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provides learning and performance opportunities for young dancers and musicians at the recently renovated Booker T. Washington Center, which had been shut down for several years. There are many connections and hidden pockets of historical richness permeating Pleasant Hill. Craig Wright's father Samuel Lee Wright was a member of the Elks Club on Cotton Avenue, along with many people from Pleasant Hill. They hosted Otis Redding in his early days of performing. According to Wright, "You might as well say Jimi Hendrix was a Maconite. He dressed like Johnny Jenkins, who commanded the room when he played. As a lefthander also, he took on many of Jenkins' mannerisms. Jenkins used to play at a juke joint down in the 'Bucket of Blood' around Grier Street." In fact, long after the success of "Tutti Frutti," a still-little known Hendrix played in Little Richard's band the Upsetters. This was after Penniman had moved away from his Pleasant Hill home. Hendrix would later be fired from his band. Others to have Pleasant Hill on their map include soul music impresario Clint Brantley and organist/pianist Luke "Fats" Gonder. Brantley managed and Gonder accompanied the Godfather of Soul James Brown, who also held a Pleasant Hill address during his tenure in Macon. Even movie star and singer Lena Horne said she learned to sing in Macon churches during her trips down south. She was known to visit the streets of Pleasant Hill, near where Harlem Renaissance author John Oliver Killens lived. Folk blues and gospel guitarists Reverend Pearly Brown and Blind Willie McTell, who both went on to make music history through their songwriting and inspiring the Allman Brothers Band, attended Pleasant Hill's Georgia Academy for the Negro Blind in the 1920s at Madison and Walnut Streets. Lewis Henry Williams, Sr., for whose son the neighborhood's long-standing elementary school L.H. Williams is named, served as Headmaster of the Academy. And that brings Pleasant Hill back to the tip of the iceberg: the historic neighborhood's phenomenal native son, Richard Wayne Penniman. Penniman was the third of 12 children born to Charles and Leva Mae Penniman. The legendary "Little" moniker was a response as he grew up in the neighborhood to his once slender frame. His father served as a church deacon and brick mason by day and a bar owner by night. His mother was a member of New Hope Baptist Church on Third Avenue. Richard's entire life was artistry reflected in an explosive mix of contradictions, inner complexities, striking genius and creative power, which started in his native stomping grounds. From homies James Brown and Otis Redding to Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Pat Boone and Jerry Lee Lewis to Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Morris Day and the Time and many more, Little Richard inspired music superstars across the world with a unique essence of expressive intensity, born out of Pleasant Hill. SETTING THE STAGE Today, the neighborhood has a new institution created from the renovation and preservation of his childhood home as the Little Richard House Resource Center, commemorating his life and stardom, educating on the history of Pleasant Hill and providing life quality improvement services for residents. The home was moved from Pleasant Hill's Fifth Avenue across US Interstate 75 to avoid demolition from yet more highway expansion, which historically devastated the neighborhood. It is here at his childhood home, across from Jefferson Long Park, that the neighborhood has a new dimension for gatherings, education, hosting special events and tours and setting the stage for the next generation of musicians and achievers to grow from the rich substance of heritage and amazing, deep roots of Pleasant Hill. LEFT: THE LITTLE RICHARD HOUSE, A COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER. 80 maconmagazine.com | JUNE/JULY 2022