132
usschers in Oklahoma getting jobs.
CHAIRMAN HANNAHt Oklahoma as a state has rot been
gaining greatly in population in rocent years.
MR. KARRIS: Not in the rural arears where these
s.sbools are closing down., but the larger, the urban areas
have been Increasing in population. Therefore the teachers
in the small rural schools have been drifting toward either
the larger schools of the white races or have been leaving
cur* state, going to California and places like that and
picking up jobs.
CHAIRMAN HANNAH: Any further questions?
If not, since we are a little ahead of schedule,
suppose wt* take a five-minute break, and we will start again
at 3:25.
(Short recess.)
CHAIRMAN HANNAH: I don't like to be a commanding
task master, but the secret of staying on time is to keep
on time, no we will proceed with the conference.
Mr. Tiffany, will you present the next participant?
MR3 TIFFANY: Mr. Ben L. Smith, Superintendent of
Schools Emeritus, Greensboro, North Carolina.
STATEMENT
OF
BEN L„ SMITH
SUPERINTEHDENT QF SCHOOLS EMERITUS
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
[Statement of Benjamin L. Smith before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission conference in Nashville]
Date
1959
Creator
Smith, Benjamin Lee
Biographical/historical note
Benjamin Lee Smith was born February 6, 1893 in, Caldwell County, N.C. He received his A.B. from Duke University in 1916, and his M.A. from Duke in 1937. He served as superintendent of schools in the western North Carolina cities of Forest City, Rutherford-Spindale, and Shelby before assuming the same position in Greensboro, N.C., in 1935. His twenty-three year tenure in Greensboro included the years immediately following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision ordering desegregation of public schools. In 1959, he participated in the National Civil Rights hearing on school integration. Smith died in 1961. Ben L. Smith High School in Greensboro is named for him.
Subject headings
Segregation in education--United States;Race relations
Topics
School desegregation, 1954-1958
Place
Greensboro (N.C.)
Description
This transcript of a statement made by former Greensboro public school superintendent, Benjamin L. Smith, before the 1959 U.S. Civil Rights Commission conference in Nashville, Tennessee, describes Greensboro's efforts at desegregating its public school system.
In this statement, Smith explains that school desegregation has been generally accepted by the community. He offers an overview of the desegregation of Gillespie Elementary School and Greensboro Senior High in 1957, and recalls the resolution of compliance passed by the Greensboro School Board the day after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and shares the details of a resolution adopted by the board in 1957. The reasons he feels desegregation in Greensboro was possible are: a liberal community, extraordinary school board, dedicated school personnel, favorable press, and an alert police force. He remarks on Greensboro's traditionally black universities, its integrated school board, integrated classes at the polio hospital and the Cerebral Palsy School, and the influencing presence of the Quaker population.
Smith offers to answer questions from the board. In response to a question of whether new black students were transferred in 1958, he says that there were not and that a child was denied admittance to Curry School by the Woman's College. When asked if there has been negative response, he recalls having a cross burned in his yard, bricks thrown through his window, and picketing at Gillespie. When asked if more schools would be desegregated, he says that no parents will be forced to send their children to schools they don't want to be at, and that some applications for reassignment were rejected for various reasons. He refers multiple times to the Caldwell Elementary-Pearson Street School court case that was pending at the time of this conference.
Type
text
Original format
reports
Original dimensions
8.5" x 11"
Original publisher
[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Language
en
Contributing institution
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University
COPYRIGHT NOT EVALUATED. The copyright status of this item has not been fully evaluated and may vary for different parts of the item. The user is responsible for determining actual copyright status for any reuse of the material.
Object ID
Duke_RL.01210.0978
Digital publisher
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5305 -- http://library.uncg.edu/
132
usschers in Oklahoma getting jobs.
CHAIRMAN HANNAHt Oklahoma as a state has rot been
gaining greatly in population in rocent years.
MR. KARRIS: Not in the rural arears where these
s.sbools are closing down., but the larger, the urban areas
have been Increasing in population. Therefore the teachers
in the small rural schools have been drifting toward either
the larger schools of the white races or have been leaving
cur* state, going to California and places like that and
picking up jobs.
CHAIRMAN HANNAH: Any further questions?
If not, since we are a little ahead of schedule,
suppose wt* take a five-minute break, and we will start again
at 3:25.
(Short recess.)
CHAIRMAN HANNAH: I don't like to be a commanding
task master, but the secret of staying on time is to keep
on time, no we will proceed with the conference.
Mr. Tiffany, will you present the next participant?
MR3 TIFFANY: Mr. Ben L. Smith, Superintendent of
Schools Emeritus, Greensboro, North Carolina.
STATEMENT
OF
BEN L„ SMITH
SUPERINTEHDENT QF SCHOOLS EMERITUS
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
