Doris Ennis was trailblazer in education

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Teaching is one of the most selfless career paths a person can pursue. You are dedicating your life to the next generation, making sure children have the tools needed to be successful.

Doris Ennis was instrumental in the teaching of thousands of children as she broke the color barrier, becoming the first African American educator in Roanoke City.

“Well, I was taught as a young girl that my mother and father always taught us that if we were able to serve, that’s what we should do,” Doris Ennis said.

Doris Ennis would take those lessons and would go on to break racial barriers.

Ennis was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and moved to Roanoke after marrying her husband.

She taught at the all-Black school for eight years before her superintendent called to tell her she and Evelyn Skipper were being moved to teach at Patrick Henry High School, a school that had not been integrated.

“Well, of course, I was filled with a lot of anxiety. What ifs? But I had an opportunity to meet with the principal of the school, and I met with the other administrators of the school, and I enjoyed it. And the children were just as manurable, respectful,” she said

She taught at Patrick Henry for 18 years and worked her way into an administrative role. Ennis was instrumental in integrating the student body at the school as well.

When the first African American students began walking the halls, she created a human relations council to help African American students during the integration process.

“We welcomed them, and I became a mentor to them, and I invited them to come see me if they were having any difficulties, and the principal appointed me as chairman of the, we formed a human relation council, and that’s where we aired our concerns,” she said.

The weight of being the first African American teacher and breaking that barrier was a responsibility she says she carried with pride.

“As Black teachers, we’ve assumed the role of mentors, not only teachers, and we knew that we had to prepare our students academically to meet the challenges that we’re going to, that they were going to face in terms of the academics, competitiveness, and being competent.”

Now, the building where she started her journey, Booker T. Washington Middle School, is Roanoke City Public Schools’ administrative building. That building is becoming the school system’s new Community Empowerment and Education Center, keeping the history and memories of the past alive.

“But I think we need to remember that as the years have gone by, it no longer serves as a building, as a facility, but it serves as a monument to all of the heroes and unsung heroes who walked through these doors, who persevered in spite of challenges and barriers that they faced.”

Ennis would go on to be RCPS’s first African American interim superintendent and would have an educational career that lasted 58 years.

She is still a mentor to administrators and teachers in the school system.