Need for positive black male role models
Defreece shares her fear for the future of black boys, who pose discipline problems at her school. She believes that the burden to rescue black boys from the destructive influence of their home environments falls on black men, who need to serve as positive role models.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Loistine Defreece, February 16, 1991. Interview M-0034. 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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As far as our black children and black educators, have you just looked at
the situation and found out where we are going?
- LOISTINE DEFREECE:
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Our black boys. I have had three suspensions for the rest of the year and
two of them were black boys. It is sad and this is the first time
I've had to suspend students for the rest of the year. They
had folders with discipline problems and you reach a point where you
have to do something. You have no choice and we are losing them. We just
don't have the homes to support these students as we
used to.
- GOLDIE F. WELLS:
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How many black teachers do you have?
- LOISTINE DEFREECE:
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Probably about eight out of sixty-two.
- GOLDIE F. WELLS:
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Do you have men?
- LOISTINE DEFREECE:
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Three and this is something that I want to work on with black boys--black
role models. Judge Richardson who is a friend of mine is black and is
from Robeson County. He is going to work with me. We have a black public
defender and he is on the School Board and I have known him all of my
life and he is going to work with me. We are going to get a group of
black men together to work with these students. We are going to reach
out into the factories where we do have some white collar black men
working. We want to establish a partnership with the community to
involve them in working with our black young men. We don't
have as many problems with the black females as we do black males.
- GOLDIE F. WELLS:
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You may be the reason for that. Role models I think, seeing someone and
seeing that there is a better way and they see how you dress and how you
do and I think if we had more black men it would help.
- LOISTINE DEFREECE:
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And it is going to take the black men in the community to do it.