State

A World Away Since 1904, Laurinburg Institute has been providing a safe haven for young blacks looking for a chance to learn in peace. There was a lime when Bayard McCullough's education was fraught with danger. Ilis class¬ room was ihe mean streets of Clii« ago. his teacheis ineinbers of two notorious gangs. Now, he's a scholar with a future. McCullough's a student at Laurinburg Institute, a 90-year-old preparatory school whose alumni include former National Basketball Assoc iation stars Sam Jones and Charlie Scott and ja// legend Di//y Gillespie. Bayard, a senior, is thankful the insti¬ tute exists. A former mcmbci of the Black Disciples and the Four Comet Hustlers, the gangland existence was slowly stealing his childhood, lie need¬ ed a change. The streets of Chicago were rough." Bayard says. "I was in a gang, and I felt mysell about to die. So I asked my mothei il I could go away to st hool." Young people like Bayard (Mine Laurinburg's mission. Most ol its stu¬ dents come from America's largest urban areas — New York. Chicago. Detroit — where reality can l>e cold and ruthless. But if a family's willing and can pay the tuition. Laurinburg's a welcome reprieve. The wail ol police sirens and gunfire are replaced by chirping birds and a nurturing ac ade¬ mic environment. “There's a lot of respect in this school." Bayard says. “They give you respect, and that's what a lot of voting black children need." The Institute has been touted on the front of the Wall Sliest Joiim/il and Munition Wrrk and was the subject ol a “Nightline" piece on ABC in 1986. "There's a school in North Carolina that works." said host Ted Koppel that night, telling America that 83 percent ol Laurinburg graduates since 1954 had graduated from four-year colleges. Raleighs Will Chamberlain say $ you're more than a number at the Institute. African-Americans in Scotland County needed a school to educate their children at the dawn of the 20th century. So an appeal went to Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskecgec Institute (now University) in Alabama. He sent teenage newlyweds Emanuel and Tinny (pronounced "Tiny”) McDuffie to launch a new school in the Sandhills of Not ill Carolina. It wasn't easy. They had to hitch rides on passing trains at night and avoid marauding bands of Ku Klux Klansmen to reach luiurinburg. about 80 miles east of Charlotte. The McDuffies raised money* from local sharccrop|Kar* to buy land. Tinny McDuffie cried when she saw the prop¬ erty — an overgrown marsh. But there was potential in the swamp. The black community helped drain the bog, cut trees and built a log cabin classroom that opened in ИМИ with seven stu¬ dents. Laurinburg struggled financially, but it attracted students from Scotland County and the region. One was John Birks Gillespie, who arrived in 1933 Irom nearby Cheraw, South Carolina, with one shirt and a pair of pants, lie was an average student, but he played trumpet in the school baud, sharpen¬ ing the talent that would take Inin to inlet national acclaim as Di//v < iillespie. Even then, the school inspired charac¬ ter as well as an education. "It didn't pay to complain oi to ask too many questions unless you were ready to do some work to change things." Gillespie wrote ol his alma mater. "I learned you can get a great sense of pride from solving youi own practical problems.” That hasn't changed, says Born lleniott. a senior from Queens, New York. Discipline is subtle, but under¬ stood: Everyone’s out of lied at 6:30 a. in., Sunday school is mandatory and so arc shirts and ties. It’s all about preparing for real-world responsibili¬ ties. They look out for the rest ol our life." lleniott says. “You can't walk aiound with gym shoes and shorts all your life." "I wasn't too hip to getting up at 6:30 in the morning.” Bayard recalls, "but now I'm getting used to it. Ibis is the stall right here.” Laurinburg's small-town look and feel is the liist thing big-city kills notice, says Cynthia McDuffie, the institute's principal and wife of the foiindciV grandson. Frank "Bishop" McDuffie. Compared to the big cities, there isn't much excitement. “I think it is the quietness ol this place," Cynthia McDuffie says. “Most ol (the students) are front large, urban areas. There's noise, there's sirens, there’s gunshots. They don’t heat those things here. Their favorite word for it is The SUIdOctobcr 1995 29