Dothula Baron

Location: MUSE Winston‑Salem

Interview by Michael S. Williams
Videos by Jonathan Harmon

Paisley High School, Class of 1966

"Oh, my goodness," said Dothula Baron when describing what it was like to attend the 50th reunion of her 1966 class of Paisley High School. "We had lots of teachers there, and lots of people came back from all parts of the country." Baron, who was living in California a year prior to the reunion, hadn't planned on coming back to the "All-America City," but said returning was part of "the divine plan."

Baron said the educators with whom she spent time had an influence on her in several ways, including how to comport oneself. "Our educators were so sophisticated," she said. The family atmosphere also taught the students that they were to reach for high standards and make good choices. "It was expected that we would do the right thing," she remembered. 

After graduating from Paisley, Baron attended North Carolina College; by her 1970 graduation year, the school was given university status by the state legislature, and the name was changed to North Carolina Central University. Baron majored in English with a minor in Library Science, the latter the field where she spent most of her career. The author of the book Walking in Light, Living in Love, Baron now leads an organization called My Face, Inc. that assists women with upward economic mobility. She stresses authenticity in her book, writing “We do not realize that we actually miss our mark when we follow someone else’s goals rather than our own.” Black educators from Baron’s era stressed that, too. She said the academic expectations set forth by her teachers is what helped her in life.