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A Greensboro group,
the Asheboro Square Youth Achievers Club, is spearheading
a project that will immortalize four local pioneers of the
civil rights movement.
Some local youths think members
of their generation should look in their own backyards for role
models - or at least to the entrance of their neighborhood.
To strengthen that message,
the Asheboro Square Youth Achievers Club is paying an artist
to erect busts of the Greensboro Four on the brick wall that
welcomes people into the Asheboro Square neighborhood at Bragg
and Bellevue streets.
That way, the young people say,
residents will remember not only the men's names, but their
faces as well.
The Greensboro Four are the
N.C. A&T students considered pioneers in the nation's civil
rights movement - David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeill
and Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan).
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In 1960, they staged a sit-in at the
lunch counter of the old F.W. Woolworth's on Elm Street after the
store refused to serve them.
Their protest inspired similar movements
across the South that eventually dismantled segregation.
The idea for the busts came from Greensboro
police officer James Hinson, who started the Asheboro Square Young
Achievers Club almost three years ago. Members range in age from 7
to 17.
Hinson noticed that most club members
idolize musicians and athletes instead of local residents, teachers
and parents - so he suggested the Greensboro Four.
"If it were not for them, many African
Americans would not be successful today," said Hinson, who uses the
club as a vehicle to teach young people about staying out of trouble.
"A lot of kids over here don't have
many activities to get into," he said. "We concentrate on career goals
and showing them you can take control of your neighborhood. We have
Clean-Up Days and Good Deed Days, when they help the elderly.
"But I tell them not to expect anything
in return for their good deeds."
During the past year, club members
have held fund-raisers such as car washes and charity ballgames to
raise the $3,500 needed for the busts. So far, they have collected
about $1,000.
But that's enough of an incentive
for Greensboro artist Wilbur Mapp, who will create the busts. Mapp
sculpted the bust of Martin Luther King that sits near the neighborhood
in front of the Simkins-Smith Center.
Mapp, who attended A&T and knew several
members of the Greensboro Four, is excited by the project.
"The busts will be at least life-size.
The one of Martin Luther King is larger than life," said Mapp, an
art teacher at Livingstone College in Salisbury.
"With the impact the movement caused,
they really should be larger than life, but according to the area
and the wall it will sit on, that would be out of proportion."
Greensboro Four member Jibreel Khazan
is flattered by the attention and agrees with Hinson that young people
should have local role models - just as he did growing up in Greensboro's
Warnersville community.
Khazan especially admired two men
from his neighborhood - Dr. William Hampton and the Rev. J.T. Hairston.
Hampton delivered thousands of Warnersville
babies and was the first black person elected to the city council.
He also served on the local education
board.
Hairston was the pastor of Shiloh
Baptist Church for 53 years.
"They both died within a week of the
sit-in," Khazan said. "I was in a state of shock. We had just started
the movement, and I wanted to see both of them to thank them for taking
care of me and they died. But what they taught me lives inside of
me."
Khazan, who works with developmentally
disabled people in New Bedford, Mass., also speaks to young children.
One belief he shares with them is
the importance of honoring those who came before them, regardless
of race.
"It is very important that we honor
our ancestors," he said. "It's important for all people.
"A lot think of people think we were
out there (at Woolworth's) on a dare and by ourselves," Khazan said.
"But we were only acting out what our elders had given us as a heritage
of freedom.
"We sought guidance from our elders
before and after the sit-in, and I still seek guidance from my elders."
From his elders, Khazan said he learned
to be humble and to love God and his community.
"And to have respect for all people,
whether they are rich or poor and regardless of color," he added.
"And to love America, regardless of its problems and to go out and
make it better if we can. They told us that hating somebody won't
do any good. Take that energy and do positive things with it.
"Color is not the issue. People want
to make it the issue, but it is an issue of the heart." |
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