Essie Mae Kiser Foxx - Community Activist
Essie Mae Foxx is a Community Activist that has held the East Spencer community near and dear to her heart. In 1984, she organized the Mass Dunbar Reunion.
Mrs. Foxx attended the Rowan County Schools and is a proud graduate of Dunbar High School in East Spencer. A faithful and devoted member of Southern City Tabernacle AME Zion, she has served on the Steward Board, the Historical Committee, the Deaconess Board, the Women's Home and Overseas Missionary, Lay Council, a Co-Chairman of the Legacy of a Leader Committee and other boards and organizations through the years.
On Feb. 9, 2014, she was honored by Southern City Tabernacle AME Zion Church as the “Legacy of A Leader”. On Sept. 3, 2015, the Town of East Spencer gave a tribute to Essie K. Foxx by naming a street in her honor, “Essie K. Foxx Lane”.
John L. Rustin, Sr. - First African American Police Chief in Rowan County
John L. Rustin is the former mayor of East Spencer, NC. where he is also a retired police chief after many years of service.
Rustin, an East Spencer native, started his law enforcement career in East Spencer as a part-time police officer in 1952 during segregation. He eventually worked his way through the ranks becoming police chief in 1974. While working for the police department part-time, Rustin worked for Isenhour Brick and Tile company in East Spencer, now Boral Brick.
An honored World War II veteran, Rustin serves on several boards including the Rowan Chamber of Commerce, the Civitan Club and Peace Officers Association. He is a life member of the local NAACP and N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police.
Rustin is a recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.
East Spencer, N.C. dedicated a street named in his honor, which is located beside the East Spencer Post office. In February 2011, Rustin received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest civilian honor. Rustin is a member of Southern City AME Zion Tabernacle Church serving on the trustee board.
Erza Gilliam - Dunbar Principal/Educator
Ezra Cole Gilliam is a graduate of J.C. Price High School in Salisbury. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Livingstone College, Salisbury, a Bachelor of Science Degree, from N.C. A&T State University, Greensboro, and a Master of Science Degree from Iowa University, Ames, Iowa.
His career includes teaching principal at Summer Siding School, North Carolina, from 1940-1942; instructor at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala., from 1951-1955; instructor at Luther Jackson High School in Merrifield, Va., from 1955-1958; teacher and principal at Dunbar High School, East Spencer, from 1958-1969; and was research director for Rowan County Schools, Salisbury, from 1969-1981, from where he retired in 1981. Mr. Gilliam is an inductee of the N.C. Community Action Inaugural Hall of Fame as of Nov. 10, 2005, and the Livingstone College Leaders Hall of Fame inductee as of 2009.
Mr. Gilliam, a commissioned officer, served in the Armed Forces in Asiatic-Pacific Theater, retiring in 1977 from the United States Army Reserves at the rank of Major. He has successfully completed the Industrial College of the Armed Forces on June 3, 1971 and is a member of Local Chapter 107 of the American Legion.
A member of Trinity Presbyterian Church, he serves in the capacity of Church Elder, Church Treasurer and Superintendent of Church School. In 1989, he served as a Commissioner Delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at Philadelphia, PA.
Mr. Gilliam is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity; a board member and treasurer of the Salisbury-Rowan Community Action Agency, Inc.; a life-member and past Second Vice President of NAACP; former adviser to the Farm Service Agency; and a member of the Farm Committee of Cooperative Agriculture Extension. He is currently serving as an active board member of Nazareth Children's Home.
John Krider Sr. - Entrepreneur
Mr. John Edward Krider Sr. is the son of the late John Hedrick Krider and Edna Emerson Krider. Mr. Krider is educated in the public schools of Rowan County and a graduate of Dunbar High School in East Spencer.
On June 18, 1943 Mr. Krider entered and served in the United States Navy and was honorably discharged on Jan. 20, 1946.
He is the owner and operator of Krider’s Café in East Spencer, N.C. Krider’s, as the café is best known, is one of a few black owned establishments that catered to the black township during segregation. The family-owned business took pride in serving the teachers, students and workers of Dunbar High School during its existence. Krider’s Café is known for their fresh, handmade Krider hamburgers, hot dogs, footlongs and chili cheese fries has been serving the community for over 59 years.
Mr. Krider is a member of Shady Grove Baptist Church where he has been serving as an usher since his youth.
Douglas Holmes - Entrepreneur
Mr. John Edward Krider Sr. is the son of the late John Hedrick Krider and Edna Emerson Krider. Mr. Krider is educated in the public schools of Rowan County and a graduate of Dunbar High School in East Spencer.
On June 18, 1943 Mr. Krider entered and served in the United States Navy and was honorably discharged on Jan. 20, 1946.
He is the owner and operator of Krider’s Café in East Spencer, N.C. Krider’s, as the café is best known, is one of a few black owned establishments that catered to the black township during segregation. The family-owned business took pride in serving the teachers, students and workers of Dunbar High School during its existence. Krider’s Café is known for their fresh, handmade Krider hamburgers, hot dogs, footlongs and chili cheese fries has been serving the community for over 59 years.
Mr. Krider is a member of Shady Grove Baptist Church where he has been serving as an usher since his youth.
William Ray “Pete” Kennedy - Salisbury City Council/Entrepreneur
William Ray “Pete” Kennedy is a 1954 graduate of Dunbar High School. He taught several years at Dunbar High School after graduating Livingstone College.
Over 28 years as an educator, Kennedy taught as a schoolteacher, coach and guidance counselor, many of those years at East Rowan High School.
In 1980 while at East Rowan High School, he began his real estate career with the first African American real estate company in Salisbury, NC, established in 1974, Charles Roberson Realty, Inc. In 1983, Kennedy opened his own real estate firm, William R. Kennedy Realty, Inc.
Elected 11 consecutive times to serve on the Salisbury City Council, he was the only African American serving on the council during his time in office. He became the only African American to serve for 22 years and holds the status of being the longest consecutively serving city council member in Salisbury.
Kennedy received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest honor a civilian can receive in the State of N.C.
He is a member of the 33 Degree Mason. Served on the National League of Municipalities.
Received the Livingstone College President’s Hall of Fame award. A faithful member of Southern City AME Zion Tabernacle serving on the Trustee Board
Served on the Salisbury-Rowan Community Foundation board of trustees and is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
2017 Dunbar School Alumni Association, Inc Awards Gala
Approximately 200 alumni, friends and guests participated in the 2017 Gala hosted by the Dunbar School Alumni Association, on Oct. 7 at the Salisbury Civic Center. Our biennial gala is held to generate funds for scholarships to be awarded to descendants of former students, teachers or administrators of Dunbar School who are current financial members.
The highlight of the evening was the induction of three alumni into the association’s Hall of Fame: Larry Poe, Willie Jean Kennedy and Rev. Reginald Massey.
Retired Rear Admiral Larry Poe was a member of the class of 1961. He attended Livingstone College before transferring to UNC Chapel Hill, where he received a B.S. degree in science. Poe received advanced degrees from several institutions of higher education prior to enlisting in the United States Navy where he eventually earned the rank of Rear Admiral.
Willie Jean Kennedy graduated as the Valedictorian of the class of 1962. Kennedy attended Livingstone College as one of the first recipients of a Future Teacher Scholarship provided by the State of North Carolina. After graduating with a BA degree in English, she was hired to teach English at the school from which she graduated, and has since provided more than three decades of service to the students and teachers in the Rowan-Salisbury School System. She is currently completing her third consecutive term on the Rowan County Board of Education.
Rev. Reginald Massey was a member of the class of 1964. He earned a BA degree in Sociology from Livingstone College and a master of divinity degree from Hood Theological Seminary. Rev. Massey is recorded in historical records as the first African American mayor of the Town of East Spencer. During his three terms as mayor, Rev. Massey was appointed to the Intergovernmental Commission by the governor of North Carolina. After his tenure as mayor, he worked as a chaplain at the William “Bill” Heffner VA Medical Center. An ordained minister, Rev. Massey also pastored at several AME Zion churches.
According to Gala registration records, alumni representing classes from 1944-1969 were present. Etta Massey Webster, retired educator from Washington, DC, was the oldest attendee. Other out of town alumni present included William Barbour, Brenda C. Blakeney, Elva Wiley Chawlk, Carolyn and Lester Davis, Dollie Faggart, Alton Gaither, Christine Byers Green, Jimmie Hackett, Virginia Byers Hickman, Teresa Johnson, Thomas and Susan Lowe, Raymond McDaniel, Carolyn Witherspoon Paige, Doris Boler Phillips, Gerald Poe, Jean Ruffins, Phyllis Rutherford, Julia Hammond Rush, Varnetia Sims, Walter and Alice Swann, Charles Weddington, Hazeline Byers Wiley, Shirley Russell Williams, Bill and Linda Witherspoon, and Jimmy Witherspoon.
Gala committee members were Edna Davis Thomas, chairman; Sandra Corpening, Carolyn Napoleon, Hazel Kennedy, Valerie Sifford, Elaine Tate, Jimmy McCullough, Mary Lee, Jim Corpening and Linda Wylie.
2019 Hall of Fame
Arnethia Alexander-Daniels
- DSAAI Charter Member/Educator
John A. Daniels
- DSAAI Charter Member/Chemist
Benjamin Davis, Sr.
- Salisbury City Council/Entrepreneur
Essie Graham Ruffin
- First President of DSAAl/Technology Career
