Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Charles L. Coon Papers #177, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received of Carrie Sparger Coon in the 1930s and 1970s.

Additional Descriptive Resources

Index to personal names, corporate names, places, and subjects that appear in the collection, and a bibliography of Charles L. Coon's writings. These guides, produced during earlier processing projects, can assist the researcher with locating materials in the collection, especially Series 1. Correspondence, Writings, and Biographical Materials; and Series 4. Clippings.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff and Jessica Sedgwick, August 2008

Encoded by: Jessica Sedgwick, August 2008

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2020

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American schools--North Carolina.
• African American teachers--North Carolina.
• African Americans--Education--North Carolina.
• African Americans--Medical care--North Carolina.
• Aycock, Charles B. (Charles Brantley), 1859-1912.
• Child labor--Law and legislation--North Carolina.
• Coon, Charles L. (Charles Lee), 1868-1927.
• Education, Rural--North Carolina.
• Education--Curricula--North Carolina.
• Education--North Carolina--Finance.
• Education--North Carolina--History.
• Juvenile delinquency--North Carolina.
• Kitchin, Claude, 1869-1923.
• McKelway, Alexander Jeffrey, 1866-1918.
• Mecklenburg County (N.C.)--History.
• North Carolina Teachers Assembly.
• Pacifism--History.
• Peace movements--North Carolina.
• People with mental disabilities--Education--North Carolina.
• Poe, Clarence Hamilton, 1881-
• Salisbury (N.C.)--History.
• Salisbury (N.C.)--Social conditions.
• School administrators--North Carolina.
• School management and organization--North Carolina.
• School superintendents--North Carolina.
• Schools--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Schools--North Carolina--Salisbury.
• Schools--North Carolina--Wilson County.
• Schools--North Carolina--Wilson.
• Social service--North Carolina.
• Southern Education Board.
• Teachers colleges--North Carolina.
• Teachers--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Teachers--Training of--North Carolina.
• Textbooks--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Tuberculosis--Hospitals--North Carolina.
• Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915.
• Wilson (N.C.)--History.
• Wilson (N.C.)--Social conditions.
• Wilson County (N.C.)--History.
• Wilson County (N.C.)--Social conditions.

Charles Lee Coon (1868-1927) was an educator, educational historian, and child labor reformer. Born 25 December 1868 near Lincolnton, N.C., Coon was the eldest of nine children of David A. Coon and Frances (Hovis) Coon. The family was of German ancestry and the name Coon was originally spelled Kuhn. Coon joined the Lutheran Church at age twelve and attended the neighborhood schools and Concordia College in Conover, N.C. He edited the Lincoln Democrat, 1895-1896, and was a journalist for the Charlotte Observer, 1896-1899. In the 1890s, he also taught school in Lincolnton, at Concordia College, and in Charlotte, N.C. While in Charlotte, he was engaged in historical research for Daniel A. Tomkin's History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte: From 1740 to 1903. Coon was married to Carrie Louise Sparger of Mount Airy, N.C., on 21 October 1903. They had three children: Frances Elizabeth, Mary Moore, and Charles Lee Coon.

Coon served as superintendent of schools in Salisbury 1899-1903, and in 1903 went to Knoxville, Tenn., to do publicity work for the Southern Education Board, editing 20 issues of Southern Education. From 1904 to 1906, he acted as superintendent of North Carolina African American normal schools, and during 1907 was chief clerk in the office of the North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1907, Coon moved to Wilson, N.C., and remained there as a public school administrator for the rest of his life, serving as superintendent of Wilson City Schools, 1907-1927, and as superintendent of Wilson County Schools, 1913-1927. He was president of the Wilson Welfare League in 1914; secretary of the North Carolina Child Labor Committee, 1906-1916, president of the North Carolina Teachers Assembly in 1911, and was a member of the editorial board of the North Carolina Historical Review, 1924-1927. He authored numerous newspaper and magazine articles, addresses, teachers' manuals, and was the editor of educational documents published as The Beginnings of Public Education in North Carolina, 1790-1840, and North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840. He received the LL. D. degree from the University of North Carolina in 1926 and was president-elect of the State Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina when he died on 23 December 1927.

The collection contains correspondence, writings, biographical materials, educational materials, historical research and related materials, and clippings.

Sample item:

Letter from Booker T. Washington to Charles L. Coon, 23 May 1914, regarding Coon's request for guidence in establishing a tuberculosis hospital for African Americans in Wilson, N.C., Folder 47.

Correspondence and writings include material about Coon's work as an educator and education reformer. Materials relate to Coon's efforts to improve education for African Americans, particularly regarding funding and teacher training. Topics in education include curricula; the establishment of a school for the mentally handicapped; adoption of textbooks; teacher training, certification, and evaluation; farm life schools; legislation for mandatory school terms; professional ethics; school athletics; school financing; and Coon's work for the Bureau of Information of the Southern Education Board, the North Carolina Teachers Assembly, North Carolina African American normal schools, and the schools of Salisbury, N.C., and Wilson County, N.C. Also included are materials about child labor reform; social services; Coon's work with the North Carolina Child Labor Committee and the Wilson Welfare League; pacifism and peace movements; juvenile crime, especially as it relates to illiteracy; and the establishment of a tuberculosis hospital for African Americans. Prominent correspondents include Booker T. Washington, Charles Brantley Aycock, Clarence Poe, A. J. McKelway, and Claude Kitchin. Also of note are letters and clippings related to Coon's controversial 1909 address, "Public Taxation and Negro Schools," given at the Twelfth Conference for Education in the South in Atlanta, Ga. Biographical information on Coon is also included as is a bibliography of Coon's writings, speeches, and addresses.

Educational materials include collected articles on education; notes on the history of education; information about North Carolina schools and teachers; book lists; and subject files on topics such as textbook adoption, anti-hookworm campaigns, and teachers' duties. Teaching and testing materials include sample lesson plans, copies of tests, outlines, Coon's suggestions for teaching various subjects, and other items used in the training of teachers. Scrapbooks are of clippings, images, and stories used by Coon as teaching tools.

Historical research and related materials collected by Coon in his research on North Carolina history include transcribed excerpts, copies of documents, and notes from Colonial Records, State Records, Laws of North Carolina, and various North Carolina newspapers on such topics as education, religion, Germans in North Carolina, slave codes, the establishment of North Carolina common schools, the Literary Fund, textbooks, institutes, and the administration of State Superintendent Calvin H. Wiley. Also included are documents created by residents of Mecklenburg County, N.C., probably collected while Coon was engaged in research for Daniel A. Tompkins's History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte: From 1740 to 1903.

Clippings are of newspaper articles concerning Coon's activities and interests, primarily regarding education, child labor reform, juvenile crime, and peace movements in North Carolina, including articles authored by him. There are also clippings of responses to addresses given by Coon, namely "The Need of a Constructive Educational Policy for North Carolina" and "Public Taxation and Negro Schools." Also included are a few scattered broadsides and pamphlets.

• Volumes (SV-177/1-4)
• Photographs (PF-177/folder 1)