When the Rev. Garlee Pittman started working at Keystone Senecain 1966, there was a special room in the plant he couldn’t gointo.

It was a bathroom. The sign above the door said, “whitesonly.”

When he retired after more than 40 years, the sign was gone.

“When I left, everybody was together. Everybody wasfellowshipping with everybody,” said Pittman, 66. “Today,everything is greater than it used to be. It’s easy to look out andsee change.”

Saturday night, Pittman – longtime Christian leader and socialservant in Brookhaven’s black community – was given credit forhelping bring about that change in local race relations when he washonored by the NAACP of Lincoln County during a Black History Monthcelebration.

Pittman shared the honor with 84-year-old Addie Lee Durr, acornerstone member of the local NAACP in its early days, and JessieBuie, a longtime leader in education.

“It makes me feel good to see the dream continue on and work,”Pittman said. “It’s a dream I had in my young age that we couldmeet together and work.”

Durr shared Pittman’s take on the current state of racerelations.

“It doesn’t seem like the same place,” she said, recalling thedays when NAACP membership had to be kept secret.

Leatrice Buie, 83, accepted her husband Jessie Buie’s award. Shesaid the man who paid the local NAACP chapter’s startup fee washonored to be thanked for his years of service to civil rights,despite his absence.

“He couldn’t be here because of his health, but he was veryexcited,” she said.

Bernetta Character, president of the local NAACP chapter, saidthe organization would not exist today without their sacrificesyears ago.

“These are the people who laid the groundwork and fought thefight,” she said.

The program dedicated to those three black community leaders wascommemorated in song, prayer and history. The NAACP’s youth groupparticipated in all aspects of the ceremony, closing with a fashionshow of traditional African garb.

Even though they were participants, chapter director AudreySmith said they were also the target audience.

“Hopefully they’ll learn the struggle their parents andgrandparents went through to get us where we are today,” she said.”It’s very important for their future.”