THE NATIONAL MOTTO
Together We Can Achieve
District 6: Raymond Privott
Edgecombe County Board of Education
Chairman
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Reverend Raymond Privott is a native of Edenton, North
Carolina and a graduate of the D.F. Walker High School of that city. He
received a BS Degree from Fayetteville State University and a MA Degree
from East Carolina University. He has done post graduate studies at
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary at Wake Forest and East
Carolina University.
Reverend Privott’s career in education spans from Halifax County to
Tarboro/Edgecombe County. He has served as a high school English and
Social Studies teacher, high school football, basketball and track coach,
middle school basketball coach, high school athletic director, assistant
band director, middle and high school assistant principal and principal. He
has served as either principal or interim principal of nine of the schools in
the Edgecombe County School System. Reverend Privott has served as
pastor of churches in Rocky Mount and Oak City North Carolina, and
presently serves as Stated Supply Pastor of the Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian
Church.
Institutions
- Fayetteville State University
- East Carolina University
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Degrees and Certifications:
- Bachelor of Science in Education
- Masters in Arts Education
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Nell Burwell, President, received the Extra Effort Award at the Region 7A Fall Conference in 2019.
Gwendolyn Wigen, National President of Booker T. Washington High School National Alumni Association (2020).
Honoree for November 2020
Ruth Anderson Smith
Anyone who thinks librarians are shy and retiring has never met Ruth Anderson Smith. From voter registration drives to ensuring the availability of accurate information about the heritage and history of African Americans, Smith has been a strong advocate for the African American community.
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Born in Elrod, NC, Smith attended what was then called the North Carolina College for Negroes, now North Carolina Central University, earning an undergraduate degree in library science in 1942 and a master’s degree in 1950.
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Although she had long wanted to be a librarian, she remembered the advice of a former teacher who had counseled her to “go out there and get some experience.” So, she accepted a position as a fifth-grade teacher in Wayne County. She quickly decided two years in the classroom was enough experience.
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“I decided I was going to be a librarian later in life because it was always my dream,” Smith said.
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She joined the Edgecombe County School system in 1944 as a school librarian for Rocky Mount Elementary School, later moving to Phillips High School and then, in 1960, to J.W. Parker Junior High School in Rocky Mount, where she remained until retiring in 1987.
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Smith said the most rewarding part of being a librarian, especially in a small town, was the responsibility for ordering books and materials about African American history, geography, and the study of Africa. Although she was not able to fulfill her aspiration of traveling and studying in Africa, she was able
to ensure that students in her schools had access to accurate information.
Outside school hours, Smith was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, joining her sorority sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha in conducting voter-registration drives for African Americans during the 1960s.
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“As young members of AKA, one of our greatest moments was getting people registered to vote,” she said. “We would go around the Rocky Mount area to help people practice reading the Preamble to the Constitution, so they’d be able to register and vote.”
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A high point of those years came in November 1962 when she had the opportunity to see Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who had come to Rocky Mount to deliver a speech. She and her son were part of the crowd who heard an early draft of the “I Have A Dream” speech nine months before it became a national rallying cry of the Civil Rights movement.
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Although officially retired, Smith still volunteers in the library of St. Mark AME Church, where she founded and donated the library in honor of her mother, Dovie Anderson.
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“Alex Haley’s ‘Roots’ is probably my favorite book,” she said. “But, as everybody knows, the best book of all is the Bible,” she said.
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By Ashani Smith