Baxter, C. Vanessa, 1954-2007

Metzger, Mary

Charlotte, North Carolina

J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

2004-12-21

1 audio file (1:25:46) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (42 pages : PDF)

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

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.

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.

MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master file. Interview originally recorded on analog audio cassette and digitized using Digidesign 003 rack.

Executives
Public relations consultants
Nonprofit organizations--Employees

Baxter, C. Vanessa, 1954-2007
England, Kenneth
Crosby, Kathleen R., 1925-2012

African American students
Discrimination in education
Racism in education
Segregation in education
School integration
Race relations
School violence
Foreign study

North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Charlotte--Cherry

Interviews
Oral histories

1950-2010

The era before Brown v. Board of Education

Living Charlotte : the postwar development of a New South city

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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.

audio/mpeg

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