Ledford, Barbara, 1940-

Williams, Jill

Charlotte, North Carolina

J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

1999-07-17

1 audio file (55:54) : digital, MP3

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

Barbara Ledford was a 59-year-old woman at the time of interview, which took place in Mooresville, North Carolina. She was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1940. She was educated at Wake Forest University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and was employed as a teacher and a high school principal.

Barbara Ledford describes her experiences as a teacher and administrator within the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, where she was employed in several schools including East Charlotte High School, Northeast Junior High School, and West Charlotte High School. Despite the fact that she was only there for the last five years of her 32 year career, Ms. Ledford describes her experience as the principal at West Charlotte as the "jewel in the crown" of her career. In describing what made West Charlotte an exceptional school, Ms. Ledford notes the wide diversity of the student body. She states that students of all backgrounds participated in the highest level courses and received academic honors and awards, though she acknowledges that inequities of society were reflected within the school. Ms. Ledford also expresses her appreciation for the English as a second language (ESL) program at West Charlotte, which helped diversity flourish and provided cultural enrichment at the school.

MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master file. Interview originally recorded on analog audio cassette and digitized using a Digidesign 003 rack.

Teachers
High school principals

Ledford, Barbara, 1940-
Miller, Leroy "Pop"

West Charlotte High School (Charlotte, N.C.)
East Mecklenburg High School (Charlotte, N.C.)
Northeast Junior High School (Charlotte, N.C.)

Public schools
School integration
Multicultural education
English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers
Students
School management and organization

North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Charlotte--University Park

Interviews
Oral histories

1950-2000

Levine Museum of the New South

West Charlotte High School during integration

Living Charlotte : the postwar development of a New South city

The materials included on this web site are freely available for private study, scholarship or non-commercial research under the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code). Any use beyond the provisions of fair use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication, broadcast, redistribution or mounting on another web site always require prior written permission and may also be subject to additional restrictions and fees. UNC Charlotte does not hold literary rights to all materials in its collections and the researcher is responsible for securing those rights when needed. Copyright information for specific collections is available upon request.

Digitization made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.

audio/mpeg

MU-LE0314