Recognizing Annie Burns-Hicks

Floor Speech

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Mr. MRVAN. Madam Speaker, it is with great respect and admiration that I take this time to recognize one of Northwest Indiana's true pioneers, Annie Burns-Hicks, the School City of Hammond's first African American teacher. Earlier this year, the Hammond School Board voted unanimously to rename Maywood Elementary School, which she attended in her youth and at which she taught for the majority of her career, to Annie Burns-Hicks Elementary School. The School City of Hammond will be honoring Ms. Burns-Hicks at a special event taking place on April 28, 2022.

The eldest of thirteen children, Annie's family relocated from Mississippi to Hammond, Indiana, in 1944. Her parents, Albert and Mary Burns, sought a better life for their children after her father witnessed the brutal lynching of two young black boys. Annie recalls her father telling her and her siblings of his expectation that they strive to make the world a better place, a lesson that has remained with her throughout her lifetime. It was this desire to make a positive change in her community that likely led to her graduation from Ball State Teachers College in hopes of returning to teach in Hammond.

Unfortunately, Annie's desire to improve her community by educating the city's children would not come without opposition. Despite being five years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling of the Supreme Court to end segregation in schools, Ms. Burns- Hicks's application for a teaching position was rejected without consideration, as she was told the city was ``not ready for a colored teacher.'' Undeterred, and remembering her father's inspirational words encouraging her to be a force of change, Annie pressed on through the courts and won, thus allowing her to become the first African American teacher in the city of Hammond in 1960 and paving the way for the many future teachers who would follow in her footsteps. During her tenure, Ms. Burns-Hicks co-authored the first full-day kindergarten program in the city, a contribution that truly enhanced the educational opportunities for the community's young children.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I ask that you and my other distinguished colleagues join me in honoring Annie Burns-Hicks. Ms. Burns-Hicks broke barriers as Hammond's first African American teacher, and in doing so, has been a true inspiration and a source of tremendous pride to her community. Throughout her more than forty years of teaching, she touched countless lives. It is fitting that the school now bears her name for the generations to come.

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