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Oral History Interview with William Dallas Herring, February 14, 1987. Interview C-0034. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    William Dallas Herring began his career in education politics on the school board in Duplin County, North Carolina, and eventually became chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Education. In Duplin County and statewide, Herring sought to consolidate school districts and give as much control as possible to local decision-makers. His devotion to comprehensive education (as opposed to choosing to support either vocational or liberal arts education) sometimes put him at odds with other board members and state leaders. In this interview, Herring describes some of these conflicts, offering broad pronouncements about education and the details of policy wrangling. Many of these details come in Herring's recollections about the growth of the community college system in North Carolina in the late 1950s and 1960s. Researchers should read this interview with its partner, C-0035.
    Excerpts
  • Joining the Duplin County Board of Education
  • Consolidation and Brown v. Board in Duplin County
  • Disproportionate burden on southerners for dealing with race issues
  • Debate over the purpose of a community college education
  • Need for comprehensive community college education
  • Debate over the purpose of a community college education
  • Governor Hodges ably handles desegregation crisis in North Carolina
  • Asking Native Americans to desegregate
  • Governor Sanford brings higher education to the remote areas of North Carolina
  • Governor Moore resists involvement in pro-integration decree
  • Swing between liberal and conservative governorships in North Carolina
  • Local demand should drive education policy
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • North Carolina--Race relations
  • Educators--North Carolina
  • Herring, Dallas
  • North Carolina--Biography
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.