#2BFayetteville

Jessie Bryant 2004 recipient Jessie Bryant became the first person of color to receive the Wes Gordon Golden Deeds Award in 2004. She has committed her life to effectively improving the community through volunteer services. Bryant was born in the late-1920s. She attended Henderson and Lincoln schools in Fayetteville, public schools for Black children in the primary grades. At the time, there were only a few hundred Black residents in the communi- ty, most were contained to the eastern slope of Mount Sequoyah. Growing up, Bryant and her family had to make do with very little. Shopping for clothes was a luxury. Instead, her grandmother used butcher paper for patterns and sewed Bryant's clothes from used chicken feed bags. During her childhood, only one doctor and one dentist in Fayetteville would make house calls to patients in the African American com- munity. When sick residents could not get the doctor, treatment often came from neighbor- hood women who had worked as midwives. "They would allow you to pay them, or take what you had to offer," Bryant said. "Their price was not that expensive because they knew you didn't have anything in the first place." Through it all, she remained strong and determined. Bryant's grandparents were former slaves and shared those memories with her. She understood the struggles of those who came before her. While Fayetteville was one of the first Southern cities to integrate its public schools, that didn't happen until 1954. So, at the age of 13, Bryant left to attend high school elsewhere. She spent one year in Atlanta, Texas, then re- turned to Arkansas to finish at James C. Corbin High School in Pine Bluff. After graduating, she attended Philander Smith College in Little Rock. After college, instead of shunning the town that treated her differently because of her skin color, she returned to Fayetteville in 1948, de- termined to help others and unite people. "I was taught as a child that there's only one race, and it's the human race," she said. Bryant was instrumental in the initiation of successful programs in the high school, junior high and elementary schools that instilled self-respect, healthy lifestyles, and respect for others. Compelled by the critical need for free healthcare in the community, Bryant estab- lished the Northwest Arkansas Free Health and Dental Center in 1985. "There was no help for people that had no money," she said. "There was no help for people that had no insurance. They had no way of seeing a physician in Fayetteville because they couldn't pay. They had to do without some- thing to go to a physician." The clinic was started in a church basement, run by volunteers and open one day a week. It quickly outgrew the space as people traveled from areas outside Washington County seeking care. The clinic made three moves from its orig- inal location, expanded its services to five days and one evening a week, and added paid staff members. It has evolved into a 10,000-square- foot facility, located at 1100 N. Woolsey Ave. on the UAMS Northwest campus, and serves thousands of needy patients each year. In 1993, Byrant was elected to serve on the Washington County Quorum Court, a position she held until 2008. She also served on the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Arkansas, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Economic Opportunity Agency of Washington County, and the Com- munity Development Corporation. 7 Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce

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