Lethia Hankins's Biography

Lethia Sherman Hankins was born in Wilmington, NC on January 22, 1934.An only child, she grew up living in a close-knit family with caring, protective parents.  Her mother was a domestic worker.  She became great friends with Barbara Brinkley, the daughter of her mother's employers.  It was at that time, at the age of 10, that Ms. Hankins first became aware that many members of the community disapproved of these two young girls of different races spending time together.

People looked at young Lethia askance because she was with Barbara. The girls went to different, segregated schools but remained close. In their eagerness to find the perfect dress for Lethia for a school dance, they entered a dress shop and Barbara excitedly said, "Oh, Lethia, it's perfect. Try it on."  Appalled, the shop clerk quickly told them, "No," and ushered them from the store.  They both cried and went home to tell their mothers. This is a vivid and unsettling memory for Ms. Hankins.  Before this incident, the unfairness of living in two separate yet parallel worlds was accepted and not questioned.

After graduation from Williston Industrial High School in 1951, Ms. Hankins attended A&T State University in Greensboro, NC.  During her college years she realized more and more that living in segregated worlds was wrong and that change was needed.  She went into teaching so she could teach young people acceptance of diversity, the merits of all human beings, and that change was possible and worth working towards.

In 1959, Ms. Hankins began teaching English at the high school she had attended, now called Williston Senior High School. Textbooks and furniture were all used; they arrived at Williston when the white high school had finished with them  — often outdated and worn.  Despite these challenges, Ms. Hankins loved teaching.  Williston was a true neighborhood school; the students all knew each other and each other's parents; they knew the teachers not only from school, but from their neighborhoods and churches.  It was a tight-knit community.

Throughout the early 1960s Ms. Hankins could see the turmoil building and strove to prepare her students to enter the "other world."  Her student, Carl Byrd, was in the last class to graduate from Williston.  She inspired him to work towards change in the community.  He serves on the Cape Fear Community College Board of Trustees, is director of the New Hanover Human Relations Commission, and holds an office in St. Mark's Episcopal Church. 

Another student, Florence Johnson Warrne, teaches at Williston Middle School.  She gently, yet aggressively, still tries to heal the wounds and change the attitudes of her young students. Then there is Linda Pearce, founder of Elderhaus, an adult day care center, politically active and constantly pressing for equality of the races.

Yet another student who continues to make a special effort at reconciliation is Herbert Harris.  Mr. Harris organized the Community Action Group in Wilmington. Town Hall meetings are held monthly where issues concerning inner city citizens are discussed and necessary actions taken.  Many racial concerns dealing with problems in the schools and housing discrimination have been solved with Mr. Harris' help and direction.  

Lethia Hankins is proud that her students listened to her message of reconciliation and peace.

Ms. Hankins taught at Williston Senior High, the well-loved and academically-rich black high school for eight years before public schools in New Hanover County were integrated.  In 1968, she was assigned to John T. Hoggard High School, the formerly all-white school.  At the same time, black students and other black teachers were forced from Williston to Hoggard. 

It was a tumultuous time in Wilmington.  Ms. Hankins actively organized and participated in "Speak Outs" with groups of students. These meetings were the first opportunity most of the students had to participate in a racial dialogue.  These dialogues reinforced Ms. Hankins’ philosophy that when people come together and open up with each other to say what they actually believe and feel, they can form true relationships and reach better understanding.

Ms. Hankins was instrumental in forming the 1898 Foundation to recognize and acknowledge the racial violence of November 1898 when rioting erupted and in one day destroyed the tenuous race relations which then existed in Wilmington and fragmented race relations for decades to come. 

Interracial Dialogue Study Circles were organized to pull out the hurt feelings and heal the wounds.   After the year-long centennial celebration, the dialogues were still going strong, so the program was handed over to the YWCA of the Lower Cape Fear to coordinate. These study circles have grown and continue to reach hundreds of people each year in the area.

Ms. Hankins currently serves as co-chair of the 1898 Memorial Park Commission.  Planning for the Park and the Park itself is providing a rare opportunity to grasp again the vision shared over a century ago by the citizens of Wilmington:  a vision of a city which, even through economic hardship, offered a future of prosperity and progress to all who claimed the vision, and the city as their home.   The 1898 Memorial Park will restore the promise of racial progress and salute the forward-thinking residents of Wilmington.

The 1898 Memorial Park will embody the sense of collective memory, shared history, and vibrant future available to all.  Growing out of a community desire to remember, value, and learn from the past, the memorial will be a visible and tangible symbol that unites rather than divides, heals rather than wounds, accepts rather than rejects.  It will be a dramatic yet simple symbol of tolerance and understanding, re-found in Wilmington.

Ms. Hankins’ moved her community forward through the inspiration she gave her students.  Her students continue to create a future of equality.  The 1898 Memorial Park – and the message it tells – make Wilmington a symbol in the efforts to win racial justice.  And that message  —  and its lessons  — will live on in the future.