Finding a way to equalize unequal, segregated school
Mask made sure that his students learned "Negro history" in his segregated school, and while he was able to offer them less than the principal of the white school, he feels like he provided his students with an education equal to white students. He also recalls the rigid segregationist who ran the all-white school in Hamlet County.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with J. W. Mask, February 15, 1991. Interview M-0013. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- GOLDIE F. WELLS:
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Tell me about curriculum and instruction.
- J. W. MASK:
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Well, the curriculum and instruction were somewhat locked in. That is
probably not the best way to put it but the curriculum was very much
locked in by the state curriculum guide and we tried to offer as much as
we could. I think maybe there are two areas that I consider significant
as far as the principal is concerned and yet not so much so. When I was
a principal we had Negro history--that is what we called it and it was a
regular part of the curriculum in addition to a European history, United
States history and civics. We always had Negro history as part of the
curriculum and the thing where I sort of went a little bit beyond what
was provided was to go to Raleigh and pick up some Army surplus
typewriters and use them for trade with the supplier to get a dozen
typewriters so we could have typing as a part of our curriculum. That is
the only thing that I can think of that I did as a principal to expand
the curriculum to provide a training area that was not provided by the
Board of Education. There was no disposition on the part of the
superintendent to do so. But now getting back to the curriculum as I
said, you know North Carolina had a curriculum guide and there were the
subjects for the various grade levels and I think we offered certainly
maybe not all of the subjects that were offered in the white high school
but most of them anyway. Now I think the white high school had maybe one
or two more vocational courses than we had. We had industrial arts which
attempted to provide training in cabinet making mostly but some
carpentry and brick masonry.
- GOLDIE F. WELLS:
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Were you aware of the curriculum over at the high school or just what you
thought? Did you have close contact with any of the white
principals?
- J. W. MASK:
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Well, we knew what was being taught but there was very little
communication. As a matter of fact I say this without any trouble at
all. The disposition of the principal at the high school was probably
distant and he is now deceased (deceased refers to the superintendent,
not the principal) and I regret that he didn't live longer to
see some of the changes that have taken place because the superintendent
whereas he was a good friend of my fathers and was a good man in some
respects, he was a rigid segregationist. He did not
want any interaction between whites and blacks at any level. The
teacher's meetings that we had for the Hamlet School System
were always separate during the time that he was superintendent. Now he
went out around 1960. He had reached retirement age and was not ready to
retire but a new board of education had been elected and they
didn't quite agree with some of his philosophy about a lot of
things so then he went out around 1960-62, or somewhere around there.
The person who succeeded him had quite a different philosophy and
attitude and then we began to have first meetings of black and white
principals and then all of the teachers coming together for staff
meetings.