Hillsborough class reunion celebrates students, civil right activists 50 years later

Fifty years ago, Orange County schools became fully integrated, but when the county tried to slow down the process, students from an all-black school took a stand.

The school's alumni came together Saturday afternoon and shared memories of that transformative era.

Inside Hillsborough Elementary, which was previously Central High School, the walls speak with history.

James Bumphus walked the halls as a teenager, when Central was an all-black school.

He walked out in 1968 when the Orange County School Board decided to let only 10th grade students integrate with the white school that year, having the other grades wait until the following year.

“We (were) trying to unite the community,” Bumphus said.

Wayne Bynum walked out as well.

“They wanted to delay integration,” Bynum said. “They wanted to phase it in as slowly as they could.”

For several days in May 1968, Central students boycotted classes.

It was a tense time, but the board relented, and all high school students from Central High School went to the formerly all-white Orange High School that year.

Esterine Thompson-Coward remembers what is was like to walk the hallways with white students for the first time.

“We experienced a lot of harassment at first, and they had a difficult time receiving us. But eventually it got better when they began to realize we weren't going anywhere,” Thompson-Coward said.

Fifty years later, they came back together on a rainy Saturday. Alumni said nothing could rain on their parade.

They marched with drumbeats and batons, hoping to pass the baton of hope and activism to a younger generation.

“Because you can see the need,” Bumphus said. “In the time we live right now, you can see where it’s so important to keep these kinds of things going.”

The alumni also held a class reunion dinner and dance.

On Sunday, the group will celebrate with gospel music at the Farmer's Market Pavilion in downtown Hillsborough.