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Title
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Vermelle Ely, Price Davis, and John Funches oral history interview, 2004 June 29
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Interviewee
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Ely, Vermelle Diamond
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Interviewer
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Mann, Keith
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Contributor
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Davis, Price, 1920-
Funches, John, 1951-
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Place of Publication
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Charlotte, North Carolina
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Publisher
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J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Date of Interview
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2004-06-29
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Physical Description
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1 audio file (1:30:54) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (41 pages)
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Object Type
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sound recording-nonmusical
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Genre
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spoken word
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Language
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eng
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Interviewee Biography
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Vermelle Ely was an 71-year-old woman at the time of interview, which took place at the Second Ward Alumni House in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1933. She was educated at Second Ward High School and Shaw University, and was employed as a teacher. Price Davis was an 84-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place at the Second Ward Alumni House in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina in 1920. He was educated at Second Ward High School and was employed as a truck driver. John Funches was an 53-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place at the Second Ward Alumni House in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1951. He was educated at Second Ward High School and Central Piedmont Community College, and was employed by Federal Express.
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Abstract
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Vermelle Ely, Price Davis, and John Funches all attended Second Ward High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and are all members of the Second Ward High School Alumni Foundation located on Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte. In this interview, Ms. Ely, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Funches reminisce about their high school experiences. Although they attended Second Ward decades apart from each other, all interviewees emphasize the feeling of camaraderie and family connection that they experienced there. In addition, Ms. Ely, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Funches describe their personal experiences with segregation, desegregation, and integration--Ms. Ely as a teacher in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, Mr. Davis in New York City after graduation, and Mr. Funches in the military and the work force in Charlotte. The discussion turns to the interviewees' opinions on the significance of the black community in Charlotte, the weakening that both integration and urban renewal caused within this community, and the loss of black identity in the present generation at the time of interview. The interviewees express ambivalence about integration; they feel while it was mostly beneficial in that it provided everyone with access to the same educational system, blacks in Charlotte lost their strong sense of community.
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Digital Object Notes
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MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master file. Interview originally recorded on analog audio cassette and digitized using Digidesign 003 rack.
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Interviewee Occupations
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Teachers
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Subjects--Names
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Ely, Vermelle Diamond
Davis, Price, 1920-
Funches, John, 1951-
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Contributor Occupations
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Truck drivers
Express service--Employees
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Subjects--Organizations
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Second Ward High School (Charlotte, N.C.)
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Second Ward High School Alumni Foundation (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Subjects--Topics
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African Americans--Segregation
African American neighborhoods
Segregation in education
School integration
Students--Social life and customs
Teachers
Race relations
Blacks--Race identity
Urban renewal--Social aspects
Police brutality
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Subjects--Geographic
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North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Charlotte--Second Ward
New York (State)--New York
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Subjects--Genre
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Interviews
Oral histories
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Coverage--Dates
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1930-2010
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Digital Collection Title
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The era before Brown v. Board of Education
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Digital Project Title
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Living Charlotte: The Postwar Development of a New South city
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Rights
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The materials included on this web site are freely available for private study, scholarship or non-commercial research under the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code). Any use beyond the provisions of fair use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication, broadcast, redistribution or mounting on another web site always require prior written permission and may also be subject to additional restrictions and fees. UNC Charlotte does not hold literary rights to all materials in its collections and the researcher is responsible for securing those rights when needed. Copyright information for specific collections is available upon request.
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Grant Information
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Digitization made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
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Internet Media Type
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audio/mpeg
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Related Interviews
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Price Davis oral history interview 1, 2004 May 25, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://goldmine.uncc.edu/islandora/object/uncc%3A1876); Price Davis oral history interview 2, March 19, 2004, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Price Davis oral history interview 3, November 18, 2006, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://goldmine.uncc.edu/islandora/object/uncc%3A232); Vermelle Ely, Price Davis, Wright Hunter, Calvin Davis, and Naomi Davis oral history interview, March 25, 2005, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (http://goldmine.uncc.edu/islandora/object/uncc%3A2366)
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Identifier
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BB-EL0004