Interview with Matthew Bacoate

Interview with Matthew Bacoate

African Americans -- Migrations

Asheville (N.C.) -- Race relations

Bacoate, Matthew

Bowling

Business enterprises

Civil Rights movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century

Korean War, 1950-1953

Political activists

Public housing

Segregation

Urban renewal -- North Carolina -- Asheville

Veterans -- United States

Matthew Bacoate discusses his family and life in Asheville in the 1930s and ‘40s, his experiences in the military during the Korean War, and the development of his strong work ethic and sense of self accountability. After returning to Asheville from Japan, he convinced his employers at the Starlight Bowling Alley, a whites-only establishment at the time, to let him host an after-hours bowling night for African Americans. When this weekly event led to a serendipitous integration, he leveraged his position at the bowling alley, as well as his position as a mail clerk at the Chamber of Commerce, to initiate racial integration among all of Asheville’s businesses. Additionally, Bacoate recalls urban renewal in Asheville, and some of the community activists who were vocally against it, including Susie Smith and Tallulah Rogers.

Bacoate, Matthew

WCU Oral History Collection - Introduction to Oral History

2022-03-12

Cadmus, Emily

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

mp3

sound recordings

interviews

personal narratives

Sound

64263

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/64263

Asheville (N.C.)

North Carolina, Western

Buncombe County (N.C.)

3:14:20(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina