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Ebson V. Dacons discusses his career as a black high school principal in segregated and desegregated public schools. He was the principal of Lincoln Heights High in Wilkes County, North Carolina, from 1964 until 1968. Dacons favorably describes the segregated schools as places of caring and autonomous teachers and administrators, where parents respected school authority. He describes a culture of self-sufficiency and mutual cooperation as a means of remedying inequitable resources. In 1968, the Wilkes County school board decided to reconstitute Lincoln Heights High into an integrated specialized school. Rather than move into a central office position, Dacons assumed a principalship at the new school, the Career Center, in order to remain within the larger black community. Initially, the school had limited gender and racial integration, but Dacons heavily recruited attract whites and females to the Career Center. Dacons regrets the loss of the power that he enjoyed as principal under the segregated school system and discusses additional differences in the organizational structures of segregated and desegregated schools. The interview ends with his discussion of the importance of mentoring black males.

Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection

Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews

African American high school principals--North Carolina