Longtime Pike teacher, civil rights activist dies

She led effort to get diplomas for allblack Class of 1969.

Geneva Woods, a retired teacher from Pike County, knew she was in poor health, but she had one last mission before she died Tuesday.

Woods spearheaded an effort to get students from the 1969 senior cl a ss at the all-black Pike County Consolidated High School receive their diplomas; the school district’s superintendent withheld the diplomas because of a student walk- out to protest what they believed were discriminatory education policies.

The students received their diplomas at a commencement ceremony last month.

Woods, 84, passed away due to complications from liver cancer, said her daugh- ter, Stacey Mangham.

Woods taught for about 40 years, nearly all of them in Pike County, located about 50 miles south of Atlanta. Woods, the district’s 1984 Teacher of the Year, retired in 1996.

“It is my sincere hope that in my own little way, I have made a big contribution to the field of education and a great and positive impact on

the lives of some 5,000 or so individuals, and by my efforts they shall be able to grow as I have grown,” Woods wrote in her retirement letter. Here’s the schedule of services for Woods:

■4 p.m. Sunday: Memorial service at the Pike County Auditorium, 7218 Highway 19 South, Zebulon.

■6 p.m. Monday: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. Sorority Ivy Beyond The Wall ceremony at Mt. Hope Baptist Church, 12 Griffin St., Zebulon. ■7 to 9 p.m. Monday:

Viewing at Mt. Hope.

■Noon Tuesday: Funeral service at Mt. Hope.

HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM Members of Pike County Consolidated High School’s Class of 1969 applaud as their former teacher Geneva Woods speaks at their graduation ceremony, March 3. Woods died Tuesday.