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 that existed in other places--with respect to Negroes. It was an aristocratic
 [society]; there were many aristocrats that lived in Bloomfield in the big
 plantations and the big, old, colonial-type houses, and they were the dominating
 element. They are the ones that got on the board of education. They were
 afraid that I was destroying the academic excellence of the school by taking care
 of these other needs. They cut student activities, too. They said I was getting
 the children's minds off the books. We had organized various student clubs.
 We had an English club and a debate club--we had a high school debating
 society--and various things. The children had a lot of things to do, you see, and
 they stayed in school.

C: Let us talk about Howard Bishop for a minute. He got into big trouble politically
 trying to implement that school consolidation program that the 1947 report
 advocated. What kind of man was he?

J: A very able man, very able man.

C: He grew up here in the county.

J: Yes. He came from an old, established family here. The Bishop family is, I
 think, one of the oldest families here in Alachua County. And he was very able.

C: Was he a politically shrewd person, do you think?

J: Well, I do not know. I would say that he aggressively worked for what he
 thought was right.

C: He spoke his mind?

J: Yes, he spoke his mind. I would say he was more concerned with his principles
 and doing right than he was with his political future. Politics did not mean
 surrendering a principle to him. He would stick to his principles, whether it was
 politically sound or not. That is Howard Bishop.

C: For his re-election campaign as superintendent in 1948, the small communities in
 the county like Archer and Waldo organized together against him. Do you
 remember Lynn Hardy, his opponent that year?

J: No, I do not remember him.

C: Well, he ran on the anticonsolidation ticket, but Bishop was able to defeat him
 that year. You were saying that Waldo was arguing that they were going to
 have a huge population increase and should keep their school.