A man of courage is gone

Albert Joyner Sr., whose courageous stand in the 1950s on behalf of civil rights and equality in Old Fort would earn him honors more than 50 years later, died Wednesday morning. He was 86 years old.

In August 1955, Joyner escorted five black students to the all-white Old Fort School so they could get an education there. He and the students walked past a crowd of some 300 to 400 white people who did not want to see the school integrated. Joyner and the five elementary school students were turned away by school officials.

The event made national news as one of the first attempts to integrate a school in the South following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision. It took place before the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. which involved Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Five years before, the school for black students in Old Fort closed. Parents were faced with the prospect of sending their children to the segregated school in Marion. In September 1950, black children protested in the streets of Old Fort so they could keep their school open. However, it was closed and the wooden building was demolished. A petition bearing 90 signatures was sent to the school officials asking that the black students in Old Fort be allowed to attend school with white students.

In time, things would change. Local schools would become integrated by the mid-1960s.

But on that August day in 1955, no one was really sure what would happen when Joyner escorted those five children to Old Fort School.

There had been rumors of violence before they showed up at the schoolhouse door. Police kept the crowd on the sides as they walked down the middle of the street. When they arrived at the school, the principal met Joyner at the door and told the small group they couldn’t enroll.

“Superintendent (Melvin) Taylor said the man inquired where he might find the office of registration,” a McDowell News article from 1955 reads. “He was told by Taylor that the McDowell County Board of Education had directed him to inform all principals throughout the county not to enroll any pupil – regardless of race – which would result in transferring the pupil from a school previously assigned unless and until such a request had been reviewed by the board and a formal transfer made by the board.”

In a 2004 interview with The McDowell News, Joyner said he wasn’t surprised when they turned him away.

On the way back, a man from his community brought a car to pick up Joyner and the youngsters.

“They were looking for me to get shot that morning,” said Joyner in 2004. “He said, ‘Get in here before you all get killed.’”

Six days after he walked to the school, Joyner was in the downtown with his sister and some of his children when a man walked by and punched him, knocking him into a fountain. His sister ran to the nearby a drug store to call the police. Joyner said in 2004 that workers there wouldn’t let her in the building, much less use the phone.

The police chief issued a warrant not only for the man who attacked Joyner but also for Joyner himself. Joyner was found innocent while his attacker was found guilty and given a $15 fine. According to the paper, no one submitted any evidence to show the assault was related to Joyner’s efforts to integrate the school.

Years later, Joyner was working as a nursing assistant at the Veteran’s Affairs hospital. He again met the man who had punched him. Neither of them mentioned the incident in downtown Old Fort.

“I didn’t forget, and I know he didn’t forget,” he said in 2004. “But you don’t try to get even with nobody. You do what’s right and you go on.”

Joyner’s role in the attempt to integrate Old Fort School would be remembered more than 55 years later. In February, Joyner’s church, Catawba View Missionary Baptist, paid tribute to him with a special service. By that time, Joyner was in frail health and he attended the service in a wheelchair.

“It was already long overdue,” said long-time civic leader Ray McKesson on Thursday. “I was proud to be a part of that ceremony.”

At the February service, McKesson read a proclamation from Mayor Terry Bellamy declaring Sunday as Albert Joyner Day in the city of Asheville. The Rev. Carl Manuel, pastor of Addie’s Chapel United Methodist Church, read a letter of tribute from the Durham branch of the NAACP. Gail Borders Williams of Mount Zion AME Zion Church read a letter of tribute from Gov. Bev Perdue. Jo Pyatt of the United Methodist Charter for Racial Justice read a letter honoring Joyner from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

“He was definitely a pioneer before his time,” said McKesson on Thursday. “He took a stand in trying to right the wrongs. In my opinion, he was a pilgrim for trying to make equality for all children, regardless of their race. I am just proud of the stand he took at that time.”

Vernice Francis of Marion led the tribute to Joyner at the February service. She talked to the younger people in the congregation about what life was like back then before the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle for equality.

“Mr. Joyner was a man of courage and dignity,” said Francis on Thursday. “I always enjoyed visiting my friends, his daughters in his home. I am not saddened by his death. Mr. Joyner lived his life as a strong, Christian man.”

She said she was glad that he was finally honored for what he had done.

“I will remember Mr. Joyner as a man who stood alone to help others,” she said.

His funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Catawba View Missionary Baptist. The family will receive friends from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Sunday at the church. Kirksey Funeral Home Chapel in Old Fort will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday so friends can pay their respects.

The Rev. Ronald A. Sullivan, pastor of the church, said Thursday that Joyner was a great man.

“He stood up for the things that counted the most for the community,” said Sullivan. “He was a very giving and caring person. He thought more about other people than he did for himself.”

Sullivan added that Joyner will be missed by all of McDowell County and especially the African American community. Many younger folks today cannot understand what it was like to live in the time of segregation.

“It is a difficult thing for young people to understand,” said Sullivan. “They don’t realize the cost.”

He added that Joyner was ridiculed, verbally abused and attacked for his courageous stand for equality.

To honor Joyner, the church has developed a scholarship bearing his name. In addition, church members and others would like to see Baptist Side Road renamed in honor of Albert Joyner Sr., said Sullivan.

Ragan Robinson contributed to this story.