By David Bulls, age 15
Camp REACH and the Mary Walker Foundation stand on the shoulders of giants, said Adrian Edwards, executive director of the Mary Walker Foundation.
“The purpose is still relevant today because 54 percent of Americans read at or below a sixth-grade level.”
Speaking to a group of teens at Camp REACH this summer, Edwards shared how the program is rooted in Chattanooga’s fight for equality and literacy.
“This history is important,” said Camp REACH student Rebekah Wright. “It tells us why the camp is here.”
Camp REACH was founded in 2021 by the late Rev. Lurone “Coach” Jennings Sr., former Howard High School principal and retired city administrator. His mission: promote literacy, expose teens to careers, and help them become financially sustainable. Jennings was inspired by Adrian’s grandfather, the late Rev. John Lloyd Edwards.
Rev. Edwards helped integrate Erlanger Hospital, worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and once had his home bombed for his civil rights efforts. In 1974, he founded the Mary Walker Foundation, named after a former slave who learned to read at age 116, proof, Edwards said, that it’s never too late to learn.
“To give you the backstory, my grandfather was involved in the Civil Rights Movement,” Adrian told students seated on wooden pews inside Hope City Church, home to Camp REACH.
As a youth pastor in Nashville, Rev. Edwards transported students from Fisk and Tennessee State to organize sit-ins, including future legends like Congressman John Lewis and strategist Diane Nash. In 1963, he moved to Chattanooga to lead Cosmopolitan Community Church after Rev. C.T. Vivian left to join the movement more directly.
That same year, Mary Walker began learning to read.
Walker had survived slavery and segregation. At 116, she joined a literacy class. By 117, she was reading, writing, and doing arithmetic. She passed away at 121.
“My grandfather didn’t know her,” Adrian said, “but after his house was bombed, her obituary ran right below the newspaper article. Years later, while working at a halfway house he owned, he found a recording of her voice.”
The tape was buried in an old dresser from a building that once belonged to a record company. It contained Mary Walker telling her life story—from slavery to education. Rev. Edwards started The Mary Walker Foundation in 1974 in her honor to promote academic and economic literacy.
“Her story became the inspiration for the Mary Walker Foundation,” Adrian said. “It just seemed like divine inspiration.”
Camp REACH is a work-based summer youth program of the Mary Walker Founda tion, designed to cultivate literacy, journalism, career exploration, and leadership development. Visit marywalkerfoundation.org to find out how to support.