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| Creator: | Freeman, Johnny A. |
| Creator: | Wells, Goldie F. (Goldie Frinks) |
| Title: | Oral history interview with Johnny A. Freeman, December 27, 1990 |
| Date: | 1990 Dec. 27 |
| Description: | Johnny A. Freeman became principal of Marie McIver High School in Littleton, North Carolina, in 1964 and stayed there for three years before moving to Burlington, North Carolina, eventually taking a position at Hugh M. Cummings High School, where he stayed for two decades. Freeman dealt with the turbulence of desegregation and its effects in Burlington, and while he maintained discipline during the desegregation process, he encountered some difficulties in its aftermath. He remembers an unequal black school system that relied on fundraisers to provide basic services to its students, but he also recalls a close-knit community that looked to educators as leaders and cheered for successful sports teams and a rousing band. Desegregation equalized facilities to some extent, Freeman recalls, but black educational traditions eroded. This interview reveals some of the complexities of the black community's response to desegregation through the eyes of one educator. The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. |
| Types: | Transcripts | Sound recordings | Oral histories |
| Subjects: | Freeman, Johnny A. | African American school principals--North Carolina--Burlington | School principals--North Carolina | African American schools--North Carolina--Burlington | High schools--North Carolina--Burlington--Administration | African Americans--Education (Secondary)--North Carolina--Burlington | School integration--North Carolina--Burlington | Race relations in school management--North Carolina--Burlington | Burlington (N.C.) | Alamance (N.C.) |
| Collection: | Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement |
| Institution: | Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) |
| Contributors: | Southern Oral History Program | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project) | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library | Oral histories of the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)) |
| Online Publisher: | [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. | 2007 |
| Original Material: | Title from menu page (viewed on November 21, 2008). Interview participants: Johnny A. Freeman, interviewee; Goldie F. Wells, interviewer. Duration: 01:25:34. This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South. Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. |
| Related Materials: | Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection. |
| Persistent Link to Item: | http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/M-0011/menu.html |
