Ah Parker Faculty of Birmingham, graduates add to the rich tradition of school education – Birmingham Times

By Sym Posey | Birmingham Times

(S)Two of two parts))

Name your career and most likely you will find a successful high school fellow in Arthur Harold Parker. His graduates include justice of the Supreme Court of the State, the Major General in the US Army, the NFL’s Famous Hall and the Tony-Jordi winner, as well as the NBA and Baseball stars, and celebrated civil rights attorneys and activists.

There is also a chemist, a mathematician, a well -known composer, a large group leader, newspaper editor, mayor, state representative, well -known pastor, sculptor and district prosecutor.

(See a list of known names here)

The oldest black high school in Birmingham is becoming 125 this year, and some of its most famous graduates include those who have transformed their lives after spending four years in the historic institution in the urban community of Smithfield.

“The Courses I Took at Parker High School Were Called ‘College-Prep Courses,’ and Where I Got to College It Was Simply for Me A Refresher 19 HOOD OFFICER FOR Smithfield Community. “I was on the list of dean for four years at the State University of Alabama because of what I learned at Parker High and from there I took these skills in the workforce. It was a breath for me after what I learned education and life in Parker High School. “

“Parker prepared me to stand on my two legs and not to doubt it,” says Barry McNelli (class 1989), a US history teacher in Parker, who currently heads the school’s social research department and serves as an expert in Historical content at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI). “I knew I had a preparation that would see me through everything.”

He added: “The walls of the Parker High School defended the students to feel more nicer because we were blessed to be around the people who saw the most largest in us, and their passion in life was to bring it out of us without making it difficult for us with the idea [that] We are considered as less than from the outside world. “

“Progress the cause”

Arthur Harold Parker, the founding principal of the school and a pioneer of black education in Birmingham, focuses on finding the best instructors.

Many of the teachers who Parker, hired, after beginning what was to become an Industrial High School in 1900 were black people with a master’s and doctoral degree from northern universities who wanted to return home but could not find Work in segregated southern colleges.

“Parker has developed a commitment to a school system in his faculty, designed to develop the cause of his people. Teachers thought they were part of a cause that was greater than they were, “says Carl Harris, a professor of history, during an interview for May 1985 with Birmingham News.

“Parker’s message to his students and teachers was,” Don’t look at what we don’t have – let’s look at what we have. ” [Even 50 years after graduating]Students remember the names of most of their teachers because teachers have worked so intensively with the students, “says Harris, who has been teaching at the University of California – Santa Barbara for 30 years and studied early black education in Birmingham.

The faculty had an anticipation that started with Parker and could be followed to the end through the nine directors who followed him, McNelli said.

“This expectation was that students would be able to be the best citizens they could be,” says McNelli, who has been taught in Parker High School since 1998. “With a permanent chain of teachers like me, we can go back to the days to Arthur Harold Parker, because every step on the road here has been someone who has been taught by one of these 125 years, and we are accepted on ourselves to try to maintain this standard. “

“All differences”

In 1899, the Birmingham Education Council agreed to set up a high school for Afro -American students. John Herbert Phillips Chief of D.

Parker was more than the principal. He was also one of the instructors, teaching gardening and carpentry together with science, mathematics and English. He retired as the director of the Industrial High School in 1939. In his honor, the school was renamed the AH Parker High School. Parker died on August 17, 1939.

“The look of the teachers we had in Parker did everything different in the world – not the building or the grounds, but the teachers,” Reverend Dr. John Thomas Porter, pastor of the Baptist Church on Sixth Avenue and Ah Parker High School (Class Since 1949), he said in an interview since 1998 in the Birmingham World Journal.

Many students come from families whose parents did not go to college, “Porter added. “We couldn’t get inspiration for after secondary education from our parents because they really had no experience. We had to take it from our high school teachers. I think teachers just name them one after the other, they did everything different. … How blessed we had to have this opportunity to be exposed, to be inspired. “

“Pride and dignity”

This inspiration gave Parker students a certain broadcast, McNelli said: “Some people who would look like arrogance, but it was not. It was pride. “

“People are mistaken for this pride for arrogance that is not,” he added. “It’s just a hassle -free view of yourself as marginalized people. We do not see each other as minorities. We see ourselves as the best of the best. “

And the students looked at each other: “We didn’t want to see anyone else fail,” said Jackie Shaw (class 1982).

“It was always a friendly race. It was a competition with your class work. You wanted to make this good appreciation because [your classmate] He made a good appreciation. It was just pride and dignity. Parker gave you this confidence that you could do almost anything, “Shaw added.

Parker students also developed narrow bonds, said Veronica Jackson (Class 1971).

“[We] Mixed together and not always was through academics. They had cooperation and brotherhoods. Our social life was focused on Parker, and Parker provided the most social skills you could get for children of this age. “

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7aewohuyy

“Privileged”

Pamela Steel (1982 class) knew that he would always find a way to return to her Alma Mater. Last year, she became president of the AH Parker United graduates.

“There was such a rich story. I remember being a little girl and my father brought my sister and me to the football games. Parker has always been a part of my life, “she said.

Founded in 1996, the Association of Graduates supports students and their needs.

“We give scholarships to adult graduation every year. If this is something that is needed here, we are trying to understand how we can help, “says Steel, a student from 1978 to 1982, who remembers that he has made friends throughout his life.

“When I came to Parker, it was as if I was able to make friends here,” she said. “I found a lot of people who were like me in which I fit. “

McNelli tells her students to continue the rich tradition of Parker, he said.

“Add to the story,” he tells them. “You are a privileged person who must be immersed in a story that has started [in 1900] and has seen people go to [some of] The highest services in this land. You are part of this story. Do not take it – add to it. “

(S)See the first part here)