Bates alumni visit their old stomping grounds

More than 75 Wiley H. Bates High School alumni attended Bates Alumni Day at the Annapolis Senior Activity Center on Feb. 23.

Inbal Neun, center director, welcomed them to the center. She talked about how the school was named after a man who was born into slavery but became one of the wealthiest and successful men in Anne Arundel County. She also thanked the alumni for their part in turning their high school into the Bates Heritage Complex which houses not only the senior center, but senior apartments and the Boys & Girls Club of Annapolis.

Alumni talked about how beautiful the Bates Heritage Complex is, and everyone was encouraged to visit and support their old school. They were especially urged to visit the Legacy Center, which displays historical documents and collections relating to the history of Wiley H. Bates High School, the only African American high school in Anne Arundel County. Today that high school has been transformed into the Bates Heritage Complex which opened in September 2006.

For some, this was the first time that they had returned to their alma mater since the opening of the complex in 2006.

Holding hands and singing their school song, wearing their school colors of gold and purple on T-shirts with their class years on them, the alumni exchanged hugs and talked to each other like they had just seen each other yesterday instead of many years ago.

The Bates Jazz Ensemble, consisting of Bates alumni, volunteered to play at the reunion. Mooney Day, lead vocalist, and trombone player John Bryan mingled with their friends as the band performed such favorites as “You Send Me,” “Mustang Sally,” “Kansas City Here I Come,” and “I Feel Good.”

Beatrice Smith, Class of 1937, said she entered the “new” school as a freshman and was in its first graduating class. Alva Handy, Class of 1948, brought her yearbook to show to some of the younger graduates. Alma Cropper, Class of 1953 and event chair at the Legacy Center, urged the alumni to stop by and visit.

Other represented classes included those from the classes of 1956 through 1962. Sylvia Hutton attended Bates until her senior year when her class went to Annapolis Senior High School where she graduated in 1967. “But I still consider myself a Bates alumnus,” she said, “because I spent all my high school years here except for my senior year.”