Anne Hunter Rosemond, Class of 1950,
in her Ludlow neighborhood home.
Photos by Jason Miller
WWW.SHAKER.LIFE | FALL 2018 15
Leading the Way
Ludlow Resident
Anne Hunter Rosemond
(‘50) was among
Shaker Schools’ First
African-American
Graduates
Seventy-seven years ago,
Anne Hunter Rosemond’s
parents moved her from
Cleveland Public Schools to
Shaker Heights Schools.
The daughter of a dentist
(among her father’s
mentors at the Tuskegee
Institute was the famous
George Washington
Carver) and a social
worker, Anne was a bright,
confident student, with a
quiet way.
Now 86, she grew up in
the Ludlow neighborhood
– where she still lives –
and was among Shaker Schools’ first African-American students. She was the first
African-American student to graduate from Ludlow Elementary and was the only
Black student in her grade, until she was joined by classmate Beryl Hannon at the
end of her eighth grade year in Shaker Heights Junior High School, now Woodbury
Elementary School. In 1950, Anne and Beryl (who passed away in 2015) were the
first African-American students to graduate from Shaker Heights High School.
Being an adolescent and navigating the front end of integration wasn’t easy.
Anne recalls one day when she heard a group of girls whispering about her as she
walked to Ludlow. Their sideways glances made her nervous and she accidentally
tripped, cutting open her knee. She walked into school and told her teacher what
had happened.
“She sent me to the nurse and had a little lecture with the girls about acceptance,”
she says. “They made up with me and after that we became fast friends.”
By the time she graduated from Shaker Heights High School, she had many close
friends and was active in many clubs and activities including Chorus, Public Address
Club, French Club, and others. She went on to graduate from Ohio University—with
her classmate Beryl—where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Education. For
many years, she worked as a teacher in the Cleveland Public Schools.
Eventually, Anne married and had two children, Victoria and Vincent (both are
Shaker Heights High School alums), raising them in the same Ludlow neighborhood
she loved as a child. Victoria Rosemond
is reflective about her mother’s role
in integration. “So many Blacks in my
grandparents’ generation were firsts,”
she says. “My grandparents brought my
mother to Shaker Schools, giving her the
best. Her being the first was thrust upon
her; she really had no alternative.”
To this day, she keeps in touch with
her fellow members of the class of 1950,
attending reunions and celebrating
special birthdays. She says that there
were many classmates along the way
who wouldn’t accept her because of
the color of her skin, though she is
remarkably forgiving.
“I focus on the fact that I have so
many wonderful relationships that came
out of my time at Shaker,” she says. SL
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE