Item Information
Title
Interview with Sherdenia Dunn, class of 1967
Description
Interview with Sherdenia Dunn, class of 1967, describing her experience in an integrated school and the Valkyrie honor society. Performed by Omolade Wey.
Creator
PlayMaker’s Repertory Company in collaboration with the University Archives at Louis Round Wilson Library
Source
Interview with Sherdenia Thompson Dunn by Charlotte Eure, 7 April 2016 N-0045, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Series N: Undergraduate Internship Program, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04007N/
Date
2021
Language
English
Identifier
Transcription
(Introduction, for Resistance Resiliance): Interview with Sherdenia Dunn, class of 1967
The most important things I learned about being in an integrated school--my first integrated situation--was not only the attention of feeling like you’re the only Black in the class, but being a woman in a university that was basically and historically men. All men. A lot of the men, you could see, resented having women come into certain fields--business, accounting--oh, it was a lot of tension. They didn’t want to see you, a woman, in that field. Maybe they wouldn’t admit it, but I felt it keenly. But, what I did do at UNC, which is very important, was to seek out an international community, meet with foreign students, go to where it was the United Nations branch college level, went to the U.N. with that group more than once. It was very interesting to do that. Another thing was the YMCA. The YMCA, in those years, was like a--maybe it still is, but it was always open to all nationalities of people. People would flow through there, and you’d meet students from different countries. So, I made it a point to meet foreign students and to work with the international student club and got to meet other students
(Introduction for Social Life): Interview with Sherdenia Dunn, class of 1967
I was tapped into the Valkyrie. That was an unusual experience for me. It was the honor society. I didn’t have any idea what it was like. So, I was living at home as a town student, of course, because that’s the only way I could be attending UNC at that time. But, this experience was unusual. How would they tap me into that unless I was in a dorm?
So, the way it turned out, there was a student that I knew well, and she invited me to spend a night with her in a dorm. Now, that was very unusual. But, I was open-minded to do that. I hadn’t had any dorm experience. So, I said, “OK. I’ll spend a night with you in a dorm.” My parents agreed I could do it. I went to spend the night with her. Well, we were getting ready for bed, and all of a sudden, I had my hair in these large pink rollers. [Laughter] We were getting ready for bed and down the hall, comes this [Pause] banging and sounded like parade clanging and going on. They come to the door of the dorm room where I am, and they have this, I guess, a citation in their hand that they’re reading and saying they need to take me away, and I’m dressed in bedclothes, really, and rollers in my head. They’re going to take me away that night.
I didn’t have any idea what was going on. So, they did take me away, blindfolded me, took--I went away with them. My friend, there, “Don’t be afraid, Sherdenia. I’m going to be with you.” But, I had no idea what was going on. We were taken to, I later found out, was a church and put in a sleeping bag, slept on the floor the rest of the night. The next morning, early, at about five o’clock in the morning, they came for us again, took us to the top of the bell tower. I was hardly dressed for something like this. Again, we got this citation that you’re being tapped into the Valkyrie. It was really an honor, but what an experience to go through. Can you imagine this could have happened in my neighborhood? Could it have happened? No way. My neighbors would have thought the Ku Klux Klan had come after me. Really. It was so weird, but they did get it accomplished.
…
It’s like the Valkyries were women who helped people in need... That, that really became the motto of my life is to live like that. Not just for knowledge, education, but, really, for living.
The most important things I learned about being in an integrated school--my first integrated situation--was not only the attention of feeling like you’re the only Black in the class, but being a woman in a university that was basically and historically men. All men. A lot of the men, you could see, resented having women come into certain fields--business, accounting--oh, it was a lot of tension. They didn’t want to see you, a woman, in that field. Maybe they wouldn’t admit it, but I felt it keenly. But, what I did do at UNC, which is very important, was to seek out an international community, meet with foreign students, go to where it was the United Nations branch college level, went to the U.N. with that group more than once. It was very interesting to do that. Another thing was the YMCA. The YMCA, in those years, was like a--maybe it still is, but it was always open to all nationalities of people. People would flow through there, and you’d meet students from different countries. So, I made it a point to meet foreign students and to work with the international student club and got to meet other students
(Introduction for Social Life): Interview with Sherdenia Dunn, class of 1967
I was tapped into the Valkyrie. That was an unusual experience for me. It was the honor society. I didn’t have any idea what it was like. So, I was living at home as a town student, of course, because that’s the only way I could be attending UNC at that time. But, this experience was unusual. How would they tap me into that unless I was in a dorm?
So, the way it turned out, there was a student that I knew well, and she invited me to spend a night with her in a dorm. Now, that was very unusual. But, I was open-minded to do that. I hadn’t had any dorm experience. So, I said, “OK. I’ll spend a night with you in a dorm.” My parents agreed I could do it. I went to spend the night with her. Well, we were getting ready for bed, and all of a sudden, I had my hair in these large pink rollers. [Laughter] We were getting ready for bed and down the hall, comes this [Pause] banging and sounded like parade clanging and going on. They come to the door of the dorm room where I am, and they have this, I guess, a citation in their hand that they’re reading and saying they need to take me away, and I’m dressed in bedclothes, really, and rollers in my head. They’re going to take me away that night.
I didn’t have any idea what was going on. So, they did take me away, blindfolded me, took--I went away with them. My friend, there, “Don’t be afraid, Sherdenia. I’m going to be with you.” But, I had no idea what was going on. We were taken to, I later found out, was a church and put in a sleeping bag, slept on the floor the rest of the night. The next morning, early, at about five o’clock in the morning, they came for us again, took us to the top of the bell tower. I was hardly dressed for something like this. Again, we got this citation that you’re being tapped into the Valkyrie. It was really an honor, but what an experience to go through. Can you imagine this could have happened in my neighborhood? Could it have happened? No way. My neighbors would have thought the Ku Klux Klan had come after me. Really. It was so weird, but they did get it accomplished.
…
It’s like the Valkyries were women who helped people in need... That, that really became the motto of my life is to live like that. Not just for knowledge, education, but, really, for living.