Silas Craft interview

Description

Silas E. Craft (1918-1995) was a school principal who promoted education for Black students in Howard County, Maryland. He helped to open the first Black high school in the county, the now defunct Harriet Tubman High School, and was its first principal from 1949 to 1956. Craft also contributed to the reorganization and revitalization of the Howard County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In this oral history interview, Craft discusses his early involvement with the NAACP as a child and the relationship between the Congress of Racial Equality and the NAACP. He provides his thoughts on Lillie May Carroll Jackson and her activist work, as well as on Theodore R. McKeldin’s tenure as mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. Craft also describes his experiences as a Black man in the United States Army during World War II.