The dedication of the Allen & Darlene Hancock Fellowship Hall
Community Organizers
Community Organizers
By Jonathan Gramling Part 1 of 2 On December 9, S.S. Morris Community AME Church dedicated its fellowship hall to Darlene Hancock and her late husband Allen who were the prime movers and shakers in establishing S.S. Morris back in the 1980s. Hancock played a significant role in establishing several local organizations including the local graduate chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and the Madison Metropolitan Links. As we sat in her far west side home for an interview — Hancock moved back to Madison last year from Las Vegas last year after her husband Allen died — Hancock paged through several albums that recounted the strong role that she played in Madison’s African American community and Madison’s educational community as well before Allen and she retired in 1996 — he as principal of Franklin Elementary and she as principal of Glenn Stephens Elementary — and moved to Las Vegas. It was a role well-suited to her personality. Hancock is delightful to talk to We often break out in laughter as Hancock recalled significant events in her past. She has a gently commanding presence. One wouldn’t want to cross her, but she doesn’t wear that forcefulness on her sleeve. She is filled with a subtle self-confidence as if to say ‘I’m not going to get emotional about this. This is just the way that things are going to be.’ It almost seems it was fated that Hancock would play a significant role here. She and her husband were perfectly content as educational administers in Michigan City, Indiana when Hancock gave a talk at a conference that included a litany of things that her husband had achieved. After the talk, Hancock noticed that a man was following her around. Finally, she turned around and asked him if he was following her. “He said ‘Yes, I am,’” Hancock recalled. “I asked ‘Well, what do you want?’ He said ‘I want you and your husband to come to Madison, Wisconsin.’” The man was Coleman Edwards from the Madison public schools. And the Hancocks were just what the Madison schools needed: Black principals with experience in heading schools in a predominantly White school district. Hancock told him they weren’t interested, but no sooner had they gotten back to Michigan City than Allen received a telephone call from Doug Ritchie, the Madison superintendent, at his job. “He asked Allen if we wanted to work in Madison,” Hancock said. “He wanted us to come to Madison and see it. ‘Don’t turn it down until you come and see it,’ he said. I said ‘Are they going to pay for us to come? Let’s just go.’ We interviewed with them. And they offered us a job and Allen said ‘No, we’re not ready to move yet. We’re satisfied with where we are.’ So we went back home. And two weeks later, here comes another call from Doug Ritchie. He said ‘You probably didn’t get a good view of Madison.’ So we came back a second time. After a third time, they gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse and we wouldn’t be penalized by the move and he would give me an assistant principal position, the same thing I had in Indiana. Allen was principal at Franklin. I was the assistant principal at Memorial. We broke the ice in Indiana. We were accustomed to breaking the ice. We came from a predominantly White school system. We knew what we were walking into.” Next issue: The joys and trials of being a principal in Madison. |
| Darlene Hancock and her late husband Allen were honored by S.S. Morris Community AME Church for their pioneer efforts on behalf of the church and Madison's African American community |