Excerpts from correspondence by Bernice Otudeko with Vic Schoenbach

11/15/2015: "I want to correct the error that credits another person for being the first black soloist at UNC- Chapel Hill and the area. It is amazing how errors in history can occur. I guess it might be connected to the flooding that destroyed programs and records at Hill Hall that the man mentioned.

"I was probably the first black female to get a Public Health degree. The first black under graduate female graduate was 1965 and I got my graduate degree in 1966. I think the first blacks that got a Public Health degrees before me were all men."

. . .

"A cousin of mine was the original lead engineer for the new Levi Stadium in Santa Clara California for the S.F. Forty-Niners.

"Due to resistance against the ball park by some of the people, the city put it on the ballot and it won. The project was delayed a few years. Plus, San Francisco was still fighting to get a new football stadium built in SF to keep the team there. But, my cousin decided he was tired of being away from home on big projects for Turner Construction and left to work for a local engineering company near his home. He  still has to travel to guide the construction of power plants as far away as the middle east, but he dooes not have to stay until a project is completed, just monthly visits. These high profile jobs held by blacks don't make the national news and neither do most people want publicity for their high level jobs."

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10/29/2015: " It will be especially wonderful to see Ethel. I stayed with them [Ethel Jean and Curtis Jackson] when I did my public health field work [in 1966] at the Broward County Health Department. Plus, I think you know we were classmates at Bennett College."

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9/24/2015: "I had to work with women in drug treatment as my last assignment before I retired. Most of the women had been abused. We also, know that children in homes of Domestic Violence have been traumatized and often abused by the abuser, also, boys and girls. So many children these days are severely traumatized and upset daily by what they have heard and seen in their homes. So, I can see how meditation can help them. 

"They now say that infants under one year are affected by violence in the home. The critical period for 90% of brain development is birth to 3 years of age. And the brain wires up according to the environment, and how they are treated.. I was asked to teach a special 10 week class for women with infants under 1 year. Occasionally the counselors would ask me to take a women with a child older than a year. You would be surprised to see the lack of healthy parenting knowledge and skills.

"I had to teach how to look at your baby, smile and talk nice to them. I thought them 8 songs to sing to their babies and the need to look in their eyes and smile and talk positive to them. Some women could not do this. I actually purchased and gave them a little sheet that had 25 positive things to say to your child. I had one session where they were to look at their babies, smile and say nice positive things for one minute. I had a stop watch to time them and most could not do it. I first modeled the task with my doll that I brought to class each week since they brought their babies to class each week. 

"When school children have heard fussing, fighting and cursing all night they are tired and upset at school the next day. Plus, often the abuser of mom will attack the kids. Plus, sexual abuse is very high among kids, boys and girls. These kids learn not to sleep to protect themselves. So, they sleep in class. All those bad experiences make kids hyper vigilant which means they will fight over nothing. They are very angry and in a defensive mood and it will look like they will fight over anything, but they are in a defensive mode due to their environment at home and in the community of other abused and angry kids.   

"Studies have documented that childhood abuse, neglect and abandonment predicts the decade a person will die in and what conditions they will die from. The study is known as the ACE ( Adverse Childhood Experience) Study. CDC was involved in the study. See link to ACE study below:

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/

"I am attaching a link to some Unity meditations. I wonder if the man that is promoting meditation is from the Unity movement. It seems he started using meditation with veterans. You can read more about the ACE study on the internet.

"Below is a link to some Unity meditations. They are used to guide ones life in all situations.

http://www.unity.org/prayer/meditations-and-affirmations

"Personality I am sadden that the courts have blocked public agencies from telling women they don't need another baby, that they cannot lovingly raise or provide for the kids they already have. A child needs a safe loving male and female in their life. I use to tell my moms that they need a safe male in their children's lives. Not all uncles or grandfathers are safe. I had some women that had been molested by grandfathers. That just about made me vomit, a grandfather sexually molesting his own grand child! Some women also, molest children.

"While I was doing that kind of work, I could not watch serious TV or movies. I had to have humor and comedy when I left work. Now that I am retired, I can watch serious TV and movies again.

"I am a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate  (CASA). My last case which closed in August was a nice case that ended with foster mom who was the aunt adopting that child on August 3, 2015. This past Monday, I went to court to see the child that was my second CASA case in 2008 finally be adopted by the former foster parents. They knew this child did not have a chance to be decent with that mom that became homeless over 2 years ago. Bio mom just would not give up drugs and having a good time. She damaged the 3 bedroom Section 8 apartment. Did not pay the power build. Damaged the plumbing. I think it might have been to sell the copper piping. They knocked holes in the walls, let a dog starve to death, and other awful things. So, the foster parents did not want their former foster child to live like that and started the slow long adoption process that ended this past Monday at 11:00am when the judge declared the adoption process completed."

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9/24/2015: "Yes, I was a soloist with the UNC Varsity Men's' Glee Club at their 1964 Spring Concert and on N.C. Day at the New York's World Fair on June 2nd 1964. We were sent off from Raleigh by Governor Terry Sanford. All the buses met at the state capital for a send off by the governor. We had clog dancers, Chief of the Cherokee Nation, etc. One man was an authentic folk singer and people were there from the Library of Congress to  record him in New York. There were 3 or 4 chartered bus loads of us sent to the World's Fair to represent North Carolina.

"The Chapel Hill schools were closing the next day, so they put me on a Greyhound or Trailways bus for an overnight trip to Raleigh were a car from the governor's office met me and drove me straight to Frank Porter Graham School to close the school year for my 6th grade class. 

"We all later got a thank you document signed by Governor Sanford. A formal picture was taken of the glee club with me in the center. We all got a copy of that photo and years later when I visited UNC in the 1970's, Dr. Joel Carter gave me his large copy with all the member's signatures on the back. They have probably all faded away by now. They were fading when he gave it to me. I had the large picture framed and it hangs over my fireplace.

"I also, did some solo work at Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in Chapel Hill. The organist and choir director was a Ph.D music student at UNC. I did a lot of other solo work at UNC and the community churches.

"Ethel and I were both in the Bennett College Choir. I was a soprano soloist at Bennett College and voice student. I studied voice at UNC, briefly with Wayne Zarr and the rest of the time with Dr. Wilton Mason. I opted to take voice at UNC for no credit so I could enjoy it after the pressure of vocal exams at Bennett College."

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9/19/2015: "I also, value the vocal musical training I received from Dr. Wilton Mason at Hill Hall and the solo work I did at the university and the churches in Chapel Hill and surrounding areas.

"I don't remember if I told you about my solo work with the UNC Varsity Men's Glee Club at their 1964 Spring Concert that led to me singing with them on North Carolina Day at the New York World's Fair on June 2, 1964. It is hard to believe that was 51 years ago.

"I did a few "first" in Chapel Hill. I was asked to let my son, Oluwole, go to a day care center there to integrate it with a child from college educated black parents.

"I just read briefly about the San Francisco "Quiet Time" program a few weeks ago and did not give it much thought. For over 10 years, I was a church soloist for a Unity Church in San Jose and the Unity movement uses silence to center ones self to guide ones life. So, I figured someone familiar with Unity teachings was using it with kids. Most kids need to slow down and get away from all the electronics that are non-stop these days and get centered to succeed in life.

"I still subscribe to the Unity magazine for meditations. I can also, read the daily meditations with online subscription.

"When I am in Chapel Hill, I would love to get together with you. Looking at the schedule, Saturday is open now that they moved the Black Pioneers function to Sunday. I don't do football and no events are scheduled for Saturday evening that I am interested in. I had no black classmates at UNC like most of the other black graduates that get together on Saturday night."

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