Stories and history will be celebrated across generations next week.
Students from Howard School of Academics and Technology and senior residents of Mary Walker Towers will spend time together, discussing black history and sharing experiences. The importance and value of literacy will be a primary topic, said John L. Edwards III, curator and president of board of directors at Mary Walker Foundation.
One of the goals of the Mary Walker Foundation, Edwards said, is to promote literacy through history. Literacy, he said, is key to freedom.
“Those people who escaped from slavery realized that the thing they had to do to make it was to learn how to read,” he said. “We are showing that reading is very important for our future.”
Mary Walker was a local black woman who earned a spot in history for her perseverance to learn to read at age 100. This partnership, “Celebrate Literacy! Continuing the Legacy of Mary Walker,” is being facilitated by the Chattanooga Department of Arts, Education & Culture.