ASHEVILLE — A city elementary school was named for Isaac Dickson, but some residents as well as visitors to the area may know little else about the man who was born a slave and later was named to Asheville’s first school board.
A new commission could help change that.
The city recently approved the formation of the joint city-county African American Heritage Commission. Buncombe County commissioners are expected to consider the idea at their Tuesday meeting.
If approved, one of the commission’s duties would be to develop a plan “to identify, create, encourage, promote and implement projects that will recognize, increase and expand the awareness” of African-Americans in Asheville and Buncombe County.
“The African-American people in this community and this area have contributed much to this area in more ways than one,” said Marvin D. Chambers, a supporter of the new commission. “There have been many, many people who have contributed here.”
Chambers was a member of the group of Asheville students who helped desegregate Asheville institutions in the 1960s.
He says many people don’t know the contributions of key African-American leaders.
Dickson, who is probably better known than
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