Jeff Ivey’s photo collage from the August 15, 2015 tribute to the Honorable Leo A. Jackson.
Many years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a poetry reading by Gwendolyn Brooks. On that wonderful afternoon at the Cleveland Public Library, she spoke volumes, when she stated, “Poetry gives back beautiful gifts!” Today, I can honestly say the same thing about history, which gives me the gifts of inspiration and motivation on a daily basis.
On Saturday, August 15, 2015, I shared my feelings about history’s many gifts with the near capacity crowd that joined me in honoring the Honorable Leo A. Jackson at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Special thanks to the Jackson family, United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, and the African American Archives Auxiliary for helping to make Judge Jackson’s papers available to students, scholars, and other members of our community. Thanks, also, to photographer Jeff Ivey for documenting this chapter in our history. Jeff’s photo collage, incorporates images taken before, during, and after the event.
Judge Leo A. Jackson (1920-1996). Courtesy of Linda Jackson Sowell.
Yesterday, as I thought about the August 15th tribute to the Judge Jackson and the August 15th passing of social activist Julian Bond–the voice of the “Eyes on the Prize” documentary film series, I was reminded, again, of the importance of our on-going efforts to document and preserve African American history for all time.
“Keep your eyes on the prize. . .Hold on!”
About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 