Saunders, Margaret Johnson, 1933-

Garner, Lisa

Charlotte, North Carolina

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

2006-12-07

1 audio file (51:07) : digital, MP3

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

Marty Saunders was a 73-year-old woman at the time of interview, which took place in her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Charlotte in 1933. She graduated from West Charlotte High School and Johnson C. Smith University, and was employed as a teacher.

Charlotte native and teacher Marty Saunders continues the conversation about her life and the Biddleville neighborhood where she grew up in this second interview. She explains that during the 1940s-1950s, Biddleville had a strong sense of community and that many of its residents were well-educated homeowners with professional jobs, and that there was very little crime. Mrs. Saunders describes her early interactions with white people as limited but mostly pleasant, and says that she never had a negative attitude toward white people when growing up. She talks about urban renewal and how part of the Biddleville neighborhood was torn down, including the house where she grew up. She also describes some of the other African American neighborhoods in Charlotte, including Greenville and McCrorey Heights, and the poor white community of Stumptown. Mrs. Saunders relates a sense of anger from some of her former neighbors for losing their community, and says that the new neighborhoods do not have the same values and communal spirit of Biddleville. She opines that there will never be another neighborhood like the Biddleville of her youth, and that while largely beneficial, integration has taken the "blackness" out of the culture of her children's generation.

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

Teachers

Saunders, Margaret Johnson, 1933-

Johnson C. Smith University

African American neighborhoods
African Americans--Segregation
Middle class African Americans
Segregation in education
Race relations
Urban renewal
Social values

North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Charlotte--Biddleville

Interviews
Oral histories

1930-2010

Student project on the Charlotte African American community

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

Marty Johnson Saunders oral history interview 1, 2006 November 28, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://goldmine.uncc.edu/islandora/object/uncc%3A20)

OH-SA0496