The 1943 Firing of
Huntington High School Educators

"The shipyard had substantial control over the community and, in a not too subtle way, control over Huntington High School. Even if a teacher at Huntington was outstanding, the power structure of the shipyard had its own motives. They donated money and donated land, but they also had their own motives.” Arthur Larry Price

“I know losing Huntington hastened father’s death. Although he was immediately employed by Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and although he worked without bitterness to help build an outstanding teacher training program there, father was deeply wounded. He once told me that losing Huntington was almost like losing one of his own children.”
Dorothy Palmer Smith,  A Lonely Place Against the Sky, 1988.

Those who were dismissed include three principals and four teachers:

L. F. Palmer, T. Roger Thompson, principal of Booker T. Washington Elementary School, J. Rupert Picott, principal of John Marshall Elementary School, and Eric Epps, James Ivy, Ethel Pannell, and Dorothy E. Roles