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Oral history interview with Robert R. Sampson, October 9, 2002 interview R-0182, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). Cover Image E-book

Oral history interview with Robert R. Sampson, October 9, 2002 interview R-0182, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Interview with Robert R. Sampson, October 9, 2002 (portion title)
Interview R-0182, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) (other title)
Sampson, Robert R. (interviewee). Hornsby-Gutting, Angela (interviewer). Southern Oral History Program. (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project) (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. (Added Author).

Summary: At the time of this interview, Robert Sampson was running a pharmacy on East Market Street in Greensboro, NC. Sampson describes how urban renewal in the late 1950s and early 1960s affected Greensboro's thriving black shopping district on Market Street. Sampson himself managed to stay ahead of redevelopment efforts, leaving areas destined for change for places he thought more secure. But most black businesspeople did not expect renewal efforts or see them as inevitable; as a result, they lost their businesses and often found it impossible to rebuild or relocate. While Sampson concedes that the dilapidated buildings on Market Street needed work, he suspects that the choice to seize and redevelop, rather than fund remodeling, was an effort by white Greensboro to dissolve a successful black business district. The effort worked, silencing a lively area and greatly damaging black businesses. This interview provides a look at a black business community's struggle to maintain its coherence in a changing economic climate.

Electronic resources

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Record details

  • Physical Description: electronic resource
    remote
    1 electronic resource
  • Edition: Electronic edition
  • Publisher: [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2007.

Content descriptions

General Note:
Duration: 00:45:17.
Interview participants: Robert R. Sampson, interviewee; Angela Hornsby, interviewer.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Title from menu page (viewed on June 13, 2008).
Type of Computer File or Data Note:
Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 92 kilobytes, 82.9 megabytes.
Original Version Note:
Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series R, Special research projects, interview R-0182, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Erin Baker. Original transcript: 21 p.
Funding Information Note:
Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.
System Details Note:
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
System requirements: Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.

Search for related items by subject

Subject:
Sampson, Robert R Interviews
African American businesspeople North Carolina Greensboro Interviews
African American neighborhoods North Carolina Greensboro
African American pharmacists North Carolina Greensboro Interviews
African Americans Commerce North Carolina Greensboro
African Americans North Carolina Greensboro Social life and customs
Segregation North Carolina Greensboro
Urban renewal North Carolina Greensboro
Greensboro (N.C.) Economic conditions
Genre:
Oral histories.
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