News
Officials want youth active in grave project
Date: January 2006
By Amy Ritchart
The Leaf-Chronicle
Preservation efforts that began in a forsaken Clarksville cemetery where
most of the more than 1,000 graves contain black men, women and
children, have grown to include education about the city's black
history.
The Mount Olive Cemetery Historical Preservation Society last year
dedicated its cemetery at a ceremony off Rollins Drive. Since, it
has added youth outreach to the beautification and conservation efforts
under way in the cemetery.
A project to map the cemetery graves is about two-thirds complete and
should wrap up this year, said the group's director Geneva Bell.
"In the end, it'll be online," she said of the cemetery map.
The group is organizing a Youth Friends of Mount Olive Historical
Preservation Society to involve young people.
"We must preserve our youth -- they're our future," Bell said. " I
have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I want them to be able
to share what little success I can accomplish."
Having achieved more than half of the five-year plan preservation goals
at the cemetery, society members are this February partnering with the
Clarksville Arts and Heritage Development Council to host several events
against the backdrop of an educational display detailing black men and
women's contributions to Clarksville.
"Our next plan is to fill in open graves and place markers so we can
open (the cemetery) to the public," Bell said. "They should have access
to Clarksville history. We're a preservation society -- our work
is ongoing, preserving the black history of Clarksville. We do it
at every given opportunity.
Bell said preservation is important because it teaches people about
working for the greater good, rather than for personal gain.
"It wasn't all about what they personally wanted," she said of those who
fought for civil rights and those who achieved success in a society that
treated black men and women as inferior. "It was for the community
as a whole."
She also believes spotlighting black Clarksvillians' achievements
provides positive role models for children of all races.
Displaying past accomplishments is "saying a lot about our history," she
said. "We could get some of our children to understand how you can
go and be something when you don't know what you're made up of.
Our history is not only black history, but all history is important of
tomorrow."
'Uniqueness of the people'
The Rev. Jimmy Terry, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in New
Providence, has been involved with launching Black History Month for
about 25 years. He also believes the annual celebration of black
history can help change the future "because of the uniqueness of the
African-American people, the uniqueness of our arriving of these
shores."
He will be this year's keynote speaker at the opening ceremony at 6 p.m.
Wednesday at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center.
"It's important that are young people, that each generation, celebrate
this," he said. "We have not given Black History Month an
opportunity to serve us -- that's what I'm going to deal with (in the
opening speech), the things that we should be accomplishing."
The Austin Peay State University collegiate chapter of the NAACP also
will involve young people in this year's celebration, said Kathleen
Evans, the group's adviser.
The group will team with the Student Teacher Education Association to
again host a history bowl in which middle schoolers, high schoolers and
college student will compete in separate divisions in a "Who Want To Be
A Millionaire"-style black history trivia game.
"We have had very good success with it," Evan said. "They (the
NAACP collegiate members) were recognized for multiculturalism and
diversity in 2004-2005 (by the university)."
Terry said plans also are under way for Clarksville's closing ceremony
traditionally set for the last day of the month
Amy Ritchart covers higher education and diversity and can be reached by
telephone at 931-245-0200 or via e-mail at
amyritchart@theleafchronicle.com."