The Richard Allen Coalition to Preserve the History of Contributions of Black Students to Sussex County
When the Indian River, Del., School District Board of Education closed the Richard Allen School in June 2010, a group of people with a dream to reopen the vacant school started the nonprofit Richard Allen School Coalition. Jane Hovington is one of the founding members. Solomon Henry and Harry Crapper are Board members, along with eight others. The Coalition’s goals are to preserve the history of public education and contributions of Black students in the county, and to restore the school’s legacy as an educational and community center and museum.
Although Hovington did not attend the Allen School, as a forward-thinking activist she saw the possibilities of making the school the center of the neighborhood again.
“I did experience subtle racism issues,” she reminisced. Living in Pennsylvania, while in kindergarten she was labeled “Colored.” She and her White best friend could no longer be friends in school.
“In middle school, all Black kids were segregated into one room. When they returned to the home room, a White student asked the teacher why all Black kids were segregated and didn’t do the work in the classroom. The teacher commented they ‘were too stupid to learn.’”
It became a challenge for Hovington. “Because we were segregated, we were determined to return to our classroom.” After school, she gathered all the Black students to meet at the Hudson home in Georgetown. “The Hudson family were our mentors. They helped us ensure our homework was completed. We made a decision to prove the teachers wrong.”
Unfortunately, school segregation in Delaware persisted until 1967, despite the historic Brown vs. Board of Education ruling in 1954 and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. The school continued to serve Black students in the Indian River School District until 1967 and desegregation was fully implemented in Delaware.
As a teenager, when her parents separated, Hovington moved with her mother to Greenwood, Del., where her mother had roots. “All the kids played together during the summer, but when school opened, we went our separate ways.” At integrated Greenwood High School, she challenged the status quo during cheerleading tryouts. She was told she was good enough to make the squad but not accepted because she was Black. “My cousins were starters on the ball team so I walked across the gym and sat with the players. The entire first string took off their uniforms and walked out. ‘If she’s not good enough to cheer, we’re not good enough to play,’” she remembered a player commenting. “The next day, I had a spot.”
After moving to Georgetown, she attended William C. Jason Comprehensive High School in Georgetown, now called Delaware Technical Community College. “I was an outspoken person,” Hovington commented proudly. “I didn’t cause too much trouble, but just let’s say the principal was glad to see me graduate. Jason High School was very influential in the lives of their students, graduating lawyers, teachers, and other prominent citizens in the community, both Black and White.”
After high school, she majored in education and criminal justice at Delaware State University and Wilmington University where she met her husband, Ronnie. They moved to New Jersey and St. Louis before the family returned to Delaware.
Before they returned, sight unseen, Hovington made a deposit and paid the first month’s rent on a Millsboro home. When she met the owner in person, her family experienced housing discrimination. “He told us he decided not to rent his home,” she explained ruefully. The family lived with in-laws for six months until they found their Georgetown home, where they have lived for decades.
Hovington ran Small Wonder Ones Child Care Center, a preschool, for nearly two decades. “I am proud to say our children could read, write, and some could do two-column math before they entered first grade. When I see my kids and they have excelled, I feel I’ve accomplished something,” she stated. Hovington raised three boys and was a foster parent for 15 children. “I was also blessed with one daughter from a previous relationship. There was always a houseful of children.” She also ran the Shechinah Empowerment Center on South Race St. in Georgetown, providing help with GED preparation, computer training, and certification and re-entry programs for people released from prison.
Hovington’s present role as president of the Richard Allen School Coalition is to restore the school and build a community center offering educational programs for young people and artistic events for all ages. “We must preserve the Black community’s history by housing artifacts and documents of the Black and Brown communities’ heritage. We want to breathe life into the town and provide workshops and a museum for young people in Sussex County so they can understand the present and develop the skills for a better future for themselves and their community,” she summarized.
After acquiring the deed for ownership of the building from the Delaware legislature, Hovington and Betty Deacon, also a Coalition board member, led the effort to have the school listed in the National Register of Historic Places. “Our children don’t know the history of this community,” she stated in a news interview when the historic plaque was installed in 2015. “And it was because of that, we said that we [the Coalition] could not allow this school to be torn down because this school represents our history.”
Hovington is a lifetime member and former chair of the Sussex County branch of the NAACP. She was the first Black woman to chair the Sussex County Democratic Party, continuing this leadership position to the present. She served as a Georgetown Town Council member. She ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for state senate in 2012 but lost in the general election.
Newly re-elected Georgetown mayor, Bill West, summed up their relationship this way: “I’ve known Hovington since I was a Delaware state policeman and a Georgetown policeman and she first headed the Democratic Party. As mayor, whenever there is an issue, Hovington is the first person I turn to. She is the voice of reason. She will listen to both sides, urge people to control their temper in controversial issues, and work to resolve those problems.”
“We all have opinions but we must be sure they don’t infringe on someone else’s rights,” Hovington acknowledges.
Jessica Clark is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Journalism. After a 30-year career as a Public Information Specialist and photojournalist for several federal agencies, she retired to Georgetown, Del. She restored former Governor John Collins’ 1790s home on Collins Pond, and is a Sussex County Master Gardener.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
