Appropriate Recognition

City commissioners seek input on naming a road connecting the business districts on the south and north end of town.

This, to borrow a term from Dr. David Langston’s young life, should be a layup.

He would probably object, probably boom that gravelly voice with some proclamation of why, but the road, which connect Williams Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., should be named in his honor, regardless of whether it is a drive, avenue, crossing, highway or boulevard.

This road, long pushed within the commission, is perceived by supporters as a way to bridge a gap that has existed way too long in a town divided for decades by a set of railroad tracks coming out of the paper mill site.

By connecting the two business districts the road, along with expansion of the redevelopment agency boundaries, provides a symbolic joining, a connection to a new era and the future.

While the proposed path of the road will consume the Avenue A baseball field is decried by some, the reality is that the city never owned the land on which the field sat, the land is owned by The St. Joe Company and the company exercised its rightful prerogative in choosing the road’s path.

Advancement can mean sacrifice and if that sacrifice is a rarely-used ball field the price does not seem too steep.

Naming that road in honor of Dr. David Langston seems appropriate, but as he might note, only to a point.

This is not a personality contest. Yes, Dr. Langston could be irascible and contrary but that was typically manifested from his passion for his work.

That work was children. The foundation he established grew from a pipe dream into a living, breathing example of what one man could accomplish with a passion and an inability to comprehend the word “no.”

The foundation’s work spread from Gulf County to seven other counties in Northwest Florida, providing after-school programs, tutoring, mentoring and motivational events to often under-served children.

The gains in test scores and disciplinary reports attributable to the foundation and its programs are found in the numbers and achievement of several schools in the region.

Dr. Langston was also a strong proponent of no excuses; that every student could achieve, could succeed, regardless of race, regardless of life’s circumstances, regardless of the point from where they began the race of life.

His message was hard work will get you where you want to go, but there was no excuse for not showing your best.

Dr. Langston was a walking example of what can be done with a cell phone, a car and the unwillingness to walk away from any door slammed shut.

An old adage holds that a legacy can be measured by those who gather at his memorial.

The R. Marion Craig Coliseum was packed, standing-room-only, the kind of crowd that “The Dome” has rarely seen, even during basketball season, when Dr. Langston was remembered at his passing in March of last year.

Floor to rafters, people spilled in and found a spot, standing or sitting, from which to pay respects to this man gone too soon.

And that crowd was nearly equal parts black and white, one of the largest gatherings in this county for years and it was not a segregated event, no polarization around race. 

Some of the most moving speeches came not from people of color but from white men like Ralph Rish and Eugene Raffield, both of whom fought back palpable emotion, and maybe a tear or two, to pay honor to their fallen friend.

Dr. Langston bridged the divide of the city of Port St. Joe, from his high school days as a hoops star when integration arrived until his death.

He didn’t see color; he gauged hard work and who wanted to join him in pushing the agenda of his foundation forward.

So it would be fitting to honor him with by memorializing him with a road bridging the north and south ends of Port St. Joe, but that, we would argue in this space, would be only part of the bargain if Dr. Langston was doing the negotiating.

For with that road should also come a greater commitment from the community – greater than a sparsely attended memorial fund-raiser last Saturday that few even knew about – to finish his work.

To make the Langston Youth Scholarship 21^st Learning Center, which this proposed connector road pass en route to MLK Blvd., a reality and not a sign on a vacant lot.

That there is a renewed pledge by a community to create a center that is a beacon for children of all colors and circumstance in this entire county.

A year ago at this time there were many passionate words spoken about maintaining the vision Dr. David Langston had for the children of this community, about continuing his mission of extending a hand so that all children would have opportunity, continuing his advocacy for children who might otherwise lack any advocates.

Naming a road of particular symbolism for this community in honor of Dr. Langston is appropriate – while hoping that many of those words so eloquently spoken last year were not empty and the road represents nothing more than a path to keeping Dr. Langston’s fire simmering.