By LINDA CHION KENNEY
The substitute teacher who would become a school board chair and namesake to Doris Ross Reddick Elementary School in Wimauma will be laid to rest this week.
An army of mourners is expected to celebrate Reddick, the battles she fought and territory she gained as an educator and civil rights advocate. Born March 13, 1927, Reddick died April 21 at age 97. Her celebration of life at Hyde Park United Methodist Church is set for May 2, a day after Reddick’s viewing at Wilson Funeral Home in Tampa.
At a ceremony marking her 94th birthday, Reddick was asked to assess the secret to living a long life. “Just be yourself,” Reddick said. And in recognizing the needs of others, “do something about it.”
First elected to the school board in 1992, Reddick replaced the Rev. A. Leon Lowry Sr., a civil rights leader in the 1950s and 1960s in Tampa. Prior to that, he was a professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he taught the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., then a theology student. Lowry would become the first African American elected to countywide office in Hillsborough County.
Doris Ross Reddick, flanked by her daughter, Clemmie C. Perry, and her caregiver, Iris Diaz, at the 2021 celebration at Reddick Elementary School in Wimauma. With them are students and school board members, Melissa Snively, Lynn Gray and Henry “Shake” Washington. Snively no longer is on the board.
Then came Reddick, “another educator who broke glass ceilings,” said Jim Hamilton, a past deputy superintendent for Hillsborough County public schools. “As the first black woman elected to the school board and the first black woman to become its chair, she had the challenge of succeeding a towering figure in the American civil rights movement. That, in itself, would have been a challenge to a normal person, but it was not intimidating to Doris Ross Reddick as she moved into her school board role quickly and effectively.”
Reddick, as a fifth-grade teacher, reportedly taught Dorothea Edgecomb and former Florida Sen. Arthenia Joyner, the first black woman to practice law in Hillsborough County. Edgecomb would become the second black woman elected to the school board and, like Reddick, served also as its chair.
On March 11, 2021, Reddick Elementary students, teachers and staff hosted a tribute to Reddick, set to turn 94 two days later. It was proclaimed that March 13 “forevermore” would be recognized as “Doris Ross Reddick Day at Reddick Elementary School.”
The proclamation notes that Reddick, who began as a substitute teacher in 1947, filled the roles of full-time teacher, reading specialist, educational diagnostician, curriculum coordinator for early childhood learning centers, Head Start teacher trainer, college lecturer and more.
It notes as well that Reddick was instrumental in establishing the school district’s office of supplier diversity to ensure fair-bidding practices for minority vendors, an issue Hamilton was most familiar with, having worked with then-superintendent Earl Lennard in building, expanding and renovating close to 100 schools.
“The school district had a commitment to fostering opportunities for minority owned businesses, but the institutional challenges faced by the small startup businesses that were often minority owned remained formidable,” Hamilton said. “One of Mrs. Reddick’s missions in life was to see that those challenges were removed and that all businesses had an equal shot at the economic activity stimulated by the school district.”
Under Reddick’s watchful eye, annual minority business allocations rose “from a meager $1,084 to millions,” according to the 2021 proclamation, which states Reddick was instrumental in re-establishing Blake and Middleton high schools, “built by minority contractors.”
Hamilton said he first met Reddick in 1992, when she was elected to the school board and he was principal at Tampa’s Henry B. Plant High School. Reddick was elected to the board for three, four-year terms, ending in 2004. Her terms coincided with Lennard’s tenure as superintendent, which ran from 1993 through 2005. Hamilton served in that administration.
“Above all things, Mrs. Reddick was laser-focused on ensuring all children in Hillsborough County, not just the ones in her district, received the best possible education and had the highest possible academic achievement,” Hamilton said. “People should remember that she was intensely committed to the oath of office she took and to ensure the success of the people who were there to serve the children and parents in Hillsborough County and that she would let no barriers stand in the way of ensuring their success.”
Reddick at the 2021 ceremony remembered the impact her second-grade teacher, Emma Wilson, had had on her life as a young student. Reddick would go on to graduate high school at age 16, encouraged in her studies by her mother, who was a teacher, and who also has a school named in her honor.
Clemmie Ross James Elementary was dedicated in 2005. The East Tampa school opened in 1966 as Williams Elementary School. In keeping with a family tradition of trailblazing efforts, Reddick’s daughter, Clemmie C. Perry, learned to play golf in 2013 and one year later founded Women of Color Golf and Girls on the Green Tee, which uses golf as a tool for empowering with self-esteem girls ages 10-17.
Linda Chion Kenney Photos
Doris Ross Reddick, with school board member Henry “Shake” Washington, at the March 2021 celebration at her namesake school.
As for Reddick’s lasting legacy, its takes form daily at the elementary school that bears her name, at 325 West Lake Drive. As superintendent Van Ayres put it: “We are honored to have Doris Ross Reddick Elementary School, which opened in 2008, as a tribute to her lifetime passion for education and students in our community.”
For Reddick’s obituary and video highlights of her life, visit www.wilson-funeralhome.com/obituary/doris-reddick. Links to charities supported by Reddick for contributions include those for Accent Care Hospice, Women of Color Golf, Reddick Elementary School Advisory Council Reading Program and Reddick Elementary PTA.
Reddick’s viewing is set for 3 to 8 p.m. May 1 at Wilson Funeral Home, 3000 North 29th St., Tampa. The celebration of life is set for 11 a.m. May 2 at Hyde Park United Methodist Church, 500 West Platt St., Tampa.