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Old country churches like Mt. Temah Primitive Baptist Church, located on Pursley Street near Second Avenue, which was destroyed by fire in 2019, bathed the surrounding streets for most of a century with fervent, compelling spiritual sounds. Sanctified tent meetings were also common in the neighborhood, resonating at night for many blocks with driving tambourines and a capella worship songs. "It was sanctified music," described gifted Macon bassist Craig Wright, who grew up in Pleasant Hill. "You'd hear tambourines and drums in the distance." "Most of the time, they had no instruments, just foot stomping hand clapping and singing echoing all around the area," remembered L.H. Williams Head Custodian Amanda White. "Every summer they would have homecoming and serve the best food, giving plates to anyone who came." Many youth vocalists were trained in Pleasant Hill and grew as featured soloists. Known for singing Black spirituals in local churches was legendary high school principal and soprano Leontine Fields Espy, born 11 months and 1 day before Little Richard. Fields Espy recounted how she knew him growing up and would often see Richard walking the streets of Pleasant Hill. She went on to graduate from Fisk University in Nashville, home of the world-renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers, where she sang in their choir. Later, she was frequently accompanied by her husband, esteemed English teacher, organist and pianist George Espy, Jr. Pianist and educator Gloria Hutchings of the Pleasant Hill area, also a Fisk graduate and previously a student at Clemons Music Conservatory, often accompanied Fields Espy as well. Macon singer, writer, teacher, and visionary Sarah Mitchell was another of various Black classical-styled young singers once celebrated in local churches. Prior to serving as a secretary to Malcolm X when he was killed in New York; she stirred a mass meeting at Pleasant Hill's Allen Chapel AME Church during the 1962 Macon Bus Boycott, with her rendition of "I Want Jesus To Walk With Me." Pleasant Hill grand elder and historian B.J. Sullivan recalled, "There was hardly a dry eye in the room." The eccentric, widely impactful Professor Nathan Black was an extraordinary pianist who taught students door to door in the homes of the Pleasant Hill neighborhood. "He was definitely an icon, a music mogul who taught many people, including my oldest sister," Craig Wright remembered. "He was a virtuoso that went around with a briefcase full of music. You had to have a piano in your house to get lessons. He lived on Spring Street where the Pizza Hut is now. I talked to him many times," Wright said. "He looked like Mozart, with his gray hair combed to the back, always wearing black, a little short guy, very neat with a deep regal voice. He was very well spoken, used impeccable correct English. He walked everywhere. I never saw him drive a car." GROWING MUSIC LEGENDS Pleasant Hill's 83-year cultural institution Booker T. Washington Center has traditionally played a key role in cultural development of the local community. Like the trade skills cultivation of Hudson Industrial School, provided years before at its same location, the center has for generations specialized in academic, social skills, musical, theatrical, and visual arts cultivation. Its original director was the widely beloved Willis B. Sheftall. "Of the plethora of musicians who came from Pleasant Hill, it was because these guys spent a lot of time at Booker T. Washington Center that they were able to develop," Wright continued. "Mr. Sheftall really cared about the kids, so if they didn't have an instrument, he would get one for them. He would press to rent instruments from Turner Gaughf Music Store because we had to march in a parade down Madison Street." Later, after Sheftall retired, his assistant and succeeding director Howard Scott, a drummer, and an artist, headed the Teen Performing Arts Company (TPAC). This program merged the visual and performing arts for live shows, impacting hundreds, if not thousands, of Macon youth. At one time Booker T. Washington Center, which originated on Cotton Avenue, hosted Wednesday night dances attracting youth from across the local community, and many Pleasant Hill musicians grew by performing at them. Today, the ERIC Foundation, led by Anthony and Shirley Jordan, JUNE/JULY 2022 | maconmagazine.com 79