Oral history interview with Steve Cherry, February 19, 1999 [electronic resource] : interview K-0430, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
Steve Cherry spent 29 years in the Lincoln County, North Carolina, school system, eventually becoming principal of East Lincoln High School, where he remained from 1982 to 1996. Cherry also coached basketball for many years, and describes school desegregation from both a coach's and a principal's perspective. As a coach, he witnessed the abuse of black players by white players on the basketball court; he weathered threats from white fans angry that black athletes were competing; but he also saw the integrating effect of organized sports. As a principal, he endured brawls between white and black students, and juggled the new demands that the white and black communities placed on him. This interview provides an in-depth look at how desegregation played out on the basketball court as well as in the school halls, and shows the important role athletics played in expressing, and muting, racial tensions.
Electronic resources
Record details
- Edition: Electronic edition
- Publisher: [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2007.
Content descriptions
- General Note:
- Duration: 00:58:32.Interview participants: Steve Cherry, interviewee; Mark Jones, interviewer.Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.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.Title from menu page (viewed on November 12, 2008).
- Type of Computer File or Data Note:
- Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 114.7 kilobytes, 107 megabytes.
- Original Version Note:
- Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0430, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 16 p.
- Funding Information Note:
- Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.
- System Details Note:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.System requirements: Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.
Search for related items by subject
- Subject:
- Cherry, Steve, 1942?- > Interviews.
Basketball coaches > North Carolina > Lincoln County > Interviews.
Discrimination in sports > North Carolina.
School integration > North Carolina > Lincoln County.
School principals > North Carolina > Lincoln County > Interviews.
Lincoln County (N.C.) > Race relations. - Genre:
- Oral histories.
