Thena Norman Interview [1 of 5], July 19, 2018

00:00:49 Background Information: Participant’s mother was a domestic worker and father was mechanic; Father was the longest serving General Motor employee (70 years); Mother born in 1922; Father born 1909; Father’s grandmother was a slave in Okalia, Florida; Mother from Greenville, Florida.|00:03:45 Participant Educational Background: Participant did not graduate from high school, she was one of the early college entrance program. She turned 17 when she went to college in 1962; She received full tuition scholarship at Fisk University and worked in the biology lab; She attended Fisk University 1962-1966; Attended Perdue University in 1966-1968; Studied cellular molecular biology.|00:06:27 Participant Career at Center for Disease Control (CDC) : After Perdue University, she was offered a job at the Center for Disease Control (CDC); CDC job brought her to Atlanta. She worked there for 37 years.|00:09:05 Move to Atlanta: Participant moved to Gordon Road (now Martin Luther King) first before moving to Cascade area for a year;she got married, she moved across from Johnny White Park; moved to several places within the Cascade area; moved to Mill Acres in 1970; moved to Willis Mill Road in 1975.|00:10:43 Cascade in 1970s: Participant recalls the neighborhood being in transition when she moved in the neighborhood. She calls it a ‘rapid transition’; recalls white neighbors having signs with ‘This is Our Home, it is not for sale’- they moved anyway; believes that the white neighbors were fearful of difference, causing them to move out of the Cascade area.|00:12:38 Reasons for moving to Cascade: Participant said it was ‘her comfort zone’, that caused her to move to the Cascade area; growing up, the participant always felt like the ‘token’ black child, but she felt more comfortable around other black persons; speaks of her experiences with racism prior to coming to Atlanta; moved to Gordon Road with a lab partner who attended Atlanta University at the time; heard that Cascade was the place where black persons ‘with means and authority’ lived. That was understood before she moved to Cascade; mentioned that when she told others where she lived, there was a positive reaction. She realized that even a white colleague had positive things to say about the Cascade area.|00:16:49 Description of Home: Participant calls her home ‘different’ because of the architecture; bought the 1-acre land before they built their home. An architect modeled the home. They have a little more than a 2-acre lot now; describes her house as an octagon shape.|00:19:50 Buying Land Beside home: Participant said the lot came for sale, so she bought it to avoid anyone building beside her home; she and her husband bought the lot in 1991; has lived in the house for 43 years.|00:21:17 Hoosier Methodist: Participant mentioned how Hoosier Methodist Church on Cascade was still white even after the neighborhood transitioned to white; the white pastor still lived in the area by the church but did not stay in the area; black congregation bought the church, so it’s now black. But there were still white persons who would come to the church.