Remembering Vernon Malone

In many ways, the Wake County school system will be the legacy that Vernon Malone has left behind.

As noted in today’s article, Malone fought to merge the Raleigh City and Wake County schools despite opposition from many people. As a board member, he pushed for integration and backed the creation of the current magnet school system.

As a county commissioner, Malone fought to provide enough funding for education. More recently as a state senator, he opposed efforts he thought would cause Wake to back away from diversity, such as switching to at-large school board elections.

Hundreds of mourners came to show their respects Wednesday to the late Sen. Vernon Malone at Martin Street Baptist Church in Raleigh. Malone died ... more

There's speculation about who will be tapped by the Wake County Democratic Party to replace the late state Senator Vernon Malone.

One name that's been mentioned is school board chairwoman Rosa Gill, who lives two blocks away from Malone in Southeast Raleigh. Gill has been a longtime Democratic Party figure, including serving a stint as chairwoman of the county party.

Gill said she hasn't asked anyone about filling the position. While she said she'd have to ask her husband about it, she's not indicating that she'd turn it down if the position was offered to her.

Eulogies have been pouring in to praise State Senator Vernon Malone, who died Saturday.

Much of the talk has been about Malone's long-time focus on education issues, especially his ties to the Wake school system. He championed the 1976 merger of the Wake County and Raleigh City schools, later becoming the first chairman of the merged school board.

Click here for today's Ruth Sheehan column about the talk Malone gave in February at the diversity seminar sponsored by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children.

UPDATE

Click here for the school district remembrance of Malone. 

See photos from the career of Vernon Malone, who dedicated much of his life to serving Wake County.

State Senator Vernon Malone made it pretty clear on Saturday that he's going to do what he can to block legislation that would create at-large school board elections in Wake.

During Saturday's Southeast Raleigh town hall meeting on the stimulus package, Malone said he would "block legislation" that would allows school boards to resegregate schools.

Malone, a former chairman of the Wake school board, then added he would block legislation for at-large Wake school board elections being pushed by groups that want to "play games and get the people they want on the board."