On Tuesday, April 29, the Wall That Heals rolled into Roxboro, where crowds of Roxboro Community School (RCS) students were gathered uptown to welcome it. RCS students took a short walk uptown to greet the procession of first responders and veteran motorcycle organizations that escorted this piece of living history through the streets. RCS Managing Executive Director, Darkarai Bryant, said, “Any time you have a member of armed services that the ultimate sacrifice would be giving of your life for the protection of this country, I think we just owe it to them to give them the respect that that position deserves.”
This traveling three-quarter replica of the Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington D.C. was set up on May 1 and was open to viewing by the public at the Rock Athletic Complex until May 4. Seventh, ninth, and tenth grade students were all taken to visit The Wall That Heals once it was set up on Thursday, May 1. Students got to learn about the history of the Vietnam War through the Mobile Education Center that the transport truck was transformed into, better conceptualize the magnitude of this memorial and even learn about the war from veterans. There was also a section dedicated specifically to Person County veterans that served in the war, including photos and information to allow for members of the county to easily find the names of family members they had who served in the war.
“It really is not too far removed from our history,” Bryant said. “it’s really very recent.” He said that many of these veterans did not get their hero’s welcome when they returned from the war, “so whether it be now or then, I do believe that they deserve that. Us taking time to recognize the sacrifice I think is very important.”
Christy King, the American history teacher at RCS took her tenth graders to visit the wall. King said, “For a lot of our students, you know, they’ve never seen it, they have not been to DC, so it gives them a chance to kind of understand what the Vietnam War was and why this memorial was so important to people when it was built in DC.” Not only did it allow even more people to experience this memorial, but it also opened up conversation about the war. King said, “We do have a lot of Vietnam veterans alive and I think getting to see Vietnam veterans and hear them talk about their experiences, they have a different understanding of the war, and the impact that war has on a country and on its people.”