After years of neglect followed by years of dreaming what its future might look like, Lynchburg’s Fifth Street corrider is on the start of its long journey back.
Part of the original U.S. 29 through the heart of Lynchburg, Fifth Street was long the Main Street of Lynchburg’s black community. Its decline began in the 1960s and early 1970s, along with the rest of the downtown core. Over the years, numerous plans were hatched about how to resurrect the area, but nothing really took hold.
Today, however, as downtown Lynchburg gets on firmer and firmer footing in its rebirth, the energy and vitality is spreading to Fifth Street. It’s the result of a great deal of hard work by community and civic leaders, City Council, the staff of City Hall and the residents of Fifth Street itself.
The Fifth Street centerpiece is the recently opened roundabout at the intersection of Federal Street, part of a major, multi-year infrastructure construction project.
Right now, it’s a rather simply landscaped traffic control device. But with a little planning, a lot of work and a little bit of luck, it could be a spot where all the people of Lynchburg could celebrate our heritage.
You see, just down the street is the Johnson Health Center, the successor to the legacy of Drs. Robert Walter Johnson and El-Dorado Johnson, his younger sister.
Walter Johnson was the first black doctor to receive privileges at Lynchburg General Hospital. His clinic was right on Fifth Street, and he lived in a nearby neighborhood.
And that’s where it gets interesting, for Johnson was the godfather of black tennis in America. Each summer, he held all-expenses-paid tennis camps for black youths from all over the country. Two of his students went on to make history on the world stage: Althea Gibson, the first black woman to win a Grand Slam title in 1956; and Arthur Ashe, the only black American man ever to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.
And Walter Johnson was their inspiration and their mentor.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the center of the Fifth Street roundabout, now a grassy knoll, could be home to a statue commemorating Johnson, his pupils Gibson and Ashe and the little bit of world history made right here in Lynchburg?
Johnson was posthumously honored a couple of years ago with induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. How about an honor in the city where he helped make a better world?
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