New Park in LaGrange, Georgia Named for
Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. and Dr. Benjamin T. Wood

BY JOHN B. SMITH JR. ON JULY 10, 2023

On July 27, 2023 at 10:30 am, the City of LaGrange, Georgia and the Troup County Parks and Recreation will dedicate a new park in the name of Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. and the late Dr. Benjamin T. Wood. The park is located near 118 Brown Street in LaGrange, Georgia. It is the site of the former Kelly Grammer School, an elementary school that had been the only school for Black children prior to integration.

At the dedication ceremony, July 27, 2023, on hand will be LaGrange’s first African-American mayor, Dr. Willie T. Edmondson. Edmonson served as LaGrange city councilman for twenty-four years before being elected Mayor in 2023. He was first elected as a city councilman in 1998 and during his tenure helped to bring important economic and community development projects to LaGrange including Great Wolf Lodge, The Thread Trail, the Downtown Corridor, and the Griggs Recreational Center, among others, Dr. Edmondson begin his career in the healthcare profession as a nurse at City-County Hospital, now Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center. He then pursued a career in the Christian Ministry and currently is the Senior Pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Edmondson also owns Lakes-Dunson-Robertson Funeral Home in LaGrange.

Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. is currently a retired pastor and currently in the Ohio area. Moss was born and raised in LaGrange, Troup County, Georgia, living on MacGregor Street, not far from the former Kelly Grammer School. Moss had been a longtime friend of many whose roots also stretched from LaGrange. LaGrange was home to the late Honorable Horace T. Ward (1927-2016) (a former Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia); Wynona Moore Lipman (1923-1999) (former New Jersey Senator); Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright (1891-1952) (Harlem Hospital surgeon and Civil Rights activist); Dr. Clinton E. Warner, Jr. (1924-2012) (Atlanta physician/surgeon, Civil Rights activist, and Inquirer board member); and John B. Smith, Sr. (1935-2017) (high school educator / administrator and longtime publisher of The Atlanta Inquirer). Moss has been a friend and confidante to many of those that were from LaGrange since childhood. He continues to be a very good friend and supporter of The Inquirer.

With a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College, a Master of Divinity degree from Morehouse School of Religion / Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) and Doctor of Ministry degree from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. continues to be one of America’s most influential preachers and leaders.

In 2008, Reverend Moss retired from Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio following thirty-three years of distinguished service. Prior to this service, he held pastoral positions at the Old Mount Olive Baptist Church in LaGrange, Georgia, Providence Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Lockland, Ohio and as co-pastor with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.

In a morning filled with celebration and remembrance, the City of LaGrange held an official ribbon cutting Thursday for Moss and Wood Park . Moss and Wood Park are named after two men with LaGrange ties, the Rev. Otis Moss, Jr. and Dr. Benjamin T. Wood.

The park was established in 2022 as an amenity-rich community space named to honor the two leaders who significantly impacted LaGrange’s history. The park features a playground and fitness equipment, pavilions, a covered stage for community events, adult swings, barbecue grills, and game tables, making it an ideal gathering place for people of all ages.

Mayor Willie Edmondson said the event served as a momentous
occasion.

“My only regret is that Dr. Wood nor his and his family were able to be here for him because he meant so much to LaGrange. People loved him in LaGrange. He delivered a lot of babies and took care of a lot of people that didn’t have any money,” Edmondson said.

“Dr. Moss is a pioneer. He paved the way for so many people here in Troup County as well as the entire world. He stands so tall for his activism and free speech. Dr. Moss was born and raised right here in Troup County. So certainly, we wanted to make sure that we let him know how much we appreciate him.”

Moss’s son, Otis Moss III, said it was an honor to represent his father.

“It’s exciting and a real honor to be out here today. We are elated that the City of LaGrange would honor not only my father Otis Moss Jr, but also Dr. Benjamin Wood too,” Otis said.

Moss served as the chairman of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees for over ten years. He served as board member and regional director of SCLC during Dr. King’s tenure as founding president. He also served as a national board member and trustee of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change, and served as Chair of Rainbow/PUSH National Coalition’s Board of Directors. He was the first Chair of the Progressive National Baptist Convention’s Civil Rights Commission. He served as an advisor to former U. S. President Jimmy Carter at Camp David and, in 1994, he was the special guest of former U. S. President Bill Clinton at the Peace Treaty signing between Israel and Jordan. He formally served on former U. S. President Barack Obama’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnership Council. In 2009, he co-lectured with Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, during a multi-city tour of India illuminating the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.

Moss received the Leadership Award from the Cleveland, Ohio chapter of the American Jewish Committee in 1996. He was inducted into the 2007 Class of the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame. In 2004, Dr. Moss was bestowed the unique honor of the Lyman Beecher Lectureship on Preaching at Yale University. He was twice named by Ebony Magazine as one of America’s Greatest Black Preachers. In 2012, he was inducted into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

Dr. Benjamin T. Wood was born in Camden, SC in ± 1895/1900. He graduated from Fisk University and from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He interred at Tuskegee in 1925 and was resident physician at Florida A & M University (FAMU).

He and his wife moved to LaGrange, Georgia in 1927. He became the only Black doctor in LaGrange at the time. His first office was located at 114 Vernon Street in LaGrange. However, in 1968, he moved his office to 105 Fannin Street. He lived at 200 King Street in LaGrange, Georgia.

On July 30, 1970, while performing a normal and typical routine examination, the patient stabbed Wood in the back with an eight-inch army knife; the patient then took $300 from the doctor’s wallet and fled the office. Dr. Wood fell to the floor and pretended to be fatally wounded. He gave himself an injection and called for help. He was rushed to City-County Hospital in LaGrange, Georgia where he immediately underwent surgery. He died, however, on September 3, 1970, never making it out of the hospital. His funeral was held at Warren Temple United Methodist Church where he was a trustee. Reverend C. H. White officiated his funeral. The 21-year-old patient that attacked Wood was Edward Charles Cameron and was indicted by a Troup County Grand Jury on charges of murder, aggravated assault and attempted armed robbery and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

John B. Smith Jr.
Publisher / Editor and CEO of The Atlanta Inquirer newspaper

NOTE: I’ve been advised that some of the facts pertaining to schools are not entirely accurate in this article.

Published 10:15 am Friday, July 28, 2023
By Olivia Johnson

Upon being recognized for his work and legacy, Moss said he felt thankful. “Words cannot express what is in my heart and the gratitude to the present leadership of this city, and to all of our ancestors, who labored in the heat of the day and all they sacrificed, knowing that what they were doing was right. We stand in their honor, and it’s such a blessing to keep living in their dream,” Moss said.

Moss was born and raised in LaGrange and became a world-renowned Civil Rights leader. He rose to national and international prominence as a minister, lecturer, civic leader and civic rights advocate. As the son of a Troup County sharecropper who tried unsuccessfully to vote in 1946, Moss excelled at Morehouse College, became friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped organize lunch counter sit-ins in the 1950s.

He pastored Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Troup County, then co-pastored Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church with MLK before moving to Cleveland, Ohio’s largest and most influential Black Baptist church, Olivet Institutional. He retired in 2008 but continued leadership in church civil rights and social justice issues.

For more than 40 years, Wood was the most prominent Black physician in LaGrange. A graduate of Fisk University, Wood received his medical training at Nashville’s Meharry Medical College, the South’s first medical school for people of color. Following additional training at Tuskegee Institute and Florida A&M University, he served patients in LaGrange and surrounding areas from 1927 until his death in 1970.