Day 16: Across the Bridge

Education is deeply ingrained in the fabric of Lynchburg’s African American community.

The last sixteen days of Bridge of Lament shine a bright, undeniable spotlight on this truth. On Day 10, Deborah Smith, Director of Jones Memorial Library, reminds us that “literacy is central to freedom. She quotes Frederick Douglass: “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” Indeed, Frederick Douglass heard his master, whose wife was teaching Douglass the alphabet before the husband found out, declare that teaching him to read “would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable and of no value to his master.” Douglass said, “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom." That pathway was literacy.

Rebecca Pickard

highlighted this on Day 2: even in antebellum times, enslaved people had access to literacy opportunities through local church Sunday Schools. And the passion for education continued. On Day 3, Beatrice Hunter highlighted pioneering school administrators after the Civil War, including the remarkable Joseph Yoder and Professor Frank Trigg, who tirelessly started schools and trained Black teachers. We learned about the new free schools, such as the Polk Street School, which was the first free school for hundreds of miles around. The notable educator Amelia Pride, one of the first Black school teachers in Lynchburg schools, taught at the Polk Street school during her thirty-year tenure. Pride was from a well-known free black family; she also opened a sewing school, a cooking school, and “The Dorchester Home” for older women who were previously enslaved.

In time, Black schools like Yoder School and, later, Dunbar High School, became joyful symbols of the Black community. You can’t mention Dunbar without praising its principal Clarence William Seay who fought for academic success and excellence. An editorial from The Daily Advance in 1982 said, “In a very real sense he was Dunbar High…It is a better Lynchburg because of him and because of who he was and what he was as a human being. A man of immense dignity and dedication.”¹

On Day 15, Jeremiah Forshey shared another symbol, the Virginia University of Lynchburg, whose history is an inspiration in our time. He quotes the words of Dr. Ralph Reavis: “The school at Lynchburg quickly came to represent more than a means of filling educational needs not otherwise provided. It came to represent a symbol of the principle that Virginia’s Negro Baptists should own and control their own school. [Virginia University of Lynchburg] became a repository of the principles of self-reliance, race pride, ancestral reverence, faith in each other, and confidence in Negro leadership.”

Indeed, Lynchburg boasts as much Black philosophy of education and commitment to learning as any city. As Theresa Perry states in Young Gifted and Black, “Out of their lived experience, from slavery to the dismantling of segregated schools, they have developed and enacted a philosophy of education…This philosophy was freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom, racial uplift, citizenship, and leadership.”²

But, Perry goes on to say, “The philosophy of achievement that emerges from the narratives is predicated, is responsive to, and exists in a dialectical relationship with the specific challenges African Americans faced in their pursuit of education and literacy.” That is what Jeremiah Forshey illustrated in our final two days, speaking about the Virginia University of Lynchburg. He points out the “challenges facing the Black community in Lynchburg in the 1880s: violent white backlash, unjust policing, unequal school funding, how a history of racist laws made it difficult to find qualified teachers, and the threats of extremist violence against Black schools and teachers.”

That didn’t end when Owen Cardwell and his three comrades desegregated E.C. Glass High School. By some accounts, 30,000 Black teachers lost their jobs in the process of integration³ because, as Henry Faulkner Heil says in his thesis referenced in Day 9, integration was not a “two-way street.” The burden was on Black students to leave their place of cultural stability, safety, and security and walk into the white schools.

Today, we need the African American philosophy of education to address our most pressing problems. A significant achievement gap exists in Lynchburg City Schools between Black students, who make up the majority of the student population, and their white peers. A concerned citizen, Danny McCain, brought a little bit of good trouble over this at a June 3rd School Board meeting. McCain was banned from future meetings for speaking out; thankfully, the Board recognized their moral responsibility to clear him of his offense, and the stir has given the city a chance to reflect. The answer on how to close the gap is outside of the scope of our project, but I’m encouraged by Perry in Young Gifted and Black who claims that the Black philosophy of education is “powerful enough to provide answers to those enduring dilemmas that plagues African Americans as they have attempted to commit themselves to African American achievement.”⁴

Throughout this past spring, I asked many of the Black writers and supporters of Bridge of Lament to share their opinions on what could be done to help our city’s students.

On Day 7, Phyllistine Mosley said, “We need to get kids interested in what's around them and what they are exposed to, let them internalize it, and realize if it is something they want to do. The Jubilee Center in Lynchburg does great work. They expose kids to so much. They encourage them to do their homework. They encourage interest in different things. They take them to places. The Boys and Girls Club also creates a good atmosphere to be curious about different jobs and opportunities, and careers, and to learn skills. Encourage students to be inquisitive. Be curious. Seek out things they are interested in and learn from it.”

Carl B Hutcherson, Jr, pastor of First Baptist Church South Lynchburg and local legend in his own right as former Lynchburg mayor, funeral director, and longtime community advocate, pointed out to me in a phone call this summer that we need to “listen to the kids” and find out “what they need”: “Listen to the kids' voices. Let the kids express what they are really interested in. Give them a voice in a positive way. Encourage them to follow their dreams.”

One of the ways Hutcherson does this is through his participation with Good Gangs. Good Gangs is a 2022 partnership with the Lynchburg Police Department and the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice 24th District Court Service Unit. One of the founders, the late Owen Cardwell, said the program is “kind of based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…Young people need to belong. It’s natural for them to want to have their little networks, clubs, and gangs. The idea of Good Gangs is, ‘What is the motivator for belonging?’ We’re trying to turn the attention to something positive from something negative.”⁵

Hutcherson, Jr., was one of the teachers in Lynchburg who made a difference for the Black students in the 1970s. For four years, Hutcherson taught at E.C. Glass, one of the first handful of Black teachers hired in the school's history. In fact, he taught Gloria Simon, who shared her memory of the Carl B Hutcherson Elementary School on Day 8 (named after Hutcherson Jr’s father).

Beatrice Hunter, who wrote Day 3 and Day 6, shared with me her encouragement in a talk to Randolph Macon students at one time: “Don’t let your campus brick wall be a boundary, it’s only a border. Explore. Be curious and inquisitive.”

Many people, educators, and organizations serve our students through their time, programs, and finances. Let me take an opportunity to share one I’m involved with: the Church of Lynchburg is a new group sponsored by the Lighthouse Education Center that incentivizes youth to focus on school attendance, school performance, and community service. If the students fulfill all the requirements, they will receive a stipend deposited into a savings account, most of which is held for them until after graduation. The main objective is mentoring, tutoring, and spiritual discipleship. This year is their pilot program. If you would like to know more, please reach out to me.

One of the community leaders doing much for our students is Dr. Sterling Wilder, one of our city council members and another tireless servant and founding member of the Jubilee Family Development Center, which Ms. Mosley mentions above. Jubilee’s website shares that they provide “high-quality academic, athletic and occupational programs that foster personal, social and spiritual growth and the stability of families.”

It’s fitting to mention the Jubilee Center as a closing to this year’s Bridge Crossing because, on Day 1,

Ron Miller

quoted Reverend Dean Nelson:

“Juneteenth is also referred to as “Jubilee Day” or “Freedom Day,” and both have their root in the Biblical tradition of forgiving debts, freeing slaves (in the context of Hebrew culture, slaves had typically indentured themselves to pay off debts), and releasing prisoners every 50 years. This demonstration of forgiveness is viewed by Christians as a precursor to the ultimate forgiveness and payment of the debt of sin by Jesus on the cross. Christians in America should find it easy and natural to embrace Juneteenth as an extension of this idea. Like the Christian moral tradition at the heart of our constitutional order, we see in Juneteenth the Christian tradition’s moral vision put on vivid display. Yes, we cannot dispute that Christianity was made a tragic handmaiden to slavery by some, but for others, it was the same religion that taught all human beings were of equal dignity, regardless of skin color.

In light of that Christian moral vision, I encourage our Bridge of Lament readers to move forward in action, even as we celebrate this Fourth of July Weekend. On Day 13, Ron Miller described the traits of historical evangelicalism, “four characteristics that historian David Bebbington defines and Black author, academic, and theologian Esau McCaulley accepts as ‘a good starting point’ to describe evangelicalism. One of those is “Activism: the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts.” That activism is expressed by Jubilee Center founder Dr. Sterling Wilder, who wrote an important vision statement that I would like to share, in edited form, as we enter the Fourth of July weekend:

“The Man/Woman in the Mirror, I am the Change!

I, Name ___________________ ________________, make a commitment to:

1. Mentor at least one youth in my community, start a mentoring program in my place of worship or participate in an established mentoring program.

2. Register at least one new voter and vote for leaders that care about the issues that affect our people.

3. Be active in at least one group that works for change and social issues in my community—fraternity, sorority, social, civic group or from my own network.

4. Participate in at least one community organization for collaboration.

5. Encourage my place of worship to adopt social issues.

6. Participate in one of the Bridges to Progress ten committees. Goal to reduce poverty and increase median household income through civic engagement.

7. Volunteer in the Lynchburg School System to help a child in our community.

8. Volunteer in at least one local inner-city program—Parks and Recreation Neighborhood Community Center (College Hill, Daniels Hill, Diamond Hill, Fairview Heights, or Yoder Center), Greater Lynchburg Boys and Girls Club, Jubilee Family Center

9. Volunteer in at least one non-profit organization and give a donation annually

10. Initiate my Passion Project. What area am I passionate about and how can I make a difference? My Project: ___________________________________________

I will not complain about issues in my community or blame others.

I will be the change I want to see in my community even if I must walk alone.

May we pursue the best for our city’s students today, in the spirit of the undeniably great African American leaders of the past and present who devoted their lives to improving Lynchburg.

Happy July 4th.

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Kenton Martin, Bridge of Lament project coordinator, is a husband, father, and project manager for a local engineering company. He seeks to follow Jesus into the difficult places of the community. Please be in touch at bridgeoflament@gmail.com

1. Elson, James. Lynchburg Virginia, the First Two Hundred Years 1786-1986, Warwick House Publishers, 2004 p. 423

2. Perry, Teresa, Claude Stele, Asa Hillard III. Young Gifted and Black, Beacon Press, 2003 p. 6

3. https://scholars.org/print/pdf/node/14858

4. Perry, p.10

5. Lynchburg receives grants to launch Good Gangs program | University of Lynchburg