[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 68 (Tuesday, April 26, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E404-E405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RECOGNIZING ANNIE BURNS-HICKS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. FRANK J. MRVAN

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 26, 2022

  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

[[Page E405]]

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.

                          ____________________