By Vivian Shipe
KNOXVILLE, TN — In the space of 72 hours, Knoxville and the world lost two icons. Community leader Alyce Andrews, lovingly called Lady Ladd, and civil rights leader and renowned author, Dr.Bob Booker Jr. transitioned from this earthly realm, leaving a gaping hole in the hearts of many. For decades, Lady Ladd worked tirelessly in Knoxville to improve the lives of young children by exposing them to different experiences, showing them another side of life and encouraging them to dream through trips and adventures she planned for them. Lady Ladd helped hundreds of children over the last 20 years. Taking them on trips, several times a year she would load them in buses and they would roll to New Tazewell where they would spend hours with Mike McMeel and the Inner City Slickers horseback riding, swimming; even treating them to huge Christmas parties every year. Just as Ladd had an effect on the youth and those around her, so did Bob Booker.
Dr. Bob Booker, had a super power. His ability to bring make a reader see and feel by placing pen to paper is in a league by itself . Whether it was the Knoxville riots brought to life by his colorful description in his book, In the Heat of a Red Summer, or one of the hundreds of newspaper articles in which he expertly shared the history and black culture of Knoxville; his gift was unmatched. Dr. Booker was also a barrier breaker during the early days in the fight for desegregation; arrested for trying to eat at the lunch counters downtown and jailed for working to integrate the movie theaters in the early days of the fight for equality.
They both were on the forefront of change. Ladd, one of the first African Americans to integrate Karns High School was also the first to break the color barrier as the first Black person on their swim team. Dr. Booker was Knoxville’s first Black State representative. In the words of another great icon, the great “good trouble” John Lewis, …theirs was not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Theirs was not the struggle of one judicial appointment, or presidential term. Theirs was the struggle of a lifetime or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation, must do our part.
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