Dec. 30, 2014
Happy New Year!
Front Porch Charlotte is my New Year’s Resolution. It’s a website that I’ve thought about for years. A place where people go to learn, to get excited, to meditate or to just share thoughts and ideas. Sort of a CALL TO ACTION on behalf of our children. I hope to achieve that goal.
Why front porch? From birth to age 12, I grew up in Charlotte’s First Ward neighborhood. I lived in a three-room shotgun house with a front porch and swing. A tin roof, faded, peeling paint, a small dirt front yard. We even had a side yard garden and a woodyard in the back. I’ll talk about those later on.
Almost every house in my neighborhood had a tiny front porch and this is where, while growing up, most of us got our first lessons in life. Sitting at the knee of an adult, I learned life lessons. I learned about hard work, about caring, about right and wrong. I learned about consequences when I failed to follow the rule.
I learned to get up when knocked down and to have good manners. This is also where I learned to play my cornet, rented for $6 per month from Howren Music Company. The lessons learned on that porch are still with me today.
I want this website to serve up lessons with each article, each new addition. It will focus on children and especially issues around public education. It will be about excellence and equity.
Arthur Griffin Jr.
The first work on the project was accomplished by longtime Charlottean and internationally known artist Tommie Robinson, in the summer of 2014. Arthur Griffin Jr. commissioned Robinson to create the pen-and-ink drawing shown on this page and throughout the website.