Young Black sees some adults as race’s big problem
“I am a citizen of Marion, a citizen that lives in Gent’s. I don’t consider myself a black man, just a man. Just Donald Allen, not black Donald Allen.”
But the community of Marion, Allen feels, has not let him or other young blacks drop the added labels of definition. Not that he is ashamed of his race, simply prouder of being a man. Continue reading
But complains about jobs
Eighty years in one place tends to mellow problems.
Perhaps it’s an understanding that comes from not only hearing about changes but living through them.
Or perhaps the years simply blur the contradictions into accepted reality. Continue reading
Marion Pastor Maintains
The Rev. Robert Buchanan, pastor of the Bethel AME Church, Marion, doesn’t like the psychological walls around his home.
He lives on Monroe Street in the heart of Gent’s addition, but the barriers to which he refers don’t surround a circumscribed area. They surround a people. His people.
“Gent’s Addition is a ghetto. It didn’t have to be at first, but restrictions both inside and out have sustained the old ghetto way of life.
By a ghetto, the Rev. Buchanan means “a place where low-income people live in sub-standard housing without the aid other parts of the city receive.” Continue reading
Is it a ghetto surrounded by psychological barriers?
This is the first in a series of six articles by Sandy Blumenfeld about Marion’s “community within a community,” Gent’s addition, the heart of Marion’s black community.
A community within a community, a fixed area within an expanding city. Continue reading
The Marion Monitor (MM) and Egyptian Press (EP) were published during these next few years. The Monitor, published by Copeland and Alden on Thursday, was a Republican paper costing $1.50 per year. The Press, Democratic and published on Friday, was edited by William S. Washburn. The cost of a subscription was also $1.50 per year. Abbreviations indicate which paper these items were taken from. Sometimes different details were given and items were combined from both papers. Continue reading