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Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Beryl Constance O'Dell and Saint Luke AME Zion Church Choir (Wilmington, N.C.) Recording #20179, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 103512)

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Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Encoded by: Laura Smith, January 2019

Updated by: Anne Wells and Emma Evans, June 2019

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American churches--North Carolina.
• African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
• O'Dell, Beryl Constance.
• Spirituals (Songs)--North Carolina.

Beryl Constance O'Dell (d. 2015) served as music director for the all-black Williston Senior High School in Wilmington, N.C., for two decades. She directed its acclaimed touring Glee Club and Concert Choir from 1949 until 1968, when Williston closed following the desegregation of Wilmington schools. In 1984, the Williston Alumni Choral Ensemble formed with O'Dell as the conductor. This group also toured and in 1994 performed at the White House. She was also the director of the Saint Luke AME Zion Church choir.

The 1990 video tape recording on VHS contains performances of the Saint Luke AME Zion Church choir in Wilmington, N.C., with its director Beryl Constance O'Dell.

• Videotape (VT-20179/1)