Interview with Damita Wilder

Interview with Damita Wilder

African American churches

African American schools

African American women clergy

African Americans

African Americans -- Religion

African Americans -- Social conditions

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

Autobiography

Cemeteries

Community organizations

North Carolina, Western -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century

Race discrimination

Segregation

Wilder, Damita, 1953- -- Interviews

Lucy Dillard interviews Damita Wilder on October 27, 2004 for the Western North Carolina Oral History Project. Born February 5, 1953 in Smithfield, North Carolina, Wilder became the preacher for AME Mount Zion Church in Cullowhee in 1998. She talks about her path to becoming a pastor, the challenges she faces, including being a female pastor, at AME Mount Zion, and the rolls she plays within the church, and the role the church plays within the community. She also discusses the history of AME Mount Zion including the relocation of the church and cemetery to make room for the growing Western Carolina Teachers College, the history of the surrounding area, and of the changes in membership throughout the years. Wilder discusses schooling options in the area, integration, and civil rights, specifically as she witnessed it living in Asheville.

Wilder, Damita, 1953-

Western North Carolina Oral History Project Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1920s; 1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s (Decade);

2004-10-27

Dillard, Lucy

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

application/pdf; audio/mp3;

sound recordings

interviews

transcripts

eng

Sound

Text

36312

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/36312

2020-08-20

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Special Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723;

Buncombe County (N.C.)

Jackson County (N.C.)

North Carolina, Western

Cullowhee (N.C.)

01:15:54 (sound recording)(duration)

18 pages (transcript)(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina