Collis P. Huntington High School, commonly referred to as just Huntington High School (opened in 1927) was a black high school located in the

East End section East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the List of c ...

, US, during the era of racial segregation. After

desegregation Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws ...

, it became an integrated intermediate school (eighth and ninth grades), and in 1981 was converted to a middle school (sixth through eighth grades). The school was named after the shipping and railroad pioneer,

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...

, who founded the local shipyards, the

Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the sole designer, builder, and refueler of aircraft carriers and one of two providers of submarines for the United States Navy. Founded as the Chesapeake Dry Dock ...

, at one time the largest shipbuilding concern in the world. Lutrelle Palmer, the principal of Huntington High, also a strong

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

advocate, whose own wages were supplemented by voluntary parental contributions, in November 1937 chastised his daughter for accepting a job in Newport News that paid her a third less per month than a beginning white teacher earned. This led to a unanimous vote by the Virginia State Teachers Association to file equal-pay lawsuits in partnership with the NAACP. This move paved the way to a statewide campaign attacking the legal basis for school segregation. Palmer was sacked from the school in 1943 for his activism. Huntington's football team, coached by Thad Madden from 1943 through 1971, had 28 straight winning seasons, compiling a 251-114-16 record. Madden's Huntington teams won sixteen Virginia Interscholastic Association eastern District titles and seven VIA state championships. Huntington track and field squads, also under Madden, won 19 VIA state championships and were declared seven times runners-up after the VIA integrated with the Virginia High School League.

Notable alumni

* Joe Durham, Former

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player (

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

) * Former U.S. Energy Secretary, Hazel R. O'Leary (1937-) * Thaddeus E. Hayes, founder of Thaddeus Hayes Dance Theatre (ca. 1928-April 26, 2000)

References

External links

No Easy Journey
on Huntington's role in the campaign against segregation, Newport News, Va., Daily Press, republished in Newsday. * Thad Madden
biography from Athletic Hall of Fame of the Lower Virginia Peninsula

Hazel O'Leary

(92nd General Assembly, Illinois) honoring Lu Palmer.
Huntington Middle School
{{authority control Historically segregated African-American schools in Virginia Huntington High Huntington High Huntington High 1927 establishments in Virginia 1981 disestablishments in Virginia