Editor:

The worst thing in my 48-and-a-half years of living I have found a person can do is to pacify a person.

On Sept. 12, such a thing happened with the renaming of the Prince Edward County High School gymnasium and auditorium. 

At a time when our children need better up-to-date schools, more educational tools and teachers, we stop to remember those “self-appointed black leaders” who would say name an old used auditorium and gymnasium after the only blacks they seem to know.

To these people, I say, “Don’t speak for me and don’t make me live in your legacy.”

I and others know where we’ve come from and what we’ve come through as a people and as a country.

I remind you that Barbara Johns and the Rev. L. Francis Griffin were not the only blacks who did things in this county.

If you want to leave a legacy for our young blacks and this community, bring good, reliable jobs, improve our educational system and give your people a future, because we can’t continue to constantly live in the past.

Kenneth Wayne Jackson

Rice