What started as a call to my long-time friend Carl McNair had an unexpected outcome. Given his background (more on that shortly), I wanted to know what he knew about the African American rocket scientist who was soon to fly with other women on the Blue Origin space flight. Near the end of our conversation, he casually mentioned that the next morning he was driving to his hometown, Lake City, South Carolina to work with a film crew from the United Kingdom in a documentary on astronauts to be released on British Broadcasting System and in the United States on PBS.
“Hey man, if you need someone to carry your bags, give me a holla,” I said moderately serious. Well, the next morning he called my bluff with a text of the itinerary for the trip including the time he wanted us to meet. But before I tell you about our ride from Atlanta to Lake City, here’s a memory jogger.
Forty years ago next February, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff snuffing out the lives of seven astronauts. For those of us who knew him personally, the shock of knowing that we lost one of those astronauts, Dr. Ronald E. McNair, reminds us again that grief has no expiration date.
In the weeks following the Challenger disaster, I clung stubbornly to the hope that the crew survived somehow and made their way to a 1986 version of Gilligan’s Island. But as the days and weeks transpired, acceptance of reality set in.
Now as we’ve done many times over the years, during the trip we traded stories about growing up in small towns in the south, when as used to say, “we were poor but didn’t know it,” and small-town values that were ingrained in but never left us. We shared memories of the times he and Ron picked tobacco in Lake City and my brother and I milked cows in Virginia.
On a more serious note, Carl did not hesitate to answer a few potentially intrusive questions I wanted to ask, among them “how does it feel to be introduced as “The famous astronaut’s brother” as I’ve sometimes done over the years?
“Well at one time it did bother both me and our brother Eric. But over the years we’ve accepted the fact that Ron’s fame does bring with it other issues.
Next, I marveled at his immediate, “yes I have,” to my next question “have you forgiven the NASA decision makers who authorized the launch despite possessing prior knowledge of the potentially catastrophic design flaw of one of its field joints?”
As we approached Lake City, I shared my recollections of the most unforgettable interactions I had with his brother among them that scary time when I, from my office window, saw smoke billowing up from the apartment a few blocks away that Ron shared with my late brother Mike. When I arrived at the building, I saw Ron sitting on the steps on the second floor with a baseball bat in his hands. He told me that he was there to protect low-income residents in the building from looters.
Next, I remember giving Ron a ride in my beat-up old Chevy to a party in Roxbury when, as we exited the car and climbed over a snowbank on the sidewalk, we were confronted by an angry stranger who yelled at and accused us of taking his parking space. When he charged us, Ron dropped into a karate stance. Our surprised attacker stopped dead in his tracks and retreated down the sidewalk while hurling profanities at us.
The third interaction was when I sat at Ron’s kitchen table in his apartment overlooking the Charles River that separated the cities of Cambridge from Boston. He pushed a draft of his PhD thesis across the table for me with a sly grin on his face. Well, after thumbing through maybe two pages of complicated scientific formulas and equations, and not having the foggiest idea what they meant, I pushed it back to him. We broke out laughing and sipped on a beer.
The morning after we arrived in Lake City and checked into the exquisite hotel built and furnished by Lake City native and philanthropist Darla Moore, we met our two film producers who flew in from the United Kingdom.
For the next few hours, I sat quietly in the back seat of his SUV while Carl took us first to meet the mayor of Lake City, Yamekia Robinson whose dad played on the football team at Carver High with the McNair brothers. Robinson, I should add, is the first African American woman elected mayor in the state of South Carolina.
From there we drove down Ronald E. McNair Boulevard with the camera zeroed in on Carl as he drove us through town, stopping along the way to comment on structural reminders of his formative years, among them his now boarded up grandmother’s house where they lived at one time. We then visited the cemetery where Ron was buried near his mom and dad before being exhumed and put into its current mastaba downtown.
Next, when we pulled into the driveway leading up to the Ronald McNair Jr. High School the first thing you see – and students see – are paintings of the Challenger Space Shuttle with its implicit message from Ron, who once walked those hallways, that if you work hard and dream big, nothing is impossible.
After lunch at Saul’s Sunrise restaurant, our last stop was at the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Memorial Park, Library & Museum.
Intuitively sensing that I needed quiet time alone to process my thoughts, Carl led the film crew into the museum as I took a seat on a cement bench in front of his brother’s final resting place.
The sight of the mastaba with the name Ronald E. McNair etched into stone, the burning eternal flame in the water fountain, and Ron’s footprints set in stone in a small cement box behind me, taken together spoke volumes without words. I sat there in complete solitude as a soft breeze rustled the trees behind his monument. Suddenly the cognizance set in that Ron’s been deceased longer than he actually lived.
As I sat there, I experienced a chilling realization, a compression of 40 years into a mano-second of what happened on the cold January morning in 1986, a flashback of the face of Maureen, an assistant in my office in New Jersey at that time who, knowing about my relationship with the McNair brothers, knocked on my door and uttered words that I wish I’d never hear, “Terry, the Space Shuttle just exploded after takeoff.” Today the remainder of my behavior that day and the days afterwards remains a blur of shock, sadness and denial.
When I looked out the rearview mirror as we left town, I was struggling to come up with the right words to describe the past two days in Lake City and my personal experiences with and recollections of its native son, the Ron McNair I was blessed to have known.
And as you and I are reading this, I still am.
Terry Howard is an award-winning writer, a contributing writer with the Chattanooga News Chronicle, The American Diversity Report, The Douglas County Sentinel, Blackmarket.com, the Augusta County Historical Society Bulletin and recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, and third place winner of the Georgia Press Award.
The City of Chattanooga marked a significant milestone in public safety on May 1, as officials and community members gathered at the Avondale Community Center to celebrate one full year without a homicide in Zone 3, which includes the Avondale/Bushtown area.
The 2:30 p.m. press conference highlighted the remarkable achievement and recognized the crucial work of the 423 Chain Breakers, a local violence prevention group that has been instrumental in creating safer neighborhoods throughout the city.
“Gun violence is a public health issue, and in Chattanooga, we’re treating it like one,” Mayor Tim Kelly told the crowd gathered at the Community Center on Dodson Avenue. “Today marks one full year without a homicide in Zone 3, and it’s proof that community-led violence prevention works.”
A member of the 423 Chain Breakers speaks during a May 1 press conference, highlighting the year without homicides in Chattanooga’s Avondale/Bushtown area.
Chattanooga Police Chief John Chambers echoed the mayor’s sentiments, emphasizing that reducing violence demands a community-wide effort.
He expressed “sincere appreciation for the vital partnership between CPD, the Mayor’s Office, the 423 Chain Breakers, and others,” noting that “their collaborative work is making a real difference in building a safer Chattanooga.”
The 423 Chain Breakers have established themselves as a vital force in Chattanooga’s violence prevention strategy. The group works directly with young people to build relationships and steer them away from violence and criminal activity.
Their success in the Avondale/Bushtown area led to an expanded presence in downtown Chattanooga beginning on Memorial Day weekend 2024, when Mayor Kelly announced a pilot program involving the group. Under that initiative, members of the 423 Chain Breakers began spending time downtown on select weekend nights, focusing on areas where young people often congregate.
“The hardworking men and women of CPD do an excellent job enforcing the law in Chattanooga, and have worked hard to build deep relationships with our community,” Mayor Kelly said at the launch of that program last year. “But in addition to arresting people after a crime is committed, we need to reach people before they turn to criminal activity.”
Downtown Chattanooga Alliance Executive Director Steve Brookes also praised the group’s work at that time.
“The Chain Breakers are engaging consistently with city youth in multiple locations, and having them downtown to offer peer-to-peer support makes a difference,” Brookes said. “This is exactly the kind of partnership we need to support these youth and align with Mayor Kelly’s One Chattanooga vision.”
While celebrating the milestone, officials acknowledged that the work of preventing violence is ongoing. However, the success in Zone 3 provides a model that could potentially be replicated throughout the city.
“Thanks to the 423 Chain Breakers, CPD, Community Haven and so many partners who are helping us build a safer, healthier city for all,” said Mayor Kelly. “While the work is far from over, and the threat of violence can never fully be eliminated, this is something for our community to be tremendously proud of.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire, Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
For the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, an American has been elected pope. Cardinal Robert Prevost, a native of Chicago, emerged as the conclave’s choice to succeed Pope Francis and will now be known as Pope Leo XIV. The announcement came from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, where Cardinal Dominique Mamberti followed centuries-old tradition, delivering the proclamation in Latin: “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum — Habemus Papam!” (“I announce to you news of great joy — We have a pope!”) Prevost, 69, succeeds Pope Francis, who led the Church from 2013 until his death last month. His election followed a conclave that included high-profile contenders such as 76-year-old Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana and 65-year-old Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reactions poured in as word of the historic election spread. “Wow,” tweeted Tacuma Roeback, managing editor of the Chicago Defender. “The first pope from America was born in Chicago.” Former Obama adviser David Axelrod added, “Holy smokes!! An American Pope! From CHICAGO!!!” Retired journalism professor Seth Abramson posted, “The first American Pope, Leo XIV, has just been elected. Prevost, from Chicago, is deemed to be in the mold of Pope Francis — a progressive. Yes, this is real.”
Born on September 14, 1955, Prevost entered the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977. He took his solemn vows in 1981 and was ordained a priest the following year. He studied theology in Chicago and earned a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University in Rome. His early ministry took him to Peru, where he worked in missions and served in various ecclesiastical and educational roles. He returned to the U.S. in 1999 to become provincial prior to the Augustinian province based in Chicago and was later elected prior general of the Order worldwide. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, and elevated him to bishop. He served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 and held multiple leadership roles in the Peruvian Episcopal Conference. Cardinal Prevost was tapped by Pope Francis in 2023 to serve as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He was made a cardinal in September 2023 and has served on several key Vatican dicasteries, including those for Evangelization, Doctrine of the Faith, and Clergy. Pope Leo XIV is expected to continue Pope Francis’s reform-minded agenda, which focuses on inclusion, social justice, and pastoral care. “He is the most eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, who has taken the name Leo the Fourteenth,” Cardinal Mamberti declared from the balcony.
In a historic moment for the City of Chattanooga, Councilwoman Marvene Noel has been elected vice chair of the Chattanooga City Council, serving alongside newly elected Chairwoman Jenny Hill. The unanimous vote by the nine-member panel last Tuesday marks only the second time in city history that two women will lead the council.
The first instance of two women leading the council occurred when Hill served as vice chair alongside Council Member Raquetta Dotley of East Lake.
Noel, who represents District 8 and lives in the Historic Orchard Knob Neighborhood, expressed gratitude and excitement as she stepped into this new leadership role.
“I’m honored and grateful!” Noel said. “Thank you to my colleagues on the Chattanooga City Council for entrusting me to serve as vice-chairwoman for the 2025–2026 council year. It’s a true honor to continue serving the people of this great city in this new leadership role.”
With her election, Noel becomes a key voice in guiding council proceedings and stepping in when the chair is absent. Her appointment to the vice chair seat is a first in her City Council career, but Noel brings years of grassroots leadership and civic experience to the table.
A 30-year resident of Orchard Knob, Noel has long been a champion of neighborhood empowerment and equitable community development. She served as president of the Orchard Knob Neighborhood Association and is a former chair of the City Council’s Education and Innovation Committee. She has also contributed her expertise as a professional pharmacy technician and as a member of the Historic River-to-Ridge Advisory Committee, where she helped shape a 10-year area development plan.
Her reelection earlier this year–where she fended off three challengers–reaffirmed the strong support she holds within her district. Noel’s leadership is shaped by years of community involvement and her focus on what she describes as protecting “two entities: communities and families.”
Her colleagues on the council clearly value that perspective, voting unanimously to elevate her to the vice chair role.
“Congratulations to our new Chairwoman, Councilwoman Jenny Hill,” Noel added. “Together, we’re a dynamic duo committed to working together for One Chattanooga–a city where every voice matters and every neighborhood thrives. Let’s get to work!”
As vice chair, Noel will receive an additional $2,500 annually beyond the standard council salary of $29,415.
Hill, who represents North Chattanooga’s District 2, was elected chair after serving as vice chair since 2022. She brings experience from her years on the Hamilton County School Board and from chairing the council’s Education and Innovation Committee.
As chair, Hill will run council meetings and see her salary increase by an additional $5,000 per year. Under the city charter, she would also serve as interim mayor should the position become vacant unexpectedly.
Hill praised the council’s collaborative spirit, saying, “I know that with this panel, we are going to be very productive, and I have a feeling we’re gonna have a lot of fun, too.”
Noel’s deep roots in her district, longstanding commitment to civic service and participation in the Neighborhood University program position her to be an influential leader on the council.
The new leadership team will serve for the 2025-2026 council year.
The Chattanooga Fire Department bid farewell to a dedicated leader last week as Captain Howard Baker officially retired after an impressive 26 years of service. Captain Baker’s career has been marked by countless emergency responses and a steadfast commitment to the safety and well-being of the Chattanooga community.
“Captain Baker has done an outstanding job mentoring his crews, and I have personally watched him grow in his career from a coachable firefighter to a seasoned captain,” said Chattanooga Fire Department Chief Phil Hyman. “His dedication and service will be greatly missed. We wish him all the very best in his retirement.”
During his lengthy tenure, Captain Baker was a familiar face at numerous emergency scenes, offering crucial support and expertise during residents’ most vulnerable moments. His leadership and experience have undoubtedly left a lasting impact on the department and the many firefighters he mentored over the years.
It was this extensive experience and decisive handling of the situation that contributed to Captain Baker, along with Firefighter Charles Simpson, receiving a life-saving medal for their actions on December 31, 2019. On that date, they responded to a reported shooting and found two parties in need of care. They quickly assessed one patient as Chattanooga Police Department personnel cared for the other victim.
Their swift trauma care and initiation of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, (CPR, a life-saving emergency procedure that combines chest compressions and rescue breaths to maintain circulation and oxygenation when someone’s heart has stopped or they are not breathing adequately) provided the patient with the best possible chance of survival. They continued life-saving measures during transport to the hospital, where the patient ultimately survived.
Furthermore, the same crew, including Captain Baker and Firefighter Simpson, received another life-saving medal for their actions on August 9, 2019. Responding to a report of CPR in progress, they immediately assessed the patient upon arrival and took over resuscitation efforts. The administration of Narcan and continued life-saving measures during rapid transport contributed directly to the patient’s survival.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly joined in commending Captain Baker, stating, “Congratulations, Captain Baker. And thank you for your years of service to Chattanooga.”
Highlighting the impact of his career, Mayor Kelly noted that Captain Baker’s dedication, leadership and life-saving efforts will be remembered and serve as an enduring inspiration for generations of firefighters to come.
At Battle Academy, the classroom has taken on a delicious new flavor. Through the school’s “Cooking Up Learning” program, the tantalizing aromas of freshly baked pumpkin bread and the savory sizzle of frying okra are not just about food preparation–they represent a dynamic and engaging approach to education.
“Cooking Up Learning,” the brainchild of Tarah Kemp, blends culinary arts seamlessly with core academic subjects, transforming learning into a hands-on, flavorful adventure. Kemp, who moved to Chattanooga from Miami, Florida, in 2006 and is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, drew upon her unique background to create the program.
“I was a teacher with two jobs: teaching during the day and serving at a local restaurant at night,” Kemp explained. “I did this for over 12 years. I was keen on keeping my worlds divided, only to discover that I could bring my expertise and passion of food into my classroom.”
This realization led to the establishment of “Cooking Up Learning” at Battle Academy, a program designed to cultivate critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills in students through the engaging medium of food.
“Cooking Up Learning” creatively integrates culinary activities with grade-specific curriculum, offering a more exciting and tangible way for students to grasp concepts. Imagine math lessons involving measuring ingredients, science experiments exploring the chemical reactions in baking, or geography lessons coming alive through the preparation of dishes from different cultures. This hands-on approach fosters deeper understanding and retention of material.
A vital ingredient in the program’s success is its partnership with local culinary luminary Chef Kenyatta Ashford. A Food Network “Chopped Champion” renowned for his expertise in Afro-Creole cuisine, Chef Ashford has been collaborating with Battle Academy students for the past three years.
His involvement ranges from demystifying the chemistry behind a simple vinaigrette to exploring the cultural significance of fried okra harvested from the school’s very own rooftop garden.
During a recent session, Chef Ashford guided students in the preparation of Chicken Perlo, a dish steeped in both history and flavor. These interactions not only hone students’ culinary skills but also provide invaluable insights into cultural heritage and the importance of community connections.
The program has already yielded significant positive results, with 100% of participating educators reporting heightened student engagement, improved content retention, and a more positive overall attitude towards school. Parents and teachers alike have lauded its effectiveness in enhancing students’ understanding of subjects like history, geography, and math through the lens of cooking.
As one enthusiastic parent shared, “We never thought our fifth grader would be excited about beans and vegetables–now he loves parsnips and eats beans, thanks to Culinary Lab!”
Battle Academy, a K-5 Magnet School, is nestled in the heart of Chattanooga’s Southside at 1601 Market Street.
For those interested in learning more about the “Cooking Up Learning” program or exploring the possibility of bringing it to their own school, additional information can be found on website: https://www.cookinguplearning.com/.
Several neighborhoods in Districts 5 and 9 have been working together for months opposing the rezoning of the land area of Garner Road, Doolittle Street and Leann Circle. The area is off Tunnel Boulevard at the Lightfoot Mill Road end. The Neighbors are clearly stating keep the area zoned as it is now, mainly SINGLE FAMLY DWEILLINGS DETACHED. This is Residential Zoning known as RN-1-6 previously known as R1 Residential. A Developer wants to put in a vast amount of multi-family units crowding thousands of people into an area that has no grocery stores, no public transportation and not enough sewer and street capacity to handle an influx of people. Plus, the Developer wants to introduce alcohol/beer sales into the area near churches which would be allowed if the area is rezoned. There are a host of other detrimental things to the community that would include residential fees just to live there. The Regional Planning Agency (RPA) is in charge of zoning for Chattanooga/Hamilton County and we need you to:
Join Us – Monday, May 12, 2025 – 1pm
RPA Meeting Courthouse, 625 Georgia Ave, Room 402
WE ARE:
Neighbors Opposing Rezoning in Eastdale
(Garner Rd, Leann Cir, Doolittle St)
Neighborhoods/Areas: King Oak, North Tower Forest, Hillsboro Heights, Rollingwood, North Briar, Green Forest, Cherokee Woods, Mark Twain, and Indian Hills. Other participating areas to date include: Areas off Tunnel & Wilcox Boulevards, North Brainerd, Dalewood, Districts 5 and 9.
After nearly 26 years of dedicated service to the Chattanooga Police Department (CPD) and the community, Chief of Staff Jerri Sutton has officially retired.
“It’s been real!,” exclaimed Chief Sutton. “I am grateful to have made this journey and completed the race. Now, it’s time to face new challenges and conquer new heights. Lord, thank you for your covering. Badge 985 is officially retired from the CPD.”
Chief Sutton’s career with the CPD has been characterized by a deep commitment to fostering stronger relationships between law enforcement and the Chattanooga community. Her driving force, colleagues say, was a genuine desire to support individuals during their most challenging moments and to serve as a positive influence in their lives.
Prior to her role as Chief of Staff, Chief Sutton held significant positions within the department. She served as Assistant Police Chief and Captain, consistently demonstrating leadership and a dedication to effective policing.
Notably, while overseeing the Criminal Investigation and Special Operations Division, her command achieved an impressive 83% clearance rate, surpassing the national average.
Her impact extended beyond investigations. As the department’s Public Information Officer, Chief Sutton developed a comprehensive media strategy that fostered transparency and strengthened community relations.
As Director of Training, she elevated the CPD’s training academy, earning recognition as one of the top in Tennessee. She also spearheaded the development of the department’s first online training module, a tool still in use today.
While Chief Sutton boasts a list of personal accomplishments, her true passion lies in serving the youth of the community and enhancing initiatives that promote positive community relations. The Cops and Kids Kickball program stands out as one of her most successful endeavors in this area.
Her dedication has been recognized by numerous Chattanooga community organizations, earning her awards for innovation, community partnerships and outstanding service.
Chief Sutton’s leadership extended beyond the department. She served as president of the Tennessee Chapter of the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Academy (FBINA) and president of the Southeast Tennessee Chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).
She is also a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., where she served as the state’s Safety Coordinator, and chairs the Chattanooga Chapter of the National Panhellenic Council’s Greek Cookout.
Reflecting on her nearly three decades of service, Chief Sutton fondly recalled her time as a School Resource Officer.
“I guess the most memorable time was my time as a school resource officer… simply because I had the opportunity to shape and mold young minds,” she shared. “I have a lot of those kids who now come back to me as adults… Going, ‘Ms. Jerri, I remember when… and thanks for helping me do… so, I guess that’s one of the most rewarding parts of my career so far.”
Pictured: SkillsUSA Team representing Chattanooga State Technical Community College.
On April 16, 2025, Students from across the state of Tennessee gathered at the Chattanooga Convention Center to showcase their leadership and technical skills in an annual contest known as the SkillsUSA Championships. The competitions are created and judged by industry leaders who ensure that students are learning the real-world skills that employers demand from entry-level professionals. There are three main categories of the competition: Leadership, Occupationally Related, and Skilled and Technical, with 110+ sub-categories including welding, occupational health and safety, esthetics, crime scene investigation, computer programming, barbering, and automotive technology.
Winners of the SkillsUSA championship receive a gold medal in their respective category and advance to the National Championship where they will compete against students from across the country. Orlando Pendergrass, Jr., a student in Chattanooga State’s Automotive Technology Program, competed in the Mobile Electronics Installation category of the SkillsUSA Championship, in which he won the gold medal. In this competition, Orlando successfully completed a written examination covering the basic Mobile Electronics Certified Professional certification, as well as a professional interview. Additionally, Orlando demonstrated his skills in the hands-on application portion that included taking electrical measurements, installing consumer electronics equipment in a mobile environment, soldiering, working with relay circuits, and troubleshooting electronic circuitry. Orlando will be representing Chattanooga State Technical Community College at the SkillsUSA National Championship held this June in Atlanta, GA. Proud parents are Michiba L. Smith and Orlando Pendergrass, Sr.
My Journey to Lake City, home of an American hero!
What started as a call to my long-time friend Carl McNair had an unexpected outcome. Given his background (more on that shortly), I wanted to know what he knew about the African American rocket scientist who was soon to fly with other women on the Blue Origin space flight. Near the end of our conversation, he casually mentioned that the next morning he was driving to his hometown, Lake City, South Carolina to work with a film crew from the United Kingdom in a documentary on astronauts to be released on British Broadcasting System and in the United States on PBS.
“Hey man, if you need someone to carry your bags, give me a holla,” I said moderately serious. Well, the next morning he called my bluff with a text of the itinerary for the trip including the time he wanted us to meet. But before I tell you about our ride from Atlanta to Lake City, here’s a memory jogger.
Forty years ago next February, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff snuffing out the lives of seven astronauts. For those of us who knew him personally, the shock of knowing that we lost one of those astronauts, Dr. Ronald E. McNair, reminds us again that grief has no expiration date.
In the weeks following the Challenger disaster, I clung stubbornly to the hope that the crew survived somehow and made their way to a 1986 version of Gilligan’s Island. But as the days and weeks transpired, acceptance of reality set in.
Now as we’ve done many times over the years, during the trip we traded stories about growing up in small towns in the south, when as used to say, “we were poor but didn’t know it,” and small-town values that were ingrained in but never left us. We shared memories of the times he and Ron picked tobacco in Lake City and my brother and I milked cows in Virginia.
On a more serious note, Carl did not hesitate to answer a few potentially intrusive questions I wanted to ask, among them “how does it feel to be introduced as “The famous astronaut’s brother” as I’ve sometimes done over the years?
“Well at one time it did bother both me and our brother Eric. But over the years we’ve accepted the fact that Ron’s fame does bring with it other issues.
Next, I marveled at his immediate, “yes I have,” to my next question “have you forgiven the NASA decision makers who authorized the launch despite possessing prior knowledge of the potentially catastrophic design flaw of one of its field joints?”
As we approached Lake City, I shared my recollections of the most unforgettable interactions I had with his brother among them that scary time when I, from my office window, saw smoke billowing up from the apartment a few blocks away that Ron shared with my late brother Mike. When I arrived at the building, I saw Ron sitting on the steps on the second floor with a baseball bat in his hands. He told me that he was there to protect low-income residents in the building from looters.
Next, I remember giving Ron a ride in my beat-up old Chevy to a party in Roxbury when, as we exited the car and climbed over a snowbank on the sidewalk, we were confronted by an angry stranger who yelled at and accused us of taking his parking space. When he charged us, Ron dropped into a karate stance. Our surprised attacker stopped dead in his tracks and retreated down the sidewalk while hurling profanities at us.
The third interaction was when I sat at Ron’s kitchen table in his apartment overlooking the Charles River that separated the cities of Cambridge from Boston. He pushed a draft of his PhD thesis across the table for me with a sly grin on his face. Well, after thumbing through maybe two pages of complicated scientific formulas and equations, and not having the foggiest idea what they meant, I pushed it back to him. We broke out laughing and sipped on a beer.
The morning after we arrived in Lake City and checked into the exquisite hotel built and furnished by Lake City native and philanthropist Darla Moore, we met our two film producers who flew in from the United Kingdom.
For the next few hours, I sat quietly in the back seat of his SUV while Carl took us first to meet the mayor of Lake City, Yamekia Robinson whose dad played on the football team at Carver High with the McNair brothers. Robinson, I should add, is the first African American woman elected mayor in the state of South Carolina.
From there we drove down Ronald E. McNair Boulevard with the camera zeroed in on Carl as he drove us through town, stopping along the way to comment on structural reminders of his formative years, among them his now boarded up grandmother’s house where they lived at one time. We then visited the cemetery where Ron was buried near his mom and dad before being exhumed and put into its current mastaba downtown.
Next, when we pulled into the driveway leading up to the Ronald McNair Jr. High School the first thing you see – and students see – are paintings of the Challenger Space Shuttle with its implicit message from Ron, who once walked those hallways, that if you work hard and dream big, nothing is impossible.
After lunch at Saul’s Sunrise restaurant, our last stop was at the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Memorial Park, Library & Museum.
Intuitively sensing that I needed quiet time alone to process my thoughts, Carl led the film crew into the museum as I took a seat on a cement bench in front of his brother’s final resting place.
The sight of the mastaba with the name Ronald E. McNair etched into stone, the burning eternal flame in the water fountain, and Ron’s footprints set in stone in a small cement box behind me, taken together spoke volumes without words. I sat there in complete solitude as a soft breeze rustled the trees behind his monument. Suddenly the cognizance set in that Ron’s been deceased longer than he actually lived.
As I sat there, I experienced a chilling realization, a compression of 40 years into a mano-second of what happened on the cold January morning in 1986, a flashback of the face of Maureen, an assistant in my office in New Jersey at that time who, knowing about my relationship with the McNair brothers, knocked on my door and uttered words that I wish I’d never hear, “Terry, the Space Shuttle just exploded after takeoff.” Today the remainder of my behavior that day and the days afterwards remains a blur of shock, sadness and denial.
When I looked out the rearview mirror as we left town, I was struggling to come up with the right words to describe the past two days in Lake City and my personal experiences with and recollections of its native son, the Ron McNair I was blessed to have known.
And as you and I are reading this, I still am.
Terry Howard is an award-winning writer, a contributing writer with the Chattanooga News Chronicle, The American Diversity Report, The Douglas County Sentinel, Blackmarket.com, the Augusta County Historical Society Bulletin and recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, and third place winner of the Georgia Press Award.