Carolyn Williams honoree at banquet

EL DORADO — For nearly 20 years, The Quilted History has been one of the area’s leading resources for learning about African American history and heritage.

Carolyn Williams, director and curator of the nonprofit organization and its museum at 2277 Iron Mountain Road, has traveled across the country doing presentations, displaying artifacts and disseminating information she has collected over the years.

Williams has said that she considers it a blessing from God to be able to pay homage to such a rich and varied legacy and to pass it on, not only to her own children and grandchildren, but to younger generations as a whole.

For her work, Williams has been selected as the honoree of the 2017 Jimmy Reed Jr. Memorial Scholarship Banquet, which recognizes people who make an impact on the community.

The 14th annual banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on April 29 at the Gusher Elks Lodge 560, 152 E. 19th Street (at the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard).

The banquet is presented each year by the Pride and Progress Club, which lists education as a primary component of its mission statement.

Reed, who passed away in January 2009, was a founding member of Pride and Progress.

He and his wife Ruby started the organization as a travel and social club that met in their home.

Seeking to make more of a difference in the community, the club later

directed its focus toward education, civic responsibility and

political awareness and was officially named the Pride and Progress Club in 1999.

Reed was known for his commitment to making sure that youth in El Dorado received the best education.

He served on the El Dorado School Board for 32 years, having first been elected in 1971 during the height of school integration.

Reed was member of a number of boards and organizations in the community and around the state.

He was serving his third term as alderman of Ward Three, Position 2, when he died.

One of the indelible imprints of Reed’s life works is the Pride and Progress Club, which received its official moniker the same year The Quilted History was born.

Williams, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, grew up in a dogtrot house in Strong on property where her great-grandparents toiled in slavery after coming to live there in 1839.

“Once they were freed, they became sharecroppers, and they later bought the property and we still own it,” she has said.

Following a lengthy military career, Williams returned to that property and built a house.

Though old smokehouses, corn cribs and other such structures that remained on the property had deteriorated, Williams said she discovered valuable links to the past and immediately understood the importance of preserving and purveying the legacy of her ancestors.

She was driving past the Iron Mountain Road property en route to a relative’s house when she noticed a for sale sign out front.

A cabin that was already onsite convinced Williams that it was the perfect spot to work toward a lifelong goal of recreating the eras in which she lived as a girl and in which her ancestors lived.

The site is home to the Quilted History museum and where Williams makes her own home.

The Quilted History hosts several events in the area, including the biannual Trail Ride and Dinner on the Grounds and The Rhythm of HBCUs: Right Here at Home - A Teachable Moment in Our History, a multi-day Black History Month celebration that features choirs from historically black colleges and universities.

Since launching its scholarship program and banquet, which was named in honor of Reed in 2009, the Pride and Progress Club has awarded more than 30 scholarships to college-bound students in El Dorado and Union County.

This year’s recipients are Natalie Dawson, Elijah Coleman and Destin Miller.

Ticket donations for the banquet are $20. Tickets may be purchased from any Pride and Progress Club member.

For more information, call Wm. Jerome Robinson at 870-918-1512.

Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.

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