“You really can change the world if you care enough.” Those words by Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), and a lifelong advocate for disadvantaged Americans, mirror our thoughts today as we consider black Sampsonians who have made their mark on our county thought the years.

As we consider their individual and collective achievements during Black History Month, it is easy to see how their care and concern for this county is interwoven in its progress and how they, along with other great Sampsonians, blazed the path that the rest of us so easily walk today.

One could obviously start with John Merrick, whose portrait watches over us as we drive along Fisher Drive and Vance Street, or with G.W. Herring, who led the creation of the first African American 4-H Club in Sampson County in 1914. But that list can also include others like Dr. John Merritt, John Blanton, Johnny Melvin, Hazel Colwell, Dr. Larry Bell, Johnny Pridgen, Dr. Ted Thomas, Mary Brown, former Garland Mayor Winnifred Murphy, Alfonso Williamson, E.R. Mason, Victor Fryar, William Whitaker, Larry Sutton, Albert Kirby, Maggie Williams, Lethia Lee and Thyllistine Vann, and relative newcomers like Jerris McPhail, Stephanie Graham and Marcus Bass.

Some of those mentioned have been memorialized within these pages for the differences they have made through the years and the care they have exhibited as they have worked to help move this county forward in countless ways. Many others are still blazing trails to this day.

All have worked side-by-side with people from other races, finding common ground in which to forge better relationships and show the world that people who have a like-minded concern for the place in which they live can stand together harmoniously, work for the greater good as one and achieve remarkable success for all.

It is one of the things that makes Sampson County so unique, its people so easy to love. Because when a neighbor needs help here, people don’t look to race or soci-economic status before reaching out their hand, they look within. They don’t see color, they see the heart. And they respond accordingly.

During February we recognize Black History Month, an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history or in our case, recognizing those who have made a difference in Sampson County.

Over the course of the next four weeks, starting today, and thanks to our advertising partners, the center of our C-section is dedicated to honoring some of those African Americans who we believe make a difference right here, right now. It is unfortunate this editorial, nor those pages, can tout them all, many of them everyday citizens who strengthen their churches, their neighborhoods and their families just by virtue of the lives they live and the work they do.

Although we cannot name them all, we salute them all and thank them for helping to make Sampson County a great place to live.

It is all of us who care that make a difference in our county, and by virtue of that fact, make a mark on the world.