Henderson Institute preserves Black history
Feb. 23—HENDERSON — Though it isn't a school any longer, the Henderson Institute still strives to educate.
It's a museum, and what a museum it is — they've got all manner of relics from a time when Henderson Institute was still the only high school to serve Black students. The building itself can be considered an exhibit — it's the old Library Science Building where Vance County's Black scholars once tread, after all.
The museum can be evocative — seeing that banner honoring HI's 1956 baseball champs, those photographs of the old buildings and the aerial view of what was once a sprawling campus makes it easy to imagine walking the grounds, hearing the squeak of shoes from the gym and the hustle and bustle of a school waking up.
The school had a v athletics program, and its teams were respected, even "feared," describes a virtual tour on their website.
Indeed, the school used to be quite large, standing in the place where the Vance County Senior Center and Social Services now occupy — the sizable parking lot to the left of the DSS once housed a baseball diamond.
The institute came about in 1887 as Henderson Normal and Industrial Institute, a school for teachers and tradesmen, respectively. The United Presbyterian Church of the North's Freedman's Board established it as such.
The school would open four years later with a principal and five teachers, who were all white missionaries. Principal C.L. Cook became the first Black person to serve the school in that capacity in 1900. His successor, Dr. J.A. Cotton, dropped "Normal and Industrial" from the school's name and so it would stay.
Clarence Knight, lovingly dubbed "Boss," would serve as the last principal from 1969-70. He had served previously as a guidance counselor, history teacher and girl's basketball coach and dean of students. There's a whole wall devoted to the man — Gov. James Hunt presented him with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 1983 and the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce named him the Citizen of the Year in 1992.
Upstairs, there's a barbershop quartet-style hat, a symbol of the Class of 1930, upon which is written their motto — "We have crossed the channel, the ocean lies now, before us," attributed to Faculty Advisor T. Robinson.
They also keep pieces of non-HI Black history — like a collection of newspapers announcing Barack Obama's inauguration — and local history, like a coffee urn from Jubilee Hospital, the first such facility in the county to serve Black patients. Dr. Cotton opened it in the early 1900s.
Opposite the front door is a wall of photographs honoring alumni that served in the military — including three Tuskegee Airmen — Lt. Francis Peoples, Harold Webb and Lt. Wilson Eagleson II. There's a display case for alum Capt. Kemp Talley, an Air Force pilot would go on to be the first Black man to fly commercial airliners.
Other graduates made waves in the entertainment industry — like Gerald Alston of Manhattans fame, and Arlando Smith, director of the long-running sitcom "The Jeffersons." By the time the show ended, Smith had 48 of the show's 253 episodes under his belt.
Everything on display is a donation. Admission to the museum is free, though donations are quite welcome — those interested should check henderson-institute.org. The website also has a virtual tour, a 12-minute long video going over the history and some highlights from HI's 79 years of service.
For physical tours, the museum is fully open on Thursdays from 1-4 p.m. They also take appointments on Saturday and Tuesday. Parties interested in scheduling a tour should contact 252-430-0616.
Members of the board who manage the museum down to those who mind the store are HI alumni. For Linda Terry, an officer for the Alumni Association, preserving the history helps keep the memories alive.
"We do miss our buildings, we miss the memories," she said. "You carry those with you, every which way."
