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Title
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Benjamin F. Wyant Jr. oral history interview, 1994 November 2
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Interviewee
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Wyant, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Frank), Jr., 1920-1998
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Interviewer
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Williams, Paul S.
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Place of Publication
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Charlotte, North Carolina
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Publisher
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J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Date of Interview
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1994-11-02
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Physical Description
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1 audio file (49:16) : digital, MP3
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Object Type
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Audio
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Genre
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spoken word
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Language
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eng
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Interviewee Biography
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Benjamin F. Wyant Jr. was a 73-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place in his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1920. He graduated from Berryhill High School, and was employed as an engineer and a properties manager at Duke Power.
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Abstract
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Benjamin F. Wyant, Jr. recounts his memories of growing up in the Charlotte neighborhood of Dilworth and of his forty-three year career at Duke Power Company. In particular, he recalls working as a boy at his father's family business during the challenging economic times of the Great Depression. Mr. Wyant also discusses how Duke Power's workplace environment evolved over his career, explaining that the changes affected not only their customer service philosophy and the mechanics of their operations, but also employee relations as the company became racially integrated during the 1960s. Additionally, he shares his opinion that Charlotte politicians, party platforms, and voters moved to the left as veterans, who were exposed to European values during the Second World War, returned home with more sophisticated political views. Mr. Wyant states that the Democratic party has changed, but not his own political ideologies, specifically explaining that he remained committed to his belief in old Democratic ideals in spite of what he saw as the great influx of liberalism that spread throughout Charlotte.
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Digital Object Notes
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MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master. Interview originally recorded on analog audio cassette and digitized using a Digidesign 003 rack.
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Subjects--Names
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Wyant, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Frank), Jr., 1920-1998
Duke, James Buchanan, 1856-1925
Thurmond, Strom, 1902-2003
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Subjects--Organizations
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Duke Power Company
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Subjects--Topics
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Executives
Engineers
Depressions
African Americans--Employment
Industrial relations
Political and social views
Political parties
Segregation
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Subjects--Geographic
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North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Charlotte--Dilworth
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Subjects--Genre
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Interviews
Oral histories
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Coverage--Dates
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1920-2000
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Digital Collection Title
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David Goldfield student project on change in the Charlotte region
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Digital Project Title
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Living Charlotte : the postwar development of a New South city
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Rights
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The materials included on this web site are freely available for private study, scholarship or non-commercial research under the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code). Any use beyond the provisions of fair use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication, broadcast, redistribution or mounting on another web site always require prior written permission and may also be subject to additional restrictions and fees. UNC Charlotte does not hold literary rights to all materials in its collections and the researcher is responsible for securing those rights when needed. Copyright information for specific collections is available upon request.
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Grant Information
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Digitization made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
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Internet Media Type
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audio/mpeg
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Identifier
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GF-WY0224
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Handle URL
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/uncc:286