The Grand Lady of the local Civil Rights movement will be honored at the annual Teens for the Dream celebration on the King Holiday,
Frances Pierce Reddix, will be honored by the youth of the community on Monday, January 21st at the annual Teens for the Dream celebration.
The program, sponsored by the Top Gun Time Travelers, is the only teen sponsored activity on the King Holiday.
Briony Smith, a 6th grader at East Ouachita Elementary School, and Debra Isaac, a Junior at Wossman are the chairpersons of the 2019 celebration.
Smith said the Teens for Dream youth wanted to meet Mrs. Reddix because she learned that Mrs. Reddix and her husband invited Martin Luther King to Monroe in 1964.
Isaac said there is a street named “Reddix Lane” on Berg Jones Lane, but most teens have no idea why. She said since Dr. and Mrs. Reddix were the pioneers who implemented the King dream in Monroe, this generation of teens would be honored to know her story.
Dr. Ollibeth Reddix, a member of the police jury and daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Reddix will be the featured speaker. Reddix will be explaining the role of her family and the teenagers of the 60’s in the local civil rights movement.
Mrs. Reddix was the first black teacher at Neville, and suits to integrate the Monroe City Schools, ULM, police and fire departments and desegregate public facilities were planned and orchestrated by she and her husband John.
