LIMA — Belzoni, Mississippi, is 750 miles and a world away from Lima.
Ashley Brownlow made the long journey from Mississippi to Ohio in the middle of the 20th century for a job at Ohio Steel. He left behind the segregation of the Jim Crow South with its “colored only” restrooms and drinking fountains for the industrial Midwest and its segregation without the signs. He brought with him a family that included two remarkable daughters, who would leave a legacy of service on their new home.
Late in her life one of those daughters, Alberta Shurelds, recalled those early, formative years in Mississippi. “When I was growing up, I wanted to be a missionary,” Shurelds told The Lima News in February 2008. “I was very involved in our church as a young child and in Mississippi, other churches would choose some young teenagers to go to seminars and I was always chosen. I was given a good base of Christian leadership. I hope I sent them thank you notes. My mom probably made me. Later, I wanted to be a teacher.”
The other daughter, Annie Mae Banks, also aspired to teach. While recovering from brain surgery in the mid-1960s, Banks learned about the Head Start Program that was getting underway in Lima at the time. “I felt like I had been spared so that I could take care of my own children and help other little children,” she told the News in May 1978.
Alberta and Annie Mae were born about two years apart in Mississippi, Alberta on Jan. 8, 1932, and Annie Mae on Feb. 25, 1934. They were the daughters of Malachi “Dan” Robinson and Leanna Cooper Robinson. After Leanna and Dan divorced, Leanna married Ashley W. Brownlow Sr., a native of Greenwood, Mississippi.
When Alberta Shurelds died in 2011, her family wrote in her obituary that “difficult times led her family away from all the people she loved in Mississippi to come to Lima, where her stepfather, Ashley Brownlow, was forging a new life at the steel mill. They were going to be rich! Well, richer, because of the hard work of her mother and father providing for every need kept her from knowing the truth of her station in life.”
Both Alberta and Annie Mae would work to improve the station in life of many people in Lima.
Annie Mae Robinson graduated in 1955 from Mississippi Valley State University with a major in home economics and minor in general science and education. She also studied elementary education at Bowling Green State University and Ohio Northern University. In addition, she received a certificate in early childhood education from Owens Technical College and a diploma from Northwest Business College in secretarial courses. Early in her career, she taught in her hometown of Belzoni, Mississippi.
By the mid-1950s she was back in Lima. In September 1957, the News reported, “Mr. and Mrs. A. Brownlow, 140 E. 13th St., are announcing the marriage of their daughter, Annie Mae Robinson, to Mr. Frank Edge, son of Mr. and Mrs. T. Edge, of Ellis, Georgia. … The new Mr. and Mrs. Edge will be at home at 122 E. 11th St.” The couple eventually separated and, in 1969, Annie Mae married Ray V. Banks. They separated in 1972.
By the early 1960s, she was working as director of child care at Lima’s Mizpah Center. In 1965, the News wrote in a May 7, 1978, story. “Mrs. Banks began her work with Head Start after a brush with death. She had been unable to find a teaching position in Lima and had just completed a course at Northwestern Business College when she had to undergo brain surgery.” During her recuperation she heard about Head Start, which was launched that year as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. It originally was conceived as a catch-up summer school program to teach low-income children what they needed to know to start elementary school.
In 1978, after 13 years with Head Start — during which time she went from teacher to curriculum coordinator and teacher supervisor — Banks was honored by her co-workers and the city of Lima. “We thought it was about time she got some of the flowers she’s always giving out to us,” one teacher told the News.
For her part, Banks told the News she still enjoyed working directly with the pupils whenever she had a chance to substitute.
In addition to the flowers, Banks was the guest of honor at a surprise party where she was presented with an onyx ring and a proclamation from then-Mayor Harry Moyer declaring April 28, 1978, as Annie Mae Robinson Banks Day in Lima. “I don’t normally cry,” Banks told the News, “but I could hardly sleep that night it made me feel so good.”
In 1980, Banks was appointed executive director of Mizpah Child Care Center after serving as acting director of the center for the previous year. In addition to her work with Head Start and Mizpah, Banks was active in the local branch of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church, the Hy-Ho Club and the local Democratic Party.
At an event sponsored by the Minority Caucus Committee of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus chapter of the Allen County Democratic Party in March 2004, Banks, the committee chairwoman, explained, “The purpose of the evening is to try to help people become more politically aware and more active in the political process. We want you to vote regardless of what your preference is.”
Banks died Nov. 6, 2015, more than four years after her sister, Alberta Shurelds. She was survived by a son, Darryl L. Edge Sr., and a daughter, Joice L. Robinson-Williams.
Next week: Alberta Shurelds
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