
{"id":305,"date":"2007-05-17T08:13:34","date_gmt":"2007-05-17T16:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/05\/17\/foushee-takes-a-seat\/"},"modified":"2011-11-14T13:47:42","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T18:47:42","slug":"foushee-takes-a-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/05\/17\/foushee-takes-a-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Foushee takes a seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/braxton2rev.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/braxton2rev.jpg\" height=\"311\" width=\"249\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>Braxton Foushee is back in action. He rejoined the OWASA board as Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s representative last month. Photo by Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Taylor Sisk<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Once \u00e2\u20ac\u201c when there was no Caribou Caf\u00c3\u00a9, nothing in the way of a sandwich that wraps, and certainly no luxury boutique hotel \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Braxton Foushee sat down at Colonial Drug to be served.<\/p>\n<p>Chapel Hill was even then a bit more progressive than the majority of the South, and a young black man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s money was readily accepted in a Franklin Street business such as Colonial. But that young man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subsequent presence certainly was not. Order to go and be gone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that was the nature of it when Foushee and others instead sat to be served. It was February 1960. For nearly a half century, Foushee has continued to live a life in service to his community.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Foushee sat on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen from 1969 to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc81 and on the OWASA board of directors from \u00e2\u20ac\u212286 to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc88. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now returned to the OWASA board, having been sworn in on April 12.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent weekday breakfast interview at Elmo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Foushee talked a bit about his history and that of his community, but mostly about the future.<\/p>\n<p>Though he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t often speak of his role in helping to integrate local businesses and schools, he remembers well this segregated Southern Part of Heaven.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153After Sunday school we would go across [to Colonial], because that was the custom at the time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d go across the street and get your hot dog or hamburger or either a soda pop, ice cream, candy or whatever, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get that from Colonial Drug or from Long Meadow Dairy.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We went to either one of those places for little refreshments after church, and we were allowed in but you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sit down \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you had to get your stuff and go.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Of the changes that were then demanded and ultimately earned, Foushee says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[A]t that time, the majority of our parents were working for the university or doing domestic work. And here come a bunch of young black kids \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and we could shape the town. When you look back on it, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we shaped the whole scope of the town and the university. Because now they had to deal with us, [we] who had no connections to them and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give a damn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Foushee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s days in organized politics began doing leg work for legendary local activist Rebecca Clark:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rebecca Clark, bless her sweet heart. I did voter registration with Rebecca Clark \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I got involved in politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And then I got into my middle 20s and [a friend] kept saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhy don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you run for the Carrboro board?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 And I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcNo, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re crazy; I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand a chance.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We mulled over that for about a year, two years. And then we did what we normally did \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we started counting. We looked back on the historical records, the voting schemes in Carrboro, and we decided that we might have a shot. So I went in and I put my name in.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He won.<\/p>\n<p>As Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first black alderman, Foushee remembers quite a number of 6-1 votes. His proudest achievement while serving on the board, he says, was bringing bus lines to Carrboro. He recalls that when he entered office, many of the streets in the black communities in Carrboro were still unpaved. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We made some inroads in getting those streets paved, [getting] some reparations started. And I reckon the next proudest thing was that we hired a black town manager,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Richard Wright.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Foushee raised his family here. He has four children \u00e2\u20ac\u201c two sons: one works for the Durham public schools, the other is a warehouse manager for Harris-Teeter; and two daughters: one with the Durham Housing Authority, the other a chemist.<\/p>\n<p>From where he sits today, he believes Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s growth has largely been for the better.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think one of our biggest accomplishments was saving this building right here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says of Carr Mill. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because [prior to that], we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get people downtown; downtown was dying.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done a good job of managing growth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do a good job of managing growth, it gets away from you. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened to a lot of small towns around Research Triangle Park. Actually, we were prepared for the growth. I just think we knew what we wanted to see Carrboro look like in 10 to 15 years, with the basic concept of bringing people downtown.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>The board of aldermen discussed, during his tenure, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153building the little neighborhoods up,  getting more people into these neighborhoods so they could walk downtown.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Of his return to official civic duty, Foushee says he knows that some people are going to look at him and wonder why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back.<\/p>\n<p>But, he says, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never stopped keeping a close eye on local government. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I watch both towns a lot; just looking from the outside.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now brought him back to OWASA is that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so darned tired of seeing these rates escalate.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Confronting that rise in OWASA rates is one of his two priorities. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Somehow we have got to get these escalating rates under control.  And they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going up every year; for the next five years we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at a 7.5 to 8 percent increase.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Of his second priority, he says: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since I left office, the top echelon has stayed the same. The percentage of black decision-makers [in Carrboro] is almost exactly the same\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. [W]e\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to change that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He then adds: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It would be a shame to price people out of living here \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I told Jonathan Howe 20 years ago that that was what he was doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153An average family of four struggles in this town. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care what color you are; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a struggle. I would have hoped that would have eased up by now \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that we would have a better handle on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So maybe I can make an impression, some kind of impact through OWASA. I think there are some people that think like I do on that board. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not in a majority, but there are people who think like I do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>As for again running for a board of aldermen seat, he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to run for the board again. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had my time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for somebody else to do that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cautiously optimistic about a younger generation of leaders: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would hope that we will be able to keep these bright minds in this town, in these communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great area to raise a family.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He then adds this caveat: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I mean, I love politics; I really love it. I love to see changes made and I love to see progress made\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c suggesting therein that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s yet got some sitting to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Braxton Foushee is back in action. He rejoined the OWASA board as Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s representative last month. Photo by Kirk Ross By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer Once \u00e2\u20ac\u201c when there was no Caribou Caf\u00c3\u00a9, nothing in the way of a sandwich that wraps, and certainly no luxury boutique hotel \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Braxton Foushee sat down at Colonial&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","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=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21910,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/21910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}