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New Guilford schools to be named after civil rights pioneer and NASA mathematician

Left: President Barack Obama awards civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez the 2010 Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Right: NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson is seen in 2014. (NASA via AP)

Guilford County Schools will name new schools in honor of a civil rights pioneer and a NASA mathematician. 

On Tuesday, the Guilford County Schools Board of Education approved the name “Sylvia Mendez Newcomers School” for a future High Point school.

Mendez was a Hispanic-American who as a child was denied entry to a public school in California. Her parents filed a federal lawsuit which paved the way for the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision establishing that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

Mendez went on to a successful career in health care and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Giselle Mansi is the Latino Family Center Director at the High Point YWCA and was among those advocating for the name change.

"Mendez's life and mission was to spread a message of tolerance and opportunity to children of all backgrounds and all walks of life," Mansi told the board. 

According to a news release, the future newcomers school in High Point will be the first in North Carolina named after a Latino individual.

The board also voted to name a new K-8 school after Katherine Johnson, one of several Black women who played crucial roles as NASA mathematicians. Their lives were chronicled in the book “Hidden Figures,” which was later made into a film.

Johnson's youngest daughter, Katherine Moore, was among those who spoke before the board, referring to her mother as a “woman of distinction.”

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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