MLK Day a fitting time to dedicate Columbus bridge to this community hero
On the day the nation celebrated the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., several dozen residents gathered in Columbus for a ceremony to honor the memory of a local humanitarian.
The Brown Avenue bridge was dedicated Monday in the name of Zelma Hennessey, who died in 2012 at the age of 84 after becoming a nonviolent drug-fighting champion.
Hennessey formed South Westview Against Drugs in Columbus, based on the Turn Around America process founded by the late Herman Wrice of Philadelphia. By marching along drug-infested streets and camping outside drug-dealing homes, Hennessey and her followers took back their neighborhood.
Ronzell Buckner, the CEO of Turn Around Columbus, led the effort to have the bridge named after Hennessey.
He met Hennessey 22 years ago, when she and Charlie Mae Banks visited him at his Skippers Seafood Market & Deli and Studio 54 Hair Salon & Day Spa. They asked him to help them combat the drug dealers in the Carver Heights and South Westview neighborhoods.
“They couldn’t sit on their porch and enjoy the evening,” he said. “They couldn’t go in their yard because drug dealers were selling right off their front steps.”
Three days later, Buckner watched the “60 Minutes” interview with Wrice — and saw a proven way to succeed. A “60 Minutes” staff member got Buckner in contact with Wrice.
Wrice accepted Buckner’s invitation to come to Columbus under one condition: He had to get approval from then-police chief Jim Wetherington and Columbus Council. The visit from Wrice sparked the movement Hennessey led.
“She walked and she camped out all day and all night, rain or shine, sleet or snow,” Buckner said. “… She risked her life. The trick of doing this is that, if you disrupt the traffic, then the drug dealers leave because they don’t have customers.”
Buckner urged others to continue Hennessey’s work.
“It’s something you have to do on a regular basis,” he said. “We’ve got to get young people involved. The drug fighters who started this are getting old. They can’t march in the streets and they can’t camp out anymore.”
The Brown Avenue bridge, which runs from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Cusseta Road across Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks, was rebuilt from 2013-15. The $8.5 million project by the Georgia Department of Transportation won the Small Project Under Budget category among the 2017 Georgia Milepost Magazine awards after it was completed $400,000 under budget while improving safety and mobility in the area.
Columbus Council’s board of honors approved Buckner’s request to name it after Hennessey.
“This bridge is close to where she worked, cleaning the community and getting new houses built,” Buckner explained. “This bridge also is important because it connects to the Martin Luther King Outdoor Learning Trail. It gives the history of African Americans from Macon Road all the way downtown to the river.”
In addition to the bridge dedication ceremony Monday — where they chanted, “Up with hope. Down with dope.” — folks participated in a cleanup of the adjacent trail.
According to a Georgia Senate resolution sponsored by state Sen. Ed Harbison, D-Columbus, the SWAD founded by Hennessey spawned the Reclaim Our Children afterschool program, youth baseball and football teams, the first Antidrug World Series Baseball Tournament and 65 new Habitat for Humanity homes.
Hennessey also sponsored the first Turn Around America National Drugfighters Reunion and developed SWAD into a national model for other neighborhoods, the resolution says.
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272, @MarkRiceLE.
This story was originally published January 21, 2019 at 3:43 PM.