Emarita, Betty

Description

Betty Emarita (1946- ) graduated in 1968 from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) with a degree in art. She also has a master's degree from Howard University in Washington, DC. Emarita is the founder and president of Development and Training Resources in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emarita recalls growing up in segregated Kittrell, North Carolina; the importance of education in her family; and the high performance expected of her and her sister Yvonne Cheek (Class of 1967) by family, teachers, and community. She talks about UNCG faculty members such as history professor Lenior Wright and art professor Gilbert Carpenter, majoring in art, and receiving the Spencer Love Scholarship. Emarita discusses attending the National Student Association Conference (NSA) at the University of Maryland during the summer of 1967. After returning from the Conference, she recalls talking to other African American students about starting a black student union, which resulted in the founding of the Neo-Black Society. The Black Power Forum held on campus in the fall of 1967 was the first project of the fledging Neo-Black Society. Emarita remembers the overwhelming success of the Forum with black students and her disappointment in the lack of interest in the Forum by the white administration, faculty, and students. She concludes the interview by talking about attending Howard University and reconnecting to the black community, teaching at the University of District of Columbia, moving back to North Carolina, doing a daily radio children's program called Tickle-me-Think, being editor of a children's magazine at the...

Record Contributed By

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Record Harvested From

North Carolina Digital Heritage Center