PECK PRIDE With the chance to share the history of Peck High School with an exhibit at the Peck Center, a group of alumni called ALL ABOUT PECK was formed to coordinate the effort. BY MANDY HAYNES • PHOTO BY SHERRY CARTER
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n February last year, I wrote a story about Peck High School’s amazing history. After meeting with eight former students in the Willie Mae Hardy Ashley auditorium of what is now the Peck Center, I asked them one last question: “Why isn’t there any of the history you all just shared with me displayed here?” Neil Frink, one of the former Peck students, asked me to come out into the lobby and pointed to a painting of Martin Luther King, Jr. “Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an important part of Black history, but why is his portrait bigger than the portrait of the man this building is named after?” Frink pointed to the much smaller portrait of Professor William Henderson Peck then back to the large painting hanging in clear view. “Before anyone heard of Martin Luther King Jr., we had strong, independent, outspoken, role models and mentors inside these walls,” Frink said. Frink graduated from Peck High School in 1959. I did the math; that was four years before the March on Washington, where Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Shortly after my article on the history of Peck High School was published, Neil Frink and I met with Dale Martin, City Manager for Fernandina Beach, to see how the former students could have the history of Peck High displayed in the building. He agreed wholeheartedly that Peck High School’s history needed to be recognized and suggested that former Peck students organize a committee to start gathering information that they thought should be displayed. Within days, the ALL ABOUT PECK group was formed and growing, including members of the Peck Alumni Association and former students who now live out of state. Two months later, they received some exciting news. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Lorelei Jacobs, Grants Administrator for the city, a grant for $50,000 was received to fund the Amelia Island Museum of History’s creation and installation of a Peck High School historical exhibition to be permanently located at the Peck Center, as well as a separate grant to take care of much-needed repairs. continued on next page
35 AMELIA ISLANDER MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2022
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