Man says Dothan’s black community has regressed
The symbolism of the election of America’s first black president was not lost on Johnny Smith.
Substantively, however, Smith wonders if the election will mean anything to impoverished Dixie, Baptist Bottoms, Young America or other predominantly black areas in Dothan.
Smith rides down East Burdeshaw Street and the surrounding area and remembers a time when most street corners boasted a black-owned and/or operated business.
There was the gas station at Shirley Street, the upholstery shop further down Burdeshaw, the sandwich shop on Newton, the cab company near Clayton, the clothing store, Texaco and the dry cleaner on Range.
He keeps going, pointing here and there to another place and time. It was the late ‘60s. It wasn’t that the black community in Dothan was prospering then, he said, but it was together.
Smith said the Jim Crow laws that existed for many years in the United States forced a de facto segregation all over, not just in schools.
“With Jim Crow laws, blacks were really forced to provide for their own people. At that time, blacks were self sufficient,” he said.
But while many see a steady progression for the black community since the ’60s, Smith said he sees a regression. Two-parent households are disappearing. Crime is exploding.
Smith traces the beginning of the regression back to full school integration in the early 1970s, but he stops short of saying integration is the cause of the problem, nor does he say the black community in Dothan would be better off to return to a “separate but equal” status.
“That would be a very controversial statement,” Smith said.
Smith said the causes are numerous and complex; the solutions even moreso.
Smith did say integration led to a fragmentation of the black community in Dothan. Children were bussed far and wide. Soon, the business and jobs base fled.
Lose the community, then lose the family, Smith said. Lose the family, then lose the future.
Smith says the blame can’t be placed on any one place or thing. It can’t be placed on integration, nor can it be placed on a white community even if portions of it may have practiced segregation long after laws were passed to end it.
“You can’t really fault the white man,” Smith said. “It’s not all his fault. Some of it is black people’s fault.”
So, where should the blame be placed? Smith said it should be placed in several areas.
—In the home:
“My parents gave me rules,” Smith said. “One of the main rules was that in order to make yourself worthy, know all you can. Get as much knowledge as you can. And they would tell me also to be proud of your community. Never embarrass your family name. When you go out, remember that you represent your community and also remember you represent your race. You are judged on the image you portray. You are judged on your character.”
“A lot of black families are not passing that down,” he said.
—In the church:
“You have to have real leadership from the black church,” Smith said. “Some are doing great things. Some pastors are nothing but shysters in the pulpit. They slide around and learn a few scriptures but they’re not doing anything but chasing dollars and chasing tail. You have to have a minister that doesn’t just preach the word on Sunday, but lifts the community up the six other days in the week.”
—At City Hall
“The local government — when it comes to urban planning — shut out these areas of town. When a community becomes ill, the people in that community become ill,” he said.
Smith, 44, helped establish a local chapter of the National Urban League in 1997. He said he began the effort with a lot of plans and high expectations. However, he said the chapter fizzled after a few years.
“Our biggest problem was lack of adult participation,” Smith said. “We had no help, or very little help. Nobody wanted to volunteer. We took a lot of kids to a lot of places and they got to see a lot of things they wouldn’t have gotten to see — inaugurations, Super Bowls, the World Series.”
Smith, a self-described conservative, has also served on the Dothan Planning Commission and was one of five commissioners to initially oppose the construction of the Flying J Travel Plaza near Cloverdale. He also ran for a seat on the Houston County Commission as a Republican in 2004, but was not elected.
Smith said health problems are currently keeping him from working. He said he is doing volunteer work and would like to reorganize a group similar to the Urban League.
The path to a vibrant, prospering, healthy black community is a long one, Smith said.
He said churches have to be the glue that holds the community together and families have to expect more from their children. He said laws need to be changed that seem to reward poor behavior and that more needs to be done to encourage the location of businesses in the black community.
“That doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface,” Smith said.
Smith said he doesn’t claim to know all the answers. He also said he expects many to disagree with his views.
“It makes me sad to ride around our neighborhoods and see what they have become,” he said. “Maybe we can start to have a conversation about this.”
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Although I always look askance at notions of cultural decline, I also think that there is much truth in what Mr. Smith said to the Eagle. Self-importance and complacency characterize our culture to a degree that makes me very uncomfortable, and our civic values have followed suit. Going beyond mere partisanship, I get the impression that Americans truly misunderstand our own system of governance and the tradeoffs that politics require. This begs the question of how on earth we ever felt comfortable spreading democracy to Iraq or anywhere else, given that most of us have absolutely no idea of the demands of our own democratic society. I find this situation shameful and regrettable.
Ultimately, our litigious society is here to stay. Opportunism is and probably will continue to be the order of the day, thanks especially to our national love of individualism. But before concluding that humanity itself has regressed, just look at the situations in countries like Democratic Republic of Congo or Somalia. People there have little hope for the type of rights and liberties that we enjoy, and have virtually no chance to pursue their dreams. Even though it may not seem like it, on the spectrum of nations, we are near the top. The fact that in Dothan, AL we can know about the profound misfortunes of others on diverse continents is itself an indication that progression or regression of humanity ultimately depends on each of us.
Actually the NAAWP, was formed in 1953. In 1955 their charter was revoked. David Dukes, white nationalist and former Grand Wizard of the KKK later rekindled the organization. The name is a take off of the NAACP.
The difference is the NAACP was organized to specifically focus on the challenges faced by people of color. I believe this organization faced many of it’s own challenges to include, at one time, being barred from operating within the borders of the state of Alabama.
The NAAWP was formed as a retaliation to people of color and promoted separatism and inequality. In other words, NAACP good… NAAWP Bad….
What I’d like to see is an organization called the “National Association for the Advancement of ALL People”... sorry NAAAP is taken.
While I had actually forgotten history in my previous post, I appreciate the civilized way I was rebutted.
I’m certainly not trying to take away from the accomplishments made by blacks and cannot in any way deny history. But that same history doesn’t belong only to blacks, it also belongs to whites as well. Like it or not, both races were there. Therefore, that history is part of the AMERICAN culture.
What I’m getting at is simple. We are so busy fighting each other for rights, acceptance and equality. We are so busy suing our neighbor for hurting our feelings. We are all so busy focusing on our races, that we tend to forget that we are all on the same planet, in the same country, in the same state and even eating in the same restaurant.
Mr Smith is right. I 100% agree with him. But… while there is regression in the black neighborhoods, there is regression in many communities. Everything he said about the black communities… the failures in the home, in the church, in city hall is also applied to the white homes, churches and yes the same city halls.
It just seems that instead of working together, we instead, create our own cultures and “take care of our own”. In my opinion, humanity itself, has regressed.
johnlsenn, perhaps these are your honest perceptions of how whites view blacks and vice versa, but I find it way off base because ignoring race is very clearly not going to lead us to equality like you suggest. (I won’t even touch your comments about ‘Mexicans.‘) Of course, there is a National Association for the Advancement of White People. It was started by a white guy named David Duke. Maybe you’ve heard of him. In essence, this is America and you’re obviously free to start whatever group you like. But the prevailing wisdom is that at least in terms of race, whites have had it easier than blacks. Our culture rightly recognizes this uncontroversial truth. So you’re free to criticize til you’re blue in the face, but France has already tried your approach to race-neutral living and guess what. It doesn’t work. They’ve chosen to forgo different identities in favor of an all-encompassing ‘Frenchness’ and it has done nothing but exacerbate their serious race problems. Here, we’d have the additional worry about how it would affect policymaking vis-a-vis census data. Besides, the fact that we have a half-black half-white president is cause for celebration because he exemplifies the fact that, unlike French policy, we can all be Americans and still be proud of our different identities. That my friend is what being an American in the world today is all about.
johnlsenn, don’t forget how blacks state employees in Alabama don’t complain about their paid holiday in June, Jefferson Davis’ birthday.
Also, when we quit thinking in terms of generalities of others and take responsibility for our actions then this country will change, til then just keep praying!
Our country is founded on the premise that all men were created equal. This is true. However, that’s where equality seems to end. Whites hating blacks, blacks hating whites, and everybody hating Mexicans. And for what reason?
Certainly, not because one race is better than the other, but here’s how I see it. Blacks don’t like whites because “whitey keeps trying to keep me down”. Whitey keeps trying to put the black man down, because they feel the blacks get better benefits because companies are afraid NOT to hire them and are scared to fire them. Whites think blacks play the race card waaayyy too often. Some blacks think the white man owes them something because of slavery.
Mexicans are a complete other story. Everybody hates the Mexicans because while everyone else is without a job, the Mexicans are taking the jobs the whites and blacks, for some reason, feel are beneath them. But, at least now the blacks and whites have an excuse not to work, because the Mexicans have all the jobs. Here’s a kicker… NOT ALL MEXICANS ARE ILLEGAL. However, they all get lumped into the same category. Just like the sorry blacks… Just like the sorry whites.
I have a dream… one day, there will be no black history, or Latin history… only AMERICAN HISTORY. There will be no BLACK PRESIDENT… only the Honorable President of the United States. As long as we self segregate by placing a color or race in front of a title, there will NEVER be equality.
Think about it for a minute…NAACP…(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) a bit outdated for a title. How would a title National Association for the Advancement of White People be taken.
Miss Bronze America…for blacks What about a Miss White America, where only Whites were allowed to compete?...
United Negro College Fund… for blacks… How about the United Caucasian College Fund? You know, let’s only give money to colleges for whites.
Minority scholarships… How about scholarships for Majority only… meaning you could only qualify if you were NOT a minority.
I’ve never seen White History month, because everyone is scared to pursue that. I just believe inequality works both ways… Too often when a white person speaks up for what they believe is their equal rights, they are accused of being prejudicial and a racist.
The only way for equality to work, is for us to ALL be Americans. Our birth certificates should only read the nationality, not the race. In 50 years, our races will have merged more and more to a point that race won’t be an issue. Unfortunately, Alabama still hasn’t emerged from the dark ages to see this.
I presently have very good friends that are white, black, Mexican, Peruvian, Philippine, Korean and Chinese. I treat them all with respect and try to learn about their cultures and their way of life. They treat me with the same respect and teach me all I wish to know. Mutual respect for people, not their race is what it’s all about.
First of all, the title of this article is pretty shoddy. “Man” says Dothan’s black community has regressed? Shouldn’t it read “Local man” or “Community leader” or something besides the generic “man”? In any case, that objection pales in comparison to what mrhunter had to say. Separate but equal was immoral and wrong. Nothing about it was “natural” and society was certainly not “much better off then.“ Maybe you need to make another “accessment.“ Or maybe you should go back to elementary school where they should have instructed you in the words of Jefferson that all are created equal.
I am not black. I would vote for this man for office! He speaks of common sense, yes this is affecting all communities and yes we all need to look in the mirror first. But Mr. Smith has the ability to look past the blame and focus on future. Funny thing he didn’t ask for any GOVERNMENT handouts. HMMM. Family and GOD.
The president is black???
It’s not just the black community thats regressed , its the entire community.I agree with his accessment of seperate but equal. Society was much better off then.Integration not only fragmented the blacks but also the whites. At present time schools for example are rapidly becoming segregated by parents relocating or magnet schools of choice.This is the natural process of evoluation. It’s really rare to see a lamb lie with a lion by choice.
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