Last fall, when a group of SHHS students approached High School Guidance Counselor David Peake about forming a student group, there was one organization that came to mind.
"As I listened to them, it was clear they wanted to form an inclusive group," Peake explains. "And I thought about the NAACP because it's a group that's always been rooted in inclusion."
Peake made some calls and within hours, the local NAACP suggested he form a Youth Council at the High School. So Peake completed the paperwork, assembled an executive board of students, and shortly after the start of 2017, the High School was granted a charter to begin an NAACP Youth Council.
This year, the Youth Council traveled to Akron to see internationally-know lecturer on prejudice and bigotry Jane Elliott (she devised the controversial "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise) and viewed the 2016 film "The Birth of a Nation." The students have also begun to recreate famous photographs from black history, using high school students, teachers and administrators as subjects. Peake wants to present the photos as a mobile exhibit that will travel to each of the District's schools next year in order to further engage students.
Next year, Peake wants to ensure the students participating in the Youth Council continue to be grounded in the NAACP's history of inclusion. This past April, Peake received a special gift from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, where in 1960, Rodney Hurst, Sr., a then 16-year-old president of the Jacksonville Youth Council helped lead peaceful sit-in demonstrations at a segregated lunch counters. The sit-ins ended when 200 white men armed with ax handles and baseball bats attacked the demonstrators. Hurst wrote a book about his experiences, "It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke" and remains an advocate for equality today. A University representative sent Peake dedicated and signed copies of Hurst's book, wishing him success with the High School Chapter.
"It's important for the students to know that being a member of an NAACP Youth Chapter in 1960 literally meant risking your life," Peake says. "Back then, being a member went far beyond attending speeches and developing programs. These books are special to me and it's something I'd like the students to understand—that Rodney and others risked their lives to be a part of something that our students are still a part of today."
