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Despite the hardships, 'they never lost hope'
Born July 12, 1930, at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, Gartrell Robinson, Jr. was raised in the Danburg Community of Wilkes County by his uncle, Deacon Cap Robinson, a farmer, and his aunt Mrs. Daisy Robinson, a school teacher in the public/church schools of Lincoln County. Both his parents passed away when he and his older brother, Marvin, were small children. He enjoyed his days as a student at New Ford Elementary School and was a quick learner but had to mix his schooling with farm work in the fields. On the days he could attend school, farm chores had to be completed first, then a walk of more than two miles to get to school, followed by a day with grades one through seven in only three classrooms, then a long walk home and more farm chores before doing homework and going to bed. He was aware that his school did not have new books or adequate supplies or facilities, but he knew that the teachers truly loved and cared for him and all their students and were working diligently to ensure that the students were properly educated and empowered to be successful and "be somebody."
Then came the upsetting news of the transfer of Jackson from New Ford School to The Rosenwald School (at Black Rock Church) in Tignall, some seven miles away. Gartrell's Aunt Daisy, who apparently had worked in the teaching profession in Lincoln County with Jackson met with Jackson. Realizing that her nephew was greatly inspired and motivated to do his best work academically under the tutelage of Jackson, she coordinated an agreement to get the very time-conscious Jackson to give her son a few extra minutes to walk, run, or otherwise travel seven miles to Rosenwald in order to study under Jackson. Robinson recalls the challenge of getting up very early every morning, doing his farm chores, linking up with Howard Chennault, who was similarly inspired and motivated to get an education and to be mentored by Jackson. They then had to make their way to Rosenwald School under all kinds of weather and road conditions. His grief with the county failing to provide bus transportation to African American students became more intense during the two years he had to struggle to get to Rosenwald in Tignall. Sometimes road workers would pick him up, sometimes Robinson would jog much of the way, sometimes one of the white teachers from the Tignall High School (believed to be the recently deceased Mrs. Frances Duke), who seemed to respect his thirst for education would give him a ride, especially on cold and rainy days. After years of dedication, hard work, sacrifice, and suffering, he earned his high school diploma in June of 1947. But his uncle's sharecropper wages had not been enough to put away any money for college. Plan B was to do three years in the Air Force, then enter college under the GI bill. The Korean War prolonged his military service. Then came marriage to the love of his life, Mrs. Elizabeth Duren, a school teacher at New Ford School. (Theirs has been a long and happy marriage. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in December 2006). With things going quite well for him in the Air Force, he opted to dedicate himself to a career in the military. Such a career afforded him the opportunity to be successful in a very challenging and rewarding career specialty which has had great transition value in civilian life. Moreover, an Air Force career afforded him and his family the opportunity to live and travel and grow in environments far different from Wilkes County. Robinson was stationed in Korea, Alaska, and Mississippi prior to being married. His family was with him while he was stationed in Illinois, California, and Kansas. His most memorable assignments include his five years as a Bomber mechanic with the elite Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Kansas and as an instructor for aircraft mechanics in SAC and other units. After military retirement in 1967 with the rank of Master Sargeant, Robinson transferred his aircraft mechanic skills to employment with Lockeed Aircraft, then to the City of Atlanta with duty as an aircraft mechanic at Hartsfield Airport. He has now completed a full career with the City of Atlanta and has retired and is finally relaxing a bit and enjoying spending time with his wife, children, and grandchildren in Atlanta, Georgia. Four of their five children live in the Atlanta area. Like their dad and mom, they are bright and highly motivated. All of them are well educated and are in the middle of their careers. Daughter Andrea has a Masters Degree from Georgia Tech and is employed as a Procurement Officer. Son Hollis is a graduate of S. C. State University and works for Westinghouse as a Sales Manager. Daughter Henrietta works as a civilian contractor at Fort McPherson, Georgia. Son Mayce works as a mechanic. Son Gartrell III lives in Dallas, Texas, and is in the security business. Gartrell Robinson continues to serve as an active member of New Ford Baptist Church. Since New Ford has traditionally met only on the fourth Sunday each month until recently, he and his wife are active members of Shaw Temple in Smyrna, Georgia, as well. His quest for success all started with the care and inspiration of his Uncle Cap and Aunt Daisy, and was nourished and propelled by the guidance, inspiration and motivation of Professor Jackson and Rev. Zellars. Mr. and Mrs. Gartrell Robinson, Jr. have passed on their quest for academic and spiritual excellence to their children and grandchildren who have received the torch and are doing quite well. VEOLA COFER ANDERSON Born July 11, 1921, in Wilkes County, Georgia, Veola Cofer Anderson is the fifth of eleven children born to Charlie Cofer, a farmer, and Hattie Willis Cofer, a homemaker. She attended the one room and one teacher Mulberry Church Elementary School during grades one through seven under the leadership of teacher and principal Ella A. Glaze, as did most of her siblings. She had a natural and extremely strong desire for more education and the recently established junior high school at her home church, New Ford Baptist, would clearly fill her need. Pastored by the highly spiritual and scholarly Zellars, who was also pastor of Mulberry Baptist, New Ford Church and School was located approximately seven miles from the home of the Cofer family. Since they did not own a car, and her dad and older brothers could not take the time off from farming to get her to and from school, this appeared to be an insurmountable problem. But her father, who was a deacon at New Ford Baptist Church, understood both the educational yearnings of his daughter and the need to attract scholarly young students like Vee to New Ford Junior High School. He, after, all had received a good basic education under Professor Bob Bradley at Bradley Town Elementary School, one of the first rural schools for African American students in Wilkes County. The Christian way of helping one another back in those days enabled Cofer to call on another Christian family, Roy and Ethel Willis Anderson, who he trusted to provide safe haven for his daughter while she waited at their home, after she and her five-year-old little brother, C. T. had walked two miles from the Cofer home to the Anderson home. From there they were picked up by Professor and Mrs. John Henry Jackson in his car and carried the remaining five miles to New Ford Junior High School. The Andersons' daughter, Ethel Mae, was also enrolled in the junior high school, as was Carrie Hudson (Mays), and the three of them became as sisters over a two- to three-year period as they daily came together to ride to school, study together in school, and ride back to the Andersons' home together. They benefited greatly from the wisdom and knowledge shared by Professor Jackson during those daily rides and they were enriched by his academic instruction in school. Five-year-old C. T. Cofer, who was sent along by his parents to keep big sister Vee company as she walked the lonely two miles to and from the Anderson home, got an early start on his education during the school day since the first grade teacher, Mrs. Hattie Jackson, observed that he was very smart and could handle the curriculum of the early grades. The Anderson and the Cofer families grew very close as a result of the arrangement for Vee. When she received her junior high school diploma, the county still did not provide bus transportation for African American students. Though rich in faith, values, and relationships, Vee's parents were farmers and had very little money, but she had high school and college very much in her plans and dreams. She was absolutely heartbroken when it was determined that no satisfactory transportation or housing arrangements could be made for her to continue her schooling at Rosenwald (a 16-mile round trip from her home to Tignall) or in Washington (20 miles round trip from her home). Everything appeared to be hopeless. She became a casualty of the nation's separate and unequal system of providing adaquate education and transportation resources to white and not African American students. In October 1943, she and the oldest son of Deacon Roy and Ethel Anderson, Leroy were married. They established and maintained a Christian home throughout their marriage. When Leroy went home to be with the Lord in July 2001, they had been married for 57 wonderful years and parented nine children. For the first ten years of their marriage, they were farmers. Then, in 1953, they moved to Charlotte, N.C., and joined Ethel Mae Anderson Johnson who had earlier married Wade Johnson and moved there with their family. Leroy and Veola lived next door to Wade and Ethel Mae for the ensuing two years. Even though they had five children by this time, Veola's thirst for education had not left her. She enrolled in and completed several correspondence courses after she finished caring for her home, husband and children at the end of each day. At the same time, she was persistently indoctrinating her children on the importance of education and spiritual growth. The teachings of Jesus, her parents, Rev. Zellars and Professor Jackson were being greatly emphasized in her home on a daily basis. The oldest daughter of Leroy and Veola, Leola, had gotten off to a great start at the Rosenwald School (at Black Rock AME Church in Tignall) prior to leaving Wilkes County. She was a very intelligent, determined, and poised child and, because she had mastered all the second grade material while she was still in the first grade, it was determined that she could be skipped from the first directly to the third grade. Leola and all her brothers and sisters went on to excel academically and to graduate from high school and college. But Leola led the way and provided the role model which has been pursued by all her siblings and their children. She was the first to receive her mother's zeal for getting a good education and living a Christian life. She was always an "A" student throughout her years in school. Leola was a member and president of the National Junior Honor Society in Junior High School and she graduated at the top of her class from high school and was in the National Honor Society. With a double major in English and French she graduated magna cum laude from Johnson C. Smith University in 1966. She earned a Master of Arts in Teaching English from Villanova University in 1979 and continued her studies at the University of Pennsylvania. At the time of her untimely death from cancer at age 61 in January 2006, Leola had completed 39 years as a high school English and French teacher and department head and was the adult Sunday School teacher at her church. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the National Council of Teachers of English. Leola's daughter, Nikki is following in her footsteps as a professional educator. Her son, James Jr., is in the process of making a career change to the field of education. Of Mama Vee's nine children, three others are professional educators, two are seminary-educated ministers, one is an attorney, two are retired from corporate America and one is still in corporate America. Three of her five daughters are married to ministers or deacons and one is involved with lay ministry with the Gideons. All her sons are married to devout Christian women. Grandma Vee's emphasis on academic excellence and spiritual development is being passed down through the generations. Of her 21 grandchildren, 18 are or soon will be college graduates. The remaining 3 are still grade school scholars, as are her 8 great-grandchildren. Her grandchildren have graduated from the following colleges and universities - Howard University, University of Maryland, Georga Tech (2 graduates), Hampton, Morehouse, North Carolina A & T, North Carolina Central Univ (1 grad & 1 soon-to-be-grad), Central Michigan, the University of Miami, Duke (1 grad, set of triplets soon to be grads), and Davidson. One of her grandsons is a second year law student at the University of Miami. Vee's good friend and schoolmate from childhood, Ethel Mae Anderson Johnson, became her sister-in-law. The two of them are like sisters to this day. Both their husbands are gone, but their children and grandchildren are very active in their lives. By the way, two of Ethel Mae's daughters are educators as well. Deloris is a high school teacher and youngest daughter, Dr. Alice Johnson, is a college professor. Daughter Pearl has a master's degree and is in corporate America. One son is deceased and the other, R. T., continues his career in management in the grocery store industry. God's grace and the Christian home of Charlie and Hattie Willis Cofer provided Vee with the foundation, core values and home training she needed to achieve great success in life. The lack of opportunity for education and advancement during the era of segregation would not allow her to achieve her highest potential. But in His infinite wisdom, God enabled her to transfer her energy, zeal, love, and the teachings of Jesus, her parents, Rev. Zellars, and Professor Jackson to her children and grandchildren. For her unselfishness in so doing, for her diligence, for her commitment to her family, for her love for all God's children, and her constant encouragement of each of her children and grandchildren, she is indeed, an authentic unsung hero of Wilkes County, Georgia.
(If you are interested in nominating persons to be considered an "unsung heroes of Wilkes County" for a future column or for a possible book, please do so by sending their name, address, phone number, and email address to Rev. Ed Anderson at P. O. Box 903, Washington, GA. 30673, or to his email address at edanderson@nu-z.net.)
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