Mike Parker: Kinston Civil Rights pioneers deserve recognition
Some may be uncomfortable reading my words today, but they need to be said. As a community, we need to take action. Last week I wrote about Barbara Johns of Farmville, Va., who organized a walkout at Moton High School on April 23, 1951.
She and other Moton students walked out because of the patently discriminatory conditions that existed between Moton High and the white high school in Prince Edward County during the days of legally-sanctioned racial segregation.
These students were part of the litigants in what became the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision that demanded the desegregation of schools in this nation. In 2017 a building was named to honor Barbara Johns and her efforts to gain Civil Rights for victims of discrimination.
Adkin High School was the first high school for black students constructed east of Raleigh. Adkin was a “Rosenwald School,” built in 1928 with the financial assistance of Julius Rosenwald, a philanthropist who helped build a number of schools across the South for African-American students.
The Adkin High School Walkout of Nov. 20, 1951 took place after Adkins High students read a Weekly Reader article.
“Every Wednesday she [Ms. B.C. Davis] brought in the Weekly Reader, which had very interesting articles in it,” John Dudley told me during an interview. “But this particular Wednesday, Nov. 14, she brought in the Weekly Reader, and the topic was what an ideal school has. We read the article about what an ideal school has, and we began to look around at each other.
“We asked Ms. Davis: ‘Is there a school in this area that has those things?’ She said, ‘Yes, Grainger High School up on the hill has them.’ So we asked her, ‘What probably could students do. And she said, most times they would strike.”
“From that point on, we asked Ms. Davis to leave the room. That article turned us on because we knew we did not have any of those things listed in the article.”
Adkin High had its problems. The school had been constructed beside a creek, which regularly flooded the campus. The school gym was an old wooden building called “the barn” that had been built by students and was heated by a potbelly stove. This “gym” had no bleachers, so those who attended basketball games had to stand against the walls to watch.
Other deficiencies included no provisions for home economics classes and poorly equipped shop classes. Students in science classes shared a single microscope. Lack of classroom space was also an issue.
“Some classes met in the auditorium; some in the library; some in the cafeteria. We needed more classroom space and a home economics room – and a new shop,” Dudley told me.
Several students appeared before the school board on the Monday before Thanksgiving – Nov. 19, 1951. A supreme irony is that the school board met at Grainger High School. The students presented a list of their concerns. The board members first asked what adults had sent them. They could not believe the students came before them without adult coaching.
Then board members asked the students to step out for a few minutes while they talked. When the students were called back in, the board had an answer for them.
“The board members told us what we were asking for was not even in the budget for the next 10 years. So we said, ‘thank you very much,’ and left Grainger High.”
That proposal and the board’s inaction prompted what followed – the Adkin Walkout. At the time the students planned the walkout, they were not aware of any similar action by any other schools.
“That whole week – Wednesday through the weekend – we were in strategy and planning. We had already planned in case the board did not give us the proper response. We had already printed our signs and everything. … So it was amazing. I am still amazed,” Dudley said.
“We had told them to make the signs: ‘Equal Education’ and other signs of that nature.”
By the way, within 18 months after the walkout, the school board appropriated funds to construct a state-of-the-art gymnasium for Adkin High School. Through the years, their other concerns were also met.
The Adkin Walkout took place three years before the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision. It took place nearly 10 years before the Woolworth Sit-in in Greensboro. The sit-in counter is now in the Smithsonian.
Our community needs to find ways to recognize the courage of the Adkin students. I cannot recall a single historical marker or any public recognition of the early blow these young people struck for equal education – and equal rights. That fact needs to change.
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
