Race, Education, and Leadership in Rockingham County, North Carolina, 1820-1970
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RUSSELL, DEBORAH DOSS, Ph.D. “This Must Be Worked Out Locally”: Race, Education, and Leadership in Rockingham County, North Carolina, 1820-1970. (2019) Directed by Dr. Charles C. Bolton. 502 pp. Focusing on local leadership, this work is a close study of race and education in Rockingham County, North Carolina, from 1820 to 1970. The long history of race and education is examined in the context of broader state and regional racial politics, with a focus on how both black and white citizens built their schools, maintained them through decades of segregation, and carried out the process of school desegregation, the primary path through which Jim Crow was dismantled across the South. With the historical record found in school board minutes and local newspapers as its research foundation, this dissertation reveals how the public school system was built and operated in one county in the Upper South, where, influenced by state and federal leaders over a century and a half, citizens worked out a framework of small-town and rural schools that ultimately afforded their children and youth equitable access to education. Because four separate school systems existed in the county, it is possible to compare the day-to-day functioning of schools in different communities and to understand more fully how leadership influenced local policies. Covering roughly five periods in local educational history, this study traces the efforts of those who invested in establishing, operating, and improving their public schools, arguing that the involvement of local leaders in each district significantly determined how each system developed and how racially segregated schools were ultimately eliminated. The trajectory of this local history includes the white academies of the antebellum era, the early public schools constructed in the late 1800s, the widening of the town/rural divide as well as the racial gap in the early 1900s, the challenges of operating multiple school systems during economic depression and war, and the struggle to comply with federal desegregation standards in the late 1960s. Much more than has been generally acknowledged, race was consistently a factor in building and maintaining these public schools, influenced by those who sought reconciliation of blacks and whites as well as those who deepened racial division. A local history such as this one affords us an opportunity to see how the South’s difficult racial past affected people at the grassroots level—in their community schools. This study also illuminates a century of agency and activism on the part of the county’s black community. African Americans were leaders as they helped create their own educational spaces, maintained and improved segregated institutions, chipped away at Jim Crow restrictions, and exerted as much leverage as they could to desegregate the local public schools. This long and persistent grassroots involvement was a significant part of the black freedom struggle, as incremental change was implemented in a variety of local conditions. Local leaders such as those in Rockingham County who actively sought adequate educational opportunities for their own children, the elimination of segregated schools, and a more equitable society were crucial in the success of the broader civil rights movement. No real progress in the black freedom struggle could have been achieved without eliminating segregated schools that existed as symbols of second-class citizenship in nearly every community in the South. “THIS MUST BE WORKED OUT LOCALLY”: RACE, EDUCATION, AND LEADERSHIP IN ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, 1820-1970 by Deborah Doss Russell A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2019 Approved by Charles C. Bolton Committee Chair APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation, written by Deborah Doss Russell, has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair Charles C. Bolton Committee Members Mark Elliott Phyllis W. Hunter Thomas F. Jackson March 11, 2019 Date of Acceptance by Committee March 11, 2019 Date of Final Oral Examination ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS After a long career as an English and history teacher in the public schools, I am very grateful that I have been able to become a historian in training at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. My life has been profoundly enriched by the experiences I have had in the graduate program at UNCG and in working with such a fine group of people. I have many to thank who assisted me in completing this project. Foremost, I express my gratitude to the members of my dissertation committee for their guidance and encouragement. I truly appreciate their thoughtful comments and their willingness to work with me on a tight schedule. Dr. Phyllis Hunter was the first person I met at UNCG and I am grateful that she stuck with me all the way through the dissertation defense. Her classes in Atlantic World, Early America, and research methods significantly broadened my understanding of history. Also, working with Dr. Hunter as a graduate assistant in the Women in American History class helped me to understand more fully women’s history, material culture, and how a college course might be organized. Dr. Thomas Jackson’s classes in civil rights focused on topics that are vitally important in today’s political climate and each week the readings and discussions provided me with abundant reinforcement that I was in the right place as I came to a deeper understanding of our troubled racial history. I owe Dr. Jackson a great debt of gratitude for his guidance as I began to research the history of school desegregation that led to this dissertation and for his confidence in me as a scholar and writer. I am also indebted to Dr. Mark Elliott, Departmental Graduate Director, not only for his thought-provoking classes and iii exemplary teaching model, but for organizing the dissertation reading group that finally prompted me to get started with my writing. He faithfully read our chapters, met with us monthly, and kept us all writing so that we made progress toward completing this massive project. This motivation was crucial for me. As the committee chair, Dr. Charles Bolton has been an exceptional mentor, providing calm and positive guidance throughout this process, even when I felt overwhelmed under a mountain of detail. His expansive knowledge of the history of the South, plus his expert editing and generous availability to talk over what I was discovering in my research all combined to make it possible for me to complete this dissertation. I can never thank you all enough. I am unable to name everyone, but many others at UNCG—including faculty, staff, and my classmates—have made my years of study on campus truly enjoyable and productive. I thank the members of the Department of History for the many meaningful classes that have broadened my education and expanded my research and teaching interests. To my classmates and colleagues, especially our cohort—Sarah McCartney, Ian Michie, and Monica Ward— I am grateful for their friendship and support. As it is with all historical work, the research that is the foundation of this dissertation was amassed over many months at a variety of archives. I am indebted to the helpful librarians and staff at the North Carolina Collection and the Southern Historical Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Perkins and Rubenstein libraries at Duke University, the State Archives in Raleigh, the Bassett (VA) Historical Center, the Museum and Archives of Rockingham County (MARC), and the Madison-Mayodan Public Library for iv their assistance in utilizing their resources. I must express special appreciation to Mary Gomez, Teresa Frohock, and the staff at the Gerald B. James Library at Rockingham Community College for their assistance in accessing the many valuable resources in their Historical Collections, and especially for making some copies of the Reidsville Review from the 1960s available from their archives, when no microfilm of editions from that decade existed. I also express my gratitude to the Rockingham County folks and their families who allowed me to interview them about the schools and the county’s history, especially Anne Willis, Mary L. Martin, and Elretha Perkins for making arrangements for interviews. I hope to do more oral history interviews in the future to help to capture local history. I offer my special thanks to David Spear for his generous time in talking with me about his family and their fifty years as community leaders as local journalists and owners of The Messenger. Dr. Rodney Shotwell and administrative staff of the Rockingham County Schools, especially Wanda Hill and Toni Easter, were extremely helpful in making the board minutes of the four school systems available to me and locating spaces for me to work the dozens of times I came to the Central Office to collect this crucial part of my research. To local legends, Dr. Lindley S. Butler and Robert Carter, Rockingham County historians, I express my thanks for their time meeting with me and sharing their broad knowledge of Rockingham County and North Carolina history. Many others have also taken an interest in my work, offered suggestions, and expressed their support, for which I am truly grateful. v And finally, I thank my family for everything they have done to help me. Cameron, Kinley, Graham, and Chip have all been unwavering in their encouragement. Graham, I appreciate so much the fine maps you created to enhance my dissertation. Thank you all for sending reassuring messages and friendly dog images to remind me that the only way a dissertation can be any good is if it is finished! And to Eugene, you have always been my biggest supporter, even as I take on nearly impossible projects such as this one.