Euzelle Smith - On teaching in South Carolina (clip)
Interviewed by Alexander Stephens and Alex Biggers on January 20, 2011
Euzelle Smith (ES): The children went to school from 8:00 until 1:00. Got out at 1:00 everyday, because it was a farming community and the older ones had to work on the farm.
Alexander Stephens (AS): Oh wow.
ES: And it was an eight-month school year. I made sixty-five dollars a month so that whole school year I only made about five hundred and some dollars.
AS: And for teaching that many kids too.
ES: Forty-eight. Forty-eight. Even now I don’t know how I managed it. There were very little supplies or equipment and you got your books as the children paid for them so we were ordering books all year long.
AS: Oh wow. Do you find that South Carolina and North Carolina schools were a lot different?
ES: Oh yes. See I grew up in Newport News and it was very progressive even in that time, you know, and there was no shortage of supplies and equipment. So, it was a real shock to me to, you know, work in a school like that. And I knew early that I wouldn’t go back there another year. As soon as I got home, the Superintendent of Schools in Newport News called me and offered me a job there because one of the supervisors had been one of my instructors at Hampton. So, she had recommended me and I never did have to file a formal application.
AS: Oh wow. So, you guys both went to Hampton?
ES: What did you say?
AS: You both went to Hampton?
ES: Yes. He graduated a year ahead of me. Have you been up in that area?
AS: No.
ES: Okay. Beautiful campus. You have to go up there sometime.
AS: Okay, yeah!
