Edgar Cage’s name is synonymous with Together Baton Rouge. He has been many things over the course of his long tenure with the organization—co-chair of numerous action teams, recruitment coordinator, primary liaison to the Louisiana State Legislature, and a valued mentor to countless of his fellow leaders. Audio coming soon.

It was an education and an eye-opening experience growing up in Baton Rouge. And I grew up in the era of Jim Crow, where it was separate but equal. And, you know, being a native of Baton Rouge and not experiencing anything else, this is all I knew and all I saw. I did feel and realize that it wasn't right, but it was what we had to deal with. I was fortunate to be raised in a household with both parents, my mother and father. And they worked very hard. They knew the importance of education and they instilled that in my siblings and I. They said, Get this education then you don't have to depend on anybody to give you anything, you can earn it yourself. That always shaped me. My parents did a good job raising me, but I always did want to get to the point where I could be independent. I wanted to lighten their load and put the burden on me to be self-supporting.

I've never gone to an integrated school in my life. One of the things that really opened my eyes was in elementary school, we would get books, and at that time we had book covers on em, you know, and on the inside of a book they had a little ledger where you put your name, your school, and a year. We would occasionally get new books at the Black schools, but these new books had already been filled out by the kids that went to the white school. They were six or seven years old by the time we got them. So that showed me that we weren’t getting the same information and the possibility to fall behind if you didn't do what you needed to do. 

When I went to Southern, I did have a chance to actually go to LSU’s campus just to see what curriculum and what books they were using in my major, because I didn't want to fall behind. So I was able to at least stay up by doing that. It’s not always the institution, it’s the individual. You can have what you want out of anything or you can not get what you want out of anything, but, if you’re going to get anything, it’s what you put in. 

In 1974, I took a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Louisiana. That was the best offer made to me after I finished my time in the Army, so I took it. I was the first African American group salesman that BCBS of Louisiana hired. I started in group sales, then went to a specialty department, that's where I got to meet Pastor Wesley, because I was actually the person at Blue Cross who helped establish a health insurance plan, statewide, for all the community action agencies. Here in Baton Rouge, Rev. Wesley was over at Community Advancement Incorporated, which was one of our key organizations, so that's where I got a chance to work with him.

I finished my career with BCBS in California. 2009 is when we came back to Baton Rouge, in February or March. While I was there in California, my brother, who was a priest at the last church I attended here, he was saying we were getting involved with this new organization and he knew I was coming home. He said, “When you come home, I want you to be the liaison person.” I said sure, I didn't know anything. So, when I got back home, Broderick called and he scheduled a one-on-one. He came and we did a one-on-one and my two major concerns, what I saw in the area—even though I lived in Baker, my heart was still in North Baton Rouge and Scotlandville—I said the lack of a grocery store and the lack of a full-fledged pharmacy was what I would like to see changed. 

When I started going to the meetings Broderick invited me to, I didn't see much diversity. So I made it a point that, if nothing else, I wanted to be there just to add some diversity and possibly a different perspective. That's why I kinda got attached or involved with a lot of different issues. Now, it was all issues that were important to me, and important to our community, so that's why I felt the need to be there and to be a part of it. 

Through Together Baton Rouge, Pastor Wesley and I, we reignited the relationship we had before. And Bobby Thompson, too, because I had grown up with him, he went to the Seventh Day Adventist Church down the street from Marino's, the grocery store my family shopped at. But it's been a plethora of people that I have enjoyed working with and being around. Father Rick Andrus, Rev. Melvin Rushing, Ms. Dorothy, Abel Thompson and Khalid Hudson—it's just too many to name. I think that's what keeps me connected, my admiration for the people in the organization, and the great needs of the community, to bring people like us together to try to change things, to try to make things better.

Together Baton Rouge has been successful, but I think for us to be truly and really successful, we have to reveal before we can heal. I think sometimes in our meetings people's responses are watered down for fear of how others may perceive them. I think that's a problem because we don't all have to agree, but for me to really understand who you are, you have to tell who you are and not try to hide anything or water it down. I'm not saying you have to agree with what is said, but you have to respect it and to respect it you have to hear it. We have to reveal before we can heal. We can't keep these things inside of us for fear of what people might think.