Oral history interview with James Arthur Jones, November 19, 2003
Subtitle: interview U-0005, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Lowery, Malinda Maynor, 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; Race relations; Indian educators; Indian children; Education; Indians of North America; Ethnic identity; African Americans; Relations with Indians; School integration; Lumbee Indians; Tuscarora Indians; Prospect School (Prospect, Robeson County, N.C.)
Other titles: Interview U-0005, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with James Arthur Jones, November 19, 2003; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: James A. Jones, former principal of Prospect School in Robeson County, N.C., describes how integration affected this majority-Native American community. A redistricting controversy in the late 1960s revealed how much Prospect's Native American community valued their educational traditions, and they resented what they saw as attacks on those traditions, whether in the form of redrawn district lines or the enforcement of racial integration. Jones believes that mergers and integration have damaged Prospect School, dissipating its sense of community and poisoning the school with violent racial animosity. Like many older educators, Jones remembers a time of calm, when close ties between students, teachers, and parents strengthened his community. That time, he fears, is long gone.  Some passages of this interview which do not deal explicitly with race in the context of education were not excerpted. Interviewers interested in this kind of information should look at the interview in its entirety.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on June 5, 2007).

Interview participants: James Arthur Jones, interviewee; Malinda Maynor, interviewer.

Duration: 01:34:22.

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. 99 kilobytes, 172 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series U, The long civil rights movement: the South since the 1960s, interview U-0005, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Sharon Caughill. Original transcript: 44 p.

Funding from the Institute for 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.