Record Details

Catalog Search

Search The Catalog


Back To Results
Showing Item 1 of 1
Oral history interview with Venton Bell, January 30, 1991 interview M-0018, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). Cover Image E-book

Oral history interview with Venton Bell, January 30, 1991 interview M-0018, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Interview with Venton Bell, January 30, 1991 (portion title)
Interview M-0018, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) (other title)
Bell, Venton. (interviewee). Wells, Goldie F. (Goldie Frinks) (interviewer). Southern Oral History Program. (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project) (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. (Added Author).

Summary: At the time of this interview, Venton Bell was the principal of Harding High School in Charlotte, N.C., a relatively small school with a mostly African American student body. In this interview, he describes his duties as principal as the interviewer reads him a list of questions. This list is constraining, but it includes questions about race and desegregation; Bell's responses to these questions offer a black administrator's perspective on these issues. He emphasizes the challenges that desegregation poses to Charlotte schools, such as the low socioeconomic status of many of his students, drawn from poor areas all over Charlotte; the closing of black schools and demotions of black educators; and parents' loss of faith in the system's fairness. This interview is not particularly rich, but researchers will find some points of interest in the excerpts, and those interested in the logistical details of running a school will find plenty of useful information.

Electronic resources

Click for online content.

Record details

  • Physical Description: electronic resource
    remote
    1 online resource.
  • Edition: Electronic edition
  • Publisher: [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2007.

Content descriptions

General Note:
Duration: 00:49:57.
Interview participants: Venton Bell, interviewee; Goldie F. Wells, 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 December 16, 2008).
Type of Computer File or Data Note:
Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 79 kilobytes, 91.4 megabytes.
Original Version Note:
Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series M, Black high school principals, interview M-0018, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 15 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:
Bell, Venton Interviews
African American school principals North Carolina Charlotte Interviews
African Americans Education (Secondary) North Carolina Charlotte
Education, Secondary North Carolina Charlotte
High schools North Carolina Charlotte Administration
Race relations in school management North Carolina Charlotte
Back To Results
Showing Item 1 of 1