Meet Shirley McFarland
One Woman’s Journey from Cotton Fields to the Corporate Office

By Theresa W. Bennett-Wilkes

“I don’t think there will be another time similar to my experience. There will never be anymore firsts in these areas—they’ve been conquered.”             Shirley Johnson McFarland

“The summer of ’57 I went looking for a job so I’d have money for school in the fall. I went to Western Electric in Greensboro. The employment officer dictated three letters to me; I typed them up in final form, he signed them, put them in envelopes and mailed them. It was real work that he gave me. He told me that I was ready for Greensboro but it wasn’t ready for me. He said if he hired me he’d lose his job. ‘Go north,’ he told me. He said if I could get a job I’d never get paid what I was worth. I got as far north as Washington, D.C. and that’s where it started,” said Shirley.

Shirley McFarland; photo courtesy Howard Gaither Photography

Shirley Johnson McFarland grew up working. This daughter of tenant farmers rose from humble beginnings to shatter racial barriers in employment. “I was raised up in Rockingham and Guilford counties. My parents were really migrants. I come from a family of eight siblings. I liked living on the farm but I didn’t like the hard work. I liked school so I knew there had to be a better way to make a living. I wanted to attend Bennett College for Women but my parents didn’t have any money.

We belonged to the Methodist church and I got a one-year scholarship to Bennett. I completed three years; secretarial science was my major and library science my minor.”
Shirley enjoys sharing her story. Far from being a quaintly romantic figure out of the distant past, she is a trailblazer. Her achievements resulted from basic necessity. She is a charming, folksy and vibrant woman, active in her church, her community, and the Bennett College National Alumnae Association.

“The college guidance counselor told me to take secretarial science,” Shirley continued. “We didn’t have a typewriter at my segregated high school—Brown Summit High School —and I’d never heard of shorthand. I’d never touched a typewriter. Three years later I was taking dictation at 120 words per minute (wpm); and could type, without error, 75 wpm on a standard manual—a Royal—typewriter. There were no electric typewriters.”

Shirley moved to Washington, DC in 1957 and eventually she went to work at Andrews Air Force Base, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and the National Legal Services Program. Sargent Shriver, father of Maria Shriver, was her employer. “Legal Services had an advisory board and I took dictation at their meetings.” Former Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, associate Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and former Attorney General Robert Kennedy were among the board’s members.

“Meanwhile I met and married a DC native, had a son, and got a divorce. My parents urged me to come back home. They assured me that things were better.” She decided to apply at Cone Mills in Greensboro.

“I applied for a secretarial job. They stared at me like I was something from outer space and told me they did not have any jobs for a secretary. The head of personnel asked me for my resume—that was around 2pm. I went back to Reidsville and my father told me, ‘Shirley, somebody from Cone Mills called you.’

I called back and was told the president of the company, Lewis Morris, wanted to talk to me. They literally rolled out the red carpet for me. I later learned they checked out my background and Sargent Shriver told them, ‘She doesn’t need you—you need her!’

I worked three years at Cone Mills and then went on to become executive secretary to the president of the Greensboro chamber of commerce, William Little. I left there to become a congressional staffer to former congressman Robin Britt. I worked briefly for a credit union and then I got a call from Dr. Jerome Melton, Superintendent of Guilford County Schools; that was before the merger. I was the first African American to work for the superintendent and that was in 1985. I took dictation for all three boards and worked on the merger. I left there in 1989.”

Shirley retired as secretary to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro in 2000.

“I wanted to share my background,” she explained. “At the time I was garnering all those firsts—and I didn’t know they were firsts—they were irrelevant because I just wanted to provide a livelihood for myself and my son. I’m glad that I’ve been able to work 40 straight years. Right now I’m working in the Department of Biology and I appreciate that because the longer I work the longer I’ll know my name.”