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Oral History Interview with George Miller, January 19, 1991. Interview M-0015. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    George Miller, a former principal in Wilkes County, North Carolina, discusses the importance of knowing the day-to-day inner life of the public school system. Miller emphasized honesty and mutual respect for teachers, staff, and students. His early endorsement of sexual education reflected this philosophy. To Miller, moreover, behavior management was vitally important in controlling the school. His supervision of every aspect of the school system—from student discipline procedures to housekeeping duties—reflects his military background. Miller also discusses the effects of public school desegregation in North Carolina, which yielded beneficial results for blacks academically. However, while desegregation also forced his white colleagues to acknowledge his requests for adequate resources for black students, Miller argues that his race limited his professional advancement.
    Excerpts
  • Early challenges as a black principal in the early 1960s
  • Miller's discipline strategy in segregated and desegregated schools
  • Miller's total control over school funds served to control public perceptions of his leadership
  • Miller discusses the loss of job status brought with desegregation
  • Parental, school, and community involvement are necessary for students' academic success
  • Miller's early endorsement of sexual education for high school students
  • White and black teachers' reaction to black students in desegregated schools
  • Miller blames the impediments to black professional advancement on the lack of interracial social development
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • African American high school principals--North Carolina
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.