Annie Burns-Hicks

School City of Hammond mourns legend Annie Burns-Hicks

Contributed By: The 411 News

Annie Burns-Hicks, Hammond’s first black school teacher and the namesake of Hammond’s Annie Burns-Hicks Elementary School has died. The family announced she passed on Tuesday, September 17. She was 87.

As the first African American teacher in Hammond, Burns-Hicks paved the way for others to become first in other areas. She was an inspiration and powerful influence for thousands of students and families over her impressive 40 year teaching career, said Donna Petraits, School City of Hammond Communications Consultant.

Black, brown, and white students shared classrooms in Hammond in 1958, but all the teachers were white.

Burns-Hicks had just graduated from Ball State University. She was a product of the Hammond schools. She attended Maywood through junior high and graduated from Hammond High. She had done her practice teaching in Hammond.

When Burn-Hicks came back to Hammond and applied to be a teacher in the school district, Superintendent Lee Caldwell wouldn’t accept it.

It would take a 1959 federal court case, filed by Burns-Hicks and her father against the Hammond school district to get her through those doors. The complaint was dropped after Supt. Caldwell backed down on his stance that Hammond wasn’t ready for a colored teacher.

In 1960, Burns-Hicks joined the staff at Maywood, where she taught for 35 years.

It was renamed Burns-Hicks Elementary in her honor in 2022, the same year she received the President's Medal of Distinction from Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns.

In what she said was the proudest moment of her life, SCH Board of Trustee Carlotta Blake-King made the motion to rename Maywood, and called Burns-Hicks “a civil rights pioneer, an educator, an innovator … the type of woman who demanded academic excellence.”

SCH Board President Cindy Murphy said, “I am proud to have been part of the board that voted to rename one of our schools after this courageous and inspiring woman.” She added, “The School City of Hammond will continue to honor her legend through the curriculum developed for all elementary students about the life of Annie Burns-Hicks so that young people will continue to be inspired to follow her example and their dreams.”

The documentary “This Wall Must Come Down: The Annie Burns-Hicks Story” created by Hammond native Roland G. Parrish is available on YouTube.

Story Posted:09/21/2024