Author’s note: This account is personal, my lament for Lynchburg as an outsider now living within her ZIP codes.
Our move here was managed by an employer and our required orientation arranged, supposedly teaching us the ‘American way.’ Our ‘orientor’: a local teacher.
This person, I know, has oriented many; Lynchburg has many ‘blow-ins.’ In this instance, I was in their car, being driven through the city, taking in the ‘Seven Hills’ districts, each demarcated by similar groups of street names: the French pockets of town, the English pockets (of which there seem to be oh so many), the names I either knew or that were new to me. I wondered whether these pockets were designed to denote a particular style, mindset, or even social class.
There are always similarities, obvious choices for streets: Park (Lane), King (Street), ordinal numbers, for example. And then we have the names of the great, including …
Martin Luther King Junior (Boulevard).
To many, MLK Boulevard is simply Fifth Street, its official address. It was additionally named to honor Dr. King’s visit here in March 1962. He even, in fact, stayed at 1005 Fifth Street, hosted by Dr. George F. Jackson, an African American dentist, who lived there at that time. The street was given the ‘strictly honorary’ designation of Martin Luther King Boulevard1 in March 2005 and is marked at several junctions along the street.2
However, a citizens’ survey3 in 2021 reported it more appropriate to honor Fifth Street’s historical significance as the social and commercial hub of the African American community4 by making “MLK Boulevard” official, but keeping its original name as its official address: Fifth Street.5
I know all this now, because I have had time to research my interests, but when I moved here in 2017, I knew nothing at all. And so I asked my guide about the street names’ significance, and about Fifth Street in particular: the twice-named street.
The reply: we had to do this; it makes them feel better.
The tone: patronizing, at best.
I urge you, now, to think about that sentiment, and please; think about it for a good long while. What is wrong with that thought process that led to such an insensitive statement? I intentionally do not state my colour, my creed, my nationality, nor my gender. What bias did this person mistake me for holding based upon what they saw? For they surely did not know me.
I remember realizing very clearly, in this uncomfortable instance as a person new to this area, to this country, that I must keep my mouth shut, particularly in terms of politics and religion, especially when the views I held were not the same as those of the speaker. Interestingly, that particular speaker had received no such advice. Or they had simply chosen to ignore it.
As soon as we have a ‘them’ and an ‘us’, we have an issue.
As soon as we continually segregate by any means, we have an issue.
We must remember history, in our very best attempts to learn from it.
Our duty is to uphold what is right, not to erase what is wrong, simply to see it as such, and never to repeat it.
Our project is the Bridge of Lament. May I offer up a lament for that bridge in the hope that we all consider ourselves as a ‘we’, rather than an ‘us’ and a ‘them’?
Questions or feedback? We’d love to hear from you. Email bridgeoflament@gmail.com.
Our writer is a parent, linguist, educator and writer living in Bedford County with twenty years experience in the majority of these fields. They have lived in several countries and consider themselves therefore a citizen of the world.
There are other historical figures to be honored with their own streets in our city, though no other African American. Cabell Street, for example, is named after a famous doctor, correspondent of Thomas Jefferson, and designer of the well known historical home referred to as ‘Point of Honour’. Indeed, even the “Pierce Street Renaissance Historic District,” where more markers recount ‘accomplishments of (Lynchburg) African Americans’ in greater concentration than in any other town in Virginia.