North Carolina A&T State University is throwing the biggest party in its history this Halloween. The school known for the Greatest Homecoming on Earth is marking 100 years of the tradition and it is putting its oldest living graduates out front.

Ten Aggies who are all 100 or older are serving as honorary grand marshals of Saturday's centennial parade. The parade steps off at 8 a.m. at Lindsay Street and Murrow Boulevard in Greensboro before winding toward campus and finishing on Laurel Street. It is also streaming online for alumni who cannot make the trip.

Together the grand marshals carry more than a century of Black American history. They studied at A&T through the Great Depression and World War II and under Jim Crow segregation. Then they went on to lead classrooms and pulpits and county boards.

Lives of service

Joseph W. Sharpe entered A&T at 16 in 1941 before being drafted into the Army. He served 28 years despite facing segregation in uniform and retired as a sergeant major, the Army's top enlisted grade. He came back to finish his degree and taught ROTC at his alma mater.

George Manning is a World War II veteran and Purple Heart recipient who taught agriculture and later became a presiding elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Gilbert David Howell studied brick masonry, then co-founded a Greensboro masonry company that employed about 100 men.

Beatrice Bailey Hill became the first Black county commissioner in Harnett County and the first woman on that board, serving 24 years. Dorethea M. Branch was the first African American trustee of a regional hospital board in eastern North Carolina and ran a family grocery store for 52 years.

The honor roll also includes longtime educators Virginia Horton Coverson, Dona Olivia Hendley Coward, Blanche Smith Earley and Willie Williams along with Army veteran and school principal William A. Lawson Sr.

A week-long reunion

University alumni leader Crystal W. Boyce said honoring the centenarians builds a living bridge between A&T's past and its future. She said their stories left her humbled.

Centennial events have filled Aggieland since Oct. 25 and wrap up Nov. 1. The Aggies host Elon at their home stadium Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of alumni and families from across the country.