- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with John Jessup, January 11, 1991
- Creator:
- Jessup, John
- Contributor to Resource:
- Wells, Goldie F. (Goldie Frinks)
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1991-01-11
- Subject:
- African American school principals--North Carolina--Winston-Salem
High schools--North Carolina--Winston-Salem--Administration
African Americans--Education (Secondary)--North Carolina--Winston-Salem
Race relations in school management--North Carolina--Winston-Salem
Teacher-principal relationships--North Carolina--Winston-Salem
Student-administrator relationships--North Carolina--Winston-Salem - People:
- Jessup, John
- Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Forsyth County, Winston-Salem, 36.09986, -80.24422
- Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- John Jessup recalls his experiences as a black principal and public school administrator. He entered the teaching profession in 1964 as a high school English teacher in Virginia, became a principal of a North Carolina high school in the late 1970s, and moved into the Winston-Salem public schools personnel department by 1991. Diversity within courses became a major goal in the mid-1980s public school system. As a black administrator, Jessup discovered that discipline played a large role in his relationship to students and teachers. He had to demand the students' obedience to school policy, and likewise he had to make sure teachers applied school policy fairly. Some teachers resented Jessup's encroachment on their previous authority over students. Black students, on the other hand, appreciated Jessup's attempts to establish trust between students and the administration. Jessup also describes the advancements that occurred during his academic tenure as principal. He discusses his role in introducing walkie-talkies to the administrative staff as well as hiring an athletic director. Jessup explains that school desegregation posed problems for black teachers and students. The students felt ostracized from extracurricular activities in integrated settings, while the teachers lost prestige (and some lost their jobs) during the desegregation process. Jessup contends that black students require more attention because of their minority status within the school.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/M-0024/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on November 20, 2008).
Interview participants: John Jessup, interviewee; Goldie F. Wells, interviewer.
Duration: 01:18:48.
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. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
