89-year-old Willie Mae grew up in Bolton, North Carolina – a small, predominantly African American town of about 600 people located in rural Columbus County, North Carolina. Today, 15-year-old Nathan Johnson sits down with Willie Mae to talk about her life as a way to honor the legacy of Black elders in Bolton. What advice can she give to young people today? We find out in this podcast episode of Honoring Legacy.

Honoring Legacies is brought to you by the LEADERs project, which stands for Leading Exceptional Adolescents In Dialogue to Erase Racism. LEADERs is a youth group in rural Columbus County, North Carolina . It was birthed out of the Bolton Safe Haven enrichment program in 2000. The group’s genesis came about as a result of a partnership with University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Lynn Smithdeal. The program ended in 2005 and was reborn in 2020. To learn more, visit our Facebook page with this link: https://www.facebook.com/leadingkidsforlife05.

Produced by Nathan Johnson and Coastal Youth Media. Editing by Coastal Youth Media.

Music: “The Castle” by ANBR via Artlist.

Soundscape: “Joe Louis vs. Jack Sharkey over KHJ Radio, August 18, 1936”

Support the show (https://shoresides.org/support/).

Live in coastal North Carolina and want to participate? Email info@shoresides.org to ask what youth workshops we are currently running.