JENNIE: LCHS Class of 1974 celebrating 50th reunion

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) — Lincoln County High School’s Class of 1974 is getting ready for a big celebration! Their 50th reunion is this coming weekend, May 17th – 19th.

Larry Ramsey and Marcus Mason are with me today. They were part of the first integrated class at Lincoln County… and while it was a challenging time, it’s not how they’re defined. And now that they are coming together after 50 years.

Ramsey says they’re excited about looking back at all the things they’ve done and the mentors they been for others.

“I just thought it would be a great idea to share after 50 years, just to let folks know just how wonderful it is to get together, still be connected. You know, I mean, your classmates always will be your classmates, you know what I’m saying? So it’s open to everyone from the class of 1974. And we got a lot of great things planned.”

“You know, coming from a predominantly black school, going to the predominately white school that was — we got through that and that was a long time ago. Now I don’t remember everything we dealt with, but I know that was some challenging times. But, you know, we had the support of our parents, our teachers and everything. It was just transition for us and so obviously we were not the only ones who went through that. But I’m just glad that we can stand there and say, listen, we’re still connected. We still have a number of our friends and they’ll come out to support us and whatnot. And so we just everybody’s just moving on. We’re all at the end of the day, equal, you know?”

Marcus Mason was class president – and Mr. Panorama! He’s a retired paratrooper who served in Bosnia, Kuwait, Russia, South Korea. And later, was a volunteer teacher in McCormick County.

“Well, volun-told! My wife is a retired teacher, and my wife said I always talked about ‘how easy teaching has to be.’ She asked me to go teach in McCormick, so I volunteered to be a teacher there.”

Ramsey says if you haven’t made reservations for the reunion weekend, that’s ok.

“You can show up at the door. It’s open to everyone, you know. Of course, we put a deadline because we do have things we have to plan for. You know, the caterers and everything else need a headcount. So but we’ve got everything covered and we want to make sure that everyone comes out, have a good time. Friday night, We’re going to do like a meet and greet, very informal at American Legion Post 597 on Thomas Lane, there in Lincolnton. And then that Saturday, we’ll be at Pointes West Resort for the banquet where our mayor, who is also our 1974 graduate of Lincoln County, is going to do a proclamation to say class of 1974, this is your day. And then that Sunday, we’re going to church at First Assembly of God in Lincolnton and after that, we going to fellowship there at the restaurant there at Hickory Knob.”

Watch the link above for the full interview!

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