Positive role models can make a difference for any boy or girl. That was the idea behind the Columbia, South Carolina Housing Authority's Wall of Fame in 1988. Executive Director William R. Ballou understood that lower-income children could expand their own horizons if they saw that many successful men and women in the community and in the nation once lived in public housing.

Since its creation 14 years ago, 35 former Columbia public housing residents (later expanded to include Section 8 participants) have been named to the Wall of Fame. The honorees include: Bishop Fredrick James, AME Church; Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Catholic Church of Chicago; Tyrone Corbin, National Basketball Association; J. Anthony Brown, nationally syndicated radio personality; Harold White, Assistant Athletic Director for the University of South Carolina; and Heyward Bannister, South Carolina Director of Fannie Mae.

The announcement of honorees is made at an annual ceremony held in conjunction with spring break for Richland School District One. This is to give children an opportunity to participate in the program as well as observe the activities. The 2002 program was attended by more than 700 people and was covered by every television station in the Columbia market as well as in simulcast by a local radio station.

	A nice crowd turned out for this annual Columbia event; (right) Wall of Fame inductees Heyward Bannister, Fannie Mae; Brenda Gordon-Pogue, SC Department of Juvenile Justice; and radio personality J. Anthony Brown, with the Tom Joyner Morning Show.

Every person inducted into the Wall of Fame has his or her portrait painted on the Wall. In 1994, 21 portraits were painted: the portraits were done by 300 school children in a "paint by numbers" process organized by a local artist, Ralph Waldrop. The children's work was assisted and supervised by Benedict College fraternities. Since then, the CHA has obtained donations from local businesses to have the paintings created, with additional funding provided by the Cultural Council of the Midlands, South Carolina Commission of the Arts, and the Central Carolina Community Foundation. The Wall of Fame is included in the list of destinations published by the South Carolina State Department of Tourism for African-American landmarks.

After an upcoming HOPE VI revitalization, the Wall of Fame will be retained but transformed.

During public hearings for the CHA's HOPE VI Celia Saxon Neighborhood Revitalization Project, there was much community concern that the Wall of Fame might be destroyed. The Wall of Fame officially become part of the HOPE VI development's plans. The CHA and Wall of Fame Committee have worked with the project's architects to create a new concept, in almost the same location, that will hold the portraits of the honorees. The transformation will turn the solid wall into an open fence, eliminating the perceived barriers of the wall while retaining the substance of the Wall of Fame and maintaining its role in the history of the neighborhood. While not an inductee, HUD's Columbia Field Office Director William Dudley Gregorie was recognized and honored at the ceremony.