come back to my child
with me I grew up on the near east side
of Columbus Ohio with Franklin Park
Nelson Park
Hayden Park Beatty Center where cute
boys taught tennis lessons on clay
courts restaurants and nightclubs where
the OJS played when I was too young to
go in barber and beauty shops Lee’s
style shop a hardware store bowling
alley churches that had teas and fashion
shows penny candy stores as children our
parents took us to Franklin Park where
we’d roll down hills and watch fourth of
July fireworks while listening to WV ko
radio a family reunion a family reunion
as teens we’d ride our bikes to Early’s
record shop and spend our summers at
Maryland pool in high school we drive to
Franklin Park and sit on the hills and
scope out other teens going by or
sometimes we’d have political rallies
say it loud I’m black and I’m proud or
keep your head to the sky
depending on our philosophical frame of
reference for that day on Fridays we’d
go to Frazier’s fish buy the fish they
fry it up you take it home on Saturdays
after chores we go to Mount Vernon to
Swan cleaners and Tyler drugs to fill
prescriptions then dad would take us to
Spencer’s hot dogs where he could feed
the whole family for $1 on Sundays after
church at Shiloh Baptist we’d stop at
the Long Street Dairy Queen at home we
listen to Count Basie Duke Ellington and
Fancy Nancy Wilson on the radio or we’d
play the temptations to Supremes the
four mints on the high five
ooh baby baby it was so fun being black
within the sanctuary of our community we
were safe independent possible we had a
legacy to live up to
we had a black Hospital a black nursing
home a black bank the Adelphi built in
1929
we had a legacy to live up to and we
would do more build more create more our
community was our family it’s a family
affair
there it’s a family affair
now some people have said that I romance
my childhood but I don’t think I do
I’ve spoken to others who say similar
things we had a vibrant creative
sustainable community where our young
people were nurtured and our old people
were cared for but that community no
longer exists and its history whether by
default or design is being erased the
landmarks that identified our community
as prosperous independent empowered are
being eliminated and not just by
gentrification and city redevelopment
but also by those members of our own
community who failed to see the value of
our built structures what Lonnie bunch
the director of the National Museum of
african-american history and culture
calls our sacred spaces classmates from
my integrated high school can still take
their children back to the ice-cream
parlor where they rode their bikes or
the pizza place where they met they’re
made as our built structures are being
hollowed out so is the community
connectivity as our iconic structures
are being erased so are those
identifiers z’ that remind us and tell
others who we are but why is this
important you may ask isn’t this just
progress I recently learned of an
organization called the Reagan legacy
project this is a group of people who
organize themselves around the goal of
naming a built structure in each of the
50 states and every county after Ronald
Reagan so that’s 50 states and over
3,000 counties will have built
structures named after the 40th
president obviously this organization
recognizes the value of keeping in the
narrative and legacy alive so I believe
our built structures are important for
three reasons
one is they are memory keepers one
Sunday when dad and I left Shiloh
Baptist Church we stopped at the
Longstreet Dairy Queen we had to step
around
a man who was inebriated and hadn’t made
it home the night before sleeping on the
sidewalk as we ordered our ice cream me
a chocolate cone and him his
strawberries shake the man woke up and
he seemed to feel obligated to entertain
us so he launched into a baseball game
in which he was the pitcher the batter
the base runner the third baseman and
the announcer after two long softball
strikes he hit a long one to left field
with explosive base running he came
around third and slid home where he was
announced safe at this point dad and I
were enjoying it laughing and applauding
he seemed to come back to himself and
recognize us not just as baseball fans
but also as individuals oh he said to my
dad I’m sorry you’re a preacher aren’t
you you’re a preacher no this brought on
more gales of laughter from us because
my dad was sometimes mistaken for a man
of the cloth no I’m not a preacher my
dad said oh I apologize you’re a
preacher no no good game though yeah did
you see that hit a home run the second
reason I think our built structures are
important is because they act as
guideposts method Hospital the Adelphi
Bank the Macon regal and Empress
theaters formed an entertainment section
that was known across the country and
these can inspire our young
entrepreneurs to recognize what was here
before and then know what is possible in
the future the third reason I believe
our built structures are important is
because they can be sites of resistance
according to dr. Vesta Daniel the
Lincoln Theatre was built in response to
discrimination blacks were not allowed
in the white theaters downtown and so a
black architect got it together with
black Masons and they built the Lincoln
in 1929 in the 1940s when the ownership
changed hands to a man named Neff blacks
were still welcome to come to the
Lincoln but not to the other theaters he
had downtown they were still whites only
that’s when Constance Nichols and other
members of the Vanguard League decided
to boycott the Lincoln they kept blacks
from going into the Lincoln so that they
could still make Neff understand that he
needed to welcome patrons to all of his
theaters which he did they were
successful in doing that and so once
again the Lincoln Theatre became a site
of resistance so what do we do well one
of the things that we’re doing in
Columbus Ohio was returning Poindexter
village
the two remaining buildings into a
museum and cultural Learning Center
Poindexter village was built as an
affordable housing complex by the
government it opened in 1942 great
fanfare and Roosevelt came here himself
to mark the occasion as blacks were
leaving the south coming up through the
Great Migration they came to northern
cities looking for safety and
opportunity they found both in Columbus
and Poindexter Village after extensive
struggle by community activists
sustained in large part by a little
elder named Rita Smith we formed an
organization and partnered with the
History Society to save and preserve the
history and African culture of
Poindexter village residents and the
Near Eastside and to create a legacy for
our future generations
unlike the stereotypical presentations
of public housing
Poindexter Village functioned as an
African village it nurtured its
residents and created such wonderful
people as Amina Robinson the
internationally known artist dr. Errol
pioneer in the treatment of epilepsy
Angela pace news anchors international
jazz musician Steve Paco Grier and many
others that were good and
American citizens our built structures
take us back to our past they remind us
of our past and they give us direction
for our future with the passing of the
Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin I couldn’t
help but wonder about what made her such
a great icon and it was because she
connected us to our past her holler
could take us all the way back to the
cries of our ancestors
she was a guidepost for musicians and
artists of all kind and she was engaged
in community activism all throughout her
career and like Aretha Franklin whose
legacy was international and universal
our built structures can function in the
same way I once saw a film called the
Train it was about it’s a fixed tisha
story about the end of World War two
the Germans have occupied a French town
and protected a gallery that had
wonderful masterpieces in it on their
way out of town they were now going to
loot that same gallery and so the
curator unable to convince the German
officer not to do this went to the
French underground and asked for their
help why should we risk our lives they
said to save some paintings I knew a
girl who posed for Renoir the curator
explains simply these are our
contribution to humanity they tell the
world who we are
our built structures remind us of our
faith in each other and in God they
connect us to our past and act as
guideposts for our future they are
physical evidence of our capabilities
and they are our contribution to
humanity and this is not just true for
Columbus Ohio it’s true for where you
live look around what built structures
are evidence of your community’s
contribution struggle triumph our
contribution is without being included
in the history of Columbus it’s
incomplete
the presentation and preservation of our
history connects us all and we are all
part of the same family because remember
it’s a family affair
it’s a family affair thank you [Applause]
with me I grew up on the near east side
of Columbus Ohio with Franklin Park
Nelson Park
Hayden Park Beatty Center where cute
boys taught tennis lessons on clay
courts restaurants and nightclubs where
the OJS played when I was too young to
go in barber and beauty shops Lee’s
style shop a hardware store bowling
alley churches that had teas and fashion
shows penny candy stores as children our
parents took us to Franklin Park where
we’d roll down hills and watch fourth of
July fireworks while listening to WV ko
radio a family reunion a family reunion
as teens we’d ride our bikes to Early’s
record shop and spend our summers at
Maryland pool in high school we drive to
Franklin Park and sit on the hills and
scope out other teens going by or
sometimes we’d have political rallies
say it loud I’m black and I’m proud or
keep your head to the sky
depending on our philosophical frame of
reference for that day on Fridays we’d
go to Frazier’s fish buy the fish they
fry it up you take it home on Saturdays
after chores we go to Mount Vernon to
Swan cleaners and Tyler drugs to fill
prescriptions then dad would take us to
Spencer’s hot dogs where he could feed
the whole family for $1 on Sundays after
church at Shiloh Baptist we’d stop at
the Long Street Dairy Queen at home we
listen to Count Basie Duke Ellington and
Fancy Nancy Wilson on the radio or we’d
play the temptations to Supremes the
four mints on the high five
ooh baby baby it was so fun being black
within the sanctuary of our community we
were safe independent possible we had a
legacy to live up to
we had a black Hospital a black nursing
home a black bank the Adelphi built in
1929
we had a legacy to live up to and we
would do more build more create more our
community was our family it’s a family
affair
there it’s a family affair
now some people have said that I romance
my childhood but I don’t think I do
I’ve spoken to others who say similar
things we had a vibrant creative
sustainable community where our young
people were nurtured and our old people
were cared for but that community no
longer exists and its history whether by
default or design is being erased the
landmarks that identified our community
as prosperous independent empowered are
being eliminated and not just by
gentrification and city redevelopment
but also by those members of our own
community who failed to see the value of
our built structures what Lonnie bunch
the director of the National Museum of
african-american history and culture
calls our sacred spaces classmates from
my integrated high school can still take
their children back to the ice-cream
parlor where they rode their bikes or
the pizza place where they met they’re
made as our built structures are being
hollowed out so is the community
connectivity as our iconic structures
are being erased so are those
identifiers z’ that remind us and tell
others who we are but why is this
important you may ask isn’t this just
progress I recently learned of an
organization called the Reagan legacy
project this is a group of people who
organize themselves around the goal of
naming a built structure in each of the
50 states and every county after Ronald
Reagan so that’s 50 states and over
3,000 counties will have built
structures named after the 40th
president obviously this organization
recognizes the value of keeping in the
narrative and legacy alive so I believe
our built structures are important for
three reasons
one is they are memory keepers one
Sunday when dad and I left Shiloh
Baptist Church we stopped at the
Longstreet Dairy Queen we had to step
around
a man who was inebriated and hadn’t made
it home the night before sleeping on the
sidewalk as we ordered our ice cream me
a chocolate cone and him his
strawberries shake the man woke up and
he seemed to feel obligated to entertain
us so he launched into a baseball game
in which he was the pitcher the batter
the base runner the third baseman and
the announcer after two long softball
strikes he hit a long one to left field
with explosive base running he came
around third and slid home where he was
announced safe at this point dad and I
were enjoying it laughing and applauding
he seemed to come back to himself and
recognize us not just as baseball fans
but also as individuals oh he said to my
dad I’m sorry you’re a preacher aren’t
you you’re a preacher no this brought on
more gales of laughter from us because
my dad was sometimes mistaken for a man
of the cloth no I’m not a preacher my
dad said oh I apologize you’re a
preacher no no good game though yeah did
you see that hit a home run the second
reason I think our built structures are
important is because they act as
guideposts method Hospital the Adelphi
Bank the Macon regal and Empress
theaters formed an entertainment section
that was known across the country and
these can inspire our young
entrepreneurs to recognize what was here
before and then know what is possible in
the future the third reason I believe
our built structures are important is
because they can be sites of resistance
according to dr. Vesta Daniel the
Lincoln Theatre was built in response to
discrimination blacks were not allowed
in the white theaters downtown and so a
black architect got it together with
black Masons and they built the Lincoln
in 1929 in the 1940s when the ownership
changed hands to a man named Neff blacks
were still welcome to come to the
Lincoln but not to the other theaters he
had downtown they were still whites only
that’s when Constance Nichols and other
members of the Vanguard League decided
to boycott the Lincoln they kept blacks
from going into the Lincoln so that they
could still make Neff understand that he
needed to welcome patrons to all of his
theaters which he did they were
successful in doing that and so once
again the Lincoln Theatre became a site
of resistance so what do we do well one
of the things that we’re doing in
Columbus Ohio was returning Poindexter
village
the two remaining buildings into a
museum and cultural Learning Center
Poindexter village was built as an
affordable housing complex by the
government it opened in 1942 great
fanfare and Roosevelt came here himself
to mark the occasion as blacks were
leaving the south coming up through the
Great Migration they came to northern
cities looking for safety and
opportunity they found both in Columbus
and Poindexter Village after extensive
struggle by community activists
sustained in large part by a little
elder named Rita Smith we formed an
organization and partnered with the
History Society to save and preserve the
history and African culture of
Poindexter village residents and the
Near Eastside and to create a legacy for
our future generations
unlike the stereotypical presentations
of public housing
Poindexter Village functioned as an
African village it nurtured its
residents and created such wonderful
people as Amina Robinson the
internationally known artist dr. Errol
pioneer in the treatment of epilepsy
Angela pace news anchors international
jazz musician Steve Paco Grier and many
others that were good and
American citizens our built structures
take us back to our past they remind us
of our past and they give us direction
for our future with the passing of the
Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin I couldn’t
help but wonder about what made her such
a great icon and it was because she
connected us to our past her holler
could take us all the way back to the
cries of our ancestors
she was a guidepost for musicians and
artists of all kind and she was engaged
in community activism all throughout her
career and like Aretha Franklin whose
legacy was international and universal
our built structures can function in the
same way I once saw a film called the
Train it was about it’s a fixed tisha
story about the end of World War two
the Germans have occupied a French town
and protected a gallery that had
wonderful masterpieces in it on their
way out of town they were now going to
loot that same gallery and so the
curator unable to convince the German
officer not to do this went to the
French underground and asked for their
help why should we risk our lives they
said to save some paintings I knew a
girl who posed for Renoir the curator
explains simply these are our
contribution to humanity they tell the
world who we are
our built structures remind us of our
faith in each other and in God they
connect us to our past and act as
guideposts for our future they are
physical evidence of our capabilities
and they are our contribution to
humanity and this is not just true for
Columbus Ohio it’s true for where you
live look around what built structures
are evidence of your community’s
contribution struggle triumph our
contribution is without being included
in the history of Columbus it’s
incomplete
the presentation and preservation of our
history connects us all and we are all
part of the same family because remember
it’s a family affair
it’s a family affair thank you [Applause]
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