STARKVILLE — Two new names will be added next year to the growing list of honorees at downtown’s Unity Park, committee member Jean Marszalek announced Monday.
Longtime pastor and Oktibbeha County Justice Court Judge W. Bernard Crump and original park committee co-chair Ava F. Moore have been selected as the 2023 honorees. Marszalek told the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors the committee is still determining whether the ceremony enshrining the honorees will be held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 16) or Juneteenth (June 19).
This is the sixth year the committee has chosen two people from Oktibbeha County who have fought for civil rights and unity in the community. Selections come from citizen nominations and honorees must be deceased for at least five years.
Crump, though a native of Amory, lived most of his life in Oktibbeha County. He served eight terms as justice court judge for District 2, starting in 1984. Ten years earlier, he became the first African American appointed as superintendent for the Starkville District of the North Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee University and a master of divinity from Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta. Crump passed away in 2015.
Moore came to Starkville from Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1986, opening Ava’s Monogramming Shop in 1986 on West Main Street. She was involved in the Starkville School District’s Parent-Teacher Organization, the Downtown Business Association, Chamber of Commerce, Oktibbeha County Federation of Democratic Women and the Friends of the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum’s board of directors.
She and Marszalek co-chaired the community’s first Race Relations Committee, and in 2014, Moore and William “Brother” Rogers co-chaired the Unity Park Committee, which was integral in making the park what it is today. She passed away in 2014.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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