Interview with C. Vanessa Baxter [electronic resource] 2004 December 21 / interviewer: Mary Metzger ; transcriber: Michele Greer.

ArchivalResource

Baxter, C. Vanessa, 1954-2007. Interview with C. Vanessa Baxter [electronic resource] 2004 December 21 / interviewer: Mary Metzger ; transcriber: Michele Greer.

Interview with C. Vanessa Baxter [electronic resource] 2004 December 21 / interviewer: Mary Metzger ; transcriber: Michele Greer.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/605973179

Ms Vanessa Baxter begins the description of her Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools experience with the emphasis that good behavior was always expected. She thinks that all of her teachers were influential and specifies several of them by name. She has happy memories of her elementary years at Morgan, although the school did not receive the same attention as the whites-only schools. When questions about white teachers, she does not recall any white teachers at African American schools, even after the Brown v the Board of Education ruling. Her elementary schools teachers anticipated Ms Baxter and her friends having to attend white schools and try to prepare them for the problems they would face. Ms Baxter remembers the students at Sedgefield Junior High School as being very friendly and their parents accepting. Again, she has fond memories of her Sedgefield teachers. Ms Baxter began studying violin at Morgan and proudly describes her experience on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Junior Symphony Orchestra, one of the city's biggest integration attempts at the time. Her worst school experience was when she had to attend Harding High School. The Board of Education had mandated that if African American students been on various teams, groups, etc. at Second Ward, they had to be on the team/group at Harding. They were not well accepted. The principal, Dr. Kenneth England, was believed by many to be a racist and gave all African American students a difficult time, often in hopes of suspending them. Ms Baxter and a friend, Melvin Walton (younger brother of future Board of Commissioner Bob Walton), determined that they had qualified for the National Honor Society, but England undermined their induction. Ms Baxter forced his hand and they were inducted at a Black History Month program. Afterwords, the white students and police were waiting and Baxter describes the ensuing riot. Dr. Kathleen Crosby was brought in to mediate. The principal threatened to expel Ms Baxter, although she states the issue was quickly dropped when her mother contact lawyer Julius Chambers. Another event Ms Baxter remembers vividly of her and Melvin Walton being accepted into the foreign exchange student program. She was scheduled to go to Oslo, Norway, but describes how plans quickly changed. When deciding on a college, Ms Baxter remembers not wanting to be involved in the fighting which filled her high school years. Although recruited by UNC Chapel Hill and Vassar, she says she happily chose Howard University.

University of North Carolina, Charlotte, J. Murrey Atkins Library