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When Gertrude Williams retired in 1998, after forty-nine years in the Baltimore public schools, The Baltimore Sun called her "the most powerful of principals" who "tangled with two superintendents and beat them both." In this oral memoir, Williams identifies the essential elements of sound education and describes the battles she waged to secure those elements, first as teacher, then a counselor, and, for twenty-five years, as principal. She also described her own education - growing up black in largely white Germantown, Pennsylvania; studying black history and culture for the first time at Cheyney State Teachers College; and meeting the rigorous demands of the program which she graduated from in 1949. In retracing her career, Williams examines the highs and lows of urban public education since World War II. She is at once an outspoken critic and spirited advocate of the system to which she devoted her life.
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Education as My Agenda
Palgrave Studies in Oral History Series Editors: Linda Shopes and Bruce M. Stave Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila, by Sandy Polishuk; Foreword by Amy Kesselman (2003) To Wear the Dust of War: An Oral History, by Samuel Iwry, edited by Leslie J.H. Kelley (2004) Education as My Agenda: Gertrude Williams, Race, and the Baltimore Public Schools, by Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson (2005) Remembering: Oral History Performance, edited by Della Pollock (2005) Postmemories of Terror: A New Generation Copes with the Legacy of the “Dirty War,” by Susana Kaiser (forthcoming) Growing Up in The People’s Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China’s Revolution, by Weili Ye and Ma Xiadong (forthcoming) Creating Choice: A Community Responds to the Need for Abortion and Birth Control, 1961–1973, by David P. Cline (forthcoming) Life and Death in the Delta: African American Narratives of Violence, Resilience, and Social Change, by Kim Lacy Rogers (forthcoming) Voices from This Long Brown Land: Oral Recollection of Owens Valley Lives and Manzanar Pasts, by Jane Wehrey (forthcoming) In the Wake of Kent State: Campus Rhetoric and Protest at the University of Nevada, by Brad Lucas (forthcoming) Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Organizing for Equality, by Jane Latour (forthcoming)
Education as My Agenda Gertrude Williams, Race, and the Baltimore Public Schools
Gertrude S. Williams with Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson
EDUCATION AS MY AGENDA
© Gertrude S. Williams and Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson, 2005. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 0–312–29542–1 ISBN 0–312–29543–X Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Williams, Gertrude S., 1927– Education as my agenda : Gertrude Williams, race, and the Baltimore Public Schools / Gertrude S. Williams with Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson. p. cm.—(Palgrave studies in oral history) ISBN 0–312–29542–1 (alk. paper) ISBN 0–312–29543–X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Williams, Gertrude S., 1927–. 2. School principals—United States— Biography. 3. African American school principals—Biography. 4. Public schools—Maryland—Baltimore—History—20th century. 5. United States— Race relations—History—20th century—Sources. I. Robinson, Jo Ann, 1942–. II. Title.