Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 1384
Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 700
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 707
Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 700
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/davidso9/davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/classes/shd.class.php on line 707
The Archives recently digitized over two dozen oral history cassette tapes to improve access to our collections as part of the three-year, campus-wide Justice, Equality, Community grant at Davidson College. This decision also helps ensure the long-term viability of these unique narratives so critical for understanding change in our local communities.
With accessibility in mind, we then sent several of the digitized recordings to the Audio Transcription Center – making these interviews both browsable and screen-reader compatible. While editing the transcripts for accuracy and spelling errors, we identified multiple connecting themes and topics. One of these subjects featured prominently in all five interviews – the evolving character of downtown Davidson.
In this first post, we will highlight how two of our five narrators addressed the history of and changes to the businesses and churches near downtown Davidson between the early 1930s and early 2000s. You will find excerpts from their interviews alongside other archival materials related to each topic. Our first narrator, Patricia Sailstad, offers insight on the Lingle Hut, a local historic landmark. Our second narrators, E.M. and Dolly Hicks, shed light on labor relations in the South through the lens of the Davidson Cotton Mill, now known as the Hurt Hub.
On the Lingle Hut:
AUDIO 107: Interview with Patricia Sailstad, April 1997
![Patricia Sailstad: And I remember the first time we ever had an integrated World Day of Prayer, and I went with Ms. Maude, and it was over at the little Methodist Church that has the log cabin next to it. Oh, gosh. Well, it’s…this is not the black church there. This is the one behind it. It was a white church at the time. But they decided they would have refreshments.
And actually, this was... But it was the first time they’d had black and white together, and after the ceremony we went to their little log cabin, which was right next to it. You’ll see the church; it’s a Methodist church, I think. Now it is a [00:40:00] black church, but it was white at the time. And so there we were (inaudible) standing up. We weren’t sitting down, eating. And Ms. Maude said, “You know, Mrs. Sailstad.” She looked around at the black and the white together, all chatting. She said, “I think this is what heaven must be like.” [Pages 23 – 24]](https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/aroundthed/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/05/transcript_audio107_sailstad.jpg)
On the Davidson Cotton Mill:
AUDIO 150: Interview with E.M. Hicks and Dolly Hicks, September 18, 2000
![¬¬Dolly Hicks: At one time we had a union that picketed, trying to get the union in at the old Davidson Cotton Mill…I remember from down the street cars just -- But we weren’t allowed up there because there was trouble going on up there -- Up at the mill, so you can see it from right where -- back then it looked like a hundred miles, but it’s only, [00:30:00] what, not very far at all, half a block. (laughs) But they did have some over there. Now, [Beatrice?] might could tell you more about that -- but I remember it very distinctly, because we were not very young at that point…’cause I was born in ’25. It would probably be in the early ’30s…But the union or something came in, something they were doing up there, and there was cars, and seems like somebody got hurt.
E.M. Hicks: They had the flying [00:31:00] squadron. Had a flying squadron came out of the North, and they were coming down through the South, and they were going to organize the South. And so they came through Greensboro. Now, this would have been the ’30s. And they came through Greensboro, because Cone Mills was in Greensboro, and we were out -- I lived close to Cone Mills. And this flying squadron came down there, and I remember very well -- you know, it was different back in those days. I was freer to get out and go where I wanted to than most kids my age. And so I wanted to see what was going on. I went out to Cone Mills, [00:32:00] and I could walk out there easily. And I got out there, and the cops wouldn’t let me -- get close. They kept me back. But in those days the cops wore leather leggings. And so these people who were fighting the cops, some of them were the employees, see, and the others were imports, and they’d take an apple and stick a razor blade down in it, you know, and then if you take your fingers and put it on the wrong side of the razor blade so it would be [toward it?], and throw that thing, and when it would hit these guys on the legs, it cut their [00:33:00] leggings. It cut their leggings. It was rough. I mean, it was kind of tough. But anyhow, the cops won, and they left Greensboro, came on down this way. They got to Gastonia. That’s where the big one was. You can find that on the record, because they had machine guns up on the buildings, and they were sitting up there with machine guns. [Pages 66 – 70]](https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/aroundthed/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/05/transcript_audio150_hicks.jpg)
In part 2 of 2 of this blog post series, we will provide another look at the Lingle Hut, culture surrounding the cotton mills, downtown eateries, and a devastating fire.
For more information about any of these resources, contact us at archives@davidson.edu.
Works Cited:
Sailstad, Patricia. Interview by Jim Smith, Heather Baker, John Thornberry. April 1997. “Common Ground Oral History Project.” Audiotape Collection 107. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC.
Hicks, E.M. and Dolly Hicks. Interview by Jan Blodgett. September 18, 2000. “Oral History Interview.” Audiotape Collection 150. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC.
Speak Your Mind