I could see Toby from my desk when I first arrived at the Jackson Center in January. Toby is a dog that lives in the yellow house live next to St. Josephs. For the first few months there was only Toby, and then Snoopy arrived. Snoopy is adorably ugly and nearly as vocal as Toby. However, they both would quiet down around four o’clock. At that time, local residents and friends from counties away gather in the parking lot behind the fellowship hall for Heavenly Groceries.
Mrs. Gladys’ and Mama Kats’ laughter rose to our upper room. We could hear Ms. Charley calling numbers and near about everything that Hollywood said. I would look up and listen between emails, reports, and lesson plans. After a few weeks I began to notice other things, like a grey-blue Beamer that roamed the neighborhood. The driver seemed to stop often at houses or in the middle of the Roberson Street. Window rolled down, he would talk to whoever he passed. We are witness to the fact that Mr. Nate Davis’s car covers more ground than most cavalries.
Now we are located on 512 W. Rosemary Street, next door to the office that overlooked Rosemary Street and Hargraves, so I see Toby and Snoopy less often. But we still make it a priority to go over and bother Mr. Davis. When we are walking around the neighborhood, he slows down in that car of his to ask, “Now I keep seeing you out and about, you getting any work done in that nice new building of yours?”
We tell him we are just heading to Mrs. Patterson’s or Ms. Kathy Atwater’s. We are on our way to teach a workshop to 3rd graders about the Civil Rights struggle or hope to catch Ms. Keith Edwards for a question. Maybe we are off to deliver prizes to the Foster sisters who are reigning champions of archive trivia.
Above: Ms. Keith Edwards talking talking to first graders on our Freedom Tour.
There is a wonderful rhythm to this neighborhood, and incredible history that has been made and is being made by each generation raised in and around Northside. There is a spirit of welcome that is tangible and transformative. It has been our joy to share some of the stories we have heard with the wonderful teachers and students of Northside Elementary. Just this year, we have worked with over three hundred students, teaching them how to conduct life narrative interviews and passing on some lessons from this neighborhood’s historic Civil Rights struggle.
After our time in the classroom, we often allow time for reflection and questions, and ask the students to write or draw pictures about what they found interesting. One student in the 3rd grade drew a picture of the school and neighborhood with the caption, “I did not know that people who saved the world lived next door to my school.”
Thank you for letting me take part in this history, in learning it and in teaching it. I could not be having more fun.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth McCain
P.S. I do so hope you will come by and visit us at the Parsonage. I have heard about the Councils, Fearringtons, the Bynums, the Caldwells and so many others. But I do want to put names with faces. Also, please come by, email us, or call us if you are interested in the history of this place. In the words of Robert Revels, “Oh, what a history it is!”
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