Lydia Mitcham Meredith | |
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Personal details | |
Born | May 3, 1952 |
Occupation | American author and CEO |
Lydia Mitcham Meredith (born May 3, 1952) is an American author and the former CEO of the Renaissance Learning Center (RLC) in Atlanta, Georgia, from Macon, Georgia. Meredith is a community organizer, entrepreneur and civil rights activist [1] formerly operated an early childhood development center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. She was featured in an episode of Stephen Colbert Comedy Central Difference Makers for ridding her facility of vagrants with technology [2] Meredith led the daily operations of the Renaissance Learning Center (RLC) operating in the 4th Ward community of Atlanta, Georgia. Ninety-five percent of the students assisted by the Renaissance Learning Center were from impoverished homes. Teen Talk, a program within their curriculum, educated over 2,000 teenagers on life skills. The RLC graduated over 3,000 students into kindergarten. The RLC successfully assisted 2,500 school-age children get promoted to the next grade with 100% of them going on to high school. Five hundred children and adults are impacted daily by the RLC. Fifteen thousand families were elevated out of poverty because of services rendered to them by the Renaissance Learning Center. [3] She was acknowledged for her work in the community by former governor of Georgia Roy Barnes. The RLC was presented with the Childhood Hero Award for the service rendered to the youth of the community.[ citation needed ]
Meredith is the fifth of thirteen children born to Wilbur Mitcham and Annie M. Mitcham. She is the author of the novel The Gay Preacher's Wife. [4]
Meredith was one of the first Black students to integrate the all-white Lasseter High School in Macon, Georgia. [5] She had the distinction of being the first cheerleader for Mark Smith High School, their all-white male counterpart. Meredith graduated from Lasseter High School with honors and was accepted at Vanderbilt University in 1970 and graduated with a BS in industrial engineering. She has the distinction of being Vanderbilt University's first cheerleader of African American descent in 1972.
Meredith earned her MBA from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management. Additionally, she holds master's degrees in Christian education and public policy from the Morehouse School of Religion and Georgia State University-Andrew Young School of Policy Studies respectively.
Manley Lanier "Sonny" Carter Jr., M.D., , was an American chemist, physician, professional soccer player, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut who flew on STS-33.
Morehouse College is a private historically Black, men's, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Anchored by its main campus of 61 acres (25 ha) near Downtown Atlanta, the college has a variety of residential dorms and academic buildings east of Ashview Heights. Along with Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and the Morehouse School of Medicine, the college is a member of the Atlanta University Center consortium.
George Dekle Busbee Sr., was an American politician who served as the 77th governor of Georgia from 1975 to 1983.
Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development is the education school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1875, Peabody had a long history as an independent institution before merging with Vanderbilt University in 1979. The school is located on the Peabody Campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The academic and administrative buildings surround the Peabody Esplanade and are southeast of Vanderbilt's main campus.
Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 students in 12 colleges and schools. Mercer is a member of the Georgia Research Alliance. It is classified as a "R2: Doctoral Universities — High research activity".
Columbia Theological Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Decatur, Georgia. It is one of ten theological institutions affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Ralph Emerson McGill was an American journalist and editorialist. An anti-segregationist editor, he published the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. He was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors, serving from 1945 to 1968. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959.
Central High School, also known as Central-Macon, Central-Bibb, and Central Fine Arts and International Baccalaureate Magnet High School, is a high school in Macon, Georgia, United States, serving students in grades 9–12. It is a unit of the Bibb County School District.
The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, with jurisdiction over middle and north Georgia. It is in Province IV of the Episcopal Church and its cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Philip, is in Atlanta, as are the diocesan offices.
Lucy Craft Laney was an American educator who in 1883 founded the first school for black children in Augusta, Georgia. She was principal for 50 years of the Haines Institute for Industrial and Normal Education.
Samaria (Mitcham) Bailey is an African-American woman who is known as an instrumental figure in the civil rights movement. Bailey was one of the first to began desegregation at A. L. Miller Senior High School, an all-white female school located in Macon, Georgia. She would go on to become one of the first African American women accepted to Mercer University. She later became an accomplished pianist, and her story was adapted into a bestselling novel and a stage play.
Wilbur Mitcham was an American chef.
Northeast Health Science Magnet High School is a high school in Macon, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Bibb County School District.
James Edwin Bacon Jr., known as Ed Bacon, is a retired priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and was the rector of All Saints Church, Pasadena, 1995–2016. Prior to coming to All Saints Church, Bacon served as dean of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Jackson, Mississippi; Rector of St Mark’s in Dalton, Georgia; and dean of students and campus ministry at Mercer University. He also graduated from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. As an ordained priest he was known for his active support of LGBT rights, peace, and interfaith causes. He retired to private life on May 1, 2016.
The Mercer University Health Sciences Center opened on July 1, 2012. The Health Sciences Center has campuses in Macon, Atlanta, Savannah and Columbus in the U.S. state of Georgia.
The 1893 Georgia Tech football team represented the Georgia School of Technology during the 1893 college football season. It was the team's second season and included its first ever victory. The Techs, as the local papers referred to the team, finished with a record of 2–1–0, including against Georgia in the first iteration of the rivalry that would become known as Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate.
William Eve HolmesSr. was an American Baptist minister and educator and president of Central City College in Macon, Georgia, for 25 years. Before his term at Central City, he was a professor at the Atlanta Baptist Institute. He was also secretary of the board at Spelman College.
Ellamae Ellis League, was an American architect, the fourth woman registered architect in Georgia and "one of Georgia and the South's most prominent female architects." She practiced for over 50 years, 41 of them from her own firm. From a family of architects, she was the first woman elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) in Georgia and only the eighth woman nationwide. Several buildings she designed are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In 2016 she was posthumously named a Georgia Woman of Achievement.
William Manly King was an architect in the United States. He is known for the buildings he designed in Florida, especially West Palm Beach. Several are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Georgia Baptist College was a private grade school and college in Macon, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Central City College and was renamed in 1938. It closed due to financial difficulties in 1956.