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13 <br /> roads to some areas, roads in some rural communities—particularly those with African- <br /> American and less affluent white populations—were not surveyed or included in the new <br /> system. Many people in rural areas had already begun to relocate to urban areas to seek <br /> employment in the emerging textile and tobacco manufacturing industries, and without <br /> consistent public maintenance of their roads,the communities in these areas declined.15 <br /> The road that provided access to Harvey's Chapel became so degraded that it was <br /> difficult for the congregation to reach the church, forcing members to make the hard <br /> decision to relocate. For several years,they held services in the nearby Harvey's Chapel <br /> School on Moorefields Road. Harvey's Chapel School was one of many one-room <br /> segregated schoolhouses built for African-American students in the early twentieth <br /> century. The school enrolled 14 students in the 1934-35 school year 16 and was closed in <br /> 1939.17 After it closed, the schoolhouse briefly became home to the Breeze family, who <br /> later obtained an FHA loan to build a house on the property.]$ This history demonstrates <br /> how African-American communities employed creative strategies of survival during the <br /> Jim Crow era, as well as the close relationships between black schools, churches, and <br /> families during this time period. <br /> The congregation continued to visit the original site for significant events like baptisms, <br /> burials, and homecomings throughout the 1930s. In 1943, they purchased two acres of <br /> land from two of their trustees, George and Robina Walker. Robina(1877-1967)was the <br /> daughter of founding trustee John Wesley Thompson and a midwife in the local <br /> community, and with husband George (1877-1968) farmed on over 100 acres of land <br /> adjacent to the new location,which they purchased from A.J. Ruffin in 1907.19 The <br /> church bell and several of the foundation sills from the original chapel were moved to the <br /> new site, where the congregation built the current Gothic Revival frame chapel.20 <br /> 15 Cotterman,Rachel. "Setting Inequality in Stone: Race and `Good Roads."' Online, <br /> available http://backways.web.une.edu/2016/10/10/settinjZ-inequality-in-stone/,published <br /> 10/10/16 <br /> 16 NC Department of Public Instruction. "1936 Study of Orange County Schools."North <br /> Carolina State Archives. <br /> 17 Moore, Rosetta Austin. "Slavery and the Impact of Education on Blacks in Orange <br /> County,North Carolina." Self-published, 2015. <br /> " Interview with Willie Breeze, 11/1512016. <br /> 19 Orange County Deed Book 63, Page 429. <br /> 24 Interview with Clinton Thompson, descendent of founding trustee John Wesley <br /> Thompson, 1119/2017, by Rachel Cotterman. <br /> 7 <br />