Oral history with Mr. Billy Joe McCain, Sr.

              Oral history with Mr. Billy Joe McCain, Sr.
F341.5 . M57 vol. 748, pt. 2
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Biography
One of two children, Mr. Billy Joe McCain Sr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1936. When he was four years old, his parents divorced, and he returned with his sister and his mother to her parents' home in Grenada, Mississippi. He attended segregated schools, Grenada Colored School, and Grenada Colored High School, during which time he was involved in Boy Scouting and football. He was graduated in 1954, and he enlisted in the Air Force where he served in technical supply, and saw time in Korea. He was decorated with the United States Medal for Foreign Service and the Good Conduct Medal.
He attended Mississippi Valley State University on a football scholarship, and he was graduated from that institution. For six years, he taught school at Shaw, Mississippi, in the early 1960s, during a time when segregation was still practiced, and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi was intensifying.
In 1965, the Community Action Program concept was introduced to Bolivar County, and Mr. McCain became active in community meetings being held at that time. He researched the needs of underprivileged children and families, and he began to write grant proposals to bring federal monies into his community in order to help prepare children for school. In 1966, the Community Action Agency in Bolivar County was funded for the Summer Head Start Program. Mr. McCain served as Center Director for the Shaw Head Start Center. Later, he was appointed to the position of Project Director of the Bolivar County Community Action Agency Head Start Program. Currently the program is still extant as a demonstration program.
Mr. McCain is married to Sylvia Spearman McCain, and they are the parents of three children, as well as the grandparents of several grandchildren.
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