A story about Episcopalian Austin Merry. The Reverend Sean Ferrell dedicated the new Austin Merry Boulevard in celebration of his service to God and the church. Original story here.
By NICHOLAS BEADLE
nbeadle@jacksonsun.com
• February 27, 2009
Local leaders and dozens of Jackson Central-Merry High School
After concerns about an initial proposal to outright rename Royal Street's five-mile stretch for Merry, the Jackson City Council approved a plan last year to place dedication markers along the road and a plaque explaining Merry's accomplishments. That plaque was unveiled Thursday at the intersection of South Highland Avenue and South Royal Street.
Merry is credited with formalizing black education in Jackson and Madison County around the turn of the 20th century.
Last fall, city leaders closed a street named after him a few blocks northwest from the new plaque, but not without the City Council promising Merry's descendants that they would find another road to honor him on.
City leaders praised Merry for his work. Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist said Merry was "instrumental to getting us where we are today, especially in our education system."
In attendance was a mixed-race crowd of students from JCM, the modern-day descendant of the high school originally named for Merry.
Councilman Harvey Buchanan, who worked to get the markers approved, asked those students to "have a yearnin' and a burnin' for learnin'" so they could become the city and county's next generation of leaders.
"Education is not black and white. We are proud of that fact today," Buchanan said after the ceremony about the students who attended. "... If it hadn't been for the vision of Austin Merry, though, I don't know where African Americans would be in the education system in Jackson now."Merry's descendants talked about how his passion for education has echoed through the family for generations. His great-granddaughter Shayla Merry, a 26-year-old medical student, recalled how as a child her parents checked her homework assignments and asked her to make revisions before turning the work in.
Gwendolyn Merry- Coleman, who asked the council to find another street to bear her grandfather's name, said the markers unveiled Thursday highlight the accomplishments previous generations made against segregation, intolerance and racial strife.
"This is bigger than Jackson and bigger than West Tennessee - it's even bigger than black or white," Coleman said. "It is a global accomplishment. ... That is what we call change."
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- Nicholas Beadle, 425-9763
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