Aycock name change debated
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on December 10, 2015 1:46 PM
The debate over changing the name of Charles B. Aycock High School continued Monday night at the Wayne County Board of Education, with several opponents to the idea speaking out.
The controversy was spurred on at last month's Goldsboro-Wayne branch of the NAACP meeting. The former "education governor" came under fire recently as having been part of a white supremacy campaign.
At its November meeting, NAACP President Sylvia Barnes alleged CBA to be a "racist school" and insinuated the organization had received complaints, leading the branch to pursue an effort to remove Aycock's name from the school.
To date, however, the NAACP has not approached the district in any official capacity, and had no representative to speak at Monday's meeting.
Four county residents addressed the board during the public comment period, all against the change.
"(If) you're going to start taking names off for reasons, you've got to go way back," said Dave Thomas, a retired educator with Wayne County Public Schools and a former school board member.
Thomas cited the nation's first president, George Washington, who had slaves in his home. He pointed out that there are many memorials to Washington, including the dollar bill.
"If you start renaming things, there's just a whole list that you could go by," Thomas said. "After the Civil War, there was segregation. They didn't agree with integration.
"So if we go back, there's presidents and governors that have done the same thing that Gov. Charles B. Aycock did. So if you start eliminating names, you can go back. There's just a list of them."
Gina Coor, who attended the NAACP meeting, took issue with some of the comments made that night.
"(Ms. Barnes) stated that staff and the principal at Charles B. Aycock were prejudiced, that they were not giving accurate information at the Charles B. Aycock Birthplace as far as the history of slaves and made several other comments," she said. "I have spoken with several staff members at CBA, and they don't feel that way."
She added that staff and others at the school are not seeing the racial divide and gave examples of benevolence between teachers and students of all races.
The mission of the NAACP, she said "is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination."
"To me, they're in violation of their own mission statement because it is doing nothing but creating racial divide and dissension in the community," she said.
John Pippin with the Fremont Historical Society said the group's presence may be a "moot point" as the NAACP has not presented anything to the board to his awareness.
He told the board he had taken to social media, establishing a petition for those opposed to the name change.
"At this time, as of 9 o'clock (Monday) morning, we had 2,068 supporters to keep the name," he said.
In contrast to a report promoted by the NAACP, which painted a picture of Aycock as being a racist, Pippin cited two books written by Hugh Victor Brown, a renowned leader in the black community.
"Brown was, I believe, the first superintendent of the colored schools in Wayne County, the first principal of Dillard High School," he said. "He made a statement in his book, 'Equality Education in North Carolina Among Negroes.'"
Pippin said Brown called Aycock a friend of education, "a friend in the court for the Negro."
"Gov. Aycock stood up for the blacks and wanted equal education," he said.
Graylon Aycock of Fremont has a "vested interest" in the subject, since he is a descendent of the former governor.
"My granddaddy, Worth Aycock, was the chairman of the Board of Education in the '60s," he said. "My daddy was the first graduating student of Charles B. Aycock (High). He was part of the reason why the school was named what it was named."
The original Charles B. Aycock did much for education, he said.
"He built a school for every day he was in office and threatened to quit the governorship if he didn't get what he needed to build these schools," he said. "There were over 600 black schools built by Gov. Aycock during his term, one of which sits on our farm today. It was the Friendship School out of Fremont.
"We saved this school and are in the process of trying to recondition it."
To take the name off the high school would be a travesty, Graylon said.
Aycock was a great man, he added, saying that he is proud to be his descendant.