xt7s4m91cm4w_6 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7s4m91cm4w/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7s4m91cm4w/data/2009ms132.0547.dao.xml Thompson, Winston A. 0.22 Cubic Feet 11 folders archival material 2009ms132.0547 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Winston A. Thompson papers Education Education -- Kentucky. African Americans -- Education. African Americans -- Education -- Kentucky -- Louisville Pamphlets. Guide-books High school students -- Kentucky Programs. Clippings on Central High School text Clippings on Central High School 2020 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7s4m91cm4w/data/2009ms132.0547/Box_wh_45/Folder_12/Multipage135.pdf 1964, undated 1964 1964, undated section false xt7s4m91cm4w_6 xt7s4m91cm4w ATHLETIC

Cou1ier-Joulna1 Photos

. ' Probably he finest school for Negroes in the South is the new Central Highf'
’ School at Chestriut and 12th Streets, shown here from the air. The building '
cost more than $3, 000,000 It can accommodate 1, 800 pupils without strain.

 

 18

THE COURIER-JOURNAL,

LOUISVILLE, KY.,

 

 

40 Years At Central

 

School Bell Spurs
A Yen To Return

By CHARLES WHALEY
It will be hard this yea1 for Atwood S Wilson to stifle
that back- to- school feeling he always gets when September

rolls a1 ound

Alter 40 years at Louisville’s Central High School—29
of them as principal—Wilson will retire this month at 69.

Retirement won’t dim Wil~
son’s zest for education. He
plans to write educational
articles. work on a book tenta-
tively titled “The Needs of
Education," and help with edu-
cational projects for senior—
citizen clubs in churches and
at Plymouth Settlement House.

‘I Can’t Stay Away’

“And maybe I will go back
now and then to Central as
a substitute teacher,” Wilson
said. “I can’t stay away.”

His last year at Central was
spent as a counselor. Previous-
ly he had spent 10 years there
teaching chemistry. Wilson
himself requested the change
from principal to counselor.

He was succeeded as princi-
pal by J. Waymon Hacket‘t.

Wilson, a Louisville native,
saw Central through its
greatest gr’o W, 1.11 period. The
-school’s 1934 enrollment was
about 750 compared with to-
day’s approximately, 1,600, he
said. ,

About 15 percent of the
graduates went on to college
in 1934. Now that percentage
has doubled, he said.

Wilson was principal when
Central made its big move in
1952 from its old building at
Eighth and Chestnut to a new
structure at 1130 W. Chestnut.
The new school cost about $4
million, including equipment.

“That brought about one of
the biggest changes,” Wilson
said. “In the old days Central
had a purely academic or col-
lege-preparatory program. Now
we have a comprehensive
school and can train people
along all lines—both academic
and vocational.

82 Units Offered

“We offer 82 units——more
courses, more offerings than
any other high school in Ken-
tucky.” he said.

Wilson is also proud of the
75 college scholarships he
helped get for Central grad-
uates in 1963. He thinks that
also is a record for a City
high school.

‘ In his book-in-progress (he
is the coauthor of another one
called “Group Guidance In
The Senior High Schools”),
Wilson will define education’s

major needs today as mOie
emphasis on character building
£01 students mole guidance
counselors. dropout prevention.
stress on fundamental subjects,
a n d m o r e parent—teacher
groups.

He disagrees with State
Board of Education members
who have suggested withhold—
ing State aid fiom schools that
have neither an integrated fac-
ulty n01 student bb.ody This
is currently the case at Cen-
tral. which has had Only one
white graduate.

‘They Come Naturally’

“I don't think any of these
things need to be written into
laws." Wilson said. “I think
they will come about natural—
1\ "

“Evc1-ybody (under the
school system’s liberal transfer
policy) has a light to go to
Centralif he wants to and
any teacher can teach there
if he wants to. A white teacher
was going to teach there about
two years ago, but then she
went into the Peace Corps.

“This is not a problem.
White children will be in there
gradually. The City of Louis-
ville has an integrated school
system. The fact that
you have a school in a neigh-
borhood that’s all colored
doesn’t mean you don’t have
good teachers.”

Atwood and his wife, Eu-
nice, a mathematics teacher at
Western Junior High School,
live at 1925 W. Madison. For
32 summers he has taken edu-
cation and psychology courses
at the University of Chicago
and the University of Colorado.
His wife accompanied him and
studied, too, for 20 summers.

Wilson has five daughters,
who like him are graduates
of Central and have become
teachers.

He’s Fisk Graduate

They are Mrs. Anita Giles,
Perry School; Mrs. Sylvia Cor-
bett, John F. Kennedy School;
Mrs. Susie Mae Guess, Bran-
(leis; Mrs. James Jackson, wife
of a United States Army
colonel stationed in London,
England, where she teaches in

Staff Photo

MR. AND MRS. ATWOOD S. WILSON

the 10th Armed Forces School,
and Mrs. Lucille Drehcr, who
plans to resume teaching when
her children arc older. The
Wilsons have 10 grandchil—
drcn.

He is a graduate of Visit
University and holds a bache-
lor’s degree with a major in
chemistry and a master’s de-
gree in education from the
University of Chicago. He
served six years as principal
of Madison Street Junior High
School, now named Russell
Junior High.

Among his numerous honors
and activities have been these:

First Negro trustee of the
Louisville Free Public Library
(in 1948 he presented the reso-
lution that abolished racial seg-
regation 1n the Main Library
at Fourth and York); secre-
tarytreasurer 20 years of the

old Kentucky Negro Education -
Association, which later‘
merged with the Kentucky Ed-

ucation Association; winner of
the Lincoln Key for contribu-
tions to the education of the
Negro in Kentucky;
school and summer-school fac-
ulty member at the old Louis-
ville Municipal College; visit-
ing summer lecturer at Ken—
tucky State College.

He was among the first three
Negroes in the country to re-
ceive, in 1933, a Silver Beaver
award from President Herbert
Hoover, then honorary presi—
dent of the Boy Scouts of
America; a membr of the
executive committee for Ken-
tucky of the National Youth
Administration; only Negro
member in 1944 of the advisory

evening- .

{hen Mayor Joseph
Scholtz: recipient of a doctor—
of—humamties degree in 1954
from Simmons University here;
president more than 20 years
of Plymouth Settlement House
and trustee and superintendent
of the Sunday school of Plym-
outh Congregational Church.

board to