Members of the Washington County Pride, the local NAACP and others celebrated the legacy of the Civil Rights movement here in Plymouth with an early morning procession that resembled the Civil Rights marches of old early Saturday morning.

Holding signs that read slogans such as “stop racism“ and “school desegregation,” and singing uplifting spiritual hymns, the marchers briefly revived Civil Rights era scenes from Plymouth’s not so distant past.

Fittingly, the Saturday’s march began at Plymouth’s Guiding Star Freewill Baptist Church which is known as the Freedom Church due to its role as a gathering place during the 60s Civil Rights Movement. The procession continued along Plymouth’s back streets until they reached the old Fourth Street School ruin where a brief rally was held to speak about the importance that the institution had to the movement and the people of Plymouth.

As outlined by former student and Washington County Pride President, Joseph “Peter Rabbit” Thigpen, the school carries great importance to the local black community where it served as the launching pads for several of the counties prominent people at a time of great social division and uncertainty.

Thigpen describes the school as a place that freely and unabashedly meshed religious belief alongside academic excellence, something that created the strong and moral people of the time.

Moreover, the stop at the Fourth Street facility played into a larger commentary on the black struggle for a decent and effective educational facility, signified by signs referencing President Lyndon B Johnson’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and the difficulties of integration...