community service

Lane Street Project: thank you, Little Rock O.F.W.B. Church!

Lane Street Project’s Senior Force scheduled a special workday yesterday to welcome middle and high schoolers from Lucama’s Little Rock Original Free Will Baptist Church. The kids were welcomed by Castonoble Hooks and Briggs Sherwood, and Cass introduced them to history of Vick and Odd Fellows Cemeteries. Lane Street Project is grateful for the opportunity to partner with community churches, to educate young people, and to receive help from every willing hand!

Cass Hooks explains the historical significance of the cemeteries, who is buried there, and why it’s important that we take care of this legacy.

Kids working near the Wiley Oates monument. As you can see, the wisteria is trying to stage a comeback.

Odd Fellows gets a much-needed mowing. Without timely intervention, the feathery dog fennel you see near the lawnmower will soon be as tall as our heads. (By the way, the ditches are in the public right-of-way and therefore are the City’s responsibility. They are in serious need of mowing.)

Kids using a tarp to drag vine cuttings and small limbs to the curb for disposal.

Thank you, Jenn Ferguson and Little Rock youth! We hope you’ll tell others what you learned here and bring them back with you on a future work day!

Photos courtesy of Jenn Ferguson.

N.A.A.C.P. honors …

I have lived a lot of places, but Wilson is home, and there is nothing quite like being recognized and honored by your home folk.

Tonight, I received a Community Service Award from the Wilson Branch of the N.A.A.C.P. at the organization’s annual Freedom Fund Banquet.

The evening included a special tribute to the late Frank D. and Bobbie D. Jones.

The magnificent Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II delivered personal anecdotes about the Joneses’ lives and work and a homily for the perilous times we live in. We face dangers seen and unseen, so what will you do with the time you have — whether six minutes or six hours or six days or six months or ….?

It was great to see two of the Joneses’ children, Bobbie and Freddie. We both lost fathers in 2022 and at the time reached out to remind each other of the blessing of being raised by such incredible men. (By the way, that’s Dante Pittman sitting at our table. I spotted him looking around and invited him to join us. If you live in Wilson, take some time to get to know this man.)

Thank the Lord I said my little bit before 95 year-old Samuel Caswell Lathan, legendary musician and my friend, was recognized. He brought the house down with a rendition of “What a Wonderful World,” followed by remarks that began “I was born in 1929 — and you don’t have to tell me nothing” about perils and rose to “I’m gon tell you some things — and I don’t care if you carry it back.” In other words, he delivered a word, too.

Harry B. Harris readies the Jones family for reflections on the night’s events.

The indefatigable William E. Myers. (He is 91, y’all. NINETY-ONE.) For the last 60+ years, a banquet in Wilson ain’t a banquet, a wedding ain’t a wedding, a funeral ain’t a funeral without this treasured musician live on sax or keyboards.)

Me and my lovely sister, Karla Henderson-Jackson.

Thank you.

Lane Street Project: season 4, workday 3.

The weather has not been kind early this season, but we’re getting it done. Scarborough House Resort always comes through, and both Senior and Junior Force put in work!

We have a clear path now to the pile of headstones midway back in the cemetery. This is where I found my great-grandmother Rachel Barnes Taylor‘s marker in January 2021. Every season we have to release it from the previous summer’s outlandish wisteria growth, but perhaps this will be the last time. If we can clear the ground around this pile, we can begin to probe for more markers buried under decades of leaf mulch.

The Junior Force is continuing its fence beautification project.

Odd Fellows Cemetery has not looked this good in half a century. Special thanks to the City of Wilson’s sanitation crews for removing our work day debris.

Our next work days are February 9 and 23. Celebrate Black History Month with us!

Photos and video courtesy of Jen Kehrer. Please consider Scarborough House Resort for all your event venue and bed-and-breakfast needs!

Lane Street Project: next workday — January 27!

The good folks at Scarborough House Resort will be leading the pack at our next clean-up! Help us keep the momentum going from the amazing work achieved last week with the help of The Kirks Flowers and Wright Brothers Lawncare!

Volunteers have transformed historic Odd Fellows Cemetery while building community and forming lasting friendships. You’ve heard about us, come see what Lane Street Project is all about!