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Title
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C. Vanessa Baxter oral history interview, 2004 December 21
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Interviewee
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Baxter, C. Vanessa, 1954-2007
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Interviewer
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Metzger, Mary
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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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2004-12-21
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Physical Description
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1 audio file (1:25:46) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (42 pages : PDF)
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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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Vanessa Baxter was an 50-year-old woman at the time of interview, which took place at the Cherry Community Center office in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina on April 30, 1954. She was educated at Harry P. Harding High School, Howard University, and Mississippi Valley State University; and was employed as a public relations consultant and a nonprofit executive.
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Abstract
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Vanessa Baxter describes her experiences as a student in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools from 1959 through the early 1970s, focusing in particular on the impact of integration. Ms. Baxter describes attending an all-black elementary school, then moving to an integrated junior high, Sedgefield Junior High School. She recalls how integration was a success at the school, and also within the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Junior Symphony Orchestra, where she played the violin. Ms. Baxter attributes this success in part to the higher socioeconomic background of the students, and in part to successful leadership within the school. After junior high, she attended Harding High School, which she describes as a school with greater racial conflict. Ms. Baxter discusses significant problems, including violence, with integration at Harding High School, and talks about how the principal fueled racial conflict through uneven treatment of students. Ms. Baxter returned to Harding to deliver the commencement address ten years after she graduated, and she describes a significant improvement in race relations that had occurred by that time based on her experiences with the students during her visit.
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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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Executives
Public relations consultants
Nonprofit organizations--Employees
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Subjects--Names
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Baxter, C. Vanessa, 1954-2007
England, Kenneth
Crosby, Kathleen R., 1925-2012
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Subjects--Topics
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African American students
Discrimination in education
Racism in education
Segregation in education
School integration
Race relations
School violence
Foreign study
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Subjects--Geographic
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North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Charlotte--Cherry
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Subjects--Genre
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Interviews
Oral histories
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Coverage--Dates
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1950-2010
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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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Identifier
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BB-BA0015