) graduated in 1967 from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) with a degree in music education. She also holds a Master's from UNCG and a PhD from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.<BR><BR>Cheek talks about growing up in Kittrel, North Carolina; starting piano lessons at age six; teaching piano at age thirteen; and playing the piano and organ for local churches when she was in the fifth grade. She recalls being very involved with her local 4-H Club; becoming the first black 4-H member to attend the 4-H Camp in Washington, DC; being offered a college scholarship by 4-H if she would not attend the segregated 4-H Congress in Chicago, Illinois. Cheek discusses her shock when she transitioned from her all-black high school, Henderson Institute, to the all-white Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG) in the fall of 1963. She also talks about the pros and cons of having all ten black freshmen students assigned to Coit Residence Hall, being the only black student in all of her classes, and having three campus jobs to augment her scholarship. Cheek remembers music professors Richard Cox and Barbara Bair; the lack of social activities for black students at the school; being the first black student teacher at the university's Curry School; being the first black Residence Hall Assistant (RA) while she attended graduate school at UNCG; and becoming an advisor for the Neo-Black Society, which was organized by her sister Betty Emarita Cheek (Class of 1968). She recalls attending the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary, to study the Zoltan Kodaly method of teaching music to children; teaching the Kodaly method in Greensboro public schools after returning from her year in Hungary; being the first black faculty member at the UNCG School of Music; getting her PhD at the University of Michigan; and becoming a faculty member at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Cheek concludes the interview by discussing her reasons for changing her career field from music education to the corporate area and founding her own consulting firm in 1993.XXXX7163
Oral history interview with Zelphia Grissett, 2015
Dr. Zelphia (Gore) Grissett graduated in 1973 from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) with a degree in history and teacher's certification. She also has master's degrees in secondary social studies and educational administration, as well as a doctorate in education. Grissett recalls her experience as one of the first African American students at Shallotte High School (Shallotte, North Carolina) and describes how her attendance at Governor's School impacted her later decision to attend college. She mentions Dr. Loren Schweninger as an influential professor at UNCG who led her to consider a history major. Grissett also discusses social life on campus and the ways in which she often hid her status as a UNCG student when speaking with non-UNCG African Americans in Greensboro. She also recalls campus protests after the shooting at Kent State University.

Pages