Oral history interview with William Dallas Herring, February 14, 1987

William Dallas Herring began his career in education politics on the Duplin County School Board and eventually became chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Education. In Duplin County and statewide, Herring sought to consolidate school districts and give as much control as possible to local decision-makers. His devotion to comprehensive education (as opposed to choosing to support either vocational or liberal arts education) sometimes put him at odds with other Board members and state leaders. In this interview, Herring describes some of these conflicts, offering broad pronouncements about education and the details of policy wrangling. Many of these details come in Herring's recollections about the growth of the community college system in North Carolina in the late 1950s and 1960s. Researchers should read this interview with its partner, C-0035.