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DEL.ICIO.USBlack History Month: Remembering Hooper-Renwick School
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To this day, he still remembers the principal.
Robert Hightower was his name. He was a strict disciplinarian, role model, mentor. He didn’t demand perfection, just encouraged kids to achieve it.
“He had a pretty good influence on all of us,” said Eron Moore of Lawrenceville. “He believed that you should be in school, do what you are supposed to do when you were supposed to do it, and take pride in doing it.”
Hightower was a principal at the Hooper-Renwick School in Lawrenceville. It was the only public school in the county that blacks could attend. This was when segregation was par for course, back in the 1950’s and most of the 1960’s. Back then, black kids were picked up by bus from towns all over the county to Hooper-Renwick. Often, they were bussed past all-white campuses.
“Drove right by them,” said Nathaniel Brown of Norcross, a 76-year-old civil rights activist who drove a “relay” bus that took Norcross-area students to Duluth, where they continued to school on another bus.
“We didn’t know any better,” Brown told me. “What I mean by that is, that’s just the way it was back then.”
Back then, Ruby Neal lived in Dacula. She’s a proud Hooper-Renwick graduate, class of 1956.
“It was wonderful,” said Neal, 71, of Lawrenceville. “Just wonderful.”
The Hooper-Renwick campus closed its doors to students in 1968. Public schools had integrated. The campus still exists today. It carries the same name, but has a different purpose. The renovated campus, on Neal Boulevard in the mostly black section of downtown Lawrenceville, reopened in 1995 as a separate middle and high school for autistic students and those with severe emotional issues.
Memories of the segregated school — the good and bad of what it represented — are etched in the minds of old-timers. Folk like Moore, Neal and Brown. This time of year, history can strike a sensitive emotional chord. After all, it’s Black History Month.
“We need to know where we’re coming from to know where we’re going,” said Robbie Moore, Eron’s wife and president of the United Ebony Society of Gwinnett County, a civil rights group.
“We had a great, strong black community in Gwinnett, even before integration. We need to remember that.”
And because of that, a Hooper-Renwick reunion is in the works.
Graduates and former students are to gather for brunch and a tour of the school on July 21. A banquet will be held later that night at the Gwinnett Place Marriott. Festivities will continue the next day at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, which hosted Hooper-Renwick’s graduation ceremonies back in the day.
“We’re prepared for 250 and we hope that it’s going to be more in attendance,” Neal told me. “We keep losing people, so we want to get together and have a good time. We want to keep in touch with each other. I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself.”
For more information about the Hooper-Renwick reunion, contact Ruby Neal at 770-277-5123.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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By Bruce Wilcox
February 6, 2007 09:10 AM | Link to this
A reunion such as this would be a perfect opportunity for the Gwinnett Historial Society to interview and record those who attend so the history of the time it will never be lost, or swept under the rug.
Unlike most reunions where people boast of their individual accomplishments, this reunion all can boast on the progress they made as a whole, besides the personal accomplishments.
The only question I have is what took them so long to celebrate what must have been at the at the very lease a very confusing time.
By Lisha Maxey
February 6, 2007 09:48 AM | Link to this
My grandmother and many others in her neighborhood attended Hooper Renwick High School and have always instilled in us the pride they felt in just being able to go to school, it didn’t matter that it was a black school, it was a place of learning and provided them a chance to become a proud member of society. They fought and suffered for us so that we could attend schools with white children, the sacrifices that were made for us by our grandparents, aunts and uncles must not ever be forgotten. We as a people must learn to embrace our heritage, who we are and where we came from. We as a race seem to be ashamed of being successful, we have been made to feel like we are selling out, its not called selling out, its call growing up, and being an adult. Hooper Renwick inspired a neighborhood to take care of itself and each other, we need to get back to that, helping each other, loving each other, and taking care of each other. If not, we are bound for segregation and separation all over again, its time to unite our community and as a great poet (Rashad Maxey) once said,revive our hood!.
By Donna (Lewis) Robinson
February 6, 2007 11:13 AM | Link to this
I attended Hooper Renwick from grades 1st - 5th. I would love for someone to contact me about the reunion in July.
By Mark
February 6, 2007 11:39 AM | Link to this
“Black history month” What a joke. You people have no real history. Just history that you people made up. Like kwanzaa.
By dave
February 6, 2007 11:46 AM | Link to this
RICK. WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO GET STARTED ON THIS BLACK HISTORY MONTH THING. YOU ARE STARTING TO SOUND LIKE TERRANCE MOORE.
By Edna
February 6, 2007 02:59 PM | Link to this
Mark alot of the items you use each day were invented by blacks and that’s not made up. Go read a few books before you open your mouth and show your ignorance.
By Mark
February 6, 2007 03:35 PM | Link to this
Edna, Name one item invented by blacks excluding peanut butter, (c)rap, gangstas, oversized pants, bling bling,drive by shootings,crack,or ebonics.
By LB
February 6, 2007 05:23 PM | Link to this
There are numerous black people who are just now getting the recognition they deserve for accomplishments made. This recognition is long overdue in many cases.
I can also appreciate the Hispanic recognition. What I don’t understand is the recognition of just two groups when the USA has numerous groups and each is equally important.
If we have appreciation weeks and months for some, there should be appreciation for all. Some groups never get credit. What about the numerous Chinese immigrants coming to Gwinnett or the Doctors coming from India? Our country prides itself on diversity yet only a few groups are put on a pedistal for a period of time each year.
MLK represented equality. Where is the equality in spotlight time for all people and not just a few groups?
By Coni Brown
February 6, 2007 05:41 PM | Link to this
Mark, go to the website http://www.littleafrica.com/resources/inventors.htm, read and be informed (as your quality of life is simultaneously being blessed) by many - not all - of the contributions made my people.
By Coni Brown
February 6, 2007 05:49 PM | Link to this
I’m sorry, Mark, that last prepositional phrase of my statement should read “of the contributions made by my people”… I don’t want to confuse you!
By FeFe
February 6, 2007 06:30 PM | Link to this
Don’t get distracted by Mark. He is just the devil trying to cause confusion. Please continue with your good post. I’m enjoying reading all the good information. So please ignore him.
By Theresa Bailey McClendon
February 6, 2007 07:49 PM | Link to this
How excellent! There’s nothing like paying tribute and giving honor when and where it’s due….thank you Mr. Badie. This column will serve to reach people we only see on sad occassions for the most part and help bring us together….forever in July! But one other thing that has me so excited is that people like Mark will be educated and release from his miseducation….yes! All people of every race should be celebrated….especially, the human race! There’s nothing like a reuniting and enjoying it enough to pay to go! I’ll be there!
By diane
February 7, 2007 07:41 PM | Link to this
Mr. Badie…Thank you for your article concerning the waffle house posse and my friend and co worker, connie belcher. As so many of us pulled together to help connie, i knew these kids loved connie, and their conniefest was awesome.
Thank you also, for you piece concerning Hooper Renwick School. My son attended the school from 1996 to 2000, and I am sorry to say I never knew the origins of Hooper Renwick. I am proud to say I am happy to know these origins and still very proud of the work Hooper does.....while we fought tooth and nail to keep our son out of Hooper at the beginning, when their work was done, Hooper Renwick and their staff had done a marvelous job and my husband and myself...and our son, cried, as he departed this great institution for Berkmar high school, where he graduated, 2002.Thanks Rick…….diane canfield
By Try Again
February 8, 2007 01:24 AM | Link to this
Sorry, Coni, but that link doesn’t work.
By Mark
February 8, 2007 09:09 AM | Link to this
There’s a reason that the link Coni provided is non existant.
By Theresa Bailey McClendon
February 8, 2007 12:21 PM | Link to this
I’m glad to see you are interested enough to try it Mark….your curiosity will eventually persuade your ignorance because I have worked with Mark(s), been to school with Mark(s), and even to church with Mark(s) BUT eventually, Mark learned to celebrate himself and yes….he learned to celebrate others! I would like to say you’re interesting but no, what’s interesting is you probably have a black ‘friend’ who you think is an exception….I’ve spent enough time on this….Oh by the by, persistent wins, just google ‘Little Africa’, it’s a great website! Happy Black History Month 365!!!
By Mark
February 9, 2007 10:45 AM | Link to this
Theresa, I didn’t try it, I didn’t have to. I was told it was a dead link, and I believed it. And no, I have no black friends. Friends are people you can trust, and you people are far from trustworthy. You people have no history, only a boat ride from africa where they still p** in their drinking water.
By Theresa Bailey McClendon
February 10, 2007 02:08 PM | Link to this
Mark, or in my mind, Young man, as that is what I am hoping you are. At any rate, I was always taught that my opponent must be a worthy one; not in the sense of value but of equal caliber and with all due respect, your comments fail to indicate to me that this is not the case here.
You seem to forget or don’t realize the column you seem to be so faithful to read is written by a Black man. That is indicative to me that something is amiss with your thinking.
Therefore, it is without trepidation that I forego any more dialogue with you. I only pray you are young and your views will be properly nourished in order that you will thrive in an obvious diverse society successfully. I hope and pray you do not have children as of yet. What a travesty it would be to handicap them releasing them into society with such a debilitating and demeaning beginnings. They will never be able to formidable foes, companions, or otherwise to any race. I feel sorry for you; I feel sorry for them; but most of all, I feel sorry for society who will have to judge this behavior.
Go Well Mark and my prayer is that the eyes of your heart will be enlighten. Theresa