Cynthia Roddey oral history interview, 2004 May 17

Dr. Cynthia Roddey describes her education in Rock Hill, South Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina and her experiences as a teacher after graduation. She attended segregated schools during the 1950s, including Biddleville Elementary and Immanuel Lutheran College for high school. She describes attending college at Johnson C. Smith University and Winthrop University from 1964-1967, where she was one of the first African American graduate students to attend. She also recalls participating in sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement in Charlotte. Dr. Roddey describes her experiences teaching in both segregated and integrated schools in the Charlotte area, and compares the education of her youth with high schools that she taught in around the time of interview. She shares her opinion that African Americans gained access to new opportunities through integration, but they lost some of their rich heritage and traditions in education at the same time.