“to guarantee their equal opportunity to re-purchase the cleared land”. 198 Milton believed the ‘silent tactic’ of city leaders were to preserve the businesses while displacing residents stating, “Negro business without a customer market in the area is a futile operation.” 199 During this special committee meeting, organizers from the University Development area shared their strategies. W.S. Cannon, a representative from the University Center Locally Committee, described his experiences with the city leaders including their “scheme to negate and water down any suggestions from Negros regarding the needs and desires for their own areas.” Reverend William Holmes Borders, pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church, supported Cannon’s view and suggested that Black residents unite to create a plan addressing “the needs and desires for their own areas.” 200 At this point, Reverend E.R. Searey, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church, was tasked with designing and submitting a plan within 10 days to the city officials. 201 Mr. Hollingsworth mentioned that the old "dilapidated" Mt. Vernon Baptist Church was compensated and was able to rebuild in a new location. 202
RESISTANCE EFFORTS “Help us stay together.” ~Prayer by residents who went to the CRISIS House for help.
“You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.” ~Grace Lee Boggs
“…we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered…True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice, which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth…A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam 203
198 “Silent Tactics”. 199 “Silent Tactics”. 200 “Silent Tactics”. 201 “Silent Tactics”. 202 Mr. Hollingsworth, interview.
203 Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, April 4, 1967, Speech at Riverside Baptist Church, New York City. https://www.crmvet.org/info/mlk_viet.pdf
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