Remembering Quinton

James Quinton Lumpkin, V served on the ODYSSEY staff during his junior and senior years. During his senior year, he served as Digital Managing Editor. “Our first year that we tried to really have our own web staff, and he was really instrumental in putting that together and being our leader,” ODYSSEY alumna Susanna Conine-Nakano, a 2015 Clarke Central High School graduate, said.

On Dec. 16, 2018, 2014 Clarke Central High School alumnus James Quinton Lumpkin, V passed away. Lumpkin was remembered by his high school journalism adviser at his celebration of life on Dec. 20, 2018.

Good afternoon,

Thank you for having me today. My name is David Ragsdale and I’ve taught at Clarke Central High School for the last 18 years. In that time, I’ve been fortunate to do some amazing work with students – teaching English, coordinating internships and coaching student journalists, including Alexa Klein Houck, who was a pioneering sports editor her senior year, and Quinton, who helped shape the landscape of the work we’ve done the last five years.

Regardless of which class I teach, my students know what I stand for – teamwork, communication, reciprocity and growth. The ways we get to that understanding vary from kid to kid – sometimes it’s through humor; other times, it’s through hard talks; for other kids, it’s praise, but underlying any means of motivation is a core value – belief that my kids can do anything. During our two years together, I believe Quinton bought into these values.

At some point during the winter of 2012, Alexa reached out on Facebook and asked me to look out for her little brother. We exchanged a few messages and I pulled a David Ragsdale, got my kids to recruit him and got Quinton’s schedule changed. He attended a UGA journalism camp that summer and met another future ODYSSEY star, Chad Rhym.

During that fall term, “JQ”, as we came to call him, started writing for the Variety staff under the tutelage of a gifted and caring editor named Chloe Alexander. Chloe, along with a pair of our other senior leaders – Hannah Dunn-Grandpre and Chloe Hargrave – worked to mentor the young writer. They wanted to help him build his confidence and to see his gifts as a writer.

This group of girls would force him into study groups, take him out to eat and I’m pretty sure he appeared in all of their senior “Hamlet” movies. The mentorship and care worked out – he eventually wrote a story about the on-again-off-again status of Weaver D’s. He also wrote a profile on a young artist, Ella Sams, who he would later mentor in our class. In spite of a number of wins, he still doubted his writing. That December, he began his Creative Writing Project, an ODYSSEY tradition, and wrote the following poem:

QUESTIONS:

Are you rich?
You be stackin paper?
Why do you walk like that?
Why you so red?
Why you mad?
Are you sad?
Who do you live with?
Is that an iPhone 5?
Why you so ewww?
Why you cut yo hair?
Why you ain’t got no car?
Is your name James or Quinton?

ANSWERS:
No I am not rich,
Stacking books if thats what you mean.
I am bowlegged, I know its weird
Yes I know I am red, I am just embarrassed.
I’m not, I am just a little tired.
No, I am fine.
My grandparents, no its not too weird, it’s kind of nice.
Yes, it is. I bought it with my own money… no you can not touch it.
I don’t know. I am weird, I guess.
Well I guess I was tired of everyone calling me Bieber.
Well I do but I don’t have a license.
Because of attendance, yeah I know its dumb.
Both, its James Quinton Lumpkin V to be exact.

It was through this project that I felt Quinton really began letting his guard down and letting his teammates get to know him. We shifted him to News staff during the spring of his junior year and he came under the mentorship of Loran Michael Posey – one of the most charismatic and driven editors of his generation. I remember Loran taking an interest in Quinton, who by then would answer to “Lump”.

Loran brought out Quinton’s funny side and would have Quinton falling out of his chair with laughter, barely being able to breathe and totally red in the face. Loran was able to be the cool big brother Lump needed and wanted. It was also Loran who would take Quinton outside to talk when things got heavy or when Quinton needed to know he was going to be ok. To end the year, Lump wrote a multi-page feature profile on a math teacher that most kids could not relate to, but the story showed them her passion for teaching and for helping them learn. It was a huge success and I could see Quinton growing.

To close the year he wrote:

The class itself has been really eye opening, it really helped me. It really made me think deeper and made me take a step back and look at my life. Like I said before I wouldn’t trade the experiences in this class for the world. I am going to miss a lot of my new found senior friends. This class is filled with great, fun people that have become something like my second dysfunctional family.

Just prior to us leaving for the summer, Quinton signed up for a summer media camp focused on digital storytelling at Mercer University. While he was there, he learned about website design, dabbled with broadcast and continued to build his confidence. He also took a huge risk for us – he, along with Jenny Alpaugh, and 17 ODYSSEY new kids formed our “Web Class” – a group dedicated to solely producing weekly, and at times, daily content. Quinton took pride in being a leader in this room of new journalism kids and a handful of second-year students who needed a little more seasoning.

All of a sudden, Quinton became the mentor, the guy to take you outside for a tough talk or to just listen. He helped us pioneer a number of ventures – the creation of an ODYSSEY app, which held up for roughly three years; he started our Instagram account; he pushed us into using Facebook ads with the blessing of our booster club to get our content read; he would transport young broadcasters to their interviews all over town, so we would have cool stories.

Perhaps most importantly, he helped to calm those reporters; he reviewed their questions and reassured them through his humor or straight-forward nature. Building on that success, “Quincy”, as he was called by senior year, helped us produce our first series of broadcast newsmagazine shows full of featurettes, commentary and starring ODYSSEY kids. Selfishly, he taught me how to use an iPhone and kept his ridicule of me to a respectful level as I made the transition from BlackBerry to Apple.

I’ve had the opportunity this week to go back through the bulk of his editor’s journals from that time period. The optimism and hope Quincy had for our kids, the pragmatic approach he wanted to take for success and belief he had in what we were doing astounded me. From February 2014:

I am deeply troubled by the fear the next year, all my outstanding writers with be syphoned off to the print staff. Web is not a feeder to print, it is its own entity and it has to have equal writers to that of print.

I have had some thoughts about next year and for it to be successful, web needs its own editor in chief.

Quinton helped our program see a need where before we saw none. Based on his work, we grew our online presence to have an autonomous “web class” with its own Editor-in-Chief for the next three years – continuing to grow leaders, communicators and risk takers. Even though he stepped down from his position weeks after that journal, Quinton continued pushing our kids to do their best, he continued advocating for quality communication, accountability, teamwork, in helping to harness the potential in others to see their growth and he believed in paying it forward.

I’m not sure he knew it then or even lately, but his hope and his belief in our system touched a lot of kids. Even his classmates who saw the two of us going head-to-head on a daily basis on the smallest of things knew the love and belief we had in each other. I’ve gotten a lot of messages this week from teachers, past classmates, kids he met at camp and even Alexa’s crew – all sending a lot of love. It struck me how kids from all walks of life got to know him and love him.  One of the best things I heard this week came from an old CMS buddy, Cedric Armstrong, who said of Quincy, “The blackest white dude I ever met – he was slick funny.”

One of the last things Quinton wrote for ODYSSEY strikes me deeply:

I went into Odyssey not knowing a thing and almost ran away from it, but I kept on and steadied the course and have become a new person. If you were to meet the sophomore Quinton and the senior Quinton, they would be indistinguishable. I have Odyssey the thank for that.

As the Digital Managing Editor this year I have gotten the pleasure of meeting freshman and sophomores in the same position that I was in. I find joy in knowing that they are going to have the same positive experience I had and I would do anything to have more time on the Odyssey staff.

Losing Quinton has given me pause to reflect on the power and responsibility of my work with young people – to see their gifts and to help them develop resilience even when it’s hard to. It’s also reminded me to be vulnerable and authentic. In each of my classes this week, kids have heard about Quincy – they learned about what he did for our team and his importance to me personally. It made me truly emphasize to them how important they are and how important it is for them to engage in self-care.

Thank you, Alexa for putting Quinton in my path and Paige for bringing in workday lunches and late night food. Thanks to the Lumpkin family for letting me keep him out late to work on the magazine and website. Thank all of you for being here to share in this celebration of life. I leave here filled with love for this young man, hopeful for the important work we do and renewed in my commitment to help future leaders see their path.

Gallery of Quinton’s time at Clarke Central High School.

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