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June 23, 2010

One-room schoolhouse receives recognition

Karen Brady The Express-Star

— Dozens of hearty individuals braved near 100-degree temperatures to take place in  a ceremony honoring Loretta Y. Jackson's Verden Separate School, placing it on the National Schoolhouse Register.

Jackson's daughter Cynthia Anderson welcomed local dignitaries, educators, state senators and representatives, members of the Country School Association of America,  community members, friends and family, who, black and white, sat side-by-side on bales of straw under a white, flapping tent. LYJ-AAHS Board member Cynthia Usher addressed the group, saying, "education is the path out of poverty, into hope, into freedom and into independence."

Usher quoted internationally-known author Dr. Seuss to stress the importance of reading and education: "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more things that you learn, the more places you'll go."

Usher, speaking of Allen Toles, the man who built the Verden Separate School and of the placement of the school on the National Schoolhouse Register, "The 'I's' are dotted and the 'T's' are crossed for a man who believed in education and who built a monument to it - a living monument that is more than a place."

LYJ-AAHS Board member Bruce Fisher also spoke to the group, saying, "We've only got one history - not black history, not white history - but one shared history."

Even after the presentation of the CSAA Landmark Schoolhouse plaque, the crowd did not disperse, choosing to remain seated in the shade, sipping bottled water, munching cupcakes baked by Jimmie Smith, retired 24-year USAO food service veteran  and visiting.

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