Posted by THE RECORD

Nellie Parker School in Hackensack honors the city's first African-American teacher

BY JEFFREY PAGE

SPECIAL TO THE RECORD - THE RECORD

JANUARY 8, 2015    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015, 1:21 AM NORTHJERSEY.COM

Nellie (Morrow) Parker battled racism to become a beloved teacher in Hackensack.

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The definition of courage could well have been formulated in the early 1920s in Hackensack by a young woman who just wanted to teach children how to read, add and subtract. But the Ku Klux Klan and its allies, plus angry parents of school-age kids, could not accept the notion of a black woman teaching white kids, and so they tried to run her out of town.

However, she was hired, and 60 years later the Maple Hill School in Hackensack was renamed the Nellie K. Parker School in her honor.

Back in 1923, petitions were signed against her. People she knew in town, white as well as some black, no longer greeted her, and a cross was burned in the night not far from her home. In addition to the Klan, this would-be teacher was opposed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Knights of Columbus, the 1,500 people who signed petitions and, doubtless, any number of others who chose not to put their bigotry in writing.

The Hackensack Board of Education resisted her as well. There had never been an African-American teacher in a public school in all of Bergen County, let alone in Hackensack, and the board wasn't about to break precedent and do the right thing.

Nellie (Morrow) Parker stood her ground with the resolute encouragement of her father, a Methodist minister who instilled in his children the importance of getting an education if they were to lead productive lives.

When this wretched moment in the city's history finally came to a head, Parker had been hired and went on to teach countless children over a 42-year career filled with tributes to her talent. By the time she retired in 1964, she was by most accounts one of the more popular teachers in the elementary grades.

The renaming of the Maple Hill School occurred in 1981. Ironically, Parker had never taught at Maple Hill, a building on a slight rise at the intersection of Club Way and the Esplanade just across the line from Maywood. With the renaming came a plaque: "In recognition of her devoted service to the children of Hackensack, we dedicate this building."

Parker earned her teaching certification at Montclair Normal School, which later became Montclair State University. In 2011, the university named a new dormitory building Parker Hall.

She was born Nellie Katherine Morrow in Hackensack in 1902 into a musical family that often gathered around the piano, which she was learning to play, for impromptu recitals and group singing.

Her struggle against racism began very early in life, when she was about to enter school for the first time. Her father discovered that Nellie would have to go to an all-black school by bus when there was a mostly white school within walking distance of the Morrow home.

The board of education rebuffed the Rev. Morrow's demand that Nellie attend the closer school. He persisted and finally prevailed. But Nellie's troubles were only starting.

Walking to school meant walking through a white neighborhood, where she was met with racial taunts, bullying, threats and other abuse. Occasionally she was subjected to physical attacks, according to "Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women" (1990).

She graduated from Hackensack High School in 1920 and, having always dreamed of being a teacher, enrolled at Montclair Normal School.

She contacted Dr. William Stark, the courageous white superintendent of schools in Hackensack and, based on her grades at Montclair, he arranged for her to do required student teaching in a Hackensack school for one year.

This caused an uproar, but Stark stood firm. Years later, Nellie's brother, E. Frederic Morrow, described Stark as "a man with a New England conscience."

When she completed her student teaching, Nellie Parker applied for a job in Hackensack. The reaction was swift and negative. Many people refused to allow their children to be taught by an African-American woman.

But Stark persuaded the board to hire her – and quit his own job the next day. Actually, the board of education didn't have much latitude. "[She] is popular and is regarded as a competent teacher," The New York Times reported, with the only objection being her race. "She passed the necessary examination and was placed on the waiting list, according to her rating. The board was compelled to appoint her according to law."

The board of education may have been required to hire her, but was free to assign her where it pleased. And so she was placed in charge of educating "backward negro pupils."

"It was a frightening experience, added to the awful anxiety connected with having to pioneer. But they were fair enough in giving me a chance," Parker told The Record in 1964.

The harassment didn't let up, but Parker withstood it.

For example, for several years Stark's successor as superintendent approached her each September with the same insulting question: Why didn't she resign and look for a teaching job in the Deep South, where, he said, she would have "greater opportunity." The real meaning of the question was clear; he just wanted her out.

Finally, as noted in "Past and Promise," Nellie Parker had enough. The next time the superintendent suggested she quit, she responded: "It's too bad if one little colored girl can be such a bother to you."

And that was the start of a four-decade career of teaching mainstream fifth- and sixth-grade students.

Parker continued her education as well, earning bachelor of science and master of science degrees at Columbia University. She also was one of the founders of the Bergen County branch of the NAACP.

Meanwhile, her marriage to William Parker, an insurance salesman, was failing, and eventually Nellie Parker moved back to her childhood home to care for her ailing mother.

Her father's insistence that Nellie and her four brothers be serious about education had paid off. E. Frederic Morrow was the first African-American to serve on the White House staff, as a presidential aide to Dwight Eisenhower. Another brother, John A. Morrow, served as ambassador to Guinea and as John Kennedy's representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

When Nellie Parker died at age 95 in 1998, an appropriate epitaph could have been the words used to describe her in "Past and Promise."

"She focused on creating an atmosphere of love and helpfulness. She instilled a sense of self-respect in her students, as well as a sense of black pride and identity."