Race and Racial Justice

This is my full speech from the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 9, in commemoration of the 50th Commemoration of Bloody Sunday. Due to time constraints, the original was cut down to one minute, so I am sharing my full thoughts here.

This post was originally written for the Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek film website but seemed fitting for Bridge The Gulf because it's about how the story of a community on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is impacting communities in other parts of the country.

I had a Professor of Economics in college tell his students "there is a lot of money to be made when dealing with poor people and children. Neither are in control of their own future and both allow others to make decisions for them. Businesses are allowed to build and tear down housing projects to move them around like nomads all in the name of good. While those in charge of solving the poverty problem are not interested in doing so because if they did their jobs would disappear.

Africatown's Magazine Point Neighborhood is situated on both the Mobile River and the Three Mile Creek. The part of Magazine Point that sets on the Mobile River is where that last shipment of slaves in America actually landed, whereas that portion that sets on the Three Mile Creek has a spiritual connection because it is the place where that last slave shipment would baptize themselves.

All children have the right to an education. However, harsh disciplinary practices regularly deprive students of that right through the use of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions—which often serve to feed students into the school-to-prison pipeline.

The Plateau section of the Africatown community is often referred to as "Africatown's Bedroom Community.” As the name suggests, the Plateau neighborhood's elevation is higher than any other area of the community. Africatown is surrounded on three sides by water. To the north is Hog Bayou, on the east is the Mobile River and to the south is the Three Mile Creek.

The historical value of Africatown's Hog Bayou was carved in stone long before the Oil Barons of the world discovered Africatown's valuable wetlands. Africatown's Hog Bayou will forever be known as the place in Mobile where the "African" slaves taught the "American" slaves how to feed themselves and their loved ones after slavery had ended. The last recorded shipment of slaves to arrive in America landed aboard the slave ship Clotilde in 1860. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, freeing all slaves.

Byron Encalade grew up on the East Bank of the Mississippi River in Southeast Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, raised on a farm on land where his father still lives. He longs for the days when a guy could put in an honest day’s work and still survive. “I really can’t explain how bad it is,” he said, looking across the desolate marina.
 

The history of Africatown's Community Gardens goes back about 55 years. Recently the community proudly showcased its Community Gardens with a ribbon cutting ceremony to kick off its first Share The Harvest Day Celebration. There is however, a dark cloud hovering over the Community Gardens as it does over other parts of the Africatown Community.