Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School executive director Amanda Johnson earned the rights to have the school’s new library named after her father.
It will be named the Columbus L. Abrams, Jr. Library. Johnson’s father, Columbus Lincoln Abrams Jr., died Oct. 23, 2017, a little less than one year shy of when Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School opened.
Johnson announced the name of the new library with a Facebook post Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021, which was exactly four years after her dad died.
Johnson and her family decided to raise $50,000 to secure the naming rights of the library.
In Johnson’s Facebook post, she said, “My family and I have decided to raise $50,000 to dedicate the library to my dad. Please consider making a donation to Clarksdale Collegiate to make the Columbus L. Abrams, Jr Library become a reality.”
Johnson talked about how she came to the decision to name the library after her father.
“One of the things that we’ve been thinking about is we’ve got this new facility,” Johnson said. “Part of what we’re hoping to do is do fundraising to support the facility. And one way that we talked about was having naming rights that go along with the facility. And so we thought of approaching different individuals to talk about having a space of the campus whether it’s a building, a classroom or one of the large ones named after that particular person or company. And I’ve just been thinking a little bit about my dad and thought, ‘Why don't I approach my family about it and just talk to them about potentially doing it?’ One, because I think he is an individual worthy of being recognized and also because he just loved books and loved learning. So I thought it would be a great idea.”
The $50,000 will support the school in many different ways.
“Essentially, we finance a significant part of the building so our fundraising, we talked about over three years trying to raise some funds,” Johnson said. “We want to put money into our teachers and kids so to relieve some of that money will be great.”
Improvements are still being made to the library.
“It’s a nice large open space with lots of comfortable seating for the kids to sit back and enjoy the books,” Johnson said. “We’re in the process of filling up the library with new books. We’ve got some books that we’ve had over the years, but also we’re trying to order more books. That will be part of the purchase as well, just being able to equip the library with books that need to be in there so the kids will have plenty of variety. We also have some great technology in the library that kids can utilize. It’s divided into two different spaces. There’s a study room in the back of the library so a class could be back there in that space. And then we also have just the open library with the books and the seating and whatnot.
“I’m hoping that it will be complete by the end of the calendar year. I’m not 100 percent sure. It’s based on timing of deliveries and there's a lot of delays with the supply chain and all of that. But we’re hoping by the end of the calendar year, it will be all done.”
Johnson reflected on all the lives her father touched.
“The thing that he’s most known for was he participated in the alcoholics anonymous program and over the years of sobriety – I think it was 38 years of sobriety – he started up what he called his birthday ministry where he could call people on their sobriety birthdays,” Johnson said. “And over the years, it turned into sobriety birthdays, regular birthdays, anniversaries and so he would get up every day and call lots of people. It ended up every day with anywhere from 15 to almost 30 people every single day. And so over the years, it’s hard to guess how many he called over time, but some of us have said he called over a million people over his time that he started doing that. Because he would just make thousands of calls each year. He literally would do it every single day. So it was just one of those things where I think he demonstrated unbelievable selflessness and thoughtfulness in reaching out to individuals and checking in with them. Obviously, if it was a sobriety birthday, that was really strategic in making sure that those individuals knew they had support.”
Johnson said her father would call complete strangers and add them to their birthday list, sometimes with a quick happy birthday, other times with longer conversations and was always supportive.
“That was the kind of guy he was,” Johnson said.
Johnson touched on how her father helped people in her post announcing the library’s name.
“Today is the day we honor my dad, Columbus L. Abrams, by demonstrating selfless love and care to others,” Johnson said in the post. “We make 12 calls to friends and family in the same way he did for numerous people every single day. I hope you will join us!”
Abrams believed in Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School.
“He was extremely supportive of me and the school,” Johnson said. “He was alive when the school got approved in September of 2017. I just remember him throughout the process encouraging me and giving advice and all of that in order to be supportive and keep it going. Because it was a long journey from the idea to writing the application to getting it approved and he was there every step of the way.”
Johnson said her father was supportive in her Facebook post.
“My dad passed on this day in 2017, the year before I opened Clarksdale Collegiate,” said Johnson in the post. “My dad supported me every step of the way, but he never got to see the school come into existence. The school opened a new facility this year with a beautiful library that my dad would have loved!”
