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 of Newport News, Virginia, USA during the era of racial segregation. Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Newport News is an Independent city in Virginia. It is at the south-western end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River After desegregation, it became an integrated intermediate school (eighth and ninth grades), and in 1981 was converted to a middle school (sixth through eighth grades). Desegregation is the process of ending Racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. The school was named after the shipping and railroad pioneer, Collis P. Huntington, who founded the local shipyards, the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, at one time the largest shipbuilding concern in the world. Collis Potter Huntington ( April 16 or October 22 1821 – August 13 1900) was one of The Big Four of western railroading (along with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding ( NGS) formerly called Northrop Grumman Newport News ( NGNN) or Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
Lutrelle Palmer, the principal of Huntington High, also a strong NAACP 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. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations 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.
Thad Madden, the athletics coach, led Huntington High to 26 Virginia Interscholastic Association state track championships.
Notable alumni
- Dr. Walter Nathaniel Ridley (1910-1996), first black graduate of the University of Virginia (June, 1953), former President of the American Teachers Association (1944-47), first black student initiated into a University honorary society (Kappa Delta Pi, a professional education society), head of psychology department, Virginia State College (1943-1958), Dean of Saint Paul's College, Lawrenceville, Virginia (1957-1958), President of Elizabeth City State Teachers College (name changed to Elizabeth City College in 1963), North Carolina (1958-1968), Professor (later chairman) of the Department of Secondary Education, West Chester University of Pennsylvania (1968-1987, emeritus). The University of Virginia (also called UVa, UVA, Mr Jefferson's University, or The University) is a highly selective public research For the previously named Virginia State University see Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Saint Paul's College is a private Historically black college located in Lawrenceville Virginia. West Chester University of Pennsylvania, is a public University located in West Chester Pennsylvania, United States 34 miles (54 km west by north of Philadelphia
- Former U. S. Energy Secretary, Hazel R. O'Leary (1937-)
- Lutrelle "Lu" Palmer, Jr. Hazel Reid O'Leary (born May 17, 1937) was the seventh United States Secretary of Energy from 1993 to 1997 (1922-2004) (class of '38), son of the school's principal, political commentator, author and editor of the "Lu's Notebook" radio program, inducted into Chicago State University Black Writers' Hall of Fame in 1999. Chicago State University (CSU is a State university in Chicago, Illinois.
References
- No Easy Journey, on Huntington's role in the campaign against segregation, Newport News, Va. , Daily Press, republished in Newsday.
- Thad Madden
- Walter Nathaniel Ridley
- Hazel O'Leary
- Lu Palmer
- HR0188 (92nd General Assembly, Illinois) honoring Lu Palmer.
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