You know where I first learned of the story of how Greensboro's downtown developers bulldozed almost 3 miles of thriving black and white businesses along East Market Street to boost profits downtown? It was from an article written by then North Carolina NAACP President, Skip Alston in a newspaper Skip published and distributed here in East Greensboro for a short time some years back. Skip was trying to make a point about how white folks destroyed black owned businesses to increase business for white owned businesses Downtown.
I first thought it was a pack of lies so I asked a bunch of white folks who had been here longer than my family who came to Guilford County in 1955 and our east Greensboro home in 1958. They didn't think much of Skip Alston but they agreed that was exactly what happened. Years later, in a conversation with Mr Myers of Myers Brothers Company I learned that their scrap metal business known to most of us to have been located on Spring Garden Street, actually began across the street from A&T University and was forced to leave East Market because of the effort Skip Alston wrote about.
But now I read in the News & Record on how Skip Alston is attempting to steal our grocery store away from the Renaissance Community Coop. Never mind that the neighborhood where the grocery story will be located is in the very community that elected Skip Alston to the Guilford County Commissioners for 20 plus years, Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind that the neighborhood where the grocery story will be located is majority black or that Skip Alston was the NC NAACP President, Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind that the property where the grocery story will be located is owned by the City of Greensboro, Skip wants the City to give him the property plus over $3 Million Dollars because Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind that Skip no longer has a grocery chain willing to commit to moving into the shopping center and that 2 of his developers are attempting to talk the co-op into hiring them because Skip has no anchor tenant, Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind the fact that a co-op would keep the profits in the community that Skip Alston claimed to be serving all those many years, Skip has to make a profit.
You know, I've been a hard core liberal for a very long time but with liberals like Skip Alston forgetting the people who helped them make it to where they are today it becomes very clear why conservatives accuse us all of being on the take. Go away, Skip, East Greensboro no longer wants or needs anything you're selling.
An honorable man who cares about his people would withdraw his request. And Skip, if you think Billy Yow was hard to deal with, Billy Jones can and will make your life a living hell. Just ask anyone on the Greensboro City Council. And James, I think you should reconsider.
I first thought it was a pack of lies so I asked a bunch of white folks who had been here longer than my family who came to Guilford County in 1955 and our east Greensboro home in 1958. They didn't think much of Skip Alston but they agreed that was exactly what happened. Years later, in a conversation with Mr Myers of Myers Brothers Company I learned that their scrap metal business known to most of us to have been located on Spring Garden Street, actually began across the street from A&T University and was forced to leave East Market because of the effort Skip Alston wrote about.
But now I read in the News & Record on how Skip Alston is attempting to steal our grocery store away from the Renaissance Community Coop. Never mind that the neighborhood where the grocery story will be located is in the very community that elected Skip Alston to the Guilford County Commissioners for 20 plus years, Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind that the neighborhood where the grocery story will be located is majority black or that Skip Alston was the NC NAACP President, Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind that the property where the grocery story will be located is owned by the City of Greensboro, Skip wants the City to give him the property plus over $3 Million Dollars because Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind that Skip no longer has a grocery chain willing to commit to moving into the shopping center and that 2 of his developers are attempting to talk the co-op into hiring them because Skip has no anchor tenant, Skip has to make a profit.
Never mind the fact that a co-op would keep the profits in the community that Skip Alston claimed to be serving all those many years, Skip has to make a profit.
You know, I've been a hard core liberal for a very long time but with liberals like Skip Alston forgetting the people who helped them make it to where they are today it becomes very clear why conservatives accuse us all of being on the take. Go away, Skip, East Greensboro no longer wants or needs anything you're selling.
An honorable man who cares about his people would withdraw his request. And Skip, if you think Billy Yow was hard to deal with, Billy Jones can and will make your life a living hell. Just ask anyone on the Greensboro City Council. And James, I think you should reconsider.
