Saturday, former students, and community members of Greensboro Elementary School gathered at the site of the former Greensboro Christian Methodist Episcopal Church to celebrate their graduation – decades in the making.
Filled with pomp and circumstance, they doned their green and white and graduation cords, as they received their diplomas.
“We didn’t march in, because some of us can’t walk that well,” Mistress of Ceremony Maxine Talley told the crowd. “But we’re in front and you can see in our green and white.”
For many, it was nostalgia as they remembered their teachers, friends and all the students who walked the halls of the former school. It was trip down memory lane to show how far they’d come and what was accomplished in the process.
The speaker of the event was Rev. Sylvester Miller. Miller told the crowd that from the bypass back, it used to belong to African Americans.
“Stop selling your land,” Miller said. He said what wasn’t sold, was taken and he and others in the 1970s sued Winston County for taking over four million acres from African Americans.
He said the land should be passed down from family member to family member, but some sell the land.
“One more thing, and I’ll sit down. It’s an election season. Get out and vote because there was a time where people like us couldn’t vote. They’ll give you a bar of soap and ask you how many bubbles is in the bar,” he said. “Now, we’re sitting at the tables. Get out and vote. Don’t stay at home because you’re mad at somebody. Go vote.”
Maxine Coburn spoke on the history of Greensboro, and how the community was founded by those who migrated from Georgia and the Carolinas.
Miller reiterated what she said by telling those in attendance that they may not have migrated to Greensboro, but they’re not too far removed from the people who did.
For some, it’s as close as their grandmothers and grandfathers.
After Miller spoke, the graduates from classes that graduated in the 60s, 70s and even the 50s were able to hear their name called and receive their diploma.
