Swift 2015 Reunion Banquet: Changing Attitudes to Include Young People

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Alumni of one of the area's oldest schools gathered on the weekend of May 30, 2015 to commemorate the past and celebrate the future.

The 2015 Swift College-High School Reunion culminated with a fancy banquet held at the Price Public Community Center in Rogersville, Tennessee on Saturday night, amid tall school stories, excellent food and  renewed friendships.


BELOW IS THE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY REV. SHELDON LIVESAY OF THE ROGERSVILLE REVIEW NEWSPAPER

At one time, the stately Swift Administration building on the north side of Main Street faced off towards the Rogersville Synodical College on the south side, testifying to the importance that Rogersville placed on education in the early part of its history.

After business meetings during the day, graduates and family gathered for a banquet at the former renovated high school, now called Price Public.  Amidst hugs and laughter, fond memories were exchanged in the form of stories about teachers and events whil attending Swift.  This year, several younger relatives attended the reunion and were intrigued as grandparents toured them through the Swift Museum, which is located in one of the old classrooms of Price Public.

After some reminiscing and dinner, Carolyn Trammell-Xox, the current Swift Alumni president, who was moderator for the evening, introduced the keynote speaker Mary Katherine Saunders.  Saunders is a former student of Swift and resident of Rogersville.  Saunders is a graduate of ETSU with a masters from Radford University, lives in Radford with a clinical degree and is a licensed counselor, certified in Substance Abuse.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR PART OF MARYH KATHERINE SAUNDERS' INSPIRING SPEECH TO THE GROUP:

Calvin Sneed also spoke to the group.  He is working on a special project with several local alumni groups called the Great Golden Gathering 2015 Reunion.  It is a celebration on August 29th at the Holiday Inn, Bristol Convention Center to commemorate 50 years since the closing of African-American high schools across East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and the integration of students into the mainstream schools.  The purpose of the Great Golden Gathering 2015 is to relive good times, according to Sneed.  He pointed out that people would be able to reminisce about their football and basketball days, academic accomplishments and share other historical stories.

Sneed said "the goal of the big reunion is to reunite people, once rivals on the athletic and academic gridirons, but still were always considered by each other as family and close loved ones.  We are reaching out to all former alumni of the African-American schools in upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, to come together for a program of historic remembrance and honor, and to proudly hold up the banners of our storied schools, gone.. but not forgotten."  The website for more information is located at www.sonsanddaughtersofdouglass.org.  Updates will be added to the news pages.

Carolyn Trammell-Cox, after the reunion shared with Sneed, "I feel our Swift reunion and all reunions are important for our young people.  They preserve our legacy and heritage for them.  A lot of our young people have no idea about Swift, what we did at Swift, what a wonderful education we received, or its place in our community.  It's important for our young people to know where their ancestors came from.  The reunions are a celebration of that heritage.  I heard a statement once.. 'you can't know where you're going, until you know where you've been' and I think our young people need to know where we've been as a school and why we are here today."

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE ALUMNI SING THE SWIFT ALMA MATER:




"We have a lot of new faces here for the reunion," Trammell-Cox says, "but sadly a lot of people are gone from us since the last one.  It's only right that we transition the banner to our young people to carry the charge of Swift onward.  This reunion reinforces that.  If we don't preserve our history and hold important reunions like this, that history is going to be gone forever."

Swift College operated from 1863 to 1955, but the facilities continued to be used by grammar and high school students until 1963.  Swift School was once a vital part of Rogersville life and economy.

In the days following the Civil War, Presbyterian Missionaries established a number of schools and colleges for African-Americans throughout our region.  Swift College was one of those colleges founded in 1863 by Reverend William Henderson Franklin.

Initially there were only 25 students enrolled that first year, but by the turn of the century, 225 students were attending the school.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE ALUMNI SING THE SWIFT SCHOOL SONG:




By 1913, new dorm wings were added to house additional students and Swift was acclaimed regionally as a School of Excellence, offering high Christian ideals and an advanced liberal education,that included music, arts and training for specialized vocations involving commerce and social service.

Many war veterans attended Swift for training after they returned from active duty.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A PHOTO ALBUM OF THE 2015 SWIFT REUNION BANQUET (AND BE SURE TO CLICK THE AUDIO SPEAKER ON---THE BACKGROUND MUSIC IS WONDERFUL!:




CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SWIFTIE ALUMNI GETTING THEIR GROOVES ON AT THE BANQUET:








THE ALUMNI CELEBRATION CONTINUES INTO THE NIGHT.......

Big Reunion and Homecoming: "The Golden Gathering 2015"

Plans are underway for all alumni of the former African-American schools in upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, to have one huge Reunion, called "The Golden Gathering 2015."  

The reunion commemorates the 50th golden anniversary of the closing of our black schools in 1965. We hope to honor the traditions we practiced, the educations we shared, the athletic/academic competitions we loved, and the social lives that bonded us together over the years.

The date of the Golden Gathering 2015 event is Saturday, August 29, 2015, place and the program to be announced. All programs on that day will revolve around a huge banquet on the night of August 29th.

Alumni and descendants of the following schools are invited:

Bland High School, Big Stone Gap, VA
Douglass High School, Bristol, VA
Slater High School, Bristol, Tennessee
Langston High School, Johnson City, TN
Douglas High School, Elizabethton, TN
Booker T. Washington Elementary School, Jonesborough, TN
Douglass High School, Kingsport, TN
George Clem High School, Greeneville, TN
Swift High School, Rogersville, TN
Tanner High School, Newport, TN
Morristown West High School, Morristown, TN
Nelson-Merry High School, Jefferson City, TN
Austin High School, Knoxville, TN  
And all elementary schools who sent children to the above schools

The organizational committee for the Golden Gathering 2015 has been meeting since March, to plan the individual programs for the event. Below are minutes from the meeting of April 11, 2015:

Big Reunion Progress Meeting:

Carver Recreation Center, Johnson City, TN

April 11, 2015

Persons Present: Calvin Sneed; Carolyn Trammell-Cox; Georgia Gillespie; Sandra (Dawson) Nuttall; Nancy Rhea Robinson; William (Bill) Coleman, Jr.; Barbara Love Watterson; Henry Wisdom; Carla Forney; Michael L. Young; Brenda A. Charles; Nancy G. Howard; Norman Howard; Roland Dykes, III; Elva L. Morrison; Sue Gilispie;  Renea G. Hall; Lawrence R. Bell, Jr.; Shirley Gammon Bell.

Meeting opened at 11:15 AM, April 11, 2015, with prayer by Carolyn Cox.

Calvin Sneed advised that last meeting (March 7, 2015) notes have been posted on the Website.  He has called J.C. Press to speak with Johnny Malloy about tracking progress/history of schools and upcoming 2015 combined reunion.

Robert Dykes III (Tanner High) spoke of efforts to reclaim/restore Tanner HS, which was damaged during a past tornado.

Calvin related that Langston, Clem, & Tanner are all attempting to reclaim their buildings. City leaders are not concerned, so we must keep these visions in the forefront.  He gave info as to how Kingsport was able to get Douglass Community Center.  Douglass was a Rosenwald school, as was Tanner and the Langston Gymnasium.  These buildings represent histories of the Black community.  This Big Reunion is about rekindling our histories, preserving them, and passing them on to our descendents.

Discussion pursued regarding the mission for Committees:

Members should take information from meeting(s) and disseminate amongst our Alumni Associations.

Event:  Saturday, August 29, 2015 = Banquet.. What would be a good venue?  What should we set as the Cost ($)?.

We need to form a Site Committee...

Nancy Howard suggested that each School Reunion Group provide a list or numbers of attendees at their last Reunion... some sort of poll for each of our groups to determine about how many persons "might" attend.  Norman Howard stated that we need to work through our standing community structures, i.e.; the Black Churches.

Calvin urged that we need to set up Committees today: Marketing/Public Affairs; Location/Site, Finance; Entertainment; etc...

Volunteers (?) were appointed for the Location/Site Committee: Doug Releford (Kgpt), Henry Wisdom (Bristol/Slater), and Mary Alexander (Langston).  Site recommendations are needed within the next two weeks (by May 2nd.).

Norman Howard related that we need to think about this being a Family event - to plan for bringing kids, and entire families.

Nancy Howard noted that we need to focus on celebrating those who attended one of the Black institutions, Maybe other activities could be incorporated to others from the larger community.

Henry Wisdom stated he had already called Mary Alexander... they will meet within this week to work on the location/site... He also agreed that we need to use the Black churches to help promote the event.

Carla Forney suggested that perhaps we can work through the Ministers Alliance.

Nancy Howard added that we do need to focus on Our stories as a region, but perhaps we could plan a series of events for each city to bring the individual impact on those specific cities.

Calvin stated we had originally thought about one day, but it seems like we need to think about two days (Sat/Sun)... maybe a picnic and a Banquet on Saturday, then a large Church event (?) on Sunday...?

Nancy responded that she agrees with a Saturday gathering to celebrate the 50th year, but each city/school should focus on their own activities in their individual cities and communities.

Calvin related that the original idea was to celebrate what we all had experienced together from the entire region.

Barbara Watterson thinks we would have better success in bringing all the schools together.

Calvin asked; let's get our Entertainment Committee together:  He appointed Carla Forney, Barbara Watterson, Brenda Charles, Vivian Releford, and Stella Gudger as members of this committee.

Norman Howard stated that our history has been an oral history.  Perhaps we could get media to document historical storytelling, interviews, etc...

Calvin related that we could go to the JC Press and WJHL to see if they will support the effort.  We could also consider asking this business to sponsor a part of the Reunion.

Calvin stated that he would work with Norman Howard on the Marketing Committee.

Nancy Howard thought that we should develop a script or memo to ensure that we are all speaking from the same sheet.  Calvin agreed, We need to have a script in place by the end of April, to send out to Churches...

Carolyn T. Cox stated that each Reunion Group needs to (soon) get a head count of potential attendees to forward to the Location/Site Committee.  Calvin replied that we intend to ask Churches, Alumni Groups, etc., to develop potential attendees.  We will need to have a firm number by the 1st of July.

Carla Forney asked if there are officers for this group (Big Reunion)?.

Calvin Sneed was nominated as Chair.

Secretary:

Finance/Treasury Committee: B. Watterson, N. Robinson, Carolyn Cox

Sue Greenlee asked how are we going to get the word out and will it be via a letter, flyers, etc.?

Mike Young suggested that perhaps we can send out an Introductory Letter to announce the event... advise the planned event., then follow up with a Detailed Letter.  Calvin agreed - he will do that - he'll send out the Intro Letter to the Ministerial Alliance, etc...

Next Meeting date: Saturday May 2, 2015, at 11:00.  All Committee Reports are due on this date.

Closing prayer was offered by Henry Wisdom.

Adjourned.