
Linda Ross is a woman that wears many hats, but her heart and soul are dedicated to serving the people of Richmond County.
Courtesy of Linda Ross
RICHMOD COUNTY — Linda Ross is a woman that wears many hats, but her heart and soul are dedicated to serving the people of Richmond County. As a senior pastor, community outreach coordinator, vice chair for the Richmond County Democratic Party, chair for Scotland County Reentry and a member of the NAACP Richmond County, she continuously works to improve the lives of those around her. She also partners with NC Feeds America and Food Lion Feeds, ensuring people have access to food and essential resources.
“I’m the type of person if I see a need, I’m going to try to do what I need to do to make sure resources go into that need,” Ross said.
Born and raised in Richmond County, Ross lived there until moving to Baltimore with her mother in the 10th grade. Pregnant at the time with her first child, she enrolled in a summer course for pregnant students and graduated high school in 1971. She later returned to Richmond County, attended Richmond Community College and earned an associate degree in criminal justice before moving to New Orleans. There, she worked as a paraprofessional teaching fifth and sixth grade math. “I don’t know how in the world I did it. It must’ve been arithmetic,” she joked.
Ross returned to North Carolina, settled in Fayetteville and took a job at L’eggs, a hosiery mill in Richmond County. “Everyone went to work there,” she said. She stayed for three years. At 24, she was saved and dedicated herself to faith. “I began to really see the face of God and find out what I needed to do.”
Her faith led her to prison ministry at Richmond Correctional Institution (previously known as Morrison Correctional Institution,) where she began working with female inmates, offering Bible studies and words of encouragement. That opportunity opened the door to a 30-year career at the institution, where she advanced from a correctional officer to a correctional training instructor, sergeant, lieutenant, classification coordinator and training specialist. “I taught unarmed self-defense, firearms, sexual harassment, chemical training and baton training. I did everything that the officer needed to be successful inside the prison.”
Her work with the Office of Staff Development Training took her across the state. “I would go on these trainings for a month and come home on the weekends. I loved it.”
Despite her success, Ross wasn’t always outgoing. “Linda Ross before all of this was an introvert. I didn’t talk to people. I was shy all throughout school,” she said. A coworker at the correctional facility helped her break out of her shell. “There’s a scripture that says in order to have friends, you got to show yourself friendly. One day, she was out, and I took on her role. From that point on, I began to come out.”
That shift in confidence opened more doors in her career. “That was necessary because that was the only way I could have been able to do the training part of my career.”
Ross holds double bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice and theology, a master’s in theology and recently completed her doctoral degree in theology. She has four children and cherishes the journey they shared. “They’re still my babies. I say that we grew up together because I had my children really young.”
Her personal experiences inspired her to start a soup kitchen at Faith Assembly Outreach Ministries. “When I was raising my children, there were times when we didn’t have food.” Additionally, Ross and her husband started “juice and bread,” providing essentials to those in need. They later partnered with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and have been distributing food for 13 years.
Her time in the prison system also shaped her perspective. “I saw individuals go out in the summertime and come back in the wintertime because they didn’t have a decent place to live, they didn’t have food to eat, so they would commit some type of crime and come back inside the prison facility.” As chair for reentry, Ross helps individuals leaving prison find jobs, food, housing and essential documents to prevent re-incarceration.
For the past five years, she has helped provide turkeys to the community free of charge. “The food bank will come and drop off the food and we’ll also purchase it a lot of the time. We’ve had partners come in and pay for turkeys and we’ll give them out to the community.”
Ross’ biggest influence is her faith. “Through understanding who Christ is in my life, I’m strengthened inwardly and influenced to do the things that I do. Everything I mentioned to you is in the scriptures. There’s a scripture in Matthew that says, ‘When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was in prison, you visited me.’”
A lesson Ross carries with her is resilience. “The mistakes I made in life didn’t kill me. Because they didn’t kill me, they made me strong.”
Her sense of community stems from her children and their shared struggles. “One of the things I really desired was to be a good mother. I wanted my children to be proud of me. When they were growing up, there were so many things we lacked. Even now, I just want them to see that wherever we were, we grew out of it and they can grow out of it too.”
Ross holds Richmond County’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration close to her heart. “It rekindled and made clear a path for me.” She also cherishes the back-to-school supply drive, the turkey drive for seniors and families and weekly food distributions.
“Community is common unity where all of us come together. That’s how we develop community,” she said. “All of us coming together, taking care and making sure that everybody has equity, not so much as equality.” She emphasized the difference. “Equality means that I have an opportunity to look out that window, but equity means that you will make sure that I’m high enough that we are all on the same level to be able to see the same things through the window.”
Her advice for those looking to get involved is simple: “Get to know the community. Get involved. There are a lot of civic groups working for the community. I’m a part of a ministerial alliance for Richmond County Schools. If you’re a seasoned lady like me, you might want to go to the senior citizen center—see what you can do. Find out what reentry is all about and get involved. NAACP, whatever you wish to look into, the only way you can work effectively in the community and touch the pulse of the community is to get into it. You can’t just sit in your office or sit at home, you’ve got to get out there and talk to people.”
Ross is driven by the need to accomplish things, especially for future generations like her granddaughter’s. “Her name is Paris. There’s things I want to see in place for all the Paris’, all the Charlie’s, all the Fred’s and Janice’s. I want them to be able to see that they can accomplish things even through difficult times.”
As a pastor, Ross remains focused on guiding her church both spiritually and emotionally. “I make sure that the things that I teach help them in their everyday living and motivate them to reach beyond who they are and lend a hand to somebody else.”
Reach Ana Corral at acorral@cmpapers.com