KENT COUNTY, Del.- Dr. Reba Ross Hollingsworth grew up during segregation and taught through integration. She still mentors and encourages people across Delmarva at 93-years-old.
Hollingsworth was 10 or 11-years-old when she saw a man being punished against the whipping post in front of the Kent County Jail. She says people would stop to watch others get punished on Saturday's
"You could just hear the whip each time and then he would count each stroke that he gave him," Hollingsworth says. "The crowd had gathered in front of the prison, so we stopped and saw this man shackled to the whipping post."
Hollingsworth was born in Milford on Oct. 26, 1926. She could walk from her house to the Milford school, but she wasn't allowed to enroll. Tenth grade was moved to the Booker T. Washington School the year she would attend.
"I had to then rent a room with two other of my classmates in Dover and the lady gave us cooking privileges, but we were here on our own," Hollingsworth says.
Hollingsworth graduated from Delaware State College with a bachelor's degree in home economics in 1949, a master's in guidance and counseling from the University of Delaware in 1970, and a PhD in counseling from Pacific Western University in 2001. She taught home economics and science at William C. Jason Comprehensive High School in Georgetown from 1954 to 1966 and then she became a guidance counselor at Dover High School until her retirement in 1988.
The Dover whipping post was removed in 1962. Her former students sponsored the removal of the one in Georgetown on July 1, 2020. The Georgetown whipping post was placed next to the Old Sussex County Courthouse in 1993. Before that, it had stood at the Sussex Correctional Institution.
"I don't think they really thought about the full implications of having a whipping post in town, so eventually the NAACP and members of the black community in Georgetown and Sussex County petitioned to have it removed," says Hollingsworth.
Jane Hovington with the Richard Allen Coalition says, "She's always reaching out a hand to help someone along the way. She does. Regardless of who you are, she will do what she can to help you."
Hovington says Hollingsworth is a mentor, a Southern belle, the definition of a lady.
"She worked with the NAACP, how she worked in the schools, she has been an inspiration in the State of Delaware and I'm sure, not just in our small capacity, but she's worked with all types of individuals," Hovington says.
Hollingsworth also served as a mentor for Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen, who says he used her advice to help the community of Dover during the summer 2020 protests.
"One of the biggest skills that she gave me many, many years ago was respect for the diversity of the citizens that we have and the people that you deal with in your lifetime and it's important that you listen to what people are saying," says Christiansen.
Hollingsworth was Christiansen's guidance counselor at Dover High School. He credits her for the mayor he is, saying she still checks in with him more than 50 years later.
"She armed me with the information about her history and about how coming along with school and that education was a great challenge, and basically told me how easy I and other kids of that era had it," Christiansen says. "She and I have discussed how to do the job better."
Hollingsworth participated in standardizing the National Counselor Certification test and received the Delaware Counselor of the Year Award for 1971-72. These are just some of many titles earned, years of awards, none surprising to Dr. Don Blakey his wife Dolores.
"She's involved in church work, she's involved in sorority work, she's involved in education," says Dr. Blakey.
Dr. Blakey was teaching at Del State and recalls all that she has done for that community and many others.
"As most of us are sort of gradually moving away from being clear and un-confused, she's sharpened herself," Dr. Blakey says.
Mrs. Blakey met Hollingsworth while she was student teaching in the Capital School District and says they both pledged Delta Sigma Theta, but that's not all they have in common.
"She graduated from the same high school that I graduated from during segregation," Mrs. Blakey says. "I graduated in '55, just as the Supreme Court decision came down. I learned a lot about our schools from her that I never knew before her."
"She and her husband would go overseas to France in the 70's and other countries and they would bring students over here to see what America was like," Dr. Blakey says. "Our daughter Donna was a participant with them and she would move overseas and then travel in the United States."
The Blakey's stay in touch with Dr. Hollingsworth through different community projects at Del State, which they say she's still very involved in.
Hollingsworth was inducted to the Delaware Women's Hall of Fame in 2018 and also serves on the Women's Suffrage Centennial Committee. She stood by the Old State House in Dover on Aug. 26 as the historical marker recognizing Delaware's Struggle for Women's Right to Vote was unveiled.
"Founders in my sorority were instrumental in breaking the line to march in Washington, D.C., in 1913 and I am old enough to have known 16 of the 22 women who were in that group," Hollingsworth says.
Hollingsworth traced her mother's side of the family back to 1790 in Kent County and her father's side back to 1800 in Caroline, Kent and Sussex counties. She says Harriet Ross Tubman is her distant cousin.
Hollingsworth and her late husband Dr. Berlin Hollingsworth, who has a lengthy list of achievements himself, have one daughter, a grandson and two great-grandsons.
Delaware is working with the Heritage Commission, which Hollingsworth is vice chair of, to create an education program on black history.
"I just try to encourage everybody and help them to realize that they have something to offer and that they should not hold back because of the color of their skin because the brain is what functions for you and everybody's brain is the same color," Hollingsworth says.