Bonds Wilson Leadership

Lonnie Hamilton III, Bonds-Wilson's band director, began teaching at the school in 1955 and continued for 20 years before being promoted to director of adult education for the school district. Though Bonds-Wilson's band was iconic and recognized throughout the community, the school didn't have a proper band room and Hamilton held practices in a Quonset hut. In the 1970-71 school year, Bonds-Wilson High was integrated and the administration decided the white students would dislike Hamilton (In text citation). He was subsequently offered a job as a vice president at a different school. However, white parents voiced their admiration of Hamilton and his disciplinarian style of teaching and he stayed for that year. Shortly after the beginning of the school year, people in Liberty Hill noticed that Hamilton was active in the community and passionate about making change. Though school officials heavily discouraged him from running for a position on City Council and even threatened his job if he ran, they were reminded that prohibiting him from running was an infringement on his rights as a citizen and he was elected onto the council before the end of 1970. Hamilton served on the Charleston County Council for 22 years before retiring in 1992 and working with Bonds-Wilson Alumni to establish the Bonds-Wilson initiative and curate the artifacts located in Academic Magnet High School's library. (Parker, 2021)