ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1974, eleven former students of the Frederick Douglass School, a former all-black public school in Wilson County, North Carolina, founded an alumni association to commemorate the legacy of their alma mater which closed in 1969. As they gathered class pictures, started local and state chapters, and planned the fi rst national alumni association meeting, the founding offi cers also drafted a biographical sketch of the school’s fi rst teacher and principal, Robert A. Johnson, who served from 1936-1966. After briefl y mentioning his educational background, which included a master’s degree in administration from New York University, the biography read:
He was not just the principal of [Frederick Douglass] school; his services included teaching academic subjects and administering the details that accompany an effective high school program. . . . As further testimony to Mr. Johnson’s dedication and interest in education, he traveled the back roads throughout Wilson County in his automobile to insure that children of high school eligibility were enrolled in school. The life and death of Mr. Johnson prompted the quotation . . . ‘dying with one’s boots on’ as indicative of one’s dedication to hard work . . . (Frederick Douglass Alumni Association Souvenir Journal, 1993)
The biography concluded with a ceremonious reminder of Principal Johnson’s sudden death in his offi ce just before the start of the school day on March 14, 1966. This particular impression suggests that black teachers and administrators were actively engaged in their work before and during the federal mandate to desegregate public schools in the South (See also, Perkins, 1989; Cecelski, 1994; Siddle Walker, 1996; Fairclough, 2001, 2007; Ramsey, 2008).
