| Abstract |
The Johnetta Web Spilman papers include clippings, correspondence, speeches, photographs, programs, clipping documents of public life, invitations, scrapbooks, and biographical information. Correspondence concerns personal matters, including the illness and death of her husband, John Barham Spilman; and documents her political career with the Democratic party. Topics include Spilman's vice-chairmanship of the North Carolina State Democratic Executive Committee; her attitudes toward her work, party concerns, and women's role in North Carolina politics; her term with the North Carolina Unemployment Compensation Commission; Spilman's tenure in the North Carolina Mental Health Association; and proposed additions to the East Carolina University Psychology Department. Correspondents include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Clyde R. Hoey, and Gladys A. Tillett. Speeches cover a variety of topics dealing with her activities on the Unemployment Compensation Commission and women's role in American society and politics. Other items include clippings, which document many aspects of Spilman's public life; press releases; publications collected by Spilman; programs; certificates; scrapbooks; and photographs. |
| Access restriction | Joyner- No access restrictions. |
| Cite as |
Johnetta Webb Spilman Papers (#97), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. |
| Terms of use | Joyner- Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Mrs. John B. Spilman. |
| Biographical note | Johnetta Webb Spilman (1888-1982), a Chowan County native, taught in her own business school before becoming assistant treasurer of East Carolina Teachers College, where her husband John Barham Spilman (whom she married in 1917) was business manager. Mrs. Spilman became active in the North Carolina Democratic party as a precinct chairman in 1924; she ran as a candidate for the North Carolina Senate in 1932. Her first state-wide duties included coordinating activities of Democratic women in the 1936 Clyde R. Hoey gubernatorial campaign and assuming the vice-chairmanship of the North Carolina Democratic party in August 1936. Governor Hoey appointed her to the North Carolina Unemployment Compensation Commission. Mrs. Spilman also served as manager of the Greenville (N.C.) Employment Security Commission (1942-1944), assistant director of the 1950 Census for the First Congressional District, executive director of the Pitt County Tuberculosis Association (1950-1957), director of the North Carolina Mental Health Association (1957-1968), director of the Greenville Council on Aging, and member of the Governor's Council for the Aging. |
