Reenactors bring history to life

JACKSON, TN (WNBJ)-

One of the goals of the bicentennial year celebration is to celebrate the rich history, heritage, and culture of Jackson Madison county. 39 news reporter alexander bitterling spoke with a group that is passionate about history and wants to connect others to it.

“To me, history’s not just something in a book it’s something that needs to live that needs to breathe, and for a whole generation… of young people coming up that have never seen anything like this before maybe it will provide that spark for them to read more and try and understand where our country has come from and the hardships that the men and women of this country have faced,” says Greg Richardson.

Greg Richardson and Scott Bloodworth both began reenacting at a young age and have continued to do so for the last thirty years. Bloodworth shares why he believes that knowing our history is so important,

“I think it's vital for us to know our history, I cannot stress that enough…both the promising sides, sides of advances and certainly the dark times in our history, we have to remember those.”

These men and many others have traveled all over the country reenacting different periods of history. One of the stories represented by the group was the story of Francis Reed Elliot, the first African American nurse for the Red Cross who was stationed in Jackson. Alberta Herron was proud to tell the story,

“she went through a lot of trials and tribulations during that time because you have to understand is this was in the 1800s and so things were totally different then than they are now, but what I love about the story is that she persevered through it…and her dream was to work for the red cross and in pursuing that dream she also became the first African American supervisor.”

Herron says that Jackson-Madison county has so much history that many people don’t know.

The Jackson madison county Bicentennial commission will be hosting events on the first Friday of every month for the next year to showcase the history of Jackson Madison county.