To Sir, With Love

Historical Marker Honors Life, Work Of City Native
Posted: April 20, 2015
By AMELIA BRUST

Section: News (Local) 

Members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, city residents and relatives of Harrisonburg
native Edgar Amos Love attended a dedication Saturday for a historical marker honoring
the late Methodist bishop and civil rights activist. (Photo by Amelia Brust/DN-R)

HARRISONBURG - As a co-founder of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Edgar Amos Love had hundreds of brothers around the country. On Saturday, about 80 of them, as well as three generations of Love's biological family, attended a dedication in the city of the late bishop's historical highway marker at John Wesley United Methodist Church. "I know a lot of the brothers really appreciated my father because of the type of person that he was," said Love's son, Jon, 75. The retired reverend came from Owings Mills, Md., with his wife while his son and granddaughter were also in attendance.

Edgar Love, a Harrisonburg native who died in 1974 at 82, co-founded Omega Psi Phi in 1911 while a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1952, he was elected bishop by the Methodist Church's central jurisdiction comprising 19 black conferences of the former Methodist Episcopal Church.

The marker is situated outside John Wesley United Methodist Church on Sterling Street and commemorates Love for his co-creation of the first fraternity at a historically black college, as well as the efforts he made to integrate his church and his civil rights advocacy.

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources, which approves the markers, does not receive state funding for the program and relies on private sponsors and individuals to apply for and purchase the markers.

That community support is what makes the program strong, according to Randall Jones, a city resident and a DHR public relations and publications manager. He told the crowd that during the past 30 years the program "has expanded tremendously" to include more commemorations of minorities and women.

Dawnn Wallace of Newport News, who is married to a James Madison University Omega Psi Phi alumnus, helped lead the effort to get the marker. Wallace is executive director of the Love BDD Foundation, a nonprofit that is the fundraising arm of JMU's chapter and which donated $1,000 to John Wesley United Methodist Church.

Mayor Chris Jones issued a formal proclamation commemorating the bishop's legacy.

"I just think it's important that we recognize ... that we can live a life of Love," Jones said before making his proclamation.

Also in attendance was 79-year-old Samuel NeSmith, a retired reverend from Richmond. Love not only ordained NeSmith into the ministry, he performed NeSmith's wedding ceremony.

He shared personal anecdotes about the late bishop with the crowd, as well as a tune.

"Something made a change in my life," NeSmith crooned while played harmonica. "Love made a change in my life."

Contact Amelia Brust at 574-6293 or abrust@dnronline.com