Dedication For Love Historic Marker On Tap
by Ryan Cornell
HARRISONBURG - A notable civil rights activist and Methodist
bishop will get a permanent mark in the city this weekend.
A dedication ceremony for a new state historical marker for Edgar
Amos Love will be held at the John Wesley United Methodist Church
at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Love, born in Harrisonburg in 1891, was a co-founder of Omega Psi
Phi at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Omega Psi Phi is the first
international fraternity at a historically black college, according to its
website.
After graduating from Howard, Love was ordained a
minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church and served overseas as a U.S. Army
chaplain during World War I. He became a bishop in 1952 and worked to
desegregate the church, advocating for nonviolent protest against
discrimination.
Love died in Baltimore in 1974.
Dawnn Wallace serves as the executive director of the Love
BDD Foundation, a nonprofit formed by James Madison University's Beta Delta
Delta chapter of the fraternity.
Wallace said a representative from the Virginia Department of
Historic Resources will speak at the dedication, the national president of the
Omega Psi Phi fraternity will offer his remarks and Love's son, Jon,
will also be at the ceremony.
She lauded Edgar Love's social activism for
equality and desegregation.
"He didn't just advocate for African-Americans," she
said. "He advocated for equality for all people."
Contact Ryan Cornell at 574-6286 or rcornell@dnronline.com
Copyright (c) 2015, Byrd Newspapers, All Rights Reserved.
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