Welcome Home Harry!
By Brother Rogers
Welcome home, Harry! The centerpiece of this weekend’s celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is recognition of the achievements of Harry Nash Sykes. He will be the featured speaker at the annual unity breakfast on the campus of Mississippi State University. Sykes has had a distinguished career in education and public service, and is considered a civil rights pioneer in Kentucky.
Sykes was born in Starkville in 1927 and spent his formative childhood years here. When he was 16, Sykes stood six feet, five inches tall. At age 16, he also sat in a segregated sixth grade classroom as a poor black teenager with little hope for the future. Then his father, P.K. Sykes, a tenant farmer and part-time minister, went to Chicago to find a factory job. Sykes, his mother Marie – a first cousin of the legendary baseball player Cool Papa Bell – and family left by train for Illinois.
Sykes’ intelligence allowed him to skip several grades in Illinois. His height reached six feet, seven inches, and he was asked to join the basketball team. He declined and worked after school in a can factory for 72 cents an hour to help support his family.
As his family’s fortunes improved after World War II, he was able to combine athletics with academics. A four-sport star in high school, Sykes graduated in 1948 and attended Kentucky State University on a basketball and track scholarship. After earning his degree in physical education, Sykes joined the world famous Harlem Globetrotters.
He played professional basketball with the Globetrotters from 1952 through the 1954 season. Sykes’ teammates included dribbling sensation Marques Haynes and the popular Reece “Goose” Tatum.
Sykes left the Globetrotters to become a high school math teacher in Lexington, Kentucky. He continued his education in the summers, first at the University of Kentucky, then Purdue University, and earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1960.
In 1963, Sykes was the first black to be elected to the city council in Lexington, Kentucky. He was reelected three times and served as mayor pro-tem from 1967 to 1969. In 1968, he founded the Lexington-Fayette County Urban League, a community based movement to promote the social and economic advancement of African Americans.
In 1971, Sykes ran for mayor and lost by a small margin. During his tenure in public office, Sykes was instrumental in integrating the fire department and ending segregated housing policies. He was acting city manager from 1972 to 1974 and acting chief administration officer from 1974 to 1975. Sykes held various administrative and executive positions in Kentucky state government until his retirement in 1992. In 2003, he was nominated to the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
Sykes and his wife, Geraldine, have four sons and one daughter, all of whom are college graduates. He has many relatives who still live in Starkville, including his sister Marion Stallings and her offspring.
One hundred years ago, one in ten American blacks was a Mississippian. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, thousands of blacks left Mississippi and the South to escape discrimination and seek better opportunities. It is fitting on the King holiday for Starkville to acknowledge one of our own who left here and made a tremendous difference with his life. Let us all say with pride, “Welcome Home, Harry!”
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News.
Welcome home, Harry! The centerpiece of this weekend’s celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is recognition of the achievements of Harry Nash Sykes. He will be the featured speaker at the annual unity breakfast on the campus of Mississippi State University. Sykes has had a distinguished career in education and public service, and is considered a civil rights pioneer in Kentucky.
Sykes was born in Starkville in 1927 and spent his formative childhood years here. When he was 16, Sykes stood six feet, five inches tall. At age 16, he also sat in a segregated sixth grade classroom as a poor black teenager with little hope for the future. Then his father, P.K. Sykes, a tenant farmer and part-time minister, went to Chicago to find a factory job. Sykes, his mother Marie – a first cousin of the legendary baseball player Cool Papa Bell – and family left by train for Illinois.
Sykes’ intelligence allowed him to skip several grades in Illinois. His height reached six feet, seven inches, and he was asked to join the basketball team. He declined and worked after school in a can factory for 72 cents an hour to help support his family.
As his family’s fortunes improved after World War II, he was able to combine athletics with academics. A four-sport star in high school, Sykes graduated in 1948 and attended Kentucky State University on a basketball and track scholarship. After earning his degree in physical education, Sykes joined the world famous Harlem Globetrotters.
He played professional basketball with the Globetrotters from 1952 through the 1954 season. Sykes’ teammates included dribbling sensation Marques Haynes and the popular Reece “Goose” Tatum.
Sykes left the Globetrotters to become a high school math teacher in Lexington, Kentucky. He continued his education in the summers, first at the University of Kentucky, then Purdue University, and earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1960.
In 1963, Sykes was the first black to be elected to the city council in Lexington, Kentucky. He was reelected three times and served as mayor pro-tem from 1967 to 1969. In 1968, he founded the Lexington-Fayette County Urban League, a community based movement to promote the social and economic advancement of African Americans.
In 1971, Sykes ran for mayor and lost by a small margin. During his tenure in public office, Sykes was instrumental in integrating the fire department and ending segregated housing policies. He was acting city manager from 1972 to 1974 and acting chief administration officer from 1974 to 1975. Sykes held various administrative and executive positions in Kentucky state government until his retirement in 1992. In 2003, he was nominated to the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
Sykes and his wife, Geraldine, have four sons and one daughter, all of whom are college graduates. He has many relatives who still live in Starkville, including his sister Marion Stallings and her offspring.
One hundred years ago, one in ten American blacks was a Mississippian. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, thousands of blacks left Mississippi and the South to escape discrimination and seek better opportunities. It is fitting on the King holiday for Starkville to acknowledge one of our own who left here and made a tremendous difference with his life. Let us all say with pride, “Welcome Home, Harry!”
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News.