Interview with Will Singleton. Interviewer, Judith Monachina
Interview with Will Singleton. Interviewer, Judith Monachina
SingletonWill_NAACP
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Title:
Interview with Will Singleton. Interviewer, Judith Monachina
Description:
Will Singleton was born in Pittsfield, Mass., went to public schools, a serious student. Father had moved up from the south, met his mother while staying in a rooming house her parents owned. Father later owned Quick and Clean Laundry; and Will tells a story of his father’s move to work in Pittsfield for General Electric engineers from the south who missed southern cooking. Will graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC; worked in the Potting Shed in Lenox in the summer (Count Basie, etc. played there, the Music Barn), then worked as a teacher at Alice Deal Junior High School; went to graduate school at Georgetown, later a Doctorate at NYU, and worked in education, as a teacher, principal, then as assistant superintendent and superintendent in various districts. Worked in DC, Huntington, Riverhead Plainview, Old Bethpage, NY, and NYC Board of Ed. His wife Deborah Rivel(?) died, colon cancer, at age 43. He moved back to the Berkshires to take care of his ill 90 year old father. Talks about senior softball, still does Tai Chi. Here, he has been president and involved in revival of local NAACP. He is active in making sure African Americans represented in government. Discussion of the election of the first African American as President, Barack Obama, and about politics now, after the election of Donald Trump.
Title from accompanying material.
A project of NAACP-Berkshire Branch, with assistance from Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, main NAACP protagonists in project: Len Kates, Dennis Powell. Worked in districts: Huntington, Riverhead, Plainview, Old Bethpage, NY, NYC Board of Ed. Pittsfield; Springfield Union Paper Route, Music Barn, Boys Club, Second Congregational Church (Pittsfield) Howard University, Washington DC, New York University. Georgetown University. African American representation in local government and business (Berkshires)
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