Alvin Hall Goes Back to School (The Takeaway)

When Alvin Hall was invited back to Wakulla High School in Crawfordville, Florida for a special honor, he thought it was a joke. He hadn’t returned to his high school since 1976 after he noticed that his photograph had been removed. Alvin graduated in 1970 as the school's first African-American valedictorian. In the years since he left Wakulla, Alvin Hall has become a successful author, and television and radio host. After nearly 40 years, Alvin returned to the school taking him on a small but important step in the struggle for racial justice in America. .

Today is the culmination of the series we've been airing this week, "Alvin Hall Goes Back to School."   On February 27, 2016, Alvin Hall walked up the stage at Wakulla County High School for the first time since 1970, when he became the school's first black valedictorian, an accomplishment, he says, that was essentially erased from the schools history. That is, until last year, when black history month committee member Sonia Clark-Rossier, a counselor at the school and her husband Shawn Rossier, a native of Wakulla began looking into the school's "firsts" and discovered Alvin Hall.     This time, as he stepped up on stage, it was an honor that would go down in history.  County Commissioner Howard Kessler was on hand to present Hall with a special recognition. "Wakulla County Proclamation, declaring February 27, 2016 as Alvin Hall Day," he read to a packed auditorium who stood and applauded in appreciation as he concluded:  "Mr. Alvin Hall, this is your day."    Alvin Hall accepting Alvin Hall Day proclamation (James Clary/Natalie Sneed/The Takeaway)     Alvin Hall at Wakulla High School on Alvin Hall Day (James Clary/Natalie Sneed/The Takeaway)   Wakulla News 1970 (Wakulla News/The Takeaway)     Alvin Hall with Shawn Rosier and Sonia Clari-Rosier (James Clary/Natalie Sneed/The Takeaway)   Alvin Hall Day at Wakulla High School (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)   Alvin Hall with sister Linda Clary (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)  

After Alvin Hall graduated from Wakulla High School in 1970 he left the small town of Crawfordville, Florida and never looked back. He gained success as an author of financial manuals, traveled the world and is a frequent radio and television host. The last time he had traveled to Wakulla was for his mother's funeral more than a decade ago.  So when he agreed to return to his hometown of Wakulla County Florida for a special honor, he wasn't sure what he would return to. "I tried deliberately not to have any expectations," he said, "I thought it would be beneficial for me to be completely and totally in the moment."   Over the last few days we have taken you along on our journey with Alvin Hall, back to his high school full of old memories and many of the same faces he knew as a child, and where he spoke to future graduates of the school, telling them of his adventures and imparting wisdom for their success.  He reunited with old family members and reconnected with some who he says weren't in his life much as a child.   Still, there were missing pieces.   "Occasionally, I would look at myself in the mirror as I'm getting older and wonder why is my face doing this, where is this coming from," he questioned. The only child of his father and mother, Hall was the result of an affair which he says was embarrassing for both sides of the family. His father did not have a relationship with him. He was raised by his grandmother, alongside his mother and 6 siblings.   "I think it was really simple," Hall clarifies.  "I think back then my father's side of the family was a much more prideful group of people and I think that having a child with my mother, who was not in the same class as they were within black culture, meant that I was not viewed as part of the family."  "I think that my mother, being a person very full of self pride," Hall continued "who knew how to take care of herself, who presented herself well, would have been offended by the fact they did not want to own me, made no attempt to bring me into that side of the family, so she just cut it off."  Hall's relationship with his father's side of the family changed several years ago when his cousin Tanya Price reached out to him before visiting him in New York with her family.  Upon his return to Wakulla County, she had an unexpected surprise for him: a video clip of his father, who he doesn't remember ever seeing.     Alvin Hall seeing video of father for the first time (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)     Alvin Hall with childhood friends Francella Hill and Patricia Roberts (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)     Alvin Hall at family dinner (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)   Alvin Hall with Helen Franklin, Effie Green & Tanya Price (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)   Alvin Hall and cousin Tanya Price (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)  

When Wakulla County High School in Crawfordville, Florida, integrated in 1967, the poorest blacks lived in a neighborhood called "the field" off a rural road, now called Shadeville Road. It's there where Alvin Hall got his start. His childhood home sits back about 25 feet off what is now a busy paved road. Long deserted, the yard that once held vegetables and a small farm is now thick with weeds and fallen browned magnolia leaves. Inside the small house, trash and spiderwebs have overtaken the rooms where Hall once lived here with six siblings, his mother and his grandmother.   Despite the state of disrepair, Alvin Hall can still visualize what the house looked like when he was a boy. "There was a wood stove right here," he reflected  "We always kept a kettle on,  always the wood behind on that wall. My mother would get up and keep the fire going every night." The pie cupboard and bookshelf that held the valuable World Book Encyclopedia are present, but bare.  Hall recalls saving up money and getting one lettered volume each month.   "I read them from A to Z," he boasts to his nephew James who spent some time at the house after Alvin left Wakulla.  "I did too," exclaims James.  His childhood home was one of a dozen places The Takeaway visited with Alvin Hall as he returned to Wakulla County High School for the first time in 40 years. On yesterday's show, we heard his emotional return to the hallways of the high school he had not set foot in since 1976, after he realized that his achievement as the school's first black valedictorian had in essence been erased from the historical record.   Today, we head back to where Alvin had his earliest beginnings off Shadeville Road, to places he once called home and where memories of family and faith came flooding back.   Alvin Hall age 4 in Wakulla County Florida (Alvin Hall /The Takeaway)   Alvin in front of his childhood home. (James Clary/Natalie Sneed)   bedroom inside Alvin Hall's childhood home (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)   10 Commandments on the wall at New Mt. Zion M.B. Church (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)    Alvin Hall's Childhood Church New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)     Old church rosters (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)   "Bro. Danal Hall" in church roster (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)   Cousin Dorothy "Dot" Harris (Dana Roberson/The Takeaway)  

Alvin Hall has pretty much done it all. He's written nearly a dozen books about financial literacy, he's an art collector, a TV and radio host, and he's traveled extensively across the globe.  But for all his worldly travels, he wasn't quite sure what to expect when he returned to his home town of Wakulla, Florida, a few weeks ago. Wakulla County is a short, easy drive south of Tallahassee. Alvin, one of seven kids, grew up poor here during the early days of integration. But he found a path of opportunities that would change his life forever. Over the next few days, we're going to follow Alvin as he returns to Wakulla.  It's a journey that began with a phone call from school guidance counselor and diversity committee member Sonia Clark-Rosier and her husband Shawn asking him to go back to his high school — a place that he had long put behind him.   "It's time that people that didn't get their due at that time in terms of recognition and those unsung heroes be recognized and saluted," said Clark-Rosier. They told Hall he was being honored as part of a Black History Month celebration, something he initially thought was a joke. Alvin was his school's first black valedictorian. But he says that his picture was taken down pretty quickly from a wall honoring the school's brightest. Instead, Alvin contends that his photo was replaced with a picture of two white girls who had graduated that same year. It's an emotional story told through his own voice, and those of the people he met along the way. The outside of Wakulla High School. Dana Roberson Alvin Hall looking at his class photo at Wakullah High School. Dana Roberson  Alvin Hall speaking with students at Wakullah High School. Dana Roberson Alvin Hall meeting Freedie Grooms Dana Roberson Alvin and Freddie Grooms Dana Roberson  Alvin Hall on a journey back to Wakulla County. (Dana Roberson)