Hello Professor: A Black Principal and Professional Leadership in the Segregated South

by Vanessa Siddle Walker, Ulysses Byas

Like many black school principals, Ulysses Byas, who served the Gainesville, Georgia, school system in the 1950s and 1960s, was reverently addressed by community members as "Professor." He kept copious notes and records throughout his career, documenting efforts to improve the education of blacks. Through conversations with Byas and access to his extensive archives on his principalship, Vanessa Siddle Walker finds that black principals were well positioned in the community to serve as conduits of ideas, knowledge, and tools to support black resistance to officially sanctioned regressive educational systems in the Jim Crow South.

Walker explains that principals participated in local, regional, and national associations, comprising a black educational network through which power structures were formed and ideas were spread to schools across the South. The professor enabled local school empowerment and applied the collective wisdom of the network to pursue common school projects such as pressuring school superintendents for funding, structuring professional development for teachers, and generating local action that was informed by research in academic practice. The professor was uniquely positioned to learn about and deploy resources made available through these networks. Walker's record of the transfer of ideology from black organizations into a local setting illuminates the remembered activities of black schools throughout the South and recalls for a new generation the role of the professor in uplifting black communities.

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jazmin Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve written a similar review for Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker’s other books (Their Highest Potential), but I have to share her writing and ideas with everyone I can. Dr. Siddle Walker was my professor and I had the honor to read this book in one of her courses. The impact she had is immense, and this is one of the books that has stuck with me through my career in education. This is a very important book to read especially if you are an educator, or just someone interested in education, racism, or history in general. 10/10 recommend!

[John Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important look at power and politics before Brown v. Board of Education. Hello Professor is a picture of community connection amd action to create better schools for children.

[Marion Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book to obtain insight into the life of a Black principal of a segregated high school when I was researching segregated schools in America in preparation for writing the book Memories of Union High: An Oasis in Caroline County, Virginia 1903-1969.

This book provides value insight the many battles a Black principal had to face as he fought to provide a quality education to Black youths during segregation. Black principals were very well respected and influential members of their community. It also shows how he was cast aside after integration and had to find a way to make a living. Very interested reading about a strong willed and very determined man.