The Edith Lomax Interview - July 19th, 2004

Edith Lomax was born in 1917, the daughter of Wellington C. and Fanny Lucinda Lomax.  She was the tenth of ten children, and was the granddaughter of Bishop Thomas H. Lomax. She attended Mt. Vernon (Rosenwald School) and Oaklawn High School in Lincoln County before receiving instruction at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, North Carolina. After college, Lomax moved to Newark, New Jersey and took a position with General Electric. She worked for GE for fourteen years before returning to North Carolina and attending Johnson C. Smith University.  She received a certificate to teach elementary education, and moved back to Lincoln County to teach at Newbold High School under G.E. Massey. She finished her teaching career at East Lincoln High School where she taught for 18 years.

Edith Lomax recalls growing up and working on a farm in eastern Lincoln County, and discusses various members of her family.  She tells about her early education and classmates, and other African-American families that lived and worked throughout Lincoln County.  She talks at length about the obstacles she faced as an African-American woman teaching in a segregated school system.

Click Here to view an HTML version of the transcript, listen to the interview recording or download the transcript in PDF format.

Photo Courtesy of Robert Hamilton

---

Narrator (Interviewee):  Lomax, Edith

Interviewers: Harpe, Jason; Easler, Stephanie; and Robert Hamilton           

Format: Audio Cassette (108.6 minutes)

Transriber: Easler, Stephanie           

Coverage: Lincoln County, North Carolina, early 1900s-2004

Subjects: Links Chapel Cemetery; Link Family; Slavery; Bishop Thomas Henry Lomax; Lomax Family; Andy Link; Occupations and education in Lincoln County’s African-American community; Growing up and farming in rural Lincoln County; Freemasonry – Lomax Lodge; Rosenwald schools; Plank Road and Highway 73; Freedom (black community in Lincolnton); Integration; and Black exodus from Lincoln County.