"We have racial problems in Valdosta"
On Sept 22, 2006, the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) reported that Barber Park name change was delayed for up to 90 days. The VDT Reporter Kenner Walsh closed the article on Barber Park with comments I made before the Mayor, City Council, Veterans, and other citizens in attendance. “You can ignore it if you want to. You can bury your head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist. But we have racial problems in Valdosta.”
However, the (VDT) omitted my reasons for making the comment. Therefore I will give my reasons plus a little more. SEE MY ADDRESS TO THE MAYOR, COUNCIL, MAJORITY BLACK SELECT COMMITTEE, AND THE LOCAL CITIZENS.
http://barberpk.blogspot.com/2006/09/sept-22-rhynes-responds-to-vdts_26.html
It was Robert Jefferson, Chairman of the Majority Black Select Committee and supporter of the Mayor’s last election campaign that said in the times on September 19th that the task was made very easy. But all citizens in Valdosta are not from the planet Plukatum. Where people die on their knees instead of standing up on their feet on behalf of the dream of Rev. Martin L. King Jr., and others who traveled that great line of divine.
My views are in contrast to Chairman Jefferson and the committee itself: These are the facts about Barber Park, and the Majority Black Select Committee. And they can disapprove me if they can. But Valdosta Historical Archives will record for generations to come that:
No one who originally petitioned the city to renovate the park---were on the committee. No one who discovered that the person for whom the park was named-----denied Blacks access to the park. And rather than integrate the park it was closed and pools were covered up----were on the committee. None of the retired educators or pastors who spoke so eloquently in favor of the name change----were on the committee. No professors from Valdosta State University who spoke out in favor of the name change-----was on the committee. No one who was spoken ill of on a local radio talk show----was on the committee. No one who searched the public records, paid money for information under the Freedom of Information Act, the Georgia Open Records Act, and reviewed many pictures of Ossie Davis with local citizens and various newspaper clippings---were on the committee. No one who reviewed the many writings and displayed articles at Macedonia Baptist Church where Ossie Davis consistently visited---were on the committee. No one who researched documents at the Valdosta Historical Museum----were on the committee. No one from among the fifteen Law Abiding Citizens who were arrested, handcuffed, taken to the Lowndes County Jail, had mug shots taken, fingerprinted, placed in solitary confinement, had their names published in the Crime Report of the Valdosta Daily times for their children and love ones to see, held for twenty-four hours without bail, faced a Georgia State Court Judge----for disrupting a public meeting-----were on the committee.
Then the city appealed the verdict to the Georgia Supreme Courts that ruled the fifteen citizens Constitutional Rights had been denied. But not one of the fifteen people was on the Majority Black Select Committee. No one from the Peoples Tribunal, Rev Jesse L. Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, actively involved local NAACP Members or anyone else who spoke out boldly in favor of the name change----were on the committee.
Although, they were the Black, White Right people that dug beneath the rubbish pile of history, carved out from the rejected stones of Georgia, and American history the name (OSSIE DAVIS). It is a name worthy to become----the headstone of the corner of Hightower, and River Street. In a community that is ninety-five percent Black.
Ossie Davis Park could have helped rid the park of its segregated, disgraceful, and shameful historical past, and regardless of the council actions to rename the park in the future. Our Black children will still need, deserve, expect, and have earned the right through the blood and deaths of their ancestors for over four hundred and fifty years----to have positive IMAGES, and SYMBOLS in their own community like the Jews, Whites and others that looks like them. http://barberpk.blogspot.com/2006/09/sept-7th-2006-barber-park-issue-not-on.html
The race problem in Valdosta must be acknowledged openly or our city will be unable to move forward. We cannot continue to bury our head in the sand like the legend concerning the ostrich. We must acknowledge that out of nine public City Schools only one is named after a Black Person. The low number of Black Educators employed in both the City and County Public School System for whatever reason-----is an embarrassment to all people of conscious in our metropolitan metropolis. And this includes members of our Armed Forces NOW serving at Moody Air Force Base here in our community.
My last check revealed that out of twenty-three city and county department heads. There were less than three positions held by a Black Person. When I questioned the number of Black Judges on this circuit, and how many Black Bank Managers are in this city. People looked at me as if I----was a brother from another planet, and during court proceeding Whites dominate all positions (JOBS) in and surrounding the court system. This is the real test of how the majority feels towards all citizens being treated equal in this town.
So Blacks see Blacks who go along to get along with others as wind that blows over men, women, and children in a community where the people are dead. It may look good when temperatures are 105 degrees but the corpses remains the same and without change. What is needed is real action from a real shovel to bury the dead so the living can live.
So our elected officials must understand that we are not all from the Planet Plukatum. Therefore elected officials must address the real issues that have existed for too long in our community. The Barber Park issue for example has gone through many twists and turn of the coin. It first started out in truth with the Valdosta Daily Times reporting repeatedly that the land for Barber Park was donated, which turned out to be false. Then rants and raves were published over and over again to seal the minds of ill informed citizens that the land was donated. Then they said; it would be hard to change the name from Barber Park because there was a contractual agreement between the family and city. Then it’s only the Peoples Tribunal that wants the name changed. Then if the name is changed they will want every monument in the city changed. Then they said disrupting a public meeting is not the best way to get things done under our form of government.
So fifteen law abiding citizens were arrested, jailed, went to courts and it was ruled that their constitutional rights had been denied. Then a park had to be renamed for someone who had deceased. Then it should be renamed for a person from the local community. Then many citizens who spoke at several city council meetings comments about renaming the park were omitted from articles reported to the general public following highly charged meetings. Then it was said that Ossie Davis was not from Valdosta, which has been disapproved many times over. Then the park should include everybody. Then its just people outside the district who are complaining. Then we should not accept money from anyone who may seek to control the process, and that others donated money upfront for parks etc., without any stings being attached.
All this seemingly to be justification for NOT renaming Barber Park after Ossie Davis a worthy Black person because it would offend too many other people. But in my humble opinion some people seem to believed that God cannot use the rejected stones of our community to become his headstone of the corner for equality. People may have thought that Local Black Civil Rights organizations and White Right People would fade into the sunset because the South Georgia Mass News Media Whiteout Machine refused to publish the real truth to the citizens in this South Georgia Town. But eventually, they will realize that just throwing the clock out the window, burying it beneath the sand or hiding it behind a secret wall in some ancient notebook of secrecy. As if it would stop the advance movement of time.
So then on September 22nd, 2006, it was decided by our elected officials to allow up to ninety more days to see what veterans will say about the committee recommendation to rename the park “Veterans Memorial Park.” Soon we will be in our third year deciding on what to do concerning Barber Park. While the hole they have dug in our beloved city is getting larger and larger. Therefore we should take this opportunity to ask all our elected officials. Why they have not looked into the eighteen jailed deaths that have occurred in our surrounding the Lowndes County Jail for whatever reasons since 1994. Moreover we must ask. How many more must die and when will the trend end?
So to rename Barber Park after a worthy Black person in a community that is ninety-five percent Black is the moral, historical, political and right thing to do. It is a sad, and painful historical fact. That Black people have always had to fight other Blacks from start to finish. All because their eyes were too tiny to see larger images outside of themselves so our Black leaders had to fight them continuously----to get where we are today. This is routine for us, and our beloved community.
So I close with my own proverb: That two heads, maybe better than one, but never forget, which one belongs to you. So individually elected officials should do the right thing and let history record their vote that will stand the test of time for what is right so our community can move forward.
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
President, Valdosta-Lowndes County Branch NAACP
A concerned citizen and brother of humanity
PS: This response to the VDT, the Majority Black Select Committee, and Elected Officials are too long to be published. However, the truth must be told, recorded and exposed. Because in the end only truth will set/make us free as a community, state, nation and world. Then all the people of God will say Amen, and A women. Peace!
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