'An Evening of Poetry and Prose' celebrates Black History Month, influential Johnstown teacher

Feb. 10—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Before facing the crowd on Friday as one of the first readers at "An Evening of Poetry and Prose," local author Rachel Allen said she was excited and a little nervous.

When she stepped onto the stage at Flood City Cafe in downtown Johnstown, those nerves appeared to be calmed.

"It's beautiful to look out there and see everybody's faces," she told the crowd before delivering readings of her original poetry.

More than 50 people attended, listening to a dozen readers and singers. Almost everyone at the event had been inspired in some way by the legacy of Claudia Jones, one of Johnstown's first Black educators in the 1960s.

Following Jones' death in September, the Johnstown Women of Influence organized the night of public reading to reflect the annual Black History Month prose and poetry event that Jones held at her church, Mount Sinai Institutional Baptist Church in East Conemaugh.

"At her church, this was a mainstay program," Johnstown Women of Influence founding member Kourtney King-Square said. "She opened people up to poetry, prose and sharing their own gift of writing. She loved writing. She used to say that if she wasn't a biology teacher, she'd be a journalist."

Many of the people in attendance were members of Jones' church, and some were former students of Jones.

At a table in the back of the room sat Sandra Williams, a lifelong friend of Jones and fellow member of Mount Sinai Institutional Baptist Church.

"She was an inspiration to all of us," Williams said, "and no matter what the conversation was, it would always go back to education."

Sitting closer to the stage at the front of the room was Lee Wood, a retired University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown journalism professor and 1969 graduate of Johnstown's Joseph Johns Junior High School.

Wood said Jones was the only Black teacher at Joseph Johns Junior High School, where half of the student population was Black.

He remembers Jones as a teacher who treated all students the same, demanding the best of each student and wanting to provide the best educational experience for them.

He remembers how she worked to obtain more interesting specimens than the usual earthworms for her students to dissect in biology class. One day, she brought a big bag full of cats, he said.

"When you become a teacher, you take the example of people who taught you," he said. "Ms. Jones was that example to me."

Later in her teaching career, Jones spent 25 years as a Pitt-Johnstown biology professor before retiring in 1995.

She was active in her church as well as the Elizabeth Lindsay Davis Club, a branch of The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. The club's members filled a reserved table for the event on Friday.

Starr Durham, who grew up with Jones, said Jones always encouraged her to read poetry during the annual event at Mount Sinai Institutional Baptist Church.

So, on Friday, she read a poem that she said Jones loved — "In the Morning," by Paul Laurence Dunbar, an American poet born to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the Civil War.

The poem was about a parent of a young person who was sleeping through the day, she said. The poem was written in the Gullah Geechee language — a unique creole language with African roots. Durham read it with energy.

JoAnn Jackson, a long-time friend of Jones, chose to read a piece by Mary McLeod Bethune, one of the most important Black educators, civil and women's rights leaders and government officials of the twentieth century.

Jackson read a few pages from Bethune's "My Last Will and Testament," written in 1954, saying it reflected the life and character of Jones and what she felt for people.

" 'We are making greater use of the privileges inherent in living in a democracy,' " Jackson read. " 'If we continue in this trend, we will be able to rear increasing numbers of strong, purposeful men and women, equipped with vision, mental clarity, health and education.' "

After reading, Jackson looked at the audience and added her own words.

"Tell me that does not sound like Ms. Claudia," she said.