Hidden Brain - My Unsung Hero: Tony Ludlow's Story

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

Tony is angry at his English teacher, Mrs. Holman, for making him stay after class. But on the last day of school, she takes his hand, and tells him something he'll never forget.To hear more stories like this, subscribe, and enjoy!

Hi there, Shankar here. We're about to celebrate Thanksgiving in the US and we thought we'd mark the moment with a question. Who are you most grateful for? Maybe it's a family member or a dear friend or maybe it's a stranger who helped you in a moment of crisis. Our sister podcast, My Unsung Hero, is all about stories of people like this. Thanksgiving happens once a year. Please subscribe to My Unsung Hero so you can feel the warm glow of Thanksgiving every week of the year. Today's story comes from Tony Ludlow.

When Tony was in eighth grade at a school in Fortsmouth, Arkansas, he had an English teacher named Cecil Holman. She was the first black woman he had ever had as a teacher. In fact, she was the first black woman with whom he had ever had a conversation. She left such an impression on him that he still vividly remembers what she looked like. She was immaculately dressed and she wore kind of large floral print dresses, everything about her said class and dignity and she had a particular perfume that she wore that just seemed to fit. That spring she began to teach the class about poetry. And I started to tank. I hated it. That spring should begin to teach the class about poetry. And I started to tank. I hated it. His grades were falling. So Mrs. Holman told him he had to stay after school to get extra

help. And I didn't like Mrs. Holman. I hated her for keeping me from being able to play sports. And so I was angry at her. Well, one day I said, I was just, I was just fed up and I said, Mrs. Holman, I don't relate to any of this stuff. Poetry stuff like girls would write it's about daffodils and butterflies and stuff like that, unicorns. I don't relate to any of this stuff and I'm sure that none of the male members of my family

have any use for poetry. So the next day I had to go back to her class again, and she handed me a book. And she said, I want you to take this book and I'll put a bookmark in there. And I want you to go home. I want you to take this book and I put a bookmark in there and I want you to go home. I want you to read this poem and then and this was on a Monday then on Friday I want you to tell me what the poem was about. Well, I hated the whole idea and so I reluctantly went home and opened the book to read Eulisys

by Alfred Lord Tennyson, and it changed my life. And she started to give me more poems like that. I read Invictus, and if, and Dolcea deumest and poems written by men about the lives that they were living, and it just absolutely changed my life. At the end of the school year, she went around the classroom and shook everyone's hand and said, good luck next year and all of those things. And then when she came to me, she took my hand and she leaned in forward real close to me. And she said, Tony Ludlow, I expect greatness from you. And I'd never heard anybody challenge me

with that kind of thing in my whole life. that he challenged me with that kind of thing in my whole life. Fast forward, after 10 years in the Marine Corps, I went to college, and I was a double major in English and history. I was a major in English because of Mrs. Holman. I never got a chance to tell her any of these things. She passed away the year I graduated from high school. I never knew it. I didn't know about her passing.

But years later, many years later, in fact, just a few years ago, I connected with her niece and we have become family. Sherry Tollver is her name. And Sherry and I have become family because we both love Mrs. Cecil Holman, my eighth grade English teacher, my unsung hero. Tony Ladlow of Memphis, Tennessee. He went on to become a teacher of American history in English, and he taught for almost 20 years. For many more stories like this, be sure to follow our sister podcast, My Unsung Hero. I'm Shankar Vedantam. See you soon. Afiyet olsun.