Nearly a year and a half after local NAACP president Sylvia Barnes said pulling Gov. Charles B. Aycock’s name off a Wayne County high school was non-negotiable — and long overdue — the issue came to the fore at Monday’s meeting of the county Board of Education.
But it was not members of the Goldsboro-Wayne branch of the NAACP who addressed the board.
Two local residents — one carrying a petition he said contained more than 3,500 signatures — argued against a potential name-change.
John Pippin, president of the Fremont Historical Society, who delivered the petition to the board, said during the comment period that despite questions about Aycock’s true commitment to equality and allegations that he was a white supremacist, his contributions and actions need to be looked at in the context of the time in which he lived.
Pippin said Aycock stood up for equal treatment for blacks at a time when that position was not popular — especially within his party.
“He fought for equal education for all students,” he said, referring to a stand by Aycock in 1903, when he threatened to resign over a move by the legislature to limit funding of black schools.
Local resident Jerry Grantham also spoke at the meeting, asking why the community needed to consider changing the high school’s name at all.
Grantham said many historical figures have both positive and questionable aspects to their lives and tenures.
Aycock is known as an education governor, Grantham said.
He added that a name change would accomplish nothing today except dividing the community and causing “ill feelings” for many residents.
“Please remember, the things that unite us … are so much greater than the things that continue to divide us,” he said.
Aycock critics say that the former governor championed separate but equal education and that his motivation was not the true welfare of black children, but preventing intervention by the federal government, which would demand full voter participation and representation for blacks.
Removing his name from the Pikeville high school would not be the first time the former governor was shunned by an academic institution.
In 2014, Duke University removed his name from an undergraduate dormitory. At the time, then-Duke President Richard Brodhead said that while Aycock made “notable contributions to public education” in the state, “his legacy is inextricably associated with the disenfranchisement of black voters, or what W.E.B. DuBois termed ‘a civic death.’”
The following year, East Carolina University trustees also voted to remove Aycock’s name from a campus dorm.
UNC-Greensboro trustees followed suit in 2016, voting to pull Aycock’s name off its auditorium because, as Chancellor Dr. Frank Gilliam said, “the beliefs, words and actions of Gov. Aycock regarding racial matters are so clearly antithetical to our core values and mission that we should no longer honor him.”
Rabble rousers……… that man’s name never “offended” anyone until they were told to be offended. That era began in 2008 during the first term of the first black president. The first “post racial” president he called himself. How’d that work out? Not too good. This country is experiencing the greatest level of division since the civil rights era and it is “by design”.
I think a better use of time and effort would be to address the problems in the black community that are unrelated to race based grievances. A good start would be to avoid teaching kids that every obstacle they will face is because of their skin. Because THAT is a one way ticket to an orange jumpsuit and a life of mediocrity. Next would be fatherless homes. Then teach the children to be students. Instead of teaching them to be victims, show them the advantages of being non combative. Obey the law, respect authority, and do unto others as you would like done unto you. If we all teach our children those simple life shaping lessons, there would be no need to sit around and argue about which history needs erasing.
Will changing the name of that school improve the scores of ONE student? No. Will the problems facing our communities go away? No. Will it ameliorate the racial division between us? No. It will only deepen it. And finally, is this the greatest issue facing the students of Wayne County? No. So let’s leave the name alone, put on our big people pants, reject political correctness, and just live our lives like productive human beings.
But if you MUST continue on with this snowflake-a-rama, I will be on board, in solidarity, THE SECOND every building in West Virginia named after Robert Byrd, democrat, ex Grand Klegle of the Ku Klux Klan, is changed. Until then, your crusade is nothing but politically inspired race pimpery.
Changing names of buildings or removing statues and monuments only satisfies a few. It does nothing for the whole. The history is still there no matter how hard the few try to erase it. How does all of this change things that occurred 158 years ago (Civil War) or 118 years ago (Gov. Aycock’s time).