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People
from across the Wake Forest community
applauded Friday morning as Lawrence E.
Perry, president of the National Alumni
Association of DuBois High School, and
Arthur Rice, associate dean in the
College of Design at North Carolina
State University signed an agreement for
a study that will lay out the path for
the renovation of the historic DuBois
School campus.
The school, a public school
for African-Americans, operated from
1922 to 1970, when Wake County’s schools
were integrated. Its signature building,
the McElrath Building, was built in 1926
with money raised penny by nickel by the
community and with a matching grant from
Julius Rosenwald, the president of
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
“It’s currently one of the
few Rosenwald schools still in
existence,” Dianne Laws said. A 1957
graduate of the school, Laws is the
financial secretary for the alumni
association and was a member of the
committee which brought the university
to the North Franklin Street campus.
The conceptual master plan
the College of Design students will help
form over the next three years with the
community’s help will include strategies
and guidelines to make it a reality,
Laws said. The goal is “restoring the
campus to benefit the whole community.”
Marvin J. Malecha, dean of
the College of Design and just elected
president of the American Institute of
Architects, called it a “glorious
project” and thanked the alumni and
community for “an opportunity to work
with you on your dreams.”
Rice called the campus “an
incredible resource.”
Wanda Mukherjee, a community
volunteer who sparked and helped put
together the NCSU project, said you
could see the interest sparked in
Malecha’s and Rice’s eyes when they
arrived and saw the campus for the first
time.
Attorney John Rich, who is
putting together a trust to manage
renovation funds, evoked cries of “Amen”
and applause when he talked about the
special spirit that imbued DuBois. The
students “took something away from here
that wasn’t in textbooks. They’ve been
dreaming for a long time.”
Rich also reminded the crowd
under the trees about the segregated
past when his father was the manager of
Holding dairy farm and William Mangum’s
father worked on the farm. Mangum, who
is a past president of the alumni
association, would ask Rich why they
went to different schools and why they
couldn’t play football together.
Breaking down official segregation
“scared people to death in the sixties,”
Rich said, but America’s greatest
accomplishment has been to learn to live
together.
Perry talked about the many
people who have helped the alumni before
and since they bought the campus from
Wake County Public School System for
$325,000 in 1998. He thanked Melanie
Murphy and Nancy Bates for helping to
place the school on the National
Register of Historic Places, the town
for its consistent help with buildings,
Clarence Forte and Jesse Evans who
cleared out all the stored furniture
from the gym after the purchase and
former mayor George Mackie. “The town
made it possible for us to survive.”
After the signing, Mukherjee
gave roses to three women who were
especially helpful in the NCSU project,
Christine Forte, Dianne Laws and Mary
Yarborough, and two women who directed
the students at Heritage Middle School
as they designed and painted the three
tapestries, Patricia Williams and
Detrice Spells. Lisa Bartholomew, Roy
Sams and Allison Keith also helped with
the tapestry project.
Paperweights were given to
the people and groups who helped in
raising the $28,000 to get the project
underway: Mayor Vivian Jones, Andy and
David Ammons for the Ammons family, John
Barnes with Embarq, Rich and Jim and
Gayle Adams.
“We have come this far by
faith,” Harold Winston, the alumni
association vice president, said in
closing, looking forward to the future. |
