© Lura Astor for Roanoke Times & World News Articles used with permission
If you have information on the photographs that accompanied the articles, please let me know!
If you have information on the photographs that accompanied the articles, please let me know!
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Ellison Adger Smyth: 89-Year Overview - A Slightly Irreverent Former Reverend Pens Memoirs
“Uncle Ellison was a favorite of mine growing up. He could carve a monkey from a peach pit, and polish beautiful natural stones. He was an activist minister during an exciting time of racial relations in the South, and his experiences were fascinating." - Lynda Yarnell 17 Nov 2012 |
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Courage, Determination Helped Combat Bigotry
The integration struggles of the late 1950s and early '60s were tough times in places such as Prince Edward County, but Blacksburg had its own difficulties. Ellison Smyth, as pastor of Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, helped lead people toward new attitudes here. He didn't have to help in Prince Edward, too, but he did.Under the strategy of "massive resistance," officials closed public schools in Prince Edward County and Tidewater rather than desegregate them after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 1954 against racially separate schools. Smyth said, "It takes a whole lot of living to find out the score, and you keep on. If you quit going, you're gone, and if you lose your sense of humor, you're gone." |
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