Ackland Art Museum security guard recalls civil rights-era Chapel Hill

James Britt has seen the town change in many ways since growing up in civil rights-era Chapel Hill.

The landscape has changed. His relationship with residents and business owners has changed. The way he buys food has changed.

But one thing that has stayed the same is the Ackland Art Museum, where Britt, 59, used to visit on field trips as a student at Chapel Hill Junior High. He has worked as a security guard at the museum since 2003.

Britt entered the junior high as a seventh grader in 1962, three years after the school system began integrating and eight years after the measure was called for by the U.S. Supreme Court. He was one of about six black students who joined the school system that year.

Now Britt watches the museum Wednesday through Sunday for about 40 hours a week. He ensures the art is safe and interacts with visitors and students touring the museum.

“He seems to know every piece and where it is,” said Renee Luberoff, who has been a gallery teacher for seven years.

Britt said his favorite painting is “Mending Socks” by Archibald J. Motley Jr., which is currently on display. The work depicts an elderly woman repairing holes in her socks.

“The lady in the painting actually reminds me of my grandmother and my great-grandmother,” Britt said. “She sure looks like she could be family. But it also reminds me of, you know, the old days.”

Those old days include the civil rights movement in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, where Britt has lived nearly his entire life.

“There’s no way to not remember the marches and the singing,” he said.

When he was about 12 years old, Britt saw Martin Luther King Jr. speak in Chapel Hill.

“Even as a youngster, that was quite impressive,” he said. “I was awestruck. There was no way not to be paying attention.”

But his most vivid memories are those of attending the newly integrated schools.

Near the beginning of seventh grade, a white classmate asked to touch his hand — his father told him the black would rub off, Britt said. The boy was surprised this wasn’t true.

“He was fine after that, and we actually got to be real good buddies,” Britt said.

Not every classmate was as accepting. Britt chose not to sit in the back of the classroom with the other black students, even though it was the “safest place.”

“I would actually sit real close to the front. I could hear. I could see, and I just kind of took my chances from whoever was going to throw something from behind,” he said.

These projectiles included spitballs, wads of paper and books, he said.

But Britt has since befriended many former classmates, whom he saw in the carpool line as he picked his daughter up from school.

 “We learn that our kids know each other and relate,” he said. “It’s really cool. It’s progress ­— it makes you feel better.”



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