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Staff photo by Allison Kwesell/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Curtis Rivers is one of a group of Dalton residents who helped to establish the Emery Center as a place to highlight the historical contributions of blacks in Dalton.
DALTON, Ga. -- A couple's desire to preserve black history and the history of their hometown led them to turn the Emery Street School into a black heritage site.
"It is education and awareness of our involvement in history," said Curtis Rivers, director of the newly named Emery Center museum.
Mr. Rivers and his wife, Pat, the museum historian, are among hundreds of Dalton residents who attended Emery Street School, the city's first public school. They and other alumni fought to have it preserved.
It was the only school in Dalton that blacks could attend from its opening in 1886 until 1967, when it closed after integration.
The Emery Center since has become a destination to celebrate Black History Month.
"It's an awakening," said Jean Manly, a member of the Whitfield-Murray Historical Society. "There is not a room that is not interesting. It compels you to look at everything."
The building includes three floors covered with historical contributions of local blacks and those from across the nation, Ms. Manly said. The museum also includes the historical contributions of some whites and people of other cultures.
The museum is funded strictly through donations and tours, officials said.
The museum tour, called "In Freedoms Footsteps," starts with a room called from "Africa to Slavery" where visitors can read the handwritten letter of a slave and see the story of people brought to America on slave ships.
The next room, "From Slavery to Civil War," shows photos and tells the history of Civil War generals including Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who commanded the Army of Tennessee from 1863 to 1864 and whose statue is in downtown Dalton.
The Civil War room features photos of President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation that eventually led to the end of slavery. The room also tells the story of about 3,500 blacks from Georgia who served in the Union Army and Navy between 1862 and 1865.
ELEMENTS
The "In Freedom's Footsteps" tour at the Emery Center includes four rooms:
* From Africa to Slavery
* From Slavery to the Civil War
* From the Civil War to Civil Rights
* The I Have A Dream room
TO HELP
* To tour or donate to the Emery Center, call Curtis Rivers at 706-280-7695.
* Donations also may be made to: The Emery Center, P.O. Box 1831, Dalton, GA 30722
There is a military room that showcases the contributions of local blacks in the military, including Navy Adm. Mack C. Gaston, an Emery Street School graduate who has a Dalton parkway named in his honor.
The center's Civil Rights room includes black-and-white water fountains from the days of segregation and signs that restrict blacks and Hispanics from entering a building. Other signs directed blacks to sit in the back of buses.
The next room is called "I Have A Dream," and it focuses on the contributions of Rosa Parks, who helped start the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Emery Center board member and retired teacher Gladiola Griffin said she hopes the center helps people see the historical contributions of blacks.
"It's like we were just tolerated. We hadn't been recognized in the history of the city," she said. "The museum shows some of our contributions."
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
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