Mixing Races Led To Mixing Animals

I don't think this school's mascot would fly now. (No wonder kids used to think smoking was cool!)

Today, Rocky Mount High School's mascot is the Gryphon.

A little history to explain why the school's mascot changed:

The Rocky Mount High School of today actually took its present form in the 1968-69 school year. By then the decision had already been reached to close Booker T. Washington and to educate all of Rocky Mount’s high school students at an enlarged RMSH facility. If the actual merger in the fall of 1969 was to be a marriage of two fine traditions into a new entity, the 1968-69 school year was the engagement period. Significant construction took place at RMSH to accommodate the influx of students from Booker T. Also, student, faculty and community committees from both schools worked hard to meld the two into one new school while preserving the best of each. The old mascots, the Blackbirds and the Lions, were not cast off or discarded; rather they were reverently retired in favor of a new mascot – part bird, part lion – that symbolized the continuation, rather than the termination, of both hallowed traditions. The royal blue and gold of Booker T. Washington and the black and gold that Rocky Mount Senior High had inherited from the old Rocky Mount High School on Marigold Street were combined, not discarded. The color “blue-black” (actually, dark navy blue) was adopted by the student body to go with the gold that was already common to both schools. Student government, cheerleading, and similar activities were to be shared between students from the predecessor schools by a formula that strove for equitable apportionment. The principalship was to be shared and the faculties combined. The stage was well prepared for a merger that incorporated, respected and preserved both traditions.

My Dad and his siblings were Blackbirds, and in their lifetimes, the world sure has changed a lot. I wonder if current students know and appreciate the history behind their mascot.