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