CFO Stories
Parting Shot: Reflection Plaza at West Plains’ Lincoln School is Dedicated
Passion & Purpose: Summer 2025
The Lincoln School, where Black students in West Plains were educated in days of segregation, was recently restored as a place of community. Now, its Reflection Plaza gives an even greater space for contemplation.
The new space was dedicated on May 17, drawing supporters from nearby and far away — like Dr. Bolaji Ogunwo, an artist from Nigeria — who have contributed to its success.
“This space and its statues, the mural and the symbolism throughout, is meant to invite reflection,” said Tonya Oaks, who with her husband, Crockett Oaks III, leads the Lincoln School Project. “But not just historical reflection: It is a call to look inward. When we speak of reflection here, we speak of the human in the mirror because real change, lasting change, begins not with policy or laws, but with people.”
A vintage photo showing a young boy in salute served as the inspiration for “I, Too, Am America,” a bronze statue which borrows its title from a poem by Joplin’s Langston Hughes. The statue was dedicated on May 17 as part of the new Reflection Plaza at the Lincoln School in West Plains.
Two large bronze statues are features of the new space. Inspiration for one came from a vintage Lincoln School photo, which shows a young boy in salute. His identity has been lost; today, he’s called “I, Too, Am America.” The other, “Feel The Love,” shows a girl making a heart with her hands.
Multi-layered meaning abounds at the plaza, which extends to the date of the dedication. It was held on the anniversary of the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed “separate but equal.”
“While it (that decision) did not immediately erase the injustices of the past, it affirmed what so many already knew,” said Oaks. “That every child, regardless of race, deserves the same opportunity to learn, to grow and to be seen. ... We chose this date to dedicate Reflection Plaza not by coincidence, but by conviction.”
—by Kaitlyn McConnell
