DECATUR COUNTY, GA (WTXL) — The Decatur County Branch of the NAACP is asking community members to share their stories, pictures, and records of local Black families, leaders, and businesses for a documented book highlighting Black history in Decatur County.
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For Bainbridge resident Cherrylon Brown, her connection to Black history in Decatur County started as a child, watching her parents run local businesses in Bainbridge.
"My dad owned Brown's Taxi, which from 1954 to 2013, and my mom owned Mrs. B's Kitchen. His name was Chester Brown, and my mom's name was Ruth Brown, and she did soul food. Her specialty was chitlins on Fridays. And my dad, he used to also sell peanuts. He would walk around with a box of peanuts and sell them throughout the town. And he also sold sandwiches to the different factories and businesses here in Bainbridge," Brown said.
Brown says her parents were well-loved and respected business owners in the community.
Valarie Burke is leading the project and says community participation is needed to help bring the vision to life.
"Some of the topics that we're covering would be historical churches, schools, businesses, entrepreneurs, some of the community organizations and events, and then local leaders and prominent figures. And so really I want to capture as much information as possible. And some of that is dependent on getting information from the community because a lot of our history unfortunately wasn't recorded in history books or properly recorded in newspapers," Burke said.
Brown says knowing local history can open eyes to the everyday people who helped shape the county, especially for younger generations.
"It's very important that our youth today know that we did have people of importance in town, you know, other than just our councilmen," Brown said.
Community members can share stories, pictures, and records connected to Black history in Decatur County by emailing materials to Burke at valarie.s.burke@gmail.com or by posting them in the Decatur County Black History Facebook group.
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