Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and De Kirkpatrick on the Legacy of Slavery in Mecklenburg County
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- Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and H.D. Kirkpatrick oral history interview 1, 2017 October 6
- In this first of four related interviews, Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and H.D. Kirkpatrick discuss their disparate experiences growing up and attending school in segregated Charlotte, North Carolina during the 1950s and 1960s. Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick talks about Grier Town (now Grier Heights), a community created by former enslaved persons including his great-great-grandfather James McVay. He discusses the history of the McVay family in some depth, describing their participation in the Northern Migration from Chester County, South Carolina to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina after the Civil War. H.D. Kirkpatrick describes growing up in the Dilworth neighborhood on land that had previously been his grandfather's dairy farm, Kirkwood Dairy, which had earlier been part of a much larger plantation belonging to his family. Both his parents owned businesses, including a restaurant called the Kirkwood Room, which his mother ran from their home. and he describes the diversity of the people who worked there and his own experience working there as a teenager. Both Kirkpatricks discuss their exposure to racism at home, at school and in church, and their personal experiences of the Civil Rights Movement. H.D. Kirkpatrick describes how the Vietnam War awakened him to racial injustice. The interview concludes with recollections of Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick's experiences playing football at Myers Park High School, levels of acceptance within the team, his continuing relations with his Second Ward friends and their outlook on his situation playing on a mostly white team, and the controversy over nominations for the 1965 Shrine Bowl game when Jimmie Lee was passed over to represent North Carolina despite his stellar record. Both Kirkpatricks discuss local reactions to the Shrine Bowl debacle, including the lawsuit brought against the Shrine Bowl organization by civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers, the bombing of three local civil rights activists' houses that followed, and how these events were perceived locally., Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick was a 69-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1948. He was educated at Myers Park High School, Purdue University, and Oregon State University and was employed as a teacher and high school administrator for 25 years. Hugh DeArmond Kirkpatrick III (H.D., De) was a 68-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1948. He was educated at Myers Park High School, Harvard University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Saybrook University and was employed as an author, clinical and forensic psychologist since 1976., 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.
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- Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and H.D. Kirkpatrick oral history interview 2, 2017 October 10
- In this second of four related interviews with Jimmie Lee and H.D. Kirkpatrick, Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick discusses his eventful life after graduating from Myers Park High School in 1965. He describes how he attended Purdue University, where he continued to struggle with racism and white social norms that he had encountered in high school. Although he discovered a passion for music, performed in a successful band, and successfully agitated to reform college life for African American students at Purdue, Mr. Kirkpatrick also lost his enthusiasm for football after a career-changing knee injury, and became disillusioned with college life and society in general. He describes how he decided to drop out of college and move to San Francisco, California to learn more about himself and society. In California, Mr. Kirkpatrick experienced homelessness as well as communal living and political activism, and his connections within hippy culture led him to Portland and Tillamook, Oregon, where he worked in the logging industry. Mr. Kirkpatrick describes his experience when he was drafted to go to Vietnam, and how he narrowly avoided the draft by getting a deferment from his doctor for his injured knee. He reflects on his growing interest in teaching at this time, which led to his decision to resume his own education. In 1977, he finished his masters degree in education and became a teacher in Portland, Oregon. As a teacher he was often called upon to handle racial integration in the Portland Public Schools, which led him to reflect on his own family origins and research his genealogy. In 2013, Mr. Kirkpatrick was contacted by Gary Schwab, an editor for the Charlotte Observer, who was writing articles about the 1965 Shrine Bowl controversy during which Mr. Kirkpatrick was passed over to compete for North Carolina. Mr. Kirkpatrick reflects on his central role in this controversy, and the way he handled the situation at the time. The interview concludes with H. D. Kirkpatrick describing how he was impressed by the Observer articles, and how he reached out to Mr. Schwab to connect him with his former classmate, from which began an extraordinary journey of discovering a shared family history. In the next interview Jimmie Lee and H.D. Kirkpatrick describe how their relationship has developed over several years.
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- Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and H.D. Kirkpatrick oral history interview 3, 2017 October 23
- In this third of four related interviews,, H.D. Kirkpatrick and Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick continue to discuss their relationship as it developed after their revelation that their family histories are connected through slavery in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. They describe how they started to give presentations about their family stories to public groups starting in 2013 and the various reactions they experienced at different venues in the Charlotte area. While the audiences have reacted positively, Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick recalls some of his relatives' difficulty understanding why he would talk about his family's history in slavery. H.D. Kirkpatrick explains the amnesia that white people have concerning slavery in the United States and their resistance to discussing or learning more about slavery, particularly in their own family histories. Both H.D. and Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick talk about their conviction that education and discussion about slavery and race provide a way to cleanse the country of the emotional and psychological trauma imposed by the system. Both men also discuss how Charlotte as a city has changed since their youth in the 1950s and 1960s. Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick reflects on demonstrations in Charlotte following the killing of Keith Lamont Scott in 2016, and notes that he believes this would not have happened when he was a boy. In general the Kirkpatricks show optimism for Charlotte's future and recognize that people are working together to try and solve the community's problems.
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- H.D. Kirkpatrick oral history interview, 2017 November 17
- In this fourth and final recording in a series of interviews with Jimmie Lee and H.D. Kirkpatrick, H.D. Kirkpatrick reflects on his family, his life experiences, and his shifting perspective on family and Southern history. Dr. Kirkpatrick describes how he was raised on land adjacent to Park Road, (once Avondale Avenue), an area that is now part of the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte. He explains that the land had once been his grandfather's farm, Kirkwood Dairy, and that he had always understood that his ancestors were innovative dairy farmers. He describes how other relations owned similar farms in what became the Southpark area of Mecklenburg County, and that through his research he has established that his ancestors once owned as many as eight or nine plantations in Southern Mecklenburg. In particular Dr. Kirkpatrick discusses his fourth great grandfather, John Kirkpatrick who settled in the area in the 1760s after emigrating from Ireland, and who was a founding member of Sardis Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church. Dr. Kirkpatrick discusses his ancestors' slave ownership, and how his great uncle, Charlotte mayor Thomas Leroy Kirkpatrick, embraced white supremacy. He reflects that during his childhood and adolescence he felt a tension between his life experiences, and the attitudes he encountered in his family church, Chalmers Memorial ARP Church. He discusses working for his mother's businesses, Kirkwood Catering and the Kirkwood Room restaurant, (the latter of which was based in his family's basement). Although Dr. Kirkpatrick found this experience to be arduous and intrusive of family life, it also gave him a window into a diverse world since he became closely acquainted with the employees, including African Americans and immigrants from Canada and Eastern Europe. He explains how attending his family church where he encountered intolerance, and working for his mother's businesses made him aware of segregation and racism. Dr. Kirkpatrick also talks about his student days at Harvard University and the prejudice he personally encountered there, how he became “radicalized” by protesting the Vietnam War, and his experiences working and studying in Charlotte and Berkeley, California where he earned multiple postgraduate degrees, including an MA in education and a PhD in Humanistic Psychology. At the end of the interview Dr. Kirkpatrick anticipates the work that he and Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick are launching to take their personal journey exploring the social and psychological effects of slavery to the public.