ROCKINGHAM — Four African-American Richmond Senior High School graduates shared wisdom gained from their experiences pursing higher education and reflected on what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy means to them on Saturday.
Those who marched through downtown Rockingham gathered in the old courthouse, filling the courtroom to the brim. Three of the main speakers graduated from RSHS within the last four years, while one, Cheryl Washington Streeter, graduated in 1987 and has been teaching in North Carolina for 29 years. Another, Josiah Brewington, a 5th grade student at Washington Street Elementary School, gave the opening prayer.
There was a moment of silence in which a handful of children present rang bells representing peace and equality. At the end of the speeches, the youth in the audience were encouraged to ask the students about college and how they got there.
Michael Ellington, now a sophomore at North Carolina A&T State University majoring in information technology, college was at first a “eye-opening” and “confusing” place. He was never in any clubs or had much extra curricular activities, and called himself an average student, so once on campus he felt he had to catch up to the other students.
“That’s exactly what I did. I had to apply myself, sacrifice my time, to get to the place I wanted to be,” Ellington said. “I didn’t want to feel like I was behind so I developed study habits I had never had and now I’m the scholar that I wanted to be all along.”
Zaria Young, a sophomore at Winston Salem State University majoring in elementary education, had a similar struggle when she started. She went to college for nursing, told by her elders that it would pay a great salary later on, but she wasn’t sure it was right for her. She changed to occupational therapy, but that wasn’t right either.
Young said she called her mom crying in a grocery store parking lot worried about her grades. Being a teacher had been on her mind for a long time, and she decided to do that, despite at one point rejecting it after seeing how “disrespectful” young children can be to their teachers.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to have to learn to look past that and build relationships with my students,’” Young said.
Maggi Chambers, a junior at Howard University majoring in international business and minoring in political science with a concentration in Middle East studies and culture, said her first night at college in Washington D.C. made her realize how far she was from home: loud noises from the busy streets late into the night, and no Bojangles or Cookout in sight.
Chambers said that Howard, as a famed historically black university, was in many ways what she expected, but what amazed her was how much talent she came into contact with on a daily basis.
“There’s no bubble for our race because we are constantly reinventing the status quo,” she said. “My peers at Howard may not all be (actress) Taraji P. Henson or (music mogul) Sean Combs, but they have proven time and again that they will be successful no matter what measure of success they use because they don’t allow the stigma of the world around them to define them.
“The greatest gift that Howard has given me is the ability to understand that the purpose of the story of life is not to fit the mold,” Chambers continued. “The purpose is found by finding yourself and being comfortable with who you are so you can therefore create the life story that you would like to live.”
Using a quote from King, Streeter reminded the audience that you don’t have to go to college to be a strong member of your community.
“Everybody can be great because anyone can serve. You don’t need a college degree in order to serve, you don’t need to make your subject and verb agree in order to serve,” Streeter said, quoting King. “What you need is love and a kind heart.”
Streeter challenged the audience: “The most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing to help others?’”
