Garnering community support for Charlotte College
Cone discusses how she worked within the community to garner support for Charlotte College. As the appointed director of Charlotte College, Cone explains that community support was crucial to the survival of Charlotte College because working through the state to legislate for taxation was crucial. The primary role Cone played in this process as a female leader is especially interesting for this time period.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Bonnie E. Cone, January 7, 1986. Interview C-0048. 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
- LYNN HAESSLY:
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As director, part of your strategy was to. . . .
- BONNIE E. CONE:
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Well, you worked with community agencies, you know.
- LYNN HAESSLY:
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. . . develop a network of support. You made your advisory board your own kind of personal board and to be your kind of lobbying agent with the general assembly and fund raising.
- BONNIE E. CONE:
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And with the community, yes. Well, the main fund raising at that time was to try to get that tax support. That was the first thing we had to do. The bonds came later, and we had to extend the bonds to the county in order to get state support. You see a tremendous network of people working. The engineering club was always a friend from the very earliest. I remember some of the Rotary Clubs. I'd go and speak to them, you
know. I had to go speak. I had to go, when we first were organized, I had to go to every high school. We had high schools in the county, you wouldn't believe how many, little teeny high schools, and you were going not to try to take them away from Chapel Hill or from Duke or from Davidson. You were going to say, "You know, there is a place for everybody, and you can stay home and come." I was personally the one who had to go. I did go.
