Columbus marks MLK Day by finishing one project, starting another with his dream in mind
On the holiday celebrating the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a local community development group and its supporters celebrated the completion of one project and the beginning of another — both designed to help make the civil rights leader’s dream a reality.
The nonprofit organization Turn Around Columbus cut the ribbon on the MLK Outdoor Learning Trail and broke ground on the George Washington Carver Victory Garden & Farm during a combined ceremony Monday.
The 2.2-mile trail stretches from 10th Avenue to Macon Road via Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Along the path are 11 markers explaining parts of civil rights history in Columbus:
- Former RC Cola building. In the mid-1900s, for six RC bottle caps, Black children could watch movies at the Liberty Theatre.
- A.J. McClung YMCA, named after the city’s first Black mayor pro tem, who led the city for 52 days in 1973 after Mayor J.R. Allen died in a plane crash.
- The 1971 fire bombings of more than 100 white-owned properties after a 17-year-old Black youth was shot by a white officer. Members of the Afro-American Police League called for a strike to protest racism in the department.
- Schools named after Black education leaders William Henry Spencer and Shadrack Marshall.
- Neighborhood of Radcliff, home to the former Wynnton Hill Rosenwald School. It was renamed the Radcliff School and in 1944 became the city’s second high school for African Americans before it was destroyed in a 1971 fire.
- Dr. Thomas Brewer, the civil rights leader with a school named after him and a legacy for helping to establish the Columbus chapter of the NAACP in 1939.
- Desegregation of Carver High School, first by teachers in 1968.
- E.E. Farley, a businessman and civil rights leader whose Farley Realty Company offered African Americans a chance for the suburban life in segregated neighborhoods before the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
- Neighborhood of Carver Heights, where more than 430 single-family homes for African Americans were built between the late 1940s and early 1960s in a new architectural style called the American Small House.
- Carver Heights Motel welcomed Black travelers and provided a central location to recruit civil rights activists.
- First location of Camp Benning, named after Confederate Brig. Gen. Henry Benning and the 1918 predecessor of the U.S. Army post relocated and renamed Fort Benning in 1920. In 2018, Fort Benning welcomed its first black commander, Maj. Gen. Gary Brito.
Turn Around Columbus volunteer and grant writer Irene Shaver told the Ledger-Enquirer the estimated cost of the markers and the installation is $10,000, funded by private donations and in-kind contributions. Columbus State University, Columbus Consolidated Government, Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley, Omega Lambda Iota Social Action, Columbus 2016 and Dragonfly Trail are listed as project partners.
The trail is part of the city’s approximately $3 million makeover of MLK Boulevard, including sidewalks and bike lanes. While the markers along the path help teach Columbus where it comes from, the victory garden and farm are expected to help teach Columbus where it can go.
Turn Around Columbus is trying to raise $4.3 million to construct a community resource center and agricultural learning campus on the 10 vacant acres behind the Marshall Success Center and Davis Elementary School along MLK Boulevard.
“This land lab will allow students to work with their hands,” Muscogee County School District superintendent David Lewis told the approximately 50 folks gathered at the ceremony. “They’ll be able to learn — truly — the principles, concepts that are so critically important for them to understand how to implement science, math, technology and those other aspects.”
Lewis praised Turn Around Columbus president Ronzell Buckner.
“We are excited about it, we are proud to be part of this project, and we thank Mr. Buckner for his vision, for making this project a reality,” Lewis said.
Buckner reminded the crowd that the school system and city government need citizens to do their part to benefit the community.
“We don’t want this project to start and die out,” Buckner said. “We want this project to live on in our school system as long as Columbus has a school system. We want this project to live on to help the tourists understand that Columbus is making a difference, not only in Columbus but in the state of Georgia as a whole.”
How to come together
The Ledger-Enquirer asked folks attending the ceremony: How can our nation use the spirit of King’s dream to come together in 2021 after the racial justice protests divided us in 2020?
Jeremy Brantley, 27, of Turn Around Columbus: “Dr. King was a person that was selfless. … When he died, he was confronting the economic injustice in a lot of these impoverished communities. And that’s the part you don’t need legislation for; that’s something that requires just cutting a check. … This country has a lot of capitalistic characteristics to it, and we have social aspects. Can we meet in the middle?”
Toya Chester, 46, of Chester’s Barbecue: “We need to know that we’re all here for the same purpose: to help each other and be our sister’s and our brother’s keeper.”
Joe Kuppe, 78, retired from Aflac: “We have to paint the vision for everybody … recognizing that every person is a child of God, born in His image.”
Linda Robinson, 64, associate pastor at Greater Ward Chapel AME Church: “We do it by stop being afraid. Don’t let fear just take over your whole life. We still have to get out here and love one another.”
Andrew Tatum, 18, freshman at Columbus State University: “We’ll come together by helping each other. Whether it’s big or small, we’re helping if we bring positivity to our community.”
Becca Zajac, 31, executive director of Dragonfly Trails Network: “Dr. King was very civic minded — he was service oriented — and I think those changes start at the community level. That starts with being kind to your neighbor. That starts with helping out your community. These small, little, incremental changes will have a resounding effect.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2021 at 4:01 PM.
