A Leaderless Community Leads to a Disempowered Community
by Betty Jean Grant
In the early 2000s, a brave and courageous Buffalo Police Officer named Cariol Holloman Horne was in the fight that ended her career. She had put saving a life above saving a job, and that decision found her jobless, blacklisted and on the verge of homelessness. And, yet the self-identified leaders in the Black community did not rally around Carole, to make sure she and her family were fed. It took years for the community to recognize the tremendous sacrifice Officer Horne made when she removed the hand of one of the officers from around the neck of a citizen in distress.
In fact, it took the national news, around the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, to get the community in Buffalo to feel courageous enough to recognize a bad cop and to support a good cop when they encountered both. Police Officer Horne, with the support and stewardship of a dynamic Buffalo Common President, Darius Pridgen, was able to get a law passed that dealt with a public servant’s Duty to Intervene when a citizen life or wellbeing is at risk when an officer in law enforcement or other jobs, is dealing with the public.
Another case that comes to mind is the initial lack of support shown to a group of men known as the Buffalo Five. These men, three of whom spent decades in prison for a murder they clearly did not commit, were almost ignored and had to beg for support from a community that believed the words from a corrupt DA office that lied and withheld evidence in 1977 when these men were convicted as well as in 2022 when they were finally allowed a chance to try and clear their names and reputations. John Henry Walker Jr. remains as the only surviving member of the Buffalo 5 that was incarcerated who is still alive.
When they got their day in court, it was shown, as clearly as it could be, that these men, who were teenagers when they were falsely convicted and who are now senior citizens, were convicted with no evidence, no weapon or object that killed the victim and no blood or any articles linking them to the crime. But, because the Erie County DA in 1977 convinced the jury to convict them, they spent 20 years or more, imprisoned for a crime they did not commit.
In February 2005, the good citizens in Rochester ruled in favor of fairness and awarded the two surviving members of the Buffalo 5 multiple millions of dollars to address the incarceration of three innocent young men. A jury in Erie County followed suit and awarded them millions more. Sadly, one member of the Buffalo 5, Darryl Boyd, died before he was able to use the money to help others as he had wanted to do. The elected leaders sat timidly in their political seats as they voiced quiet support behind closed doors.
Buffalo has always been a force in the empowerment or in some cases, the disempowerment of its black citizens or visitors. From providing sanctuary to escaping enslaved Africans from the south, on their trek to Canada, to a former Buffalo resident, Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, supporting and enforcing the Dred Scott Decision, that in essence, allowed anybody to capture any black person who could not prove that he was free or did not have ‘papers,’ to be captured and returned to any slave holding state.
Black Buffalo was powerful in the 1920s when the Honor able Marcus Garvey organized and recruited citizens to join his organization, the UNIA, The Universal Negro Improvement Association. The black community became involved and crowds of 10,000 or more attended some of those meetings. William Gaiter and the BUILD and Juneteenth organizations were effective in mobilizing and empowering the community. Leaders and politicians such as Hon. Arthur O. Eve, George K. Arthur; Herb. Bellamy; and Daniel Acker, Rufus Frazier, Frank Mesiah from the NAACP, delivered for the Eastside.
For the lack of a leader or leaders, the eastside of Buffalo will continue to stagnate regardless of whom it is who are in the political offices that represent the city of Buffalo. Don’t believe me? Take of those rose- colored glasses, put a stiff rod in your back and demand equity for our part of the city!