Henry “Hank” Atkins III of Emporia, VA
This essay was written during my senior year of college, and is a review of an oral history interview I conducted via Zoom for Teachers In The Movement. It was a wonderful experience and rather insightful conversation, and it helped shape my own choices as a secondary teacher today. See the first 30 minutes of our interview below.
Introduction & Connection to Civil Rights Movement
Henry “Hank” Atkins III was born and raised in Emporia, Greensville County, Virginia some time around 1950. He attended segregated schools his entire K-12 education: first at Moton Elementary, then at Edward W. Wyatt Jr. High School. During K-12, Mr. Atkins recalls having a love for sports, playing football, basketball and running track throughout his time in Emporia. After graduating high school in 1967, Mr. Atkins matriculated to Virginia State University (VSU) where he pursued a degree in Health and Physical Education. He earned his degree in Spring of 1972 and immediately joined the workforce as a secondary Health and Physical Education Teacher. He now has over forty years of secondary education experience which started shortly after the end of the traditional Civil Rights Movement (CRM), plus an historically significant K-12 and college experience which led up to and sustained itself through the traditional Civil Rights Movement.
Because Mr. Atkins was transitioning into adulthood during the Civil Rights Movement, his deepest connections to the movement are rooted in his K-12 and collegiate educational experiences. Growing up, he experienced firsthand the inequities of the era and aims to instill in his students the lessons that he learned. When asked the question, “do you consider yourself an activist?” he responded with, “I wouldn't look at it as being an activist. I would look at it as being a person of faith and people with my students.” Personal testimonies and anecdotes made it clear that he paid great attention to the personal and emotional development of his students. For instance, he played a large role in upending a harmful tracking practice disguised as a “proficiency program” in Greensville County Schools that targeted Black students with the help of the local NAACP legal team. Although Mr. Atkins thinks not of his work as activism, he has clearly gone to extensive lengths to make positive contributions in his Black student’s educational experience.
Mr. Atkins' time at Virginia State University in the late 60’s and early 70’s must also not be overlooked, as at the height of the movement, he was on the campus of a historically black university. He served as Basileus (equivalent to President) of VSU’s undergraduate chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and as a mentor to young students in the Petersburg, VA area. Not only was he actively involved in the greater community, he was politically conscious. He recalled completing an English report on Malcom X’s autobiography, as well as his participation in a week-long protest that “brought out a lot of changes” at VSU, such as changes to the 10:00pm curfew and unsatisfactory dining hall food.
Early Life: K-12 & College Experience
While I failed to retrieve his exact birthdate, simple math lets us know that Mr. Atkins was born around the year 1950. He remembers a majorly positive educational experience despite the unique circumstances of segregated education in Emporia, Virginia. “We saw a lot about prejudice and we saw a lot about opportunities because Blacks were close knit, especially those that were affiliated with the Church.” This close-knit community structure served as such a foundation for Mr. Atkins that when Greensville County, VA decided to desegregate its schools in 1964, Mr. Atkins declined entry into the all-white “Choice of Freedom” school (Greensville County High School) and elected to remain with his Black teachers, classmates and community in Edward W. Wyatt High School.
When asked about his choice to stay at Wyatt High, he stated that he felt “nurtured” by his school community, specifically by different teachers and coaches. He shares plenty of anecdotes from his primary and secondary educational experiences in Greensville County that demonstrate positive relationships he had with different teachers as a formative aspect of his K-12 experience. These relationships seemed to be defined by a style of teaching that couples the practices of fostering meaningful relationships with setting attainable, yet demanding standards for students.
First mentioned was Mrs. Smith, his first grade teacher, whom he described as a “compassionate…lovely and caring person, just like a parent.” He shared similar admiration for his third grade teacher Mrs. Epps, whom he viewed “like a parent” as well; so much so, that Mr. Atkins was the first boy who Mrs. Epps let date her daughter, years later. His favorite subject was 9th grade Math with Ms. Smith (to be differentiated from Mrs. Smith, his first grade teacher). He recalled being “inspired by… the love and the care that that teacher demonstrated” before ultimately falling out of love with Math due to a bad experience with Algebra the next year.
Mr. Atkins held on to specific memories of teachers forming these interpersonal bonds within him. “I recall going on a field trip when I was in the fifth or sixth grade, and there was Ms. Parker… I didn't have many friends, but Miss Parker made sure that I had her… She sat next to me all the way to DC on that field trip.” His smile as he recounts the now forty-year-old story is indicative of the salience this memory held in his mind.
Mr. Atkins also mentioned the lack of discipline issues he encountered as a student relative to modern K-12 schools. He said, “Teachers and administrators did not tolerate a lot of discipline… If you got in trouble, our coach would meet with you in the gym. The person that you had an issue with, and allow you to get on that and kind of wrestle it out as a consequence… Things were so much different than they are now, but we had a structured day, and there was no foolishness in the classroom.” When asked about how his teachers were so successful in setting high expectations, Mr. Atkins responded, “I believe during that time, to be an educator…teacher…coach… this was just as important for that person as it is today to be an attorney, to be a judge, to be a doctor or lawyer, and those individuals valued the work that they did… they had a love and desire for what they were doing.” While teaching was not initially on his radar, his fondness towards his K-12 education experience definitely affected his decision to matriculate to college and become a teacher.
As mentioned, Mr. Atkins obtained his Bachelor’s in Health and Physical Education from Virginia State University in 1972. He originally intended to major in Agriculture Education (AE) before ultimately switching into Health and Physical Education (HPE). Although it was most intuitive for him to major in AE as a small town student, his childhood love for sports led him to convince the HPE program director at Virginia State to allow him to change his major after his first year of studies. This marked the middle of a life changing sequence of events for Mr. Atkins: a last minute decision to apply to college, convincing the director to let him change his major to HPE, pledging Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., becoming the basileus of his fraternity chapter and joining both the University’s swim and gymnastics team. This period of growth and transformation helped Mr. Atkins, “to look at the fact that there's something in me that I could offer to someone else.” These experiences played a seemingly crucial role in preparing Mr. Atkins for his career as a Health and Physical Education teacher.
Teaching Positions & Pedagogy
The career timeline he presented in the interview had multiple discrepancies with his career timeline on LinkedIn. However, general locations and positions were the same, so I will forgo mentioning specific years to avoid any confusion. What is absolutely known is that Mr. Atkins taught Health and Physical Education starting in 1972 – first in Greensville County and later in Henrico Country, respectively. He taught at two different high schools in Greensville County, for a total of seventeen years: his alma mater, Edward W. Wyatt Jr. Middle School (previously a High School) and Greensville County HS. At Greensville County HS (the “freedom of choice” school which he declined to integrate years prior), Mr. Atkins mentioned that he was the first Black head basketball coach in Greensville County High School’s history. In Henrico County, he taught at the county high school for ten years before switching roles as an administrator.
Mr. Atkins stuck true to his childhood roots by serving as a multi-sport coach for decades. In Greensville County, he worked his way up from the Junior Varsity to Varsity head coach of the basketball team. In the same sentence, Mr. Atkins claimed to have made it to states after winning the school’s first district championship during his last of eight years as head coach. He was also the assistant track coach at Greensville County HS, and worked alongside a very influential childhood-mentor of his, who happened to be the head coach. After he switched districts, he found success as Henrico County High School’s assistant basketball coach, plus winning “a couple championships” as their head track coach as well.
Inside the classroom, Mr. Atkins said he typically followed the curriculum guide to create his lesson plans. He promoted continuous learning by requiring his students to keep an interactive notebook on their person at all times to help engage them in classroom concepts at home. This has immense value as an HPE teacher, since a lot of health and physical education concepts are practiced both in and outside of the classroom.
Inside the classroom, Mr. Atkins admitted that building student relationships was “sort of challenging” for him after transitioning from his hometown school district to Henrico County schools. To mediate this challenge, he used his coaching roles to build relationships with his students outside of the classroom, where he got to know them on a more personal level. When he taught in his hometown of Emporia, VA, relationship building was also aided by the small town community structure, where mostly everyone knew and regularly interacted with one another.
Administrative Roles
Despite his successes in the classroom, Mr. Atkins chose to switch into a different role within education. He transitioned into public school administration in 1996 as a Suspension Intervention Coordinator at Virginia Randolph High School in Henrico County, VA. After a year in this role, he spent nearly a decade as Henrico High School’s Assistant Principal. He then served in the same role at Monticello High School (Charlottesville, VA) for fourteen years. He has now forwent retirement and returned to disciplinary administration, currently serving as the hearing officer for the Albemarle County Department of Student Services for the last two years.
Besides when Mr. Atkins briefly mentions his resume items, information about his role in secondary administration is an area where my interview severely lacks information. I remember being so concerned about not getting ahead of myself in the interview that I forgot to circle back to important details that were briefly mentioned in passing. This is a valuable learning point for me to actively listen and take careful note of the potentially important bits of information mentioned, as they can open an entirely new avenue of conversation. Although I was given my interviewee’s information the day of the interview, another learning point is to make note of interviewees' career history beforehand. Using this information to form educated questions before the interview will help me ensure that everything I hope to discuss will be mentioned by the end of the interview.
Discussion: Major Themes & Implications
Even with my obvious areas of needed improvement, interviewing Mr. Henry Atkins was an incredibly insightful experience, and a true honor. Some themes I observed within our interview are explicitly stated and others are implicitly modeled in our interview, however they all fit under one broad categorization: the value of black education during segregation and the Civil Rights Movement. As stated earlier, Mr. Atkins chose not to attend integrated schools due to feeling “nurtured” by his educational community. Therefore, his story is a valuable case study to better understand the positive aspects of segregated education pre-Brown. Three positive aspects of segregated Black education illustrated by Mr. Atkins are the positionality of community in regards to the education system, the installation of positive self-esteem, and the development of positive teacher-student relationships,
The positionality of community in regards to the education system refers to the way in which the educational experience of both students and teachers are ameliorated by unified community structures. For starters, educators were greatly respected in Mr. Atkins’ community, as they were seen as instrumental in youth development. This level of respect seems to be reinforced by community engagement outside the classroom, which can ultimately have positive effects on the classroom environment. A strong example of this is his multiple references to the Church. He cited that building relationships with students was easier, and discipline issues were much less frequent due to relationships he formed with other families through their local Church.
Next, Mr. Atkins spent a considerable amount of time discussing the immense impression left on him by certain teachers who spent time investing into their relationship with one another. As detailed on page three, he has a deep admiration for a handful of his previous educators who seemed dedicated to his wellbeing. These types of relationships were so valuable to young Mr. Atkins that he denied the opportunity to go to a presumably better resourced facility out of fear of losing such a foundation. This level of teacher-student relationship is seemingly lacking in today’s education system, primarily for Black youth who have little-to-no teachers who can relate to them from a cultural or ethnic perspective.
A strong, community-oriented foundation coupled with sound teacher-student relationships sets the proper conditions for the last theme to emerge: the installation of pride and self-esteem into the Black youth psyche. When asked what lessons he found most important from the Civil Rights Movement for students today, Mr. Atkins responded with “pride and dignity… because if you don’t have pride in who you are… your self esteem is not elevated.” Mr. Atkins words serve as a reminder that for children, their educational experience consists of so much more than mere academic learning. Every time they step through the school doors they go through a multivariate journey. These journeys are instrumental in shaping many of our life-altering arcs, such as identity development and our social & emotional development. To pay attention to one variable of this journey (academic retention) is to rob students of a complete, well-balanced educational experience. If we want our students to feel as nurtured as Mr. Atkins did (despite being Black during one of the most hostile periods of American history towards Black Americans), we as educators and adult leaders must make an investment in the holistic development of all students.
My interview with Mr. Atkins also helped me realize the true value of oral interviews in regards to studying the history of Black education in America. As we learned in class, the dominating narrative surrounding segregated education in America was the inferiority of Black schools pre-Brown due to severely underfunded facilities and dilapidated physical structures. However, this first-person account of Mr. Atkins’ experience within legally segregated schools forms the foundation for a strong counter-narrative. It does so by providing local context to an historical perspective that was largely ignored by mainstream historians and lost beyond human memory. As more interviews like Mr. Atkins’ come to light through wonderful projects like Teachers in the Movement, a hypothesis worth pondering is whether or not today’s education of Black youth can be drastically improved upon if schools placed a larger emphasis on the positive aspects of segregated Black education. While not explicitly mentioned in the interview, I would suspect Mr. Atkins to affirm at least certain aspects of said hypothesis via the implementation of certain practices, such as instilling “pride and dignity” in Black students.
My last realization is that to collect these oral histories means to work with urgency. We all have limited time to spend on this earth, which means limited opportunities to tell our stories, or listen to the stories of those who had come before us. The lived experiences of our elders who experienced a legally segregated education are filled with invaluable accounts of history. Stories like that of Mr. Atkins contains narratives of Black culture, autonomy and culture that risk never being heard, let alone amplified. I believe that anyone who is serious about achieving the goal of creating and maintaining an historically accurate depiction of Black education during segregation must continue to preserve this history in one of the only ways available to us, the practice of oral history.
Bolden, Jayden A. Henry Atkins III. Other. Teachers in the Movement, 2023.
