Hudgens, Eula

Description

This December 17, 1974, oral history interview conducted by William Chafe with Eula Hudgens primarily documents Ms. Hudgens' involvement in desegregation of Greensboro schools and businesses during the 1960s and 1970s. Hudgens discusses race relations in Greensboro in the 1950s when she was a student at North Carolina A&T College (A&T), and the relationship between Bennett College and A&T at that time. Of the 1960 sit-ins, she describes the involvement and opinions of faculty at both colleges, how the sit-ins strengthened the bond between the two colleges, discussing the sit-ins with Joseph McNeil, leadership in the Greensboro Four, her disappointment with city leaders' response to the sit-ins, the influential businessmen of the time, and the lack of church involvement.Hudgens also discusses school integration at length, including the lack of action after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the burden of desegregation being put on black students, parents' fears, differences in funding and facilities for black and white schools, debates over busing, YWCA discussion groups on school integration and busing, and differences in parent and student responses to integration.Other topics include participating in a freedom ride in the late forties, Greensboro activist organizations in the fifties, human relations work at the Pearson Street YWCA, desegregation of the Gillespie Park golf course, the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and the cross burning at Frank Williams' home, the improvement of the police department, Hal Sieber and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, funding for community organizations, segregated funeral homes and hospitals, and...

Record Contributed By

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Record Harvested From

North Carolina Digital Heritage Center