‘Inspire and empower’: Rock Hill names 2019 Freedom Walkway local heroes
In 1964, Cynthia Plair Roddey was escorted to Winthrop University’s campus by two African-American policemen, said Gina White, director of Archives and Special Collections at Winthrop.
Roddey was Winthrop University’s first African-American student. She enrolled in the graduate program in the summer, White said.
As a mother of two living in Rock Hill, Roddey wanted to pursue her graduate studies at a university close to home, White said.
Despite feeling alone on campus and being ignored by other students, Roddey completed a Master of Arts in teaching degree (in library science and English) in August 1967, White said. Roddey went on to teach for 40 years.
“Cynthia Plair Roddey paved the way for other African-American students to enroll and graduate,” White said. “Her pioneering spirit helped make Winthrop the inclusive institution of higher learning it is today.”
Roddey is one of three people honored as 2019 Freedom Walkway Local Heroes for Justice and Equality.
Rock Hill’s Freedom Walkway celebrates individuals who have made strides toward justice and equality for all citizens, according to the walkway website.
The 2019 heroes were announced earlier this week during a reception at the Freedom Center. Students of Rock Hill’s Applied Technology Center created videos honoring each 2019 hero.
“What makes us the community we are, the good town we like to call ourselves, is that it is our history that we celebrate,” Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys said during the reception. “We recognize, like every community, that we have baggage. But what we are convinced of in our community is that we can transform our history into something that provides opportunities.”
Roddey accepted the honor in person.
“All that I am and all that I hope to be is by divine providence,” she said. “I think I’m fortunate because I’ve had a village wherever I have lived.”
The late Rev. Henry F. Tevlin and the late Leroy Ellison Sr. also join the walkway this year. Plaques honoring the 2019 heroes will stand for a year at the end of the walkway in downtown Rock Hill.
The downtown mural features artwork symbolizing past recipients, and the obstacles they faced in the fight for equality, according to the walkway website.
The walkway honors the Friendship 9 in multiple ways.
The group of African-American Friendship College students opted to spend 30 days in jail rather than pay a fine after being arrested for sitting at a segregated lunch counter in Rock Hill. The movement was known as “Jail, no Bail.”
The Freedom Walkway was dedicated in 2016 to “inspire and empower future generations to strive for equality and justice in their day and time,” said Allan Miller with WRHI radio station. Miller helped lead the 2019 ceremony.
“It’s intended to remind us that we are all guaranteed the rights and freedoms that are the foundation of our great American constitution,” Miller said.
Tevlin, a member of the Rock Hill Oratory, served with St. Mary Catholic Church from 1948 to 1971. While pastor, he helped enroll five African-American children from St. Mary’s in the previously all-white school at St. Anne Catholic Church, said Terry Plumb, former Herald editor. Plumb shared Tevlin’s story during the ceremony.
St. Anne Catholic School became the first racially integrated school in South Carolina in 1954, according to history listed on the Rock Hill Oratory’s website.
Tevlin each day drove the students to the school, varying his routes for fear of those who opposed what he was doing, Plumb said. Tevlin also stood with the parents of the Friendship 9 during a protest at the York County prison farm and raised money to fund programs at St. Mary’s. Tevlin died in 1986.
Tevlin also mentored Rev. David Boone, Plumb said. Boone would later take up his own crusade for human rights.
“Rev. Henry Tevlin never sought recognition for his efforts, but his legacy of tireless efforts on behalf of the African-Americans of York County should never be forgotten,” Plumb said.
Despite receiving death threats from individuals and the Ku Klux Klan, Ellison fought discriminatory practices at Rock Hill’s textile plant known as the Bleachery, said Gladys Robinson, a Walkway committee member. Jobs at the Bleachery in the 1950s and 60s were segregated based on race and gender.
“African-Americans were assigned to the hardest, dirtiest jobs and were systematically paid less than the white workers on every job,” Robinson said.
In 1966, Ellison filed a discrimination complaint with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Robinson said. He filed a class action lawsuit in 1972.
In May 1975, Ellison and his fellow complainants won the suit, leading to more equal treatment at the printing plant, Robinson said.
Ellison, who died in 2013, is quoted as saying: “I didn’t just do it for me, I did it for the people who were coming after me. I was not trying to hurt anybody. There was no hurting in my reasoning. It was to better our conditions. I thought all the time I was right.”
Past Freedom Walkway recipients include Mary Frayser, Buck George and the City Girls (Phyllis Thompson Hyatt, Peggy Archie Long, Olivette McClurkin, Essie Porter Ramseur, Lucille Wallace Reese, Patricia Hinton Sims and Elsie White Springs) in 2018.
The 2017 heroes were Brother David Boone, former Catawba Indian Nation Chief Gilbert Blue, Marshall Doswell and Rev. Cecil Ivory.
In 2016, Dr. W. W. Fennell, Addelene Austin White, Bobby Plair and Jim Williams were named Freedom Walkway heroes.
Nominations are being accepted for 2020. For more information, visit freedomwalkway.com.
