Preserving Warren County Training School

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Text by Michael E.C. Gery | Photos by Duane Salstrand

“There’s Nothing I Can’t Do”

Richard Henderson grew up on a farm in the 1940s, and his father insisted that he get an education, beginning at Piney Grove elementary. Clara Boyd was his age and grew up nearby the seventh of 12 children. She attended Burgess Chapel elementary, a two-room school where teachers held classes in different corners of the rooms. When Richard and Clara reached 7th grade they attended Warren County Training School. Recalling Clara then, Richard says, “Every time I had a class with her, she moved to another class. Usually the young ladies wanted to sit next to me!” In order to get her attention, Richard nominated Clara as Homecoming Queen, and she won. That may have had something to do with her willingness to marry him later.

Mr. Henderson went on to Hampton Institute then returned to his family farm. “My daddy told me to go back to school,” he says. So he joined the U.S. Air Force and earned more college credits. Meanwhile, Clara Boyd had graduated from high school and North Carolina College (now N.C. Central University) in Durham. Professional opportunities for educated African Americans in North Carolina were slim in those days, so like many fellow WCTS graduates, both Richard and Clara tried their luck up North. Ms. Henderson worked as a nurse for 31 years while raising three sons. Mr. Henderson worked with the U.S. Postal Service, then for 21 years with the New York Police Department. Along the way, he received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and was called to the ministry. Today he is a pastor in Vance County and chaplain of the alumni association.

“Every time I made a step higher,” says Richard Henderson, “my thoughts came back to Warren County Training School and Pops Washington and my teachers here. He brought some good people here to teach us, and they made many good people who went out into the world and accomplished something.”

Clara Henderson recalls her high school teachers instilling in her the idea that “whatever we want in life, we have to work for it.”

Maggie Dunston Kiah attended WCTS when Gillis Cheek ran it. “I liked school so much I cried when I couldn’t go,” she remembers. Cheek worked to get her a scholarship to North Carolina College for Negroes (N.C. Central) where she studied dietetics. She pursued her education at Howard University in Washington, D.C., then she, too, moved to New York City and became the city’s chief dietician. She taught school for 16 years before retiring to Warren County, where she soon returned to work as the county’s public health nutritionist. “I will never forget the kindness and attention I received at this school. This is where I got my start for three wonderful careers.”
Stories like Maggie Kiah’s and Clara Henderson’s come from dozens of WCTS alumni. Ethelene Russell Hughey was raised by several family members, including aunts and uncles. “It does take a village to raise a child,” she said. “What I learned from them and at this school is that there is nothing you can’t do. Thanks to that I have accomplished everything I put my hand to.” She remembered the generous spirit of her teacher Bertha Washington as well as the math and home room teacher Susie Love Knight. “I didn’t like math at all,” she recalled, “but she had a way that she could teach you math.” Ms. Hughey graduated in 1961 and was hired by the U.S. Department of Education as a professional in 1965 when there were virtually no blacks in professional positions there. (Ms. Hughey, who was alumni association treasurer, passed away unexpectedly not long after she was interviewed for this story.)

Along with reading, writing and arithmetic, they remember learning how to behave. If they wronged someone, Mr. Washington taught them to recognize it and to apologize. When one boy yelled “Fire” during a movie, Mr. Washington singled him out and disciplined him. For the Sweethearts Ball, the Junior-Senior Prom, for plays and performances, students learned how to dress, escort a date, walk gracefully and usher guests. They learned how to manage a farm. They learned sportsmanship. They learned how to run a kitchen, set a table and eat properly.