On September 29, 2021 the Buncombe County Library system celebrates the 60th anniversary of integration. The 828 Digital Archives for Historical Equity Project has been working closely with Buncombe County Special Collections to digitize documents from the Asheville-Buncombe Library Collection and research the history of segregation and integration in the libraries in order to commemorate
This summer, Buncombe County Special Collections was lucky enough to host three student interns; two who worked directly in Special Collections, Nancy and Zoe, and a third, Corrina, who worked with a local community organization, but spent most of her time in the archives. The internship was facilitated by the City of Asheville Youth Leadership
MS338 The North Carolina Room staff joined with North Asheville Branch Library to begin our first community-drive history project based through a Buncombe County Library Branch. Classes were held at Pack Library to instruct interested volunteers on how to interview. To date, 43 oral interviews have been taken and all transcriptions of the interviews can
MS362.004 Zoe Rhine, North Carolina Room librarian, began researching the faculty of Stephens-Lee High School in 2017 with the goal of gathering more information about the faculty’s educational attainments, what and how they were able to continue master’s degree programs, what schools they attended, as well as what happened to the teachers after the integration
MS362.002 Following the North Carolina Room’s Roundtable Discussion on May 18, 2017 at the Wesley Grant Center (described below), oral interviews began taking place with various residents of Asheville’s black communities. The focus is on present or past residents of Southside neighborhood, but also includes residents of other neighborhoods, such as Shiloh, Stumptown, Montford and
MS326 The North Carolina Room staff joined with Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College History instructor David Dry to begin a project for A-B Tech students to interview gay community members in Asheville. Mr. Dry included oral history projects in the curriculum, but the subjects were usually limited to family members. Looking for a way to give
Above are two views of Mount Pisgah and the Rat with floral gardens in the foreground. One is from Lake Ashnoca and the other is from the grounds of Asheville School. Lake Ashnoca has long been drained. It was also on the grounds of Asheville School. Both views have colorful, summer blooms in the foregrounds.