SEVERNE LOGAN BUDD

Severne Logan Budd was born on March 14, 1947, and grew up in the Flat Rock community of Shelby, which she describes as having been located off DeKalb Street on what is now Patton Drive.

One of six children, she attended Cleveland School through the tenth grade and then applied to Shelby High School because she was interested in business, and Shelby High had better business equipment than Cleveland School. She, Mary Borders, Rayfield Cabaniss, and Cynthia Lowe integrated Shelby High in August 1963. Rayfield had applied first but had not been accepted until his family obtained a court order for him to enroll. (Full integration did not come to Cleveland County, according to Budd, until 1967.)
Three out of the four students graduated; Lowe did not graduate because of illness.

In this interview Budd compares the classes, the teachers, and the discipline between Cleveland School and Shelby High. She also discusses the atmosphere during the first few months as these students attended classes.

Budd graduated from Livingston in 1969 and then worked in Washington, D.C., for twenty years before returning to Shelby in order to be closer to her family, which has always been very close and supportive. Her parents pushed education and reading, as well as loving other people and doing kind deeds.

Budd is active in the community and in the Shelby Negro Woman?€™s Club. She says, ?€œI don?€™t think I could have been raised in any better place than here in Cleveland County.?€?