On October 9, 2018, the principals and administrators of the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools visited the Jackson Center to learn more about our educational workshops on local civil rights history. They were introduced to our Freedom Walk workshop, starting out at the Freedom Fighters Gateway, then heading to Hargraves Center where they learned about the Navy B1 Band and life in segregated Chapel Hill from civil rights movement veteran, Clementine Self, whose photo hangs in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC (see below). 

Principals made their own freedom signs, then marched down Roberson to the front steps of St. Joseph’s CME Church, launching ground of the Chapel Hill freedom movement (see below). As Reverend Robert Campbell, who grew up in Northside, once said: “You can stand on the side of the church or you can stand in the back of the church. But if you really want to make white people nervous, you gather in front of the church!” The workshop concluded with an old freedom song:

Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around.

Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around. 

I’m gonna keep on walking, keep on talking, marching down freedom way.