The Montclair History Center is pleased to announce the recipient of our Hortense Tate Scholarship and to share excerpts from her essay.
Khari Jenkins, a 2020 Montclair High School graduate, wrote a touching essay connecting the memory and inspiration of her grandfather’s love of science and star gazing with one of Montclair’s most famous residents.
We also love that Khari vividly remembers her third-grade field trip to the Crane House, including the picture of the Crane House being moved down Bloomfield Avenue from its original Glenridge Avenue location to its present site at 110 Orange Road!
Enjoy these excerpts from Khari’s essay:
“My grandfather was a scientist. He was a lot of things: a teacher, an administrator, a veteran, but above all, he was a scientist. I was born in New York City, a place where the sky was never truly dark, and stargazing was not a popular pastime. My grandfather lived in Alameda, California, a suburb of Oakland, a place where the stars shined brightly on any clear night. Whenever my family would visit, my grandfather, father, and I would sit outside and stare up at the sky for hours. Since a young age, I have been infatuated with astronomy and space travel. I could ask my grandfather any question and he would know the answer. When I was at home, I would ask my father questions that he couldn’t answer and he would tell me to call PopPop. When I was seven years old my parents sat my sister and me down and told us that we were moving to New Jersey. Everything after that happened very quickly. Three months later I found myself in a house in Montclair. I suddenly had my own bedroom and a backyard, things that were new to me and I was very thankful for, but most of all, I had a dark sky at night. I suddenly had stars to wish upon and trace constellations in. For my first birthday in Montclair, my grandfather, my PopPop, sent me a plastic grey telescope. My father and I set it up on my back porch and gazed up into the sky. Having that back porch and dark sky quite literally sky rocketed my interest in space. Unbeknownst to me, I was in the perfect place to learn everything there was to know about the sky above.”
Khari’s essay then describes her excitement of learning, on the brink of entering middle school, that astronaut Buzz Aldrin had also attended Montclair Public Schools!
“Suddenly, space travel began to feel like a real thing, not just a distant idea that I had read about in books… I learned everything there was to know about Buzz Aldrin. He was born at Mountainside Hospital in 1930, which is where my father took me when I burned myself setting off a model rocket. He played on the Montclair High School football team in 1946 when they were undefeated. The 2020 team did not have the same record. He attended West Point and flew as a fighter pilot in the Air Force. I asked my father if I could take flying lessons, but he said no.
As I got older, my interests changed. My path in life strayed from Buzz’s. In high school I became more humanities oriented. I began to dedicate most of my time to theater, writing, and politics, but my father and I continued to sit on the porch and peer through my plastic telescope. I don’t think I’ll be an astronaut, but I do know that I could be if I set my mind to it. Maybe I’ll be on Broadway, maybe I’ll be president, maybe I’ll teach at Montclair High, only time will tell. I know that whatever I choose, Montclair is a perfect place to take off from.”
Continued success to you, Khari, from all of us at the Montclair History Center!
The Montclair History Center shares the story of the Glenridge Avenue YWCA and the legacy of Hortense Tate in tours of the Crane House and Historic YWCA, located at 110 Orange Road, and in other Montclair History Center programming. She was a pivotal figure in the Glenridge Avenue YWCA from the time she moved to Montclair from Kansas to become a Girl Reserve Secretary in 1921 and throughout the 20th century, continuing the YWCA mission to establish an educational center and safe haven for African American women and girls in Montclair. Mrs. Tate inspired countless young women at the YWCA by creating a positive environment, fostering cultural pride, and encouraging African American young women to pursue higher educational degrees. This scholarship is awarded in her spirit!