On a mid-August day in Mississippi in 1967, a group of Black children donned graduation caps and celebrated their completion of the Head Start Program.
In February 1964, the Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake (1906-1985), Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) and chairman of the National Council of Churches’ Commission on Religion and Race, had presented a proposal for a long-term civil rights project in the Mississippi River Delta. In 1965, the newly created Delta Ministry played a central role in the creation of the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), a statewide Head Start program.
At its Oct. 26, 2015 meeting, Jefferson County Public Schools voted to name its newest early childhood education center after Ernest "Camp" Edwards, a long-time educator, youth mentor and leader at Grace Hope Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Community Center. He died in 2005.