1976 - Bernadette Turner

Interviewed by Liisa Ogburn on May 28, 2013

Bernadette has lived at 10 N. Bloodworth Street since 1976, when she first moved there with her parents and five siblings.

To hear an excerpt from Liisa’s conversation with Bernadette, click the play button.

My parents… they never looked at themselves as not able to achieve. They always felt that if you put your effort into it… You do have to work hard sometimes. Sometimes you have to work harder than you want to. But that’s just the nature of trying to accomplish the things that you think are worthy of being accomplished, the things you want to see accomplished.

My father was the first black at-large city council member. My mother started the Raleigh Chapter of the National Urban League. When I retired from teaching in the Criminal Justice program at Shaw to take care of my mother, they were still holding their meetings over there. They invested in this house here and the house next door and the house behind it as well.

Everybody needs to be anchored and my parents are my anchor. That’s a wonderful thing. To have this sense of knowing where you want to go and how to get there. When I close my eyes for good, I want it said at my service that I honored my parents. That would mean so much.