FRANKLIN, Tenn (WTVF) — The Williamson County School Board made history at Monday night’s meeting when members voted unanimously to name a new elementary school in Spring Hill after the county’s first Black principal.
Amanda H. North Elementary School will be located on Wilkes Lane in Spring Hill. Amanda H. North began teaching in the 1930s in a one-room school at Southall known as Boxley Valley School.
She later became principal of Thompson's Station Elementary School for Black students grades first through eighth.
North ended her career at Evergreen Elementary School, a first through eighth-grade school after Thompson's Station closed.
“Our heroes matter, our history and our values matter. We are not a perfect nation by any stretch of the imagination, but we are a nation that holds certain ideal qualities in which we were formed upon and we’re our nation that can get better and can improve and can recognize and an idea. And someone who made initially have been treated in such a way that they are not allowed admission into one of our schools here we are today that we’re naming one of our schools for that very same person for very noble reasons,” said Eric Welch, board member.
North passed away more than 10 years ago. Her daughters and grandchildren also became educators in Williamson and Davidson Counties public school systems.
Board members were thankful to make this approval during Black History Month.
“I’m excited that we can recognize this lady by naming a school after her and I’m excited that her family is here tonight to see that happen,” said Eliot Mitchell, board member.
North’s family was in attendance during the vote.
