Hide Article Text (OCR)
By HAROLD REYNOLDSSun Staff WriterGulfport High School’s first black principal, Boyd C. James, does not dwell — conversationally or in his own mind — on the historical significance of his position.“I don’t like to become involved in a hang up about race,” says James, one of the first black administrators to head a predominately white high school inMississippi.“I feel I’ve paid my dues.”Indeed he has, in a long, steadjclimb.James was born Dec. 15, 1929 in Fairfax, Ala., midway between Montgomery and Atlanta. He bypassed his minister father’s desire that he enroll at a religious schoolwhen he entered Alabama State College in Montgomery.The Army interrupted college in 1951. But James says that it was while he served as an information-education specialist at Fort Polk, La., that he became committed to a career in education. And he returned to Alabama State and received a B. S. degree in social studies and physical education.James came to Gulfport with hiswife, Della, in early 1955, ”1 liked the city so well that I turned down a job that had been promised me in Alabama,” he says, smiling. He and his wife became instructors at the all-black Thirty-Third Avenue High School.In the late 1950’s, James worked as the Thirty-Third Trojans’ head coach for football, basketball and track, becoming full-time athleticdirector in 1958.He earned a master’s degree in school administration from the Tuskegee Institute and became Thirty-Third’s assistant principal. ”1 decided then that I wanted to become a high school principal,”James says.In 1966, he left Thirty-Third and acted as coordinator of Gulfport’s Title I funds. The same year, he became assistant principal of Gulfport High, ‘‘although I hated to leave the administrative capacity.” He explains, smiling again, “I had become accustomed to not dealing directly with students.” James has praise for both Wayne F. Calbert — Thirty-Third’s principal — and Gulfport High’s Martin Gendron:“Mr. Calbert was a solid school master. He knew the profession.”State and Local NewsPage 10Monday, September 16, 1974Sanfordtellsgovernorsclimate right for leadershipVIRGINIA BEACH. Va. (UPI) Former North Carolina Gov.Terrv Sanford told Southern Dem*%oeratie State Chairmen Sunday the climate is right today for a southerner to rise to national leadership.“I think a southerner ought to be on the (Presidential! ticket,” Sanford, chairman of the party’s charter-drafting committee, said.“The climate for the development of leadership is very good in the South. For the first time in 100years, it is possible for southern leaders to move to national leadership, as they did in the nation’s first 100 years,” said Sanford, who made a brief run for the Presidency in 1972 before Alabama Gov.George C. Wallace defeated him in the North Carolina primary.Sen. Lloyd Bentson (D-Tex.L chairman of the Democratic senatorial campaign committee, also addressed the six southern chairmen and state representatives, urging them to put an end to“factionalism and sectionalism” and join a course of “moderation, tolerance and temperance.” The two-day conference here was billed partially as an effort to create a southern unity in party matters.“We're not going to win any elections if the South is written off.” Bentson said. He said that did not necessarily mean a southerner must be on the ticket, although he personally is “interested in the possibility” of running for the Presidential nomination.f •And with Gendron, “I was given anopportunity to grow.James assumed his duties as*Gulfport High principal on July 1. One of the most visible characteristics of his young administration is an open door policy, in which there is communication with teachers and students, as well as custodians and other general staff members.Everyone is equal once he steps inside my door with his own special problems,” James says. Students are encouraged to come into my office with a problem, but they are discouraged from coming here with trouble. A personality conflict between two students, for example, is a problem that can be talked about. A fight between the students is trouble.”On most schooldays James is athis desk at 7:15. The pressures of the day do not begin until the telephone rings. He tours the school as classes get underway.I like to personally know what is going on on the campus, he savs. If there is vandalism, I want to know about it.”James is concerned about the city schools’ dropoqt rate, which he attributes to the attitudes of a permissive society. “Parents are failing to motivate their children to stay in school,” he says, suggesting that there must be a closer relationship between the home and the school in order for students tosucceed.“I’d like to create a climate here - at Gulfport High — in whick the kids will enjoy school.” James says. “I'd like to be a high school principal for a long time. Education is my career.»fJames’ wife still teaches in the Gulfport school system, and their eldest daughter, Harriet, teaches at Gulfport East.PRINCIPAL(Sun Photo by Jackie Berg) BOYD JAMES: NO ‘HANG UP ABOUT RACE’Not enough evidenceOuster of ABCofficials doubtfulJACKSON, Miss. (UPI) — A call by Tax Commission Cha rman Charles Brady to oust three top Alcoholic Beverage Control Division administrators apparently will pass unheeded unless investigations turn up more concrete evidence of Irregularities.Brady asked that the three ABC officials be fired after some alleged shortages turned ud in Honorwitnesses including two agents who admitted having kept a case of Scotch whiskey for themselves after seizing it in a 1972 raid in Scott County.Agent Henry Hause apparently testified that he had also taken a case of the seized liquor to both Mashburn’s and Cole’s homes.Ir
Newspaper Details
South Mississippi Sun
Biloxi, Mississippi, US
Mon, Sep 16, 1974
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
TX, USA 05 Jul 2020
Other Publications Near Biloxi, Mississippi
The Keesler Field News
Biloxi Sun Herald
Biloxi Herald
South Mississippi Sun
Biloxi Daily Herald
