Williston School is a school in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

. It was first founded in 1866 by the abolitionist

American Missionary Association The American Missionary Association (AMA) was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on in Albany, New York. The main purpose of the organization was abolition of slavery, education of African Americans, promotion of racial equality, and ...

after the Union army occupied the city during the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. It was intended for freed slaves and initially had 450 pupils divided into five departments: primary, intermediate, advanced, normal and industrial. As it developed, it became known by a variety of names including Williston Graded School, Williston Primary and Industrial School and Williston High School. The original site was on Seventh Street but in 1915, the institution moved to a new campus on Tenth Street and new buildings were constructed in 1933, 1937 and 1954. The institution was closed as a high school in 1968 as part of

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 ...

and this caused disturbances resulting in the

Wilmington Ten The Wilmington Ten were nine young men and a woman who were wrongfully convicted in 1971 in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, of arson and conspiracy. Most were sentenced to 29 years in prison, and all ten served nearly a decade in jail ...

. The remaining school on the site is now Williston Middle School of Math, Science & Technology.

History

It was based upon a school for freed slaves which had been founded in 1866 and named after

Samuel Williston Samuel Williston (September 24, 1861 – February 18, 1963) was an American lawyer and law professor who authored an influential treatise on contracts. Early life, education and family Williston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to a ...

, a Massachusetts button maker and philanthropist. That was on Seventh Street but, in 1915, a new building was constructed on Tenth and Church which opened in 1916 as Williston Industrial School and, in 1923, this became the first

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

high school for blacks in North Carolina. A new building was opened in 1933 and then rebuilt when it was destroyed by fire in 1936. That building was then closed in 1954 after a lawsuit and replaced by another new building on South Tenth Street. The lawsuit had been brought by Dr Hubert A. Eaton, a local civil-rights activist who repeatedly pressed for greater equality of education. At the time, the school was comparatively deprived of resources such as new textbooks but its performance was the best of the black schools in the state.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

was scheduled to speak at the school gymnasium on April 4, 1968. He changed his plans, staying in Tennessee, and was assassinated there that same day. Black high school students protested in Wilmington on the following day, making a march to City Hall. Later that year, desegregation plans for Wilmington were disputed in federal court. The school was closed as a high school as the Board of Education did not want to spend the sums required to improve the school to the standard of white schools nor to send white students there. The black students were moved to the previously all-white high schools of New Hanover and Hoggard, where they complained of inadequate provision. Further protests and disturbances resulted in the notorious case of the

Notable faculty and staff

Mary Washington Howe teacher and principal, 1875-1890s Lethia Sherman Hankins, alumni and teacher from 1959-1968

Notable alumni

Robert Robinson Taylor Robert Robinson Taylor (June 8, 1868 – December 13, 1942) was an American architect and educator. Taylor was the first African Americans, African-American student enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the first acc ...

, architect who helped

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...

construct the

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was f ...

. *

Jimmy Heath James Edward Heath (October 25, 1926 – January 19, 2020), nicknamed Little Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader. He was the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath. Biography Heath w ...

(1943), jazz saxophonist known as "Little Bird". *

Althea Gibson Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African America ...

(1949), tennis champion – the first black player to win grand slam events. *

Meadowlark Lemon Meadowlark Lemon (born Meadow Lemon III; April 25, 1932 – December 27, 2015) ''www.meadowlarklemon.org.'' Retrieved May 8, 2017. was an American basketball player, actor, and Christian minister. For 22 years, he was known as the "Clow ...

(1952), star basketball player with the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

. *

Joseph McNeil Joseph Alfred McNeil (born March 25, 1942) is a retired major general in the United States Air Force who is best known for being a member of the Greensboro Four—a group of African American college students who, on February 1, 1960, sat down a ...

(1959), one of the

Greensboro Four The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store — now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum — in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the F. W. Woolwort ...

and air-force general. *

Phillip Clay Phillip L. Clay (born May 17, 1946) is a professor of housing policy and city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is the former Chancellor of the Institute. While Chance ...

(1964), chancellor of

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. *

Sam Bowens Samuel Edward Bowens (March 23, 1938 – March 28, 2003) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Baltimore Orioles (1963–1967) and Washington Senators (1968–1969). Bowens batted and threw right-handed. He was ...

, major league baseball player.

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

Collection of Williston YearbooksClass of 1931
– photographed by

Louis T. Moore Louis Toomer Moore (1885–1961), was a prominent preservationist, author, historian, photographer, and civic promoter in coastal North Carolina. Biography Born in Wilmington, NC, on May 17, 1885, Moore was a son of Roger Moore, an officer in the ...

Williston Middle School of Math, Science & Technology
– website of the current institution {{authority control Historically segregated African-American schools in North Carolina Public high schools in North Carolina Schools in Wilmington, North Carolina Schools supported by the American Missionary Association Educational institutions established in 1866