Gettys Celebrates Black History Month

In 1965, William Sidney Downs made Pickens County history.

Downs was the first black student to attend Gettys Middle School, then known as Easley Junior High School said Mike Cory, Gettys Middle School principal.

“I can only imagine the challenges that Williams Sidney Downs may have encountered during some challenging times,” Cory said.

In 1969, with the closing of Clearview School, “total integration took place in Pickens County, four years after he entered this building,” Cory said.

“Would we be the great school that we are today, without the courage of William Sidney Downs?” Cory said.

Cory urged students to persevere when faced with difficulties in life.

“Many of you have faced challenging times yourself,” Cory told students. “Overcoming obstacles is hard work.”

“There are people all around us that have faced bigger challenges and obstacles and injustices than we can ever experience,” Cory said. “Whatever they faced, they did not make excuses. They simply worked harder.”

On February 28, Gettys Middle School celebrated Black History Month. The celebration is an annual tradition at Gettys Middle School. A special program is put together each year by eighth grade teacher Barbara Wimphrie.

The program included special performances and was emceed by GMS student Caleb Hill.

GMS teacher Leonard Garrett proved the power of the written word with a poem written especially for the occasion.

Garrett's voice rang out across the gymnasium and he received thunderous applause from students.

Kelley Horton, a finalist at this year's Pickens County Has Talent, sang a wonderful rendition of “His Eyes Are On the Sparrow.”

A Gettys Middle School teacher showed off vocal talents that many of her students didn't realize she possessed. Mrs. Nealy sang “The Greatest Love of All,” drawing huge applause from students, faculty and staff.

WYFF4 Weather Anchor Keisha Kirkland was the guest speaker for the program.

She told students life doesn't always take you where you think it will.

Kirkland grew up in Danville, Kentucky.

“When I was about your age, that was when I met my first meteorologist,” Kirkland said. “It was before there were a lot of women on TV and it was definitely before there were a lot of African-American women on TV, so that was not a realistic goal, if you will, at least that's what I was told by my sixth grade guidance counselor. But I'm here to tell you that you can be and achieve anything that you want with hard work and perseverance. The sky is the limit.”

Her guidance counselor told her to become a doctor.

“'You're good in science, you're good in math, you'll make enough money to provide for yourself,'” Kirkland said. “'Leave that TV thing alone.' So that's what I did, but my passion was never there.' But my true love has always been weather.”

Kirkland was always the “science geek, nerd, weirdo, square,” she told students.

“If you are one, you know it, and it's okay,” Kirkland said. “Embrace it, because it will used to your advantage in the future.

When Kirkland went to college, she didn't know what she wanted to be, but she took many sciences classes, a subject she'd always loved.

“For two years, there were two girls in each class and I was one of them, because it wasn't a field that most women went into,” Kirkland said. “Which was fine, because I was never the traditionalist.”

Kirkland became a chiropractor of sports medicine.

But she wasn't following her dream.

“I still always wanted to do weather,” Kirkland said. “That was always my drive, my hidden passion. And I finally was able to do it in 2003 and 2004.”

After the birth of her daughter, Kirkland began taking classes.

“And here I am on Channel 4 here in Greenville,” Kirkland said. “I'm here to tell you that life may not go the way you want it to go, but it will always go the way it needs to go, as long as you're doing the right thing, taking the right steps forward and have a great attitude.”

“I want to encourage each and every one of you today: if you don't know what your passion is, if you don't know what you want to be when you grow up, it's okay.” she said. “It will come to you as long as you are doing the right things, following the right steps.

“What do I mean by that?” Kirkland continued. “Simple things, common sense things. Homework. Doing the best you can. Following your teachers' instructions. Listening.”

She told students the things they're learning today will serve them well, even the classes they don't like at the moment.

“Trust me, everything that you are learning …. will be used again in some form or fashion,” Kirkland said. “What I learned in middle school and on is still helping me to day as far as being able to help me present the weather, understanding what's happening with physics and why we may see some snow this weekend. That's important to know for me to be able to do my job. Everything has a cause and effect and that includes weather.”

Kirkland told the students she's a cancer survivor.

“It was a surprise,” she said. “I never fit any of the symptoms. I'd never done anything wrong, per se, I never smoked, I never worked in a coal mine or around asbestos, radon, any of that stuff. Didn't fit me but I did have it. I'm still in the battle. I still take treatments, not as often as I used to, but I'm always here.”

Life can throw you a curveball, Kirkland said.

“It can surprise you,” she said. “But as long as you keep the basics, learn what you can learn, always pay attention and always pay attention to your elders, you will never, ever go wrong, because they know, they've been there, and they're just trying to help you not make the mistakes that they made.”

Speaking to Gettys Middle School students has become a Kirkland family tradition. Her husband former NFL linebacker Levon Kirkland spoke at last year's Black History Month event