Shortly after Annie
Burns-Hicks and her family arrived in Hammond,
Indiana during 1944, she was enrolled by her
parents, Rev. Dr. A. R. Burns and Mary Burns, at
Riverside Elementary School and then later at
Harding Elementary School. In 1950, her family
moved to East Hammond, and she was enrolled in
Maywood Elementary School.
While at Maywood School, she
asked why there were no black teachers in the
Hammond school system. It was while attending this
school she made up her mind to change this
discriminatory practice and to strive to complete
her education to become the first black teacher in
the Hammond public school system.
After graduating from Hammond
High School, she entered Ball State Teacher’s
College in Munice, Indiana. She eventually
obtained a Master’s Degree from DePaul University,
Chicago, Illinois. During the Spring of 1958, she
returned to Hammond and made application for a
teacher’s position with the Hammond school
system.
She had problems obtaining an
application form to apply for a teaching position.
She asked the school superintendent, Mr. Caldwell,
for an application, and he refused to provide her
with one. He told her “Hammond was not ready for a
colored teacher.” However, she obtained an
application from another source and submitted it for
consideration. Time passed and there was no
response to the application she had submitted. Her
father, Rev. Dr. A.R. Burns confronted
superintendent Caldwell about the application. The
superintendent replied “That over my dead body she
will not teach in Hammond.”
Since she was unable to teach
in Hammond, she obtained a teaching job in Gary,
Indiana. Dr. Burns then told his daughter that “We
are going to have to bring this wall down.”
Lawyers were obtained, and a suit was then initiated
against the Hammond school system. The court
decision Brown v. Board of Education was used citing
that her civil rights were violated by denying her
the right to teach at public schools in Hammond.
Several hearing were held,
and in an out-of-court decision, the Hammond school
system decided to hire her. Ironically, in the
midst of the hearings, Superintendent Caldwell
died. Annie Hicks finally got a teaching job
making her the first Afro-American to be hired in
Hammond, Indiana in the public school system.
She states that she have no
regrets, remorse or anger against the school city
because she paved the way and opened the door for
others.
Annie
Hicks - Hammond's