Oral history interview with Sheila Cunningham Sims, 2012 [full audio recording]
Date
2012-04-12
Creator
Sims, Sheila Cunningham
Contributors
Trojanowski, Hermann J.
Subject headings
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Place
Greensboro (N.C.)
Description
Sheila Cunningham Sims (1941- ) graduated in 1962 with a degree in primary education from Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After graduation, she taught for two years in Greensboro and then moved to Oakland, California, where she taught school. After many years as a curriculum teacher, she retired and is currently an education consultant.
Sims discusses the importance of education in her family; growing up in segregated Greensboro, North Carolina; her feelings about having to sit in the segregated balcony at the Carolina Theater; and the 1960 Greensboro Sit-ins. She also recalls attending Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, for two years; being apprehensive about transferring to a large all-white college; living at home and taking the bus to classes each day; campus traditions; being the only black student in all her classes at Woman's College; and the contrast between Woman's College and North Carolina A&T State College students in the area of political activism. Sims talks about the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and its national leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Julian Bond as well as local leader George Simkins, Jr. She concludes the interview by recalling her teaching experience in Sokoto, Nigeria, during the 1980s.
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Object ID
OH002.037.AUD
Digital publisher
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304