Elder, Thereasea D. Clark (Thereasea Delerine Clark), 1927-

Desmarais, Melinda

Charlotte, North Carolina

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

2001-05-09

1 audio file (2:03:14) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (40 pages : PDF)

sound recording-nonmusical
text

spoken word

eng

Thereasea Elder 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 on September 27, 1927. She was educated at Johnson C. Smith University, Lincoln Hospital (Durham, North Carolina) School of Nursing, Livingstone College, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and was employed as a nurse.

Thereasea Elder recounts her and her family's experiences living in Charlotte throughout the twentieth century, as well as her forty-five years as a nurse. Growing up in a segregated Charlotte, she describes life in the close-knit African American community and details the central role of the church and the focus on education within the community. Ms. Elder's medical career began at the white only Charlotte Memorial Hospital, and after earning her nursing degree she went to work at Good Samaritan Hospital, Charlotte's only medical facility for African Americans. She explains the disparities between the two and recounts the difficulties Good Samaritan's staff faced due to the scarcity of resources. Joining the Mecklenburg County Health Department as a public health nurse in 1962, Ms. Elder was part of the pilot program in the 1960s to integrate Charlotte's community health program. This led to her experiences working in the Paw Creek area, an economically disadvantaged white community. Describing the region as 'Klan country', she recounts the racism she faced from residents and how ultimately she and her fellow nurses were able to make the program a success, leading to the full integration of the health department. Ms. Elder discusses the integration of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system from the perspective of a parent whose two sons were bused to a formerly all-white school. She discusses her views on the limited success of integration and the current state of race relations in Charlotte, with particular attention to the role housing policy could have played in producing a more fully integrated Charlotte with improved health and educational outcomes for disadvantaged Charlotteans of all races.

MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV optimized production master file. Interview originally recorded on two minidiscs and digitized using a Digidesign 003 rack.

Public health nurses
Nurses

Elder, Thereasea D. Clark (Thereasea Delerine Clark), 1927-

Mecklenburg County (N.C.). Health Department
Good Samaritan Hospital (Charlotte, N.C.)
Charlotte Memorial Hospital (Charlotte, N.C.)
Ku Klux Klan (1915- )

African American nurses
Public health nursing
Health and race
Discrimination in medical care
Household employees
Housing
Race relations
Civil rights movements
Segregation
School integration

North Carolina--Charlotte

Interviews
Oral histories

1930-2000

Civil rights and desegregation in Charlotte

Living Charlotte : the postwar development of a New South city

Thereasea D. Elder papers, circa 1930-2014. J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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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

Thereasea Delerine Elder oral history interview 1, 1993 June 25, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://goldmine.uncc.edu/islandora/object/uncc%3A332); Thereasea Delerine Elder oral history interview 3, 2004 March 7, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Thereasea Delerine Elder oral history interview 4, 2004 March 19, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Thereasea D. Elder papers, circa 1930-2014, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/589)

OH-EL0055

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/uncc:69