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When the old South West Elementary School closed in 2014, students performed the song “So Long, Farewell” in the style of “The Sound of Music”.
Now that the name has returned, Musical Mustangs students greeted him at a name change recognition ceremony on September 1 with a pair of songs, “Back to School” and “Agents of Change.” Both are songs that make a lot of sense given the coronavirus pandemic, the return of the Southwestern name and children signifying a new generation of change agents.
Many expected the name to move to a newly built school off Holland Road, but after a school’s naming committee preferred to keep the name Southwestern, the Suffolk School Board at the time instead voted 4-3 to use the name Pioneer Elementary, apparently meaning a new start for a newly built school.
But late last year, school board member Tyron Riddick made an effort to get Southwestern’s name back to the school, and in December, by another 4-3 vote, the board made exactly that and voted to honor the legacy of black students. who attended Nansemond County Training School and then various iterations of Southwestern. The name change came into effect on July 1.
Superintendent Dr John B. Gordon III said he had an ancient history of Southwestern and the Nansemond County training school of Riddick and former Southwestern Elementary principal Lorita Mayo, currently a member of the school board.
“Now it’s really about preserving the legacy,” Gordon said. “For me, that’s the key. Suffolk is so rich in tradition, so rich in history. It’s a piece of history that we don’t want to let go. I understand the reasoning Pioneer was originally chosen for, but you need to make changes based on… the people it affects.
Gordon, in remarks at the ceremony, spoke of the Southwestern Alumni Association’s activity in supporting the school, even though it was called Pioneer and not Southwestern as its members wanted.
“For me, this is just one of those opportunities where we can teach our children new lessons and I hope we can all move forward together,” Gordon said.
Southwestern Principal Lori Mounie, Assistant Principal Dr Sabrina Lee and Gordon unveiled a display at the entrance to the school showing items that were part of the training school and previous versions of Southwestern, including a photograph of Dr Hannibal E. Howell Sr., who was principal of the Nansemond County training school from 1919 to 1961.
The site of the former Southwestern Elementary School began welcoming black students in 1924 when the Nansemond County Training School for Black Students was built with money from Sears leader Roebuck and Co. Julius Rosenwald, who put money aside to fund the construction of schools for black students. in the rural south.
The name Southwestern was first used for a high school in 1964, then a middle school in 1970 and a middle school in 1979 before becoming an elementary school in 1990. The former Southwestern Elementary closed its doors to students in 2014.
Current board chair Dr Judith Brooks-Buck, who previously voted with then-board chairman Enoch Copeland to keep the name Southwestern and voted last December for the name change, noted her own path as a student in a separate school system. when I was a kid in Norfolk.
“It means a lot to me to see that things have changed and that things have changed in a positive way,” said Brooks-Buck.
And it meant a lot to her to see members of the Southwestern Alumni Association, including its president, James Harold Faulk, attend the ceremony.
“These people supported the school even when things didn’t change – they supported the school,” said Brooks-Buck. “They have given the school thousands of dollars over the years, over the eight years that the name has not changed. They didn’t get angry, they didn’t leave.
“They continued to support the school and be part of the school community, so I think it shows the kind of character, the kind of people you deal with and how much this school means to this community. What I’m happy about is that we had the chance to do something positive for these people. And we had the chance to recognize their efforts, their history and return something that we should have done, to correct a mistake that we should have made a long time ago. “
Faulk, in his remarks, paid tribute to the alumni of the Southwest and to Copeland – “the backbone of this whole idea.”
“Today, coming back and being part of the name change to Southwestern certainly brings a lot of joy.”
Faulk said they had worked for many years to maintain a positive Southwestern School legacy for the community. He said it would continue.
“Now we think we’ve achieved part of the goal that we had,” said Faulk, “and that was to give the school the name Southwestern.”
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