Click here for pictures of the dedication of the Ed Sanders Memorial Library
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UPDATE ON MR. ED SANDERS
From: Joan King Hargett
We are pleased to let you know that there will be a dedication of the Media Center at Rocky River High School honoring our former Principal, Mr. Ed Sanders on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 12:30 p.m. Rocky River High School is located in Mint Hill at 10505 Clear Creek Commerce Drive.
The Central High School class of 1955 is invited to attend. Lunch will be served following the dedication. We hope that we will have a good turnout from our class. We will need to turn in a number to the school a few days before the event.
Thanks to the continued efforts of David McKinnon and many classmates, this honor that Mr. Sanders so deserves will become a reality.
Please contact David McKinnon at 704-684-5003 or Joan King Hargett at 704-545-9943 by Tuesday, October 26th if you plan to attend.
From David McKinnon
Great news!!! Last night (Tuesday, June 22, 2010) at the school board meeting, the board approved the recommendation by Mark Nixon and a Rocky River High School Parent Teachers Committee to name the Media Center at the school for Mr. Sanders.
It will be called the "Sanders Media Center", as approved by the Sanders Family.
In attendance were members of the Sanders family including Doug Sanders, his wife Lynn, sister Sandy, both Doug's sons, Jeff and Sam and Sam's new wife Tanner. Mark addressed the school board and recognized the Sanders family and myself from the podium.
After applause by the school board, Mark stated there would be a formal dedication ceremony, somewhere around mid September (details as we receive them!). After the meeting, there was a short, private meeting between myself, the Sanders family and Mr. Nixon. Phone numbers and email addresses were exchanged between the Sanders family and Mr. Nixon. Suggestions were made about plaques, a painting of Mr. Sanders, and possibly other acknowledgments prominently placed in the Media Center as to some of Mr. Sanders notable accomplishments. I got the impression Mark has considerable latitude in this area and the Sanders family was both enthusiastic and strongly appreciative of this wonderful, acknowledgment in perpetuity of this most deserving gentleman.
As so many of our classmates and other Central High grads access our wonderful website, I felt the need to share this very special recognition for this very special man with all those who have worked so diligently for so long.
Sincerely,
David McKinnon
Educator honored for his role in history
Rocky River High School media center is named after Ed Sanders, who orchestrated peaceful school integration in the 1950s.
By Celeste Smith
cesmith@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
Ed Sanders, retired principal of Central High School, and his son Doug Sanders look through the school's annual for 1957-58, the year Gus Roberts became the first black student at the school. Sanders organized a team of students and staff to ensure that Roberts' entry into the school went without incident. "He's a very modest man," Doug Sanders said. 2007 FILE PHOTO BY GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com
Ed Sanders has always been a humble man, according to his son, Doug.
The elder Sanders would likely say something like, "'I was just doing my job,'" if he had to weigh in on the fact that the media center at the new Rocky River High School in Mint Hill is being named in his honor.
Ed Sanders, 87, is being recognized for his role of ensuring peaceful integration at Central High School in 1957.
"He's a very modest man," Doug Sanders said. "It makes us extremely proud of what he accomplished, without ever looking for the recognition."
Sanders' advocates spent nearly three years seeking out this recognition for the veteran principal and educator. Supporters had wanted a school named after Ed Sanders, but Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district policy prohibits that distinction from going to living people. Sanders resides at Southminster Retirement Community in south Charlotte, where he receives specialized care for dementia and Alzheimer's, according to his son.
Sanders' career includes serving as principal at Garinger High; as an associate superintendent in Charlotte; and as superintendent in Darlington County, S.C.
He retired to Charlotte in the late 1980s.
He was principal of the all-white Central High when Gus Roberts enrolled as the first black student. Through planning and attention, Sanders was able to avoid the clashes that Dorothy Counts faced while integrating Harding High that same school year.
Sanders even took Roberts by the arm and walked him into Central on a day when white students gathered to block the entrance.
In a Charlotte Observer interview in 2007, Sanders said Gus Roberts, who died in 1992 at 51, "deserves all the credit." Roberts became the first black student to graduate from a previously all-white Charlotte school.
Naming the media center is a perfect way of "recognizing those folks that stood with him that day," Doug Sanders said of his dad.
The center has a prominent place on campus, and the view from the inside looks out toward the front of the school and the Rocky River High School sign. Ed Sanders' portrait will in the media center, as will news articles and yearbooks chronicling his work, according to Mark Nixon, principal of Rocky River High School.
Principal Sanders had the chance to see the space in April. Escorted by his son, they met Nixon for a tour of the 265,000-square-foot building.
Dave McKinnon, Central alum class of 1955, arranged the trip. McKinnon started pursuing the naming honor for Sanders in 2007 after learning more about the principal's leadership at Central.
McKinnon enjoyed watching the elder Sanders light up seeing the state-of-the-art amenities at the brand-new school, which opens to students in August.
"This so-deserving individual is remembered in perpetuity for what he did," McKinnon said.
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/04/1540498/educator-honored-for-his-role.html#ixzz0sijE6v4E