Oral history interview with Marguerite Tolbert, June 14, 1974
Subtitle: interview G-0062, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Myers, Constance Ashton, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Women teachers; Women; Suffrage; Women in education; Women's rights; Winthrop College, the South Carolina College for Women
Other titles: Interview G-0062, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Marguerite Tolbert, June 14, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Marguerite Tolbert worked in South Carolina schools and universities to improve educational options for adults, especially women and illiterate individuals. This interview starts with a description of her education and graduation from a high school in South Carolina in 1910. She retells a few stories about her life from a book she co-wrote titled South Carolina's Distinguished Women from Laurens County. She recounts how she earned a scholarship to Winthrop College and discusses the greatest achievements of her teaching career. Tolbert also describes her colleagues in the teaching profession, including Wil Lou Gray and Dr. D.B. Johnson, the president of Winthrop. She recounts two speeches she made before the South Carolina State House. She explains her views on the suffrage movement and the views of the Winthrop College president. Tolbert also recalls President Hoover's visit to King's Mountain State Park in 1931 and Jane Addams's visit to Winthrop. Tolbert taught in a variety of schools and describes her course content and methodology. She describes directing a training school for boys and how she dealt with a sexist salary clash between teachers in the 1940s.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on June 24, 2008).

Interview participants: Marguerite Tolbert, interviewee; Constance Myers, interviewer.

Duration: 01:21:06.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 85.1 kilobytes, 148 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series G, Southern women, interview G-0062, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Frances Tamburro. Original transcript: 44 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.