The Deputy Director's "Citizen Column" #3

From today's Sunday Key West Citizen...

The voices of this community’s past could be a compass to our future

The streets and buildings of Bahama Village speak to me. I was told by a friend that the spirits around the cemetery are more active after midnight, and that I should go there then and the ancestors will speak to me. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that I hear the voices of the streets and buildings speaking out and their voices are louder in certain places.

My recent work with the historic institutions of Bahama Village has made me aware of the buried and interesting — but ever-present — past that surrounds Bahama Village. And if I’m attentive with my eyes and ears, I can hear and see the voices and visions of the past speaking out, sometimes shouting.

When I walk past Cornish Memorial AME Zion, I hear the voice of Sandy Cornish, a former slave who mutilated himself to reduce his value to his slave owner, shouting “don’t give up, stand up for your people, God has not forsaken us.” And they, former slaves, built with their own hands in 1864, one year after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a church at the corner of Angela and Whitehead streets. They built the rafters and other parts of the church’s interior using wood from the slave ships that brought African slaves here.

Maybe that’s why the church was the location of choice for Douglass High School (which was displaced when the Navy took the land that it sat on), a health clinic, AA and NA meetings, Cub Scout, Girls Scout and Boys Scout groups. Maybe that’s what Mrs. Ruby Bain was hearing that pushed her to keep those snotty-nosed Boys Scouts together. And Girls Scouts.

That makes sense, too. That’s why we have so many leaders from that era, because they were taught to memorize and practice the Scouts’ oath and laws. You know, like duty to God and country; helping others; staying physically and mentally strong, morally straight, trustworthy, loyal, helpful, reverent, etc. Hats off to Mrs. Bain! May her tribe increase.

Maybe that’s why the church is packed and everyone so enthralled when Roosevelt Sands Jr. recites the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

Maybe that’s what drew the Rev. James Thornton to come to such a remote location to a then-struggling church — even though he has earned master’s degrees in clinical psychology, mathematics and sacred theology.

Maybe that is what pushed Mr. Charles Major Sr., the oldest living member of Cornish and president of the NAACP, to push through on the integration of the Navy yard bathrooms and Monroe County schools.

Walking down past Petronia Street, I turn the corner onto Emma and I heard another voice saying: “No one is free until we all are free.” I look up and I am standing in front of the William Weech Post No. 168, the American Legion hall built in 1952. Maybe that’s what Mr. Weech thought when he went to serve his country during World War I; even though, as a black American, he did not have the same rights as his fellow soldiers. He knew that we are all one with a linked destiny.

This voice of a linked destiny drew the founding fathers together. Samuel Donzel Leggett, Charles Major Sr., John B. Knowles Sr. and Alfred Allen, elder statesmen of our community, labored together with others to get the building completed. Mr. Allen was a carpenter and supervisor of the job. Mr. Knowles was a carpenter and mason. Others heard and responded to that voice, like architect C.B. Harvey, who provided free services for the building. He was mayor at that time.

With 10,000 Navy personnel, and few places for blacks to go outside of the churches, the VFW was the place to go, with over 100 members. Their walls echo with sounds and voices of the past. The great black performers such as James Brown and BB King all played there because blacks could not go to anyplace else in Key West at that time.

I believe that voice of a linked destiny drove the members to donate to local churches, offer the hall to families who fell victim to fires and to sponsor Scouting troops.

That’s it. Now I know the source of the voices I hear when I approach the areas of Southard, Angela, Emma, and Thomas streets, now a part of Truman Annex. I hear the voices of the children who used to attend Douglass Junior and High School there prior to their demolition. That area used to be a part of La Africana, the predecessor to Bahama Village and the first place settled by liberated African slaves, Bahamian settlers, and Cuban exiles.

Let’s listen and learn from the voices and our history. Let’s get our kids back to Scouting. Let’s stand up and not give up. Let’s remember that we are not free until all are free, and God has not forgotten us.

Wheeler Winstead is a community development specialist and deputy director of the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust. His column appears here every other Sunday. Contact him at wwinstead@bahamaconchclt.org