Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Sewanee: The University of the South

Interview with Gladys Knox; an one-time event with a Davidson College employee

An interview with Gladys Knox revealed details about her childhood, education, and experiences with work environments. She has ten siblings including herself. At the time of the interview, her daughter and grandson worked at Davidson College. The interviewer, Drew Cardwell, was a hardworking individual and class of 2013 graduate. As part of a oral history course project, Cardwell interviewed Gladys Knox in Union Café on October 24, 2012.
Gladys was born in Mooresville, NC, Iredell County. She grew up with both parents. Her mother did not finish high school. She dropped out in eleventh grade. Her mother died recently in 2023 with Alzheimer’s disease. She was raised by her grandparents who were not formally educated but taught her more than what she learned in high school.
She attended the all-black school, Dunbar Elementary School. Before school, she recalled how she would have to pick cotton some days. Sometimes, this work would cause her to miss school. Knox stressed how she did not see color. She had white neighbors whom she would help them pick cotton and occasionally, go fishing with them. Gladys is a very caring person and loved to talk to people, she met no strangers. Due to realities of growing up in later years of Jim Crow era, her grandfather did not let her go to stores or restaurants. He feared for her safety and possible exposure to the intense racial climate. Although she never felt discriminated against, Knox always got along with everyone. She worked at a variety of jobs, including Mooresville Hospital, Shoney’s, and Davidson College for 8 years before she retired.

Commemorative Events

October 24, 2012

2000-Present: Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement

Davidson College; Davidson, North Carolina

Union Café

Knox, Gladys L.

Davidson College; Davidson, North Carolina

Interview with Gladys Knox, 2012, in Interviews with Davidson College Staff, Fall Semester 2012, Oral history interviews of EDU 340- Education in African American Society (RG 19), Archives and Special Collections, Davidson College, Davidson, NC.

Faculty and Staff Directory (Davidson, NC), 2008-2009, 62.

Davidson College, Quips and Cranks (Davidson, NC), 2013, 55.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020.