Meadville Community Center

The Meadville Community Center grew from the vision of Caleb Robinson, a Jamaica-born educator who came to Halifax County after graduating from Virginia Union University in Richmond and, in 1893, founded the McKinley Institute in the Meadville section. There, with teachers brought from the North, African American girls were taught reading, writing, and industrial arts. Before his death, Robinson gave the land to the school's executive board and shared his hope for an African American gathering place that would enhance and educate the community, but poverty left that idea unrealized for about twenty-five years. In 1975, three African American Baptist organizations within the Banister, Staunton, and Sunnyside Baptist Association joined local leaders to charter the Meadville Community Center. Through determined community effort, the center was financed, built, and dedicated on October 10, 1978, with Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. as guest speaker. Although the project left the Banister Baptist Association owing more than $90,000, the debt was fully paid by 1991 through sales and raffles, personal gifts, church assessments, and schoolchildren's pennies. Seating 400-500 people, the center became an important educational and community focal point for Halifax County and nearby counties.

Virginia · United States