Linden Heritage Foundation hosts MLK Day Celebration

Linden Heritage Foundation’s annual membership meeting and Martin Luther King Day Celebration kicked off Saturday, with an inspirational oral history from Hon. Judge Mason Darrell Barrett.

Barrett, who works as an administrative law judge for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Alabama and is an active member of the Fairview Community had the Historic Cass County Courthouse rapt with attention as he spoke on an oral history aptly titled “Invisible History: A Slave, A School, and A Scholar.”

As Martin Luther King Jr.’s 94th birthday approached, Barret began his presentation by paying homage to the civil rights leader whose life was cut short immediately after a speaking engagement. On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee; Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated at 39 years old, but his dream for a better future did not die with him as some may have hoped.

“I thought it only apropos we hear from him today,” Barrett said before a projector played King’s famed Washington Speech at Lincoln Memorial: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

“I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

Barrett began his address on the progression of African-Americans from slaves to scholars by speaking about an exceptional woman born in 1785 in Africa. Brought to the United States at the tender age of nine, Nancy Carter–or Grannie as her descendants lovingly refer to her. Mrs. Nancy became a slave, like so many others taken from their homeland and lived a life of longevity, as evidenced by the tall, spotless headstone that stands as a tribute to her in the Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery on the winding backroads of Linden, Texas, according to Jamie Jeans, with NETX Crossroads Magazine. Barrett relayed that Grannie’s headstone puts her as born in 1785, and passing on October 11, 1910, with the inscription on her headstone: “I am 126 years old and I have kept the faith and yield my soul to God and go home.”

Mrs. Carter, who has many, many descendants, was originally brought to Cass County in 1854. The awe-inspiring thought that Grannie, who lived such a long life worthy of remembrance and great respect is perfectly expressed by Jeans’ Crossroads article when they stated “This remarkable woman, who was brought to this country as a slave would live to see the end of slavery.”

Mrs. Nancy Carter’s descendants– among them academics, judges, doctors and more–pay tribute to this Grannie’s faith in God. Barrett illustrates that from the fruit of this one lovely woman–not just any woman, but a woman who saw so much discrimination, worked as a slave and lived in a time when black women were least respected; God honored her as the world was gifted with scores of her descendants who have and continue to exact change.

Barrett said a few of Mrs. Carter’s living descendants include: Mary L. Shurn, former Linden- Kildare home economics teacher; Carolyn Allen Craver, retired nurse; Linda D. Allen, retired educator; and many descendants who served in our armed services, such as the late Pleasant Hill Church Deacon Adrian Allen (U.S. Navy); the late Macedonia Baptist Church Deacon George Buddy Allen (U.S. Army) and the late Master Chief Petty Officer Billy W. Allen, U.S. Navy.

More than 100 years ago, Macedonia Rosenwald School Campus came to fruition shaping the educational and economic future of an entire generation of African American families, Barrett said.

“Between 1917 and 1932, nearly 5,000 rural schoolhouses, modest one-, two-, three-, and four-teacher buildings known as Rosenwald Schools, came to exclusively serve more than 700,000 African American children over four decades,” Barett said. “In 1926, a Rosenwald wood frame school was built in the Macedonia Community in west Linden.”

Barrett said the original Macedonia Rosenwald building was eventually moved and became the band hall at the new Linden- Kildare High School campus after the consolidation of districts in 1958.

“In 1939, an additional building was constructed on the Macedonia Rosenwald campus of local iron ore rock, which still stands and is in use to this day,” Barrett said. “Known as Macedonia Rock School, it has been named by Preservation Texas as one of eleven rural African American heritage sites being provided reimbursement grant funding for needing improvements to ensure its survival.”

Barrett said his parents personally taught at four different Rosenwald schools.

The Scholar mentioned in Barrett’s lecture is Dr. Arcelia M Johnson- Fanin, affectionately known to her students and colleagues as ‘Dr. J.’

“Dr. Johnson-Fanin was 1964 Valedictorian of Fairview High School and a former student of the Macedonia Rock School, Linden, Texas,” Barrett said. “Dr. J. grew up in a community that was poor in funds, but rich in education, the power of positive thinking, and reaching for greatness. With the Grace of God, great things she has done.”

Dr. J, Barrett said, is the founding Dean of the Feik School of Pharmacy at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

“With this appointment, she became the first woman and only African American female to be founding dean at two new pharmacy schools,” Barrett said. “In 1997, Dr. J was selected to head the development of the pharmacy program at Hampton University in Virginia. The last Fairview High School building and campus was constructed during segregation simultaneously (circa 1959-1960) with the Linden-Kildare High School, now named the Mae Luster Stephens Junior High School after another prominent African American educator from Linden.

Barrett serves locally as the project director for the Macedonia Rock School Preservation Project, as well as being a board member of the Fairview Junior-Senior High School Reunion Corporation and the Linden Cemetery Association. A 1973 Linden-Kildare Graduate, Barrett is passionate about the preservation. The Linden Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity, whose success is only possible through friendship and support. Anyone interested in Linden’s rich cultural and architectural heritage that wants to support an organization dedicated to preserving that heritage can become a member of Linden Heritage Foundation. For more information on the foundation and how to become a supporter or member, check out the Website at http://lindenheritage. org “The work of the Linden Heritage Foundation is made possible by the generous support of people like you, people committed to preserving and celebrating the places and stories that make Linden distinctive and unique,” Linden Heritage Website states.