Dorothy Counts

American civil rights activist Dorothy Counts-Scoggin was among the first Black enrollees at Charlotte, North Carolina’s Harry Harding High School. Her folks sent her to Philadelphia to finish her studies in an integrated school after just four days of harassment that put her safety in danger.

She moved back to Charlotte in 1961 to finish her schooling, where she received a diploma in 1965. After that, Counts-Scoggin landed a role in childcare services, working in low-income families’ childcare facilities run by churches. Later in 2010, the Harry Harding School changed the name of its library to Dorothy Counts Library.