H. DeWayne Whittington, Maryland superintendent who won discrimination lawsuit in 1996, dies at 81 - The Washington Post: H. DeWayne Whittington, a school superintendent on Maryland’s Eastern Shore who received wide attention in the 1990s when he won a discrimination lawsuit against a white school board that had not renewed his contract, died Nov. 20 at a hospital in Salisbury, Md. He was 81.
He had an embolism, said his wife, Louise Whittington.
To many on the Eastern Shore, Dr. Whittington symbolized the struggle against the racism that remained even after the civil rights movement.
Dr. Whittington spent nearly four decades in the Somerset County schools and was the first African American outside of Baltimore to head a Maryland school system. As a teacher, he taught physical education and coached basketball teams to state championships. As superintendent, be enjoyed broad popularity.
Then, in 1992, the school board voted 3 to 2 not to renew his four-year contract. It was the first such decision in his years in the school system, he alleged in his lawsuit.
He “just had that gut feeling” that racism was to blame, he told the Baltimore Sun. “When no one has complained about your performance, that’s the first thing that pops in your mind.”
