THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504020017
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 164 lines
In 1964 Anne Henderson, a daughter of Italian immigrants, couldn't buy a house in Elizabeth City because real estate agents knew she had come to town to work as a white teacher at Elizabeth City State University - an African-American institution.
And . . .
A few months later, in the midst of the nation's great integration crises, northeastern North Carolina conservatives founded the Albemarle Academy as a private school on U.S. 17-South where their children wouldn't have to mix with blacks.
And . . .
On June 1, 1995, Anne Henderson will formally take over as headmistress of the Albemarle Academy, now bearing the less starchy name of The Albemarle School. She retired as a professor-emeritus from ECSU in 1993 after 30 distinguished years as head of the university's English Department.
And her 1995-1996 Albemarle School prospectus states: ``The School admits students of any race, color, and national or ethnic origin.''
This is how it all came about:
For some time, the trustees of Albemarle School had been looking for a headmaster or headmistress to breathe fresh air into the private school and prepare it for the challenges and attitudes of a new century.
One of the Albemarle School board members is John Morrison, a pipe-smoking Elizabeth City attorney, a rare white Republican on the primarily black trustees' board of ECSU.
Morrison had seen the kind of brilliant personal scintillations that followed Professor Henderson as she serenely sailed through faculty and administrative fireworks at ECSU.
``She's an extraordinary person,'' Morrison told the Albemarle School board. He urged the trustees to interview Henderson as a possible candidate for headmistress. The school has been without a principal for several years.
``In the very first interview this year she absolutely stunned us with her grasp and ability,'' said Bernie Blystone, chairman of the trustees. ``After a second interview, she was everybody's favorite.''
And now, a lot of people are waiting to see the new directions that will be taken by the struggling private school on U.S. 17.
``One of the first things we'll start teaching is deportment,'' said Henderson. ``Good manners simply reflect respect for others. We want our students to leave something good of themselves everywhere they go.''
Deportment - manners, if you will - is an all-but-forgotten part of American education.
``Like civics,'' said Henderson. ``There's nothing wrong with being proud of your country but you need to know why.
``When our students leave here they will honor the flag because they'll know about the exciting people who founded this country. They'll respect their parents because family bonds will have meaning for them. They'll WANT to be decent people.''
Henderson will focus on the ``precarious situation'' that has entrapped so many young people in the 13-to 15-year age bracket.
``That seems to be the time when boredom, insecurity and lack of purpose lead young people into crime, sex problems and adolescent pregnancies,'' she said.
``There won't be boredom, insecurity or lack of purpose in this school, believe me.''
Anne Henderson is a small woman with an outsized presence.
She has flashing dark eyes, a crowning off-the-face hairdo, and an imperious look that indicates she's wholly in command wherever she stands.
``It doesn't matter how old I am,'' said Henderson last week. ``If I tell you, you'll have to promise not to print it. Promise?''
Promise.
But hers has been a lengthy life that has accepted struggle as a prime part of human existence.
``My mother and father came to this country from Salerno, in southern Italy, just before the first World War,'' Henderson said.
The family name was deGregorio, and her father was ``a leather worker; a cobbler. My mother sewed. I was one of three children, the baby, and my parents struggled all of their lives to make sure we got the best education.''
They did. Henderson's brother and her older sister harvested degrees at several universities and graduate schools, with Anne close behind. They all got jobs to help out at home. Anne has a doctoral studies degree in English from Columbia and a doctorate in education from George Washington University.
``We lived in a part of Harlem in New York City when we were children,'' said Henderson, ``There were all kinds of people there; blacks, Hispanics. We learned a lot about diversity.''
In Elizabeth City, she also learned about the different faces of segregation.
``My brother, my older sister, and I were all invited to come to Elizabeth City to start departments at Elizabeth City State College - it was beginning to expand into the present Elizabeth City State University.
``This was in the early 1960s.
``The first thing we discovered was that we couldn't buy a house in Elizabeth City. Everybody seemed to know that we had come here to teach at the university.''
It was a difficult time for the new teachers, but they stayed to start their new departments. Anne's brother taught in a new art department; her sister taught history; and Anne settled down in her English Department. Eventually, her brother and sister moved on to other schools, but Anne Henderson stayed for three decades.
When she finally retired as emeritus professor she was chairman of the ECSU Language, Literature and Communications Department.
There is a lot more than that. She developed many in-service programs for teachers in Albemarle public schools and taught graduate courses at East Carolina University at Greenville. And in earlier years, she worked for the Army in Washington as an education specialist.
That's where she met her husband, now a retired Army Colonel named Dale E. Henderson Sr., who also came here to teach world history and geography at ECSU and also retired as a professor emeritus.
They have three children - Dale E. Henderson Jr., a musician who lives on the Outer Banks; Dr. David J. Henderson, a Greensboro pediatrician; and Susan H. Mahaffey, an Elizabeth City teacher and school counselor.
The Albemarle School trustees expect their new headmistress to create a new image for the 30-year-old private school. Her touch already shows in updated regulations: ``On my honor I will not lie, cheat, or steal,'' says a rule as inflexible as the honor code at U.S. service academies. There is a strict dress code and too-long hair on a boy spells trouble in any class at the Albemarle School.
``The school is solvent but it has functioned for a long time without growing in strength,'' said Henderson. ``This year we have had to start a second kindergarten class but we want to also increase enrollment in the upper classes through the 12th grade.''
Graduates regularly go on to top universities.
Enrollment is now ``about 250,'' but Henderson and the trustees hope to get the number of students up to 400. She wants better classrooms, better teaching equipment, new buildings.
To get the improvements, the trustees under Blystone frankly admit they're going after an expanded endowment program that will allow the school to offer a more penetrating curriculum in a better physical plant. For years the old Albemarle Academy existed on ``hit-or-miss benefit parties and similar fund-raising efforts,'' Blystone said.
To help Henderson, the trustees have recruited several new board members to show the flag in places where Albemarle School supporters have never gone before. One of the trustees' goals is to provide a benefit package that will more securely anchor faculty members.
Henderson, meanwhile, also wants to expand sports activities in a limited way.
``I think we ought to have soccer, but I don't think we're ready for football yet,'' she said.
But only good teachers - and interested parents - will make the Albemarle School better, Henderson said.
``We're fortunate. We have excellent teachers and more are waiting to come in when we need them.
``But most of all we have to realize that every student is a personal challenge. Years ago I had a student who couldn't talk in public. Every time he stood up to speak he froze.
``I finally found out that the reason he couldn't talk was because he couldn't read.
``As soon as he learned to read, everything was fine.''
Henderson is not in the least uncomfortable in her new role as headmistress of a once-segregated school.
``If you're interested in avoiding any race or gender, the Albemarle School is the wrong place for you.
``But there is every reason for a private school to exist if it provides a special quality of education in a special setting,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ROBIE RAY/Staff
Albemarle School's headmistress has plans to make good manners part
of the curriculum. Students ``will want to be decent people,'' Anne
Henderson says.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY ALBEMARLE ACADEMY by CNB