Giving back to the community that shaped him: Henry Ficklin’s new role on school board

Former educator, city councilman and Macon-Bibb County Executive Director of Community Affairs Henry Ficklin was recently sworn into the Bibb County school board.

Ficklin’s desire to run for the school board stems from what he calls a “disconnect” in young folks who leave Bibb schools with a lack of practical life skills and preparedness for the workforce.

He also pointed to data suggesting a gap between graduation rates and content mastery in a report released from the Georgia Department of Education.

The 2024 College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) from the state’s department of education shows an 87.3% graduation rate despite only a 32.8% content mastery rating.

Ficklin expressed concerns about Bibb County Schools superintendent Dan Sims’ new three-year contract extension.

“I feel like we should have had some input into the discussion of this contract,” he said, telling The Melody he would have preferred if Sims received a one-year contract to see how things might improve before being granted an extension.

If able to serve for the full 12 years allowed to board members, Ficklin hopes to see the students who are currently entering first grade successfully graduate from the Bibb County school system.

Ficklin intends to focus on maintaining the existing quality of education in Bibb County and preventing a decline, which he asserts is the board’s duty.

Teaching in the community

Ficklin brings nearly 40 years of experience as an educator in Bibb County to this new role, as well as a lifelong commitment to improving the community in which he grew up.

Born and raised in East Macon, he attended the two-year Southwestern Christian College in Texas before earning degrees in political science and Biblical studies from Abilene Christian University. While away from Georgia, Ficklin became a minister at age 19 and has been a pastor at Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist Church since 1978.

After pursuing his degrees, he returned to Macon with the goal of giving back to the city that had shaped his youth.

“I came back to Macon because I was taught that the reason that you go away to school is to come home and bring back what you have learned,” he said.

However, Ficklin — like many Black folks facing discrimination at the time — struggled to find a job.

He began substitute teaching and by 1973 he was a full time teacher at Ballard Hudson Junior High School, a predominately Black school in Macon.

Although teaching was not Ficklin’s intended career path, he said he came to believe higher powers wanted him to be a teacher.

“Being an educator is an extension of my faith,” he said. “It is through education that we escape the world that we sometimes find ourselves in.”

Ficklin taught history, government and law over the course of his career as an educator. He also obtained a Ph.D in education and leadership from Mercer University.

Seeing students succeed in his classroom was the most fulfilling part of the job, Ficklin said, reflecting on one former student, Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller.

As the county’s director of community affairs, he shares an office in city hall with his former student — a full circle experience for Ficklin.

Demanding change

In 1979, Ficklin ran for city council for the first time and won. He served for seven more terms, spending three decades on the city council from 1979 to 2013.

His campaign slogan became “Send them the messenger” — an adaptation of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s presidential campaign slogan “Send them a message.”

It’s important to “do right by people,” said Ficklin on how he adopted the role of “messenger” by bringing issues to the council’s attention.

He recalled enacting positive change after a Macon resident was robbed and killed at a convenience store in the early ‘80s. Ficklin and other council members worked to pass an ordinance requiring cameras in convenience stores.

“We stood for things that had never been voiced in our community,” he said.

Ficklin was also integral in establishing the Macon chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization developed by Martin Luther King Jr. in the aftermath of the Montgomery bus boycott.

He pushed for change and demanded equality, despite encountering roadblocks in the process.

He advocated for the bathroom rights of Black, female workers at a poultry factory and fought to desegregate the Macon Water Authority, which at that time prohibited Black and white folks from wearing the same uniforms.

“That was a big thing, to win those battles and make them treat those people right and pay them fairly at the water authority,” Ficklin said.

Preserving Black history and fostering success

While serving more than three decades on city council, Ficklin not only pursued social justice, but was also able witness the growth of Macon. He saw the paving of more than 75 miles of streets and the creation of recreation centers in Black neighborhoods.

As Macon continued to develop, Ficklin remained committed to uplifting the Black community and preserving history.

He founded the James Wimberly Institute of Black Studies and History to preserve Macon’s Black roots and other little known or forgotten history.
At one time Macon’s historic Black-owned and operated Douglass Theatre was set to be demolished in the late ‘70s. Ficklin challenged that plan and urged the mayor to reconsider.

“It was something that was important to the Black community,” he said. “They cannot tear our history down.”

Young Black folks should know about past successes in their community, Ficklin explained.

“If you destroy all the great things that Black people have done, we will have a generation to come along who know nothing,” he said.

As an educator, Ficklin has always tried to instill that feeling of success in his own students.

A sign that reads, “the best students in the world are learning in this classroom,” used to hang from his classroom door and encompasses one of his core teaching philosophies: every child is a winner and should be made to feel that way.

As a new member of the school board, Ficklin intends to continue fostering students’ hope and encouraging them to reach for success.

“I’ve seen kids come from the strictest levels of poverty who excel in the classroom,” Ficklin said. “It has to do with how the student is made to feel about themselves.”