Oral history interview with Venton Bell, January 30, 1991
Subtitle: interview M-0018, 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; High schools; Administration; Secondary Education; African Americans; Education (Secondary); Race relations in school management
Other titles: Interview M-0018, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Venton Bell, January 30, 1991; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: At the time of this interview, Venton Bell was the principal of Harding High School in Charlotte, N.C., a relatively small school with a mostly African American student body. In this interview, he describes his duties as principal as the interviewer reads him a list of questions. This list is constraining, but it includes questions about race and desegregation; Bell's responses to these questions offer a black administrator's perspective on these issues. He emphasizes the challenges that desegregation poses to Charlotte schools, such as the low socioeconomic status of many of his students, drawn from poor areas all over Charlotte; the closing of black schools and demotions of black educators; and parents' loss of faith in the system's fairness. This interview is not particularly rich, but researchers will find some points of interest in the excerpts, and those interested in the logistical details of running a school will find plenty of useful information.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on December 16, 2008).

Interview participants: Venton Bell, interviewee; Goldie F. Wells, interviewer.

Duration: 00:49:57.

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. 79 kilobytes, 91.4 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series M, Black high school principals, interview M-0018, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 15 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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