JACKSON, Miss.—Faith leaders, elected officials, long-time residents and college students spent hours walking the streets and filling plastic garbage bags with tattered paper, broken glass and other litter scattered on the streets and in vacant lots in neighborhoods in West and South Jackson on Jan. 25. Some were bundled in winter jackets and draped with “Keep Jackson Beautiful” vests on their backs.
The cleanup effort was part of a civil service event capping off a week of events in Mississippi’s capital city meant to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘We’re Losing Our Community’
Pastor Stanley Smith has led the Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church on East McDowell Road in South Jackson for 13 years.
Over the years, he has seen ebbs and flows of church membership as it grew some years and diminished in others. While he told the Mississippi Free Press that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had a particularly devastating effect on church attendance, he and his wife, Stephanie Smith, continue to mobilize the congregation to do what they can do to meet the needs of the community.
Many of the congregants no longer live in the area, and although they host the MLK Day clean-up event annually, Smith said that he saw this year’s project as a reminder to the community: “We’re here to help.”
The effort is especially needed in Jackson right now, he said. “We’re losing our community. I don’t know what happened but we’re losing our identity as a community,” Smith said.
Smith worked for the City of Jackson for decades and said that part of the decline he sees can be attributed to a lack of safe spaces and opportunities for youth.
“We abandon our young people and expect them to grow up and be great citizens,” the pastor said. “They’re not abandoning us—we abandon them.”
He was heartened on Saturday morning to see the number of Tougaloo College and Jackson State University students walking the streets with them to clean the neighborhood.
“Hopefully, we are an example of what we ought to do in the community, period. When I grew up, if things were going on in the community, all the kids were there and all the parents were there. We did what we had to do. I guess that has stayed with me. If we’re going to be here, we’re obligated to take care of it,” he continued.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba, Ward 4 City Councilman Brian Grizzell and Mississippi House Rep. Fabian Nelson were among the elected officials that also participated in the cleanup efforts.
‘Things We Should Do Ourselves’
The same day that Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church hosted their annual community clean up in South Jackson, the Georgetown Community Neighborhood Association and MidCity Community Development Corporation partnered for a community clean up near Freedom Corner, where Medgar Evers Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive intersect.
Georgetown Community Neighborhood Association President Norma Michael told the Mississippi Free Press that she has lived in the community all of her life.
“I was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Lived in the same house all my life. My daddy had the house. The house was built in 1949 and that’s where I live currently,” the 67-year-old said.
About a dozen people joined in the Freedom Corner clean-up on Saturday, Jan. 25, including newly elected Hinds County Court Judge for District 2, Yemi Kings, who unseated the incumbent Pieter Teeuwissen after a highly contested race. “My office is a few blocks from here. This is home,” Kings told the Mississippi Free Press on Jan. 25.
The cleanup started at Freedom Corner and ended at Lanier High School—about a mile and a half distance.
Nearly 49% of residencies in Jackson are “owner-occupied housing units,” Census data shows. Michael said that those who reside in a neighborhood—no matter whether they are renters or homeowners—must take responsibility for how their community looks.
“I think that it’s important that we take pride in where we live whether we’re renting or buying, we should care what it looks like,” she continued. “We shouldn’t wait for people to do things we should do ourselves.”
Michael also runs the nonprofit organization Sharing is Caring Neighborhood Block Garden, where she grows vegetables that she gives away to residents free of charge. Vegetables that can withstand the winter temperatures—like broccoli, cauliflower and collard greens—are thriving right now, she said.
It is in that same spirit that she continues to clean the neighborhood and hopes to rally others to do the same. She already has her eyes on a derelict lot in the area that she would like the association to clean up next. “I feel that when the neighbors see that we’re serious about doing things, people will come on board,” she said.
“Georgetown has some rich history and we should show pride in Georgetown. If I have to be the advocate for that, I’m more than happy to be that person because I’m serious about it. I just want us to be intentional about where we live,” she said.
