Oral history interview with Clyde Smith, March 17, 1999
Subtitle: interview K-0443, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: McGlamery, Reid, 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; Coaches (Athletics); School integration; African American high school students; High school athletes; Attitudes; Discrimination in sports; Race relations; African Americans; Social conditions
Other titles: Interview K-0443, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Clyde Smith, March 17, 1999; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Clyde Smith took three coaching positions at Lincolnton High School in Lincoln County, NC, shortly after a "freedom of choice" plan brought black students to the formerly all-white school, and shortly before integration began in earnest. He experienced integration as a coach: the basketball court and the football field were some of the earliest sites of integration. But while sports teams often integrated more smoothly than classrooms because the white community valued athletic ability, some tensions on his squads remained. Black players were frequently undisciplined, he remembers, preferring to goof off on the basketball court rather than run drills, or preferring the glory of Friday night football games to the rewards of Monday morning practice. Eventually, the all-white coaching staff warmed to their black athletes, but not before they dismissed a number of them. Smith offers only one side of the conflict between coaches and players, but his recollections suggest that though their abilities may have eased the integration process, black athletes nonetheless experienced some of the discomforts of the transition.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on November 10, 2008).

Interview participants: Clyde Smith, interviewee; Reid McGlamery, interviewer.

Duration: 00:38:17.

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. 60 kilobytes,  70.1 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0443, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 20 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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