Brown v. Board of Education

Pictured here is North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford saluting Girl Scouts at Lincoln Heights in 1962.

Pictured here is North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford and Lincoln Heights Principal E. V. Dacons in 1962.

Just as many other communities across the nation, Lincoln Heights and the Wilkes community were affected by the Civil Rights Movement. When the Civil Rights Movement came to North Wilkesboro, the African American community stood up for itself. Teens demanded the end of Jim Crow legislation and participated in sit-ins at Horton’s Drugs store where they asked to be served ice cream cones. The event ended peacefully for the teens, but the message was clear: the Wilkes African American community wanted its rights, too.¹

When Brown v. Board of Education ruled in 1954 that segregation come to an end, Lincoln Heights entered its twilight years as a school.² The North Carolina Governor, Terry Sanford, even came to visit the school in 1962 and encouraged students to continue aiming high and taking advantage of the educational opportunities before them.³ Students began attending schools that had formerly been only for white students, and Lincoln Heights closed its doors in 1968. Wendy Barber once said that the community felt a sense of “great loss when the school was discontinued,” the school had been “a vital part of the everyday life of its people.”⁴

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[1] Frances Hayes, “History of black people in Wilkes explored in program,” Wilkes Journal-Patriot, February 26, 2014. http://www.journalpatriot.com/news/history-of-black-people-in-wilkes-explored-in-program/article_7dfd6880-9f17-11e3-b935-0017a43b2370.html

[2] Brenda Adams Dobbins, "Wilkes County Training Center/Lincoln Heights School, 1924-1968," (2015).

[3] Ibid.

[4] Jule Hubbard, "Board hears Lincoln Heights history, appeal," Wilkes Journal-Patriot, April 12, 2013. http://www.journalpatriot.com/news/board-hears-lincoln-heights-history-appeal/article_4c1bcc90-a395-11e2-9bfa-0019bb30f31a.html