CCAAL, Inc. and Garrison School Cultural Center In the News

The Clay County African American Legacy, Inc. will dedicate two new works of art at the Garrison School Cultural Center at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 28. Immediately following the dedication there will be a reception in the Garrison School Cultural Center Assembly Room.

Update to Blog Post:  Photo Gallery of Event > > >

The newest art installations are outdoor murals which will be placed on the side of the building, one facing Water Street and the other Main Street.

Event Details
Garrison School Cultural Center
502 North Water Street
Liberty MO 64068
10:00 AM, Saturday, October 28, 2017

Download Event Brochure > > >

The Water Street mural, Stony The Road We Trod, was painted by Rodney "Lucky" Easterwood. Easterwood was trained in Boston but has actively painted here in his native Kansas City area for over 30 years.  His works are featured in several U.S. cities.  They encourage community and cultural pride, highlight historical events and illustrate the beauty of everyday life.

Stony The Road We Trod features the history of education for African Americans in Liberty with images of the Laura Armstrong school which was the first school for African Americans in 1865, located on Mill Street; former Garrison teachers Ms. Marion Pearley, Ms. Angie Kerford; former principals James Gay and Clarence Gantt; Ms. Clara Bell Colley’s 1954 third grade class; and an image of Linda Brown and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall which focuses on the famous landmark case Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka that ended segregation in schools across the country.

The Main Street mural, Sing A Song Of The Hope The Present Has Brought Us, was painted by Dan Vanderhoof, an artist from the Central Valley of California. Vanderhoof moved to Kansas City a few years ago to study at the Illustration Academy. His work is characterized by bold color and classic sense of design. The mural tells the story from segregation to integration and depicts children of all races reading, researching, playing, and walking to school.

About the Garrison School Cultural Center
African American residents established Garrison School in 1877.  It was one of four schools for black youth in Clay County immediately following the Civil War. For more than a century, African Americans in Liberty lived, as other blacks in America, under the law of “separate but equal education.” That law did not end in America until the 1954 Supreme Court Case, Brown vs. Board of Education. The building is a symbolic relic of a segregated school system. After the court ruling, it became the kindergarten for all students. Named in honor of the famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Garrison School, which is 140 years old, is the one remaining historically black educational institution still standing in Clay County. The building is listed on the National and local Register of Historic Sites.

Further Information
Mr. A.J. Byrd, 816-681-7918 or
Dr. Cecelia Robinson, 816-591-6199