Oral history interview with Johnny A. Freeman, December 27, 1990
Subtitle: interview M-0011, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Wells, Goldie F. (Goldie Frinks), 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: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; African American school principals; African American schools; High schools; Administration; African Americans; Education (Secondary); School integration; Race relations in school management
Other titles: Interview M-0011, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Johnny A. Freeman, December 27, 1990; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Johnny A. Freeman became principal of Marie McIver High School in Littleton, NC, in 1964 and stayed there for three years before moving to Burlington, NC, 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.
Notes: 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.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 112 kilobytes, 156 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series M, Black high school principals, interview M-0011, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 21 p.

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

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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