My family owned that building. E. A. Brown and later, Madeline Brown Wheless. I graduated from Chapel Hill High, 1966. It was the 1st year we were integrated. I had one young man in one class. Both his name and the class are forgotten now. (Names were never my forte!) I never knew about the sit in at the Colonial Store, until very recently. Thank you. I have Blackwood, Cheek, LLoyd and King relatives that settled Orange County. That was on the maternal side. My paternal side were in Edgecomb, and Nash counties in eastern NC. Rocky Mount. I have figured we had a few enslaved people and I have done some research. It is not easy work, emotionally or otherwise. Thank you for your journalism that helps us realize more about the past.
E A Brown had a furniture store on Rosemary St. beside the police station. He passed away in 1970. A police person hit him in 1969, I think. It was he was at the corner of Columbia and Rosemary. He never fully recovered. He served everyone in the Orange and surrounding counties, as far as I can remember. He was a staunch Republican. How I ended up Liberal/centrist Democrat, I don't know. I was taught to be polite and respectful of everyone. We lived in Chapel Hill, but were not part of the University. My father worked for my grandfather Brown and later in the dentistry photo lab. I learned to swim in the University pool at four years old. I vividly remember crossing the pool on my own at four. My Grandmother Brown did sewing for the athletic department in an un-air conditioned room near the pool in the early 1950's. She and my grandfather separated in the 1920's, an almost unheard of event. She raised two children on her own. I rode the town bus with Granny and understood negro people sat toward the back and we sat just in front of them. Never right up front. I "knew" they were supposed to be different from us. But, I never comprehended WHY! I also "knew" not to ask questions. Because we were not part of the University, we were also on the edge of Chapel Hill proper, so considered different. Maybe that helped me become who I am. Pam Wheless Patterson
Thank you for sharing. Interrogating our complicated pasts -- both collective and individual -- is difficult but needed. As a descendant of local Lloyds and Kings here, you might be interested in this, which is also hard history. (And of course there were many Lloyds and Kings so might not have been your kin.) http://www.occrcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/MANLY-McCAULEY-PAPER-OCCRC-2.pdf
My family owned that building. E. A. Brown and later, Madeline Brown Wheless. I graduated from Chapel Hill High, 1966. It was the 1st year we were integrated. I had one young man in one class. Both his name and the class are forgotten now. (Names were never my forte!) I never knew about the sit in at the Colonial Store, until very recently. Thank you. I have Blackwood, Cheek, LLoyd and King relatives that settled Orange County. That was on the maternal side. My paternal side were in Edgecomb, and Nash counties in eastern NC. Rocky Mount. I have figured we had a few enslaved people and I have done some research. It is not easy work, emotionally or otherwise. Thank you for your journalism that helps us realize more about the past.
E A Brown had a furniture store on Rosemary St. beside the police station. He passed away in 1970. A police person hit him in 1969, I think. It was he was at the corner of Columbia and Rosemary. He never fully recovered. He served everyone in the Orange and surrounding counties, as far as I can remember. He was a staunch Republican. How I ended up Liberal/centrist Democrat, I don't know. I was taught to be polite and respectful of everyone. We lived in Chapel Hill, but were not part of the University. My father worked for my grandfather Brown and later in the dentistry photo lab. I learned to swim in the University pool at four years old. I vividly remember crossing the pool on my own at four. My Grandmother Brown did sewing for the athletic department in an un-air conditioned room near the pool in the early 1950's. She and my grandfather separated in the 1920's, an almost unheard of event. She raised two children on her own. I rode the town bus with Granny and understood negro people sat toward the back and we sat just in front of them. Never right up front. I "knew" they were supposed to be different from us. But, I never comprehended WHY! I also "knew" not to ask questions. Because we were not part of the University, we were also on the edge of Chapel Hill proper, so considered different. Maybe that helped me become who I am. Pam Wheless Patterson
Thank you for sharing. Interrogating our complicated pasts -- both collective and individual -- is difficult but needed. As a descendant of local Lloyds and Kings here, you might be interested in this, which is also hard history. (And of course there were many Lloyds and Kings so might not have been your kin.) http://www.occrcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/MANLY-McCAULEY-PAPER-OCCRC-2.pdf