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K. LaVerne Redden, no
stranger to getting things done in this community, decided
on a course of action almost immediately. “Upon the death of
Dr. King, we thought there was something we ought to do in
Toledo to honor him,” says Redden.
Redden decided to swing
into action and target a school to be renamed. To do so,
however, would mean a rather drastic shift in pattern for
her own family.
Redden, a Roman Catholic
who would three decades later become the first black
president of the National Council of Catholic Women, was in
1968 a nurse and the mother of six children. Her children
attended Catholic schools. She knew, however, that the
diocese would not give up one its cherished names. “There
was very little chance of changing one of the ‘saints’ to
‘Martin Luther King,’” says Redden.
So she looked at the
public schools in the inner city and decided that Roosevelt
Elementary School was an appropriate target for a name
change. Unfortunately, with her children in parochial
schools, she wasn’t involved in the Roosevelt school
community or in a position to effect such a change.
“I had to get over there,”
she decided.
That fall of 1968, her
youngest daughter, Kelly, started kindergarten at Roosevelt.
“She enrolled her daughter
into Roosevelt school with the sole purpose of changing the
name,” recalls her son, Lamar Norwood. “We had all gone to
St. Ann’s.”
Kelly started school and
her mother also started school – assisting on the adult side
of operations. Redden joined the Roosevelt Parent Teachers
Association and the Mothers Club and began her campaign to
have a structure in Toledo named after King. “Out of sheer
respect and dedication to the work of Dr. King,” she says.
Redden and those she
recruited to work with her began writing Toledo Public
Schools Superintendent Frank Dick to enlist his support.
Dick provided leadership for the cause, says Redden.
Finally after months of
writing and cajoling school board members, the name change
was accepted. On March 30, 1969, less than a year after Dr.
King’s death, Roosevelt Elementary became Martin Luther King
Elementary. At the re-naming ceremony, K. LaVerne Redden
served as mistress of ceremonies.
Redden, whose father,
Casey Jones, was the first African American to serve in the
Ohio General Assembly, continues to remain active in the
Toledo community and to represent causes that reflect her
concerns about preserving and honoring history. In recent
years she served as treasurer in the campaign to save the
Lathrop House in Sylvania. The house was a notable stop for
escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad on their way
to Michigan, Canada and freedom.
And MLK Elementary still
stands – rebuilt over the years. The school is now the MLK
Academy for Boys. |
