2022 Black Heritage Calendar - Presented by the Black Educators' Caucus Inc., of Hernando County

Hattie Redding
1931-
Hattie Josephine Harris-Redding is a native of Titusville, Florida where she graduated
as valedictorian from Titusville Colored School in 1951. After high school, Hattie
enrolled at the famed Bethune-Cookman College (University) earning a bachelor’s
degree in secondary education language arts in 1955.While a student at B-CC, she
became a student ambassador, engaging notables such as: President Franklin
Roosevelt and First Lady Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Ms. Marian Anderson, Duke
Ellington and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ralph Bunch, Ph.D., and others. Around the
time of her graduation, the world she once knew was changing rapidly. First, the
Supreme Court had declared the separate but equal doctrine unconstitutional in its
1954 Brown v. Board of Education Decision paving the way for the desegregation
of public schools and accommodations in general. Then, Mrs. Bethune died and a
decade later, passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of
1965 occurred. Hattie is a heir of Mrs. Bethune’s “Last Will and Testament”.
When she commenced her teaching career, she broke her promise that she would
never visit Brooksville again nor make it her home after a high school basketball
game she attended against Moton. She found the conditions at the school deplorable.
Fate had another plan in mind. Hattie joined the Moton High School faculty as an English
teacher in 1955. Things were no better when she arrived. Nevertheless, she honored BCC’s
motto: “Enter to learn and Exit to serve” and she made a vow to do whatever she had to, to
prepare her students for life. This vow included lodging with the McRae Family until personal housing could be secured. She
never looked back. On November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, she walked the campus
informing classes that the president had been assassinated. She was the class of 1959 sponsor and for the Class of 1964
which had one of the highest college enrollment and completion rate in the school’s history. More than 50% of the class
graduated from college or served in the military. Her class’ senior trip was to Nassau, Bahamas. The relationship she built
with the class of 1964 has stood the test of time as a lifelong commitment. She was a popular player during the annual
faculty-student intramural basketball game. She openly joined the Black students by wearing a dashiki for the first Black
History Month Celebration to be held at Hernando High School. She worked at Moton from 1955-1969 and retired from
Hernando High School in 1985. She also worked 9 years for the Hernando County Sheriff Office. A plaque was placed on the
Mid-Florida Community Services Head Start office wall on School Street in her honor by MHS Class of 1964 and her family.
Hattie is the founding secretary for the Black Educators’ Caucus, Inc., of Hernando County. She is a longtime member of
Bethlehem Progressive Baptist Church and remains active in the choir as a musician, member, and secretary of the pastoral
inspirational committee. Her hobbies are reading, doing puzzles, playing the piano, and singing. She was a member of Moton
High School 50th Anniversary, 1939-1989 Celebration Steering Committee. She is one of the elders of the Timmons Family
Reunions.
Hattie is married to the late Eugene Redding, Sr. and has one son Eugene “Jerry” Redding, Jr.
Sponsors:
Eugene and Patrice Redding Jr.
“The progress of the world will call for the best that all of us have to give” Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune