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Mattie Marshal
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President of Historic Washington Heights Neighborhood 
Reported years lived in Washington Heights: 26 years

Interview Abstracts

Interview 1:
In this interview, Mattie Marshal ruminates about her humble origins as a sharecropper's daughter in Georgia, migrating north to work at the New York Stock Exchange, and finally settling down in Historic Washington Heights, her home of 26 years. She explains her role as president of the community, emphasizing on education and the importance of the younger generation. She stresses the need to preserve the neighborhood’s history; the landmarks, events, and generations of residents that have shaped the community into what it is today.

Interview 2:
Mattie Marshall, the current President of Historic Washington Heights, in October, 2015, describes how she came to live in this neighborhood. She has humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s daughter in Richmond, GA who later migrates to the North at 14 years old where she receives integrated education. After some years of living in NY and working at the NY Stock Exchange, she recalls migrating southward. After her marriage, she falls in love with a house in Historic Washington Heights in Charlotte. She describes her love for the wide streets and the bungalow-style homes. Marshall continues to recount Historic Washington Heights’ rich past, including the livelihood of the famous Excelsior Club. She emphasizes how names impact the state of a living place. She currently serves as the President of the neighborhood, and has been doing so for a while. People really look up to Mattie Marshall as a leader in the community. Her hope is to help maintain this community and her hope is for the children to be raised to want to become educated and come back eventually to take over and to get new leadership to lead the development of the youth service academy.