
{"id":1585,"date":"2008-01-03T08:56:21","date_gmt":"2008-01-03T16:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2008\/01\/03\/persistence-brings-results-for-a-proud-and-historic-community\/"},"modified":"2011-12-11T19:37:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T00:37:03","slug":"persistence-brings-results-for-a-proud-and-historic-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/01\/03\/persistence-brings-results-for-a-proud-and-historic-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Persistence brings results for a proud and historic community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/mebane-rogers010308resized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/mebane-rogers010308resized.jpg\" alt=\"Omega Wilson, president of Mebane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s West End Revitalization Association, stands in front of the historic church and cemetery that he and his neighbors have fought to save. Photo by Isaac Sandlin.\" align=\"left\" height=\"115\" width=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s note: This story is the sixth in a series that examines issues related to environmental justice and to the fight of the Rogers and Eubanks roads community to be relieved of what they allege to be an undue burden. To read the stories in this series and for other resources, go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/rogers-road\">www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/rogers-road<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Mebane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s West End Revitalization Association takes on city hall <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Taylor Sisk<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A visceral response,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is how Omega Wilson describes it, a sensation \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that makes you so angry you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what people call rage. When you get so mad you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count to two.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>This, he says, is how his West End Mebane community, approximately 90 percent of which is African-American, felt when they learned a highway bypass was going to be laid smack through the neighborhood, displacing families, razing a 130-year-old church and destroying the cemetery in which generations of community ancestors, including Wilson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own, are buried.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->How could the community not have been previously made aware? How could it be that this plan had apparently been in development for years (according to Wilson, for well over 10 years) without the community being informed, so that its members could speak out against it in public hearings?<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People would say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI mowed the mayor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lawn,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson, founding board member and president of the West End Revitalization Association, says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI took care of his kids.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Nearly half of West End lies within the Mebane city limits. And Mebane is, after all, a small town. Residents shared a post office with city officials, shopped in the same stores, attended, for the past few decades, the same schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI taught his kids and his grandkids,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson recalls people saying of one official or another.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWell, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been knowing her for 20 years.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>There it was though \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a story in the local newspaper that a spur off NC Hwy. 119 was going to divert traffic from downtown and dissect the West End community.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson sits today in his insurance office in the West End, calmly recreating the sequence of events that on a bitterly cold day in December 1994 launched his community into action, when news of the bypass first surfaced \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a sequence of events that continues to unfurl.<\/p>\n<p>A moratorium on the highway still holds today. Meanwhile, Wilson travels North America speaking to grassroots organizations about community development, and the West End Revitalization Association continues to work to preserve, stabilize and develop an historic neighborhood and to construct a stronger sense of community.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More &#8216;pro-action&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a program director for Chapel Hill-based MDC, a nonprofit specializing in community development, John Cooper has worked on a number of environmental justice projects. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a friend and associate of Omega Wilson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, and he says he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learned a great deal from the man.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I was active in the environmental justice movement,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cooper says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I felt like a lot of what was going on was reactive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rather than NIMBYism, what disadvantaged groups most often experience, says Cooper, is WIMBY: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why in My Backyard?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with the question being raised after it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a done deal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c after the permits have been signed, the momentum mounted. By then, Cooper says, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re fighting a losing battle.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So I was of the mindset that what was needed was more pro-action,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he continues. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What was needed was a better working knowledge by disadvantaged groups of land-use planning and of the decision-making that was going on in their communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I met Omega Wilson around the time I started to feel that way, and he was doing exactly that. He had a group of folks who organized before the ground was broken for a highway, to stop that highway. Essentially, all environmental justice issues are land-use issues \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re decisions about what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s placed on the land, how the land is used, how the land is treated, how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s protected. Those are land-use decisions, and land-use decisions are finalized well before ground is broken.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The West End Revitalization Association (WERA) was formed in 1994 after community members learned of the decision to run a Hwy. 119 bypass through West End.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We saw something about some of this in the newspaper,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and we started asking the city manager about what was happening, and got no information.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A public hearing was then called for Dec. 23.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And of course people were kind of alarmed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson recalls. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People were shopping and cooking Christmas dinners and all this kind of stuff. They had to turn off their stoves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson says 30 to 40 people came out for that meeting on a night in which \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the ground was as hard as a rock; it was 17 degrees that night. And people were saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhat in the world are you calling me for? [You sound] like the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming to an end.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 And of course when they got there, and saw the map \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice trails into a derisive chuckle.<\/p>\n<p>The community was stunned. More than 20 homes in the immediate vicinity would have been lost under that initial plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c each family was to be paid $25,000 for their home. The Church of Christ (with a cornerstone that reads \u00e2\u20ac\u01531865\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) would be gone, as would the cemetery and a Masonic temple.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My grandmother is out there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson says, pointing out the window of his office, which also serves as WERA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s headquarters, to the cemetery behind the Church of Christ across the street. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arm is out there. My father lost his arm in a sawmill. His arm is buried out there.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uncles and aunts, veterans, preachers, teachers are buried out there. The level of disrespect was just absolutely. &#8230; It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult to talk about without getting emotional. To think about the idea of somebody doing that to you. &#8230; The church house [would be] gone; the cemetery, gone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all in one fell swoop.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The community, under WERA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guidance, mobilized, gaining a better understanding of how land-use decisions are made \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and can be unmade \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and working to improve relations with city officials \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this latter to little avail. In 1999, WERA filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>In 1994, Bill Clinton had signed Executive Order 12898 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which stated that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionally high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations in the United States and its territories \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>What WERA learned from the federal government was that there were potential environmental justice violations related to the highway plan that involved six branches of the federal government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development among them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And all these branches have offices of civil rights that are supposed to review these plans,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Wilson.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How did they let this through?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson asked the Department of Justice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Happens all the time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says he was told.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint that WERA filed, Wilson explains, wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to stop the highway: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were filing it to get involved in the process. Because we thought the possibility of stopping the highway was zero. So we wanted to get into the planning process, to see what they were going to do and to fight for more money for people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s houses. Because $25,000 wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to do anything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The complaint listed a number of disparities that remained unaddressed in West End \u00e2\u20ac\u201c unpaved roads, no sidewalks or gutters, no public water and sewage, being redlined out of annexation.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The city was annexing property in town all the way [almost four miles out],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re right here? And this is downtown? And they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to annex us so we can vote?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The resistance was now fully mobilized.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nWheels in motion.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Within 72 hours of filing the complaint,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it was like the ground was shaking. We said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhat did we just do?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize what was happening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>WERA was now dealing with the federal government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not everyone in local government was pleased with this development. Wilson experienced open hostilities and a lot of people within the West End community who were initially involved in the fight walked away at that point, afraid, Wilson says, to take on local government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c afraid of losing their jobs with the city or the county, perhaps even with UNC.<\/p>\n<p>A solid core of 12 to 15 remained though. In 1995, WERA became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Over the years, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve received support from the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. They received training through the Rural Center in how to organize and structure themselves and they became a Community Development Corporation.<\/p>\n<p>In 2000, they were joined in their efforts by the Lawyers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the most prominent nonprofit law firms in the country, based in Washington D.C., founded in 1963 at the request of Pres. John Kennedy.<\/p>\n<p>A research project was conducted with the support of the EPA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office of Environmental Justice Small Grant Program. And in 2004, WERA received a $100,000 grant from the EPA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office of Environmental Justice for a Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Project called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Right to Basic Amenities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The City of Mebane has meanwhile applied for and received federal and state grants to make infrastructure improvements in West End and its sister communities, including White Level to the north of the city and Buckhorn Road to the east in Orange County (about a fifth of Mebane is in Orange County).<\/p>\n<p>In an August 2007 press release, Wilson said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are pleased to see some progress with first-time sewer service connections for residents with 50 to 100 percent failure rates of backyard septic systems that threaten drinking well water and surface water. Contamination in streams was tested at levels over 300 times EPA standards in the West End, White Level and Buckhorn\/Perry Hill communities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The future of the highway bypass is as yet unresolved.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tending the vineyard.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What will the ultimate outcome of WERA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work be? And what of that highway?<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Omega Wilson allows. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a situation where Goliath is going to sit down and say to David, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHey, you got me.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work that way. The conversation is, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWait till tomorrow.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what we still hear from some city officials.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll put it this way,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson says, then excuses himself, leaves the room for a moment and returns with a portrait of a man named J.K. Malone: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re continuing a legacy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Malone helped organize community groups, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153African-Americans and white residents alike, to help build a high school\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Wilson, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and he was able to do it against all odds: the only county high school that African-Americans [in Alamance County] could attend.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You become a tender of the vineyard,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson continues, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and when you have dead limbs and things, you have to prune the vineyard in order for it to continue to produce.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I grew up on a farm, so I know what happens to the dead limbs of the pear trees and the apple trees and the corn stalks when you cut them. &#8230; They were debris, they were in the way. And if you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get rid of that undergrowth, that contamination, then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have rotten stuff in your good food. Then the ashes from that, you would use to fertilize the plants.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, he says, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to take the negative energy, the lingering prejudices, the impulse to maintain a status quo that should have long since expired, take it and be nourished in its passing, and grow.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s objective has been to help deploy the community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s energy to productive purpose, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rather than yelling and screaming in city council meetings and getting nothing done.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Persistency is the part of it that makes it a winning formula \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in whatever we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>He tells of going to a recent function where he ran into a state official who once held a dim view of WERA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chances of accomplishing much:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He shook my hand and said congratulations for staying alive. He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI respect that.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to stay in the fight in order to get that respect,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Wilson. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And I said [to myself], \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWow. We got dressed up and came to the party, and this time we got dinner.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Helping make it work.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have this level of success,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson now says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and not share it. The old phrase is, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t light a candle and put a basket over it.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hide your light under a bushel basket is what my grandma would say.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>When WERA began its own schooling in how to organize and how to succeed, it sometimes took the advice of experts and sometimes the community had its own ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson uses the Rubik\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cube as an analogy in how to figure out the formula of success. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of it we did against the advice of the experts and the friendly folks, because we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel going that way would help.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was like the guy who never shoots three-pointers, and the coach is saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcNo, no, no \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 yes.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 We got a lot of that.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a matter of helping other communities make it work for them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson serves today as a representative on the EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and travels the county and beyond speaking to community organizations, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Native American groups, Hispanic groups, Asian groups, white groups, about what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done, and share with them some of our strategies and techniques.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Back in Alamance County, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve still got a lot of stuff to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I had one city councilman say to me, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhen is all this going to be over with? When are ya\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll going to be through with this stuff so that we can get back to doing what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That is to say: construct a highway that was once all but a done deal.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, improvements to infrastructure continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have over 500 houses that were at risk in these three communities,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And when this is done out here \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the 51 houses that are scheduled to be started on in the next few weeks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve still got over 400.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Community groups have to create the leverage to make this stuff work. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s who we are. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where we are. And that&#8217;s why we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re continuing to work.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><em>In the Jan. 10 issue of <em>The Citizen<\/em>: Moving forward.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s note: This story is the sixth in a series that examines issues related to environmental justice and to the fight of the Rogers and Eubanks roads community to be relieved of what they allege to be an undue burden. To read the stories in this series and for other resources, go to www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/rogers-road Mebane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22328,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions\/22328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}