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Research Forum Exploration of Local History
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| Phil Reader |
 Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:23 pm |
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Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 386
Location: Live Oak
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Supervisor Approves Concept of Louden Nelson Memorial
By Bill Neubauer, Sentinel Staff Writer
Santa Cruz Sentinel Aug 16, 1979
Third District Supervisor Gary Patton Wednesday said he approves the concept of a memorial to Louden Nelson, the Carolina slave who was given his freedom before the Civil War and came to Santa Cruz to raise vegetables, mend shoes and ultimately to bequeath his property to the city’s first school district.
But at a meeting of the Laurel Community Center Advisory Board, Patton said he wants to know the status of all local efforts to memorialize Nelson’s contributions to the area before he considers naming the center in Nelson’s honor.
A proposal to name the center the Louden Nelson Memorial Center has been developed by Lowell Hunter Sr. and has won some backing from supervisors and Santa Cruz City Council members individually.
Because a quorum of advisory board members was not present to hear Hunter’s presentation, the matter will come back for consideration Sept. 5.
Simba Slaughter, the culture awareness coordinator for the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told the board members present, “I think the memorial would be very appropriate for the ethnicity of Santa Cruz. There is a lack of recognition for minority people, a lack of respect. It is nice to love everyone, but if we cannot love them we should respect them. A memorial like this makes people think.”
Hunter had available for the display a resolution adopted in 1977 by the state Legislature at the behest of Assemblyman Henry Mello, D-Watsonville.
The resolution honors Nelson and salutes him because “his magnanimous spirit rejected any bitterness or envy because he had been denied an education, but on the contrary, caused him to treasure it all the more for the children in the neighboring school who were so blessed.”
Hunter noted there is a plan for a monument at the Main Post Office where, he said, Nelson had his farm and worked as a cobbler. Frank and Mary Roberson of the Stardust Disco have contributed $30 for this, and other contributions are being sought.
Also supporting Hunter’s proposal was Juanita Gowder and a woman who gave her name only as Mrs. Weston.
The Nelson story here, as related by The Sentinel’s Wally Trabing in a column written in 1969, is based on a great love for the children here and wondrous regard for education. From his cabin window he could see the two-room wooden school building which had closed temporarily for lack of funds.
“This bothered Nelson (Trabing wrote), so he drew up his will to give all his possessions to the first school district in Santa Cruz.
“His cabin and lot, $300; note due him from Hugo F. Hihn, $35; onion crop, $22; household goods, $5; county scrip, $5; — total, $367.
“He died in May 1860, and his money was ultimately used to augment the school grounds by helping to buy an adjoining lot. Today this lot is part of the city schools administrative offices at 133 Mission St.”
Nelson is buried in the historic Evergreen Cemetery near Harvey West Park, the headstone reading: “He was a colored man. He left his entire fortune to Santa Cruz School District No. 1. He died on May 17, 1860.”
The memorial would salute a black man who gave his all when the city’s first school was in trouble — when all the students were white.
(From Stanley Stevens.) |
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