CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Known as the ‘father of after-school programs’ in Charleston and a man who stood for equality during the Civil Rights movement, will be remembered in the capital city with a dedication.
Expected to pass at Monday’s city council meeting, a resolution is on the table to dedicate and rename the western wing of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Charleston after former Charleston Police Patrolman Robert Edward Easley, Sr.
The center located at 314 Donnally Street is dedicated to afterschool programming for children and is expected to have its west wing renamed the ‘Robert Edward Easley, Sr. Annex.’
Easley Sr. was one of few black Charleston Police Department members during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, according to the resolution.
The resolution states that he was known as the “peacemaker” for his ability to find solutions to problems while transcending race, color, religion, gender, and creed.
“His major goal was to make sure that Martin Luther King would say, he would like to say whites and blacks hold hands together. He made his children be an example and made us hold hands with white kids, Lebanese, you name it, at a Catholic school,” his son Robert Easley Jr. said on Monday’s 580-LIVE on 580-WCHS.
Easley Sr. helped organize ‘The Canteen,’ a youth center in the Triangle District of Charleston, also known as the Block, that provided supervised activities for young people. The resolution stated he spent countless hours volunteering his time at The Canteen in an effort to keep the youth of the community off the street and out of trouble by engaging them with drum corps, drill corps, dances, basketball games, ping pong matches, tutoring, and much more with the assistance of other local community leaders, teachers, and volunteers.
Easley Sr. passed away in 1997 and was honored by the State of West Virginia’s Human Rights Commission as a West Virginia Civil Rights Honoree in 2010.
The resolution was introduced by Caitlin Cook and Tiffany Wesley-Plear. It passed through Parks & Recreation Committee last week.
Easley Jr. said this is a good start to honor his father’s legacy. He wants to see a bust in Charleston.
“He was a very important and crucial man in this city. I have done his work and continue to do his work in Canton, Ohio,” Easley Jr. said. “Hopefully to bring all those things back here and marry them up to where they belong. Maybe I can do some help and work around this city.”