Taylortown is a small, predominantly black incorporated town that bordersthe golf capitol of Pinehurst. Residents met at the town hall today todiscuss the talk of the town, the naming of the only school in town.
"It's in our town, why should they have it in any other name," said AteliaYoung, resident.
But the school does have another name, Pinehurst Year Round. Residents weren't aware of the name change until they read an article in the localpaper. They were also surprised to be described as a black and low incometown, an image that some believe has kept school leaders from naming theschool Taylortown.
"We are a working class town, we are not predominantly poor," said MayorUlysses Barrett.
School principal Janice Cagle says the superintendent told her to ask heradvisory council for a school name.
They at that time requested that it be called Pinehurst Year-Round," saidCagle.
In the early 1900s, Robert and Edna Taylor, an educated black couple, started teaching the black children in the area. The town was subsequentlynamed after them. It's in their honor and their memory that residentswould like to call their new school Taylortown Year-Round.
86-year-old Ruth Jackson remembers the Taylors and the contributions theymade. She hopes the school board will reconsider its decision.
"It needs to be named after the original people that built the schoolto start with," said Jackson.
School board leaders now plan to conduct a school-wide survey to determineif a name change should be considered.
Cagle says no matter what the name of the school becomes, she assures thepeople of Taylortown and Pinehurst that educating the children will remainthe school's top priority.
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