George McCullough

George McCullough dedicated most of his professional life to educating thousands of South Bend school children, first as a counsellor and then as long-time principal of South Bend, Indiana’s Washington High School.  He grew up on South Bend’s west side in an area sometimes called LaSalle Park, sometimes called “Beck’s Lake.” In the first half of the 20th century, LaSalle Park was one of the few places African Americans were allowed to live. In spite of the people living there, or perhaps because of it, nearby factories like Bendix would dump waste there. Today, the area is considered a Super-Fund site under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency.  In 2003, Dr. Les Lamon from the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center sat down with Mr. McCullough to talk his life, his career, his experiences growing up through the South Bend school system, and his views on South Bend’s strides towards equality. Learn more of South Bend’s History from Michiana Memory: http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/.  Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/.