Lucius Ware, educator and civil rights leader on Long Island, dies at 91 (2024)

Lucius Ware, a dedicated educator who advocated for students and a galvanizing civil rights leader who stood against injustice as head of the Eastern Long Island chapter of the NAACP, has died. He was 91.

Ware died of complications of cancer on Sept. 24 atEast End Hospice, his family said.

Ware, who lived inSouthampton, is remembered for his devotion to his studentsand his workto increase diversity within the town’s workforce.

"The quality of a person’s life is of no value, except how they affect the lives of others," said his son, Lester Ware, 65, of Southampton. "And I'd say he exemplified that from being a teacher, being a coach, being an administrator and later being a civil rights activist."

Born in 1933, Lucius Ware developed a sense of the importance of activism and education early during his youth in Braceville, Ohio. Ware, the family said, was often the smartest person in the room, graduating first in his class in high school.

His father, the Rev. Leon Ware Sr., was on the executive committee of the NAACP in Trumbull County, Ohio. And around the time he was in high school, Lucius Ware also developed a zeal foractivism,he told Newsday in a 2020article.

After learning that news about Black people wasconsigned to a small sectionlabeled as "For Colored Subscribers," he and others organized a boycott of a newspaper in his hometownthat lasted for two months, according to Newsday archives. The news outlet eventually changed its approach.

Ware later attended Central State University, where he played offensive and defensive tackle on the football team, the family said. After finishing college in 1955, Ware joined the Army and later taught at the high school that he attended. He also became the principal of an Ohio elementary school.

Eventually, Ware made his way to Long Island after the deathof his parents in the 1960s. Southampton was the hometown of his wife, Bette Ware, who died in 1970. His first impression of Southampton was,"What a sleepy Southern town," his son recalled.

But Long Island becamehis home and the placehe would continue his education career. He worked at Southampton High School as a work-study coordinator, Newsday reported.

He later held administrative roles in school districts on Long Island's East End and in East Orange, New Jersey. He also worked to help form the Long Island Black Educators Association.

Beyond the classroom, Lucius Ware becamepresident of the Eastern Long Island NAACP during the 1990s, after he retired. In that role, he spoke out about several issues, including the need for more educators of color within Long Island’s school districts and the lack of diversity in the Southampton town attorney's office.

He helped orchestrate protests of Southampton in 1999 and into early 2000, saying the town had not kept itspromises in an affirmative action agreement struck during the 1970s to diversify the town's workforce,Newsday reported.

The protest took place for a few months and included demonstrations at the town hall and a prayer vigil, Newsday said. One demonstration was particularly raucous, with protesters hitting pots and pans throughout the hall.

The town eventually relented and started to implement the agreement. Before the demonstration, there were just a few Black people employed by the town, Ware told Newsday. By 2003, the number was 17%.

"Wherever he heard that people were having problems, he didn't wait. He just went to represent people," said Audrey Gaines, a friend of Ware who lives in East Hampton.

Even though he was a community activist and teacher, his family said Ware was also asupportive and firm father and grandfather.

"He had a way of making you feel like a special person in the world,"said his daughter, Leisha Ware, 61, of Middle Island.

Lester Ware said his father's life amounted to three lifetimes.

"He lived that first life —the young superstar. That second life —the driven family man, working. He lived that third life being of service to others," he said.

Lucius Ware is survived by his two children, daughter in-law Helen Samuels, 69, of Southampton, and James Jancus, his daughter’s partner who is 60 and lives in Middle Island. Ware is also survived by three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A wake will be heldFriday at Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to9 p.m. A funeral will be held at the Hamptons United Methodist Church on Saturday at 11 a.m. Burial will be at the Shinnecock Cemetery, the family said.