Oral history interview with Steve Cherry, February 19, 1999
Subtitle: interview K-0430, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Jones, Mark, 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; Basketball coaches; School principals; School integration; Discrimination in sports; Race relations
Other titles: Interview K-0430, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Steve Cherry, February 19, 1999; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Steve Cherry spent 29 years in the Lincoln County, North Carolina, school system, eventually becoming principal of East Lincoln High School, where he remained from 1982 to 1996. Cherry also coached basketball for many years, and describes school desegregation from both a coach's and a principal's perspective. As a coach, he witnessed the abuse of black players by white players on the basketball court; he weathered threats from white fans angry that black athletes were competing; but he also saw the integrating effect of organized sports. As a principal, he endured brawls between white and black students, and juggled the new demands that the white and black communities placed on him. This interview provides an in-depth look at how desegregation played out on the basketball court as well as in the school halls, and shows the important role athletics played in expressing, and muting, racial tensions.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on November 12, 2008).

Interview participants: Steve Cherry, interviewee; Mark Jones, interviewer.

Duration: 00:58:32.

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. 114.7 kilobytes, 107 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0430, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 16 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.