Smithfield — Myrtle Sanders can easily recall the people and events that had an everlasting impact on the town’s African-American community.

She remembers the day in 1957 when John Bryant, Beatrice Penny, Frank Matthews and Florene Williams were asked to leave the town’s public library because of their skin color. The four left but went to a newspaper and television station to share their story of discrimination.

Sanders and many other Smithfield residents shared such memories during a “Tell the Artist Forum” Monday night. The town’s Appearance Commission has asked artist Erik Beerbower of Greensboro to create a piece of public artwork that will represent the town’s African-American heritage. Various grants will pay for the work, which will stand on the Town Commons.

Beerbower said he wanted to hear the community before designing his piece. “I think the most compelling structures have the best stories in them,” he said.

According to surveys done by the Appearance Commission, educators, ministers and mothers had the most impact on Smithfield’s black community. Don Bell recalled one such educator, W.R.L. Collins.

“Mr. Collins had a network throughout the state of North Carolina to attract some of the best teachers to this school system,” Bell said. “This community benefited not only from the school, but quality of life at that school and the teachers added to the community. They drove hope and aspiration through the community despite some other aspects.”

Bell also recalled the popular ham and egg show that gave black farmers a chance to show off their livestock and produce. L.R. Johnson, an Extension agent, was instrumental in starting the event, which evolved into Smithfield’s Ham & Yam Festival. People from all around the county flocked to the event to buy crafts, canned goods, quilts and other items, Bell said.

“The mission was to help farmers become more scientific and productive,” Bell said. “It taught them skills and methods of farming, preserving food and nutrition in terms of families being fed. It turned out to be a point of pride.”

Dr. Overa Stevens, pastor of Burning Bush Holiness Tabernacle, said blacks had helped turn West Smithfield into a thriving community over the years. “That is a transformed community,” she said. “That has become a holy ground.”

Leroy Seabrooks attended the forum with his 96-year-old aunt, Lucy Toole, who was one of the first black Extension agents in Johnston County. “There was a white man who told her she had no business telling him how to keep his farm and stuff that belonged to him and she didn’t need to educate him in any kind of way,” Seabrooks said.

“She never faltered, never backed away and continued to do what she thought was right.”

Beerbower hopes to reveal the finished project by the end of May.