Phillis Wheatley inducted the 2026 class of 4 Hall of Famers
The class of 2026 Phillis Wheatley Community Center (PWCC) Hall of Fame inductees include the late Jesse Jackson, Susan Stall, Ray Lattimore, and Reginald McKnight.
Susan Stall
Stall is a retired corporate executive who works diligently as a community worker. She was impressed with the work of PWCC and its impact on the community. Her mission is to achieve a more just and equitable world for all. An applied community sociologist, Stall builds relationships and collaborates with partners to effect positive change.
Ray Lattimore
Founder and president of Marketplace Professional Staffing, he has overcome 14 months of dialysis followed by a kidney transplant to regain health and normal strength. The grind of doing dialysis for 10 to 12 hours a day just to stay alive builds grit and focus, and it makes you think about helping others. He will forever be grateful for his organ donor, Angel.
Lattimore, a formidable collaborator, strongly believes that no one holds all the pieces of the puzzle. This forces us to work together to achieve greatness, he said. His basketball skills earned him a college scholarship, where he gained the knowledge to start his own business.
Jesse Jackson
Greenville’s favorite son, Jesse Jackson rose from the lowest background to become a nationally known civil-rights activist and two-time presidential candidate and head of Operation PUSH.
Jackson’s son, Senator Jonathan Jackson, stressed that Jackson’s positive self-image message still resonates.
Reginald McKnight
McKnight heads Google’s Public Policy for the Southeastern United States.
McKnight, a world traveler, said he’s so glad to be home in Greenville. He said that receiving this honor is deeply personal to me. But there is no way I can thank Greenville enough. Grandmother, whose dream will never be realized, worked tirelessly to help me realize my dream.
He won a full academic scholarship to Duke University School of Law, and he was a decorated student-athlete on the men’s soccer team and the first African American athlete to be named a Rhodes Scholar finalist.
The audience could feel his passion as he expressed gratitude to many in the audience for shaping him into who he is today. He asked, how do you thank your mother, as he struggled to hold back tears. His mother took a bow.
Darren Wright, executive director of PWCC, thanked the audience for supporting the center. He pointed to the glaring need to help pull many others from the grip of deep poverty. And he called for volunteers to take the center into the next hundred years.
