A community activist group said today it will make a concerted effort to push school merger by taking aim at upcoming board ofcommissioners races and going through the state legislature if necessary.
Speakers at the rally, essentially a press conference to mark the two-year anniversary of the release of a University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights report promoting merger, promised to work to oust Halifax County commissioners Rives Manning and Vernon Bryant.
“The report documented what we who live here already know,” said Gary Grant, speaking at the Coalition for Education and Economic Security press conference held on the grounds of the Historic Courthouse in Halifax. “Namely, that the most significant impediment to genuine educational reform and progress in our county is the enduring manifestation of Jim Crow segregation inherent in the three separate and unequal public school systems.”
Said Grant, “The report’s authors, who are here with us today, called for merger of the tripartite system as a necessary, but not exclusive step, towards remedying the adverse impacts of stark racial and socioeconomic isolation of the students in Halifax County.”
Audience members listen to speakers.
Trequan McGee, a recent Northwest Halifax graduate, told the audience, “This report opened my eyes to the many injustices occurring every single day. The part that moved me the most is that the UNC Center for Civil Rights took it upon themselves to do this report and the county commissioners had the audacity to say that the report was flawed.”
Accepted at North Carolina State A&T University, McGee told the audience he has reservations about how he will fit in coming from the Halifax County school system. “I wonder at times how do I compare to students that have graduated from some of the surrounding counties or even across the state. I mean we are ranked at the bottom of the list amongst school systems. Some days I wake up and forget that we have county commissioners. I mean they have forgotten about the students. It seemed to me that they don’t understand that the quality of education will make or break an economy.”
Said McGee: “As a product of Halifax County schools I feel that I will have to work extra hard to get to the level that some college students are already on.”
An audience member shows her support of the report.
Donna Hunter, chair of the Halifax County Board of Education, told the audience, “We have good children in our system. It upsets me that in the 21st Century we’re still having meetings on this report. We have three school systems in this county. We have more schools than we need for students.”
Hunter gave the first hint a movement was building to go after elected officials. “We have got to stop electing the people that are there for the wrong reasons,” she said. “If we keep electing the same people next year we’ll be here to honor the third anniversary.”
Hunter said she doesn’t understand why merger is a bad thing. “Why not consolidate to have a stronger system? It’s not the children posing the problem, it’s the adults.”
Hunter speaks.
O.D. Sykes, a minister, said, “When I look at the three school systems it makes me think of a tug-of-war. We all live in the same county.”
Sykes said the Evergreen study, commissioned by the board commissioners, pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of all three systems. Why not, he said, combine the systems and emphasize the strengths of the three?
David Harvey, president of the county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people, said, “I don’t call this Historic Halifax, I call it pathetic Halifax.”
Harvey said voters need to target Bryant in the election because he is a former member of the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District Board of Education and will not budge on the merger issue.
Manning is the same way, he said. “Rives Manning will never satisfy the people sitting in this audience. We’ve got to get our own people in office. We have got to oppose Rives Manning and Vernon Bryant. We have a good opportunity to remove both of them. If we remove both of them we could move to merging the three schools.”
The other way, Harvey said, is to push legislators.
Copeland closed out the rally.
Rebecca Copeland, chair of the coalition, said, “Without a quality education system there is no economic growth in Halifax County.”
Copeland vowed consolidation would occur in Halifax County, despite opposition from the Roanoke Rapids and Weldon school systems.
Weldon’s leadership, she said, “Is so far removed that Roanoke Rapids uses them for their personal gain.”
She said Roanoke Rapids hides behind closed door and likened the school system to mask-wearing members of Ku Klux Klan.
The coalition, she said, “Will not stop until this changes.”