“We Will Restore The Community We Broke!”
(Pastor Kenneth Simmons)
By Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
Last Saturday’s meeting at Dr. MLK Park, in front of the Universal, Black Man’s bust, it was so wonderful and fulfilling to hear the event’s convener and one of those hundreds of young, black men who tore up our community—by selling drugs and engaging in gang activities—take responsibility for the havoc created during the 1980s, 1990s and the early 2000s.
This writer knows exactly what Pastor Sim mons words meant. He was around Goodyear, Nevada, and Moselle neighbor hoods; and so was I. We both played different roles in the story of the decline and destabilization of those once vibrant neighbor hoods, which began over 40 years ago, and continue today. I sat on one side of a store’s cashier’s counter and sold food, beverages, and Michael Jackson para phernalia to the neighbor hood’s people. Kenny and hundreds of youths, mainly black boys, like him, bought my products and then went outside and sold weed and other illegal drugs to customers ranging from Crack addicted moms to city hall workers in business suits, driving to the ‘hood’ to get their fix.
The neighborhood hustlers knew where and who they could buy their supplies from, to maintain their “business.” They could buy the beer, cigarettes, and snacks from Grant’s Variety Shoppe but they knew they had to get their Crack pipes, weighing scales and the little brown bags to sell their merchandise from stores across the street and down the ways from my little store on East Ferry Street. Crack sort of ‘arrived’ in Buffalo around the period from 1982-1985. Regarding our community, it could not have come at a worse time.
During this period, jobs at Republic and Bethlehem Steel factories were lost when both major providers of jobs on the Eastside closed within a few years of one another. This sudden and abrupt loss of job and resources, with no comparable, replaceable and viable employment opportunities, caused drug dealing to flood the neighborhoods and the Erie County Morgue. Also, during this same period, the owners of delis in these same neighborhoods were inundated with offers—and large amount of cash—to sell their stores. This movement of certain new owners taking over the stores helped to enable our young men to increase their drug sales by allowing them to conduct their business by giving permission for the youths to congregate on the sides or in front of their stores.
This writer commends Pastor Kenny Simmons for taking responsibility for his part in the devastation of our community through the illegal drug trade. I applaud the effort he is undertaking with, hopefully, that 1000 like-minded, black men he has called to action. This group of dedicated men, which includes the Nation of Islam’s community and their Fruit of Islam (FOL) security force, meets at noon, on the 3rd Saturday of each Month, at Cold Spring Bible Chapel, 100 Northland Ave, Buffalo, NY 14215.