Viola Baskerville

"This building is an irreplaceable historical community asset."

"With this initiative, I’m still working for the public good but in a volunteer position, rather than in an elected position. The work still requires listening and responding to others and engaging them and leveraging their energies to get things done."

"The community rallying to preserve and honor a significant piece of history has been truly gratifying."

"Everybody was looking at you, so that if you didn’t do things just right, you were somehow speaking for a whole race of people."

"A lot of times, if girls or young women don’t see people who look like them actually dare to do these things, they don’t dare because they don’t see it as something that could be done."

"In those days, for young black girls, there was the choice of singing in the choir, playing an instrument, (dancing) or girl scouting. I couldn’t dance, I was already taking piano lessons and singing in the choir, so girl-scouting fit right in."

"Leadership is about how well you listen to and help others. Any success I have attained is because I listened to someone who was much wiser than myself."

"Baskerville, a trailblazing African American woman, embodies a new model of the public servant."