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Collard greens

As a child, I really wasn’t particularly fond of collard greens or their importance in the diet of African-
Americans. Not only were they culinary, they also epitomized the “tough” of a collard green-stock of people, people who, as descendants of slaves, fled the South by the millions to the greener economic pastures of the North, whether on a track that ran from Mississippi to St. Louis or Chicago, or yes, even Syracuse, N.Y.

General Electric, the candle companies on Wolf Street, Crouse-Hinds, General Motors, Carrier Corporation and many more: those were the glory days of Syracuse and Onondaga County, when the black population surged with residents who familiar with the Auburn -Opelika area of Alabama. As
they age those African-American seniors could tell you right now how to get to Lafayette and where the
Loachapoka highway leads.

These people are tough, Depression babies who had no government programs when they arrived.
They didn’t relocate for food stamps or government aid. African-Americans moved here because of the tremendous opportunity to make a living wage and perhaps to obtain better educational opportunities for their children. Myself and many African-Americans in Syracuse share a certain kinship.

There are people I meet who’ll say to me, “you don’t remember me, but I remember your daddy.” He died when I was 2, my step-father married my mother and took responsibility for four young children. He was tough and hard working. Like collard greens, a staple — someone you could count on.

And while we were driven North, people in Syracuse like former Senator Nancy Lorraine Hoffmann and Journalist Walt Shepperd headed South and participated in direct activities that resulted in African- Americans’ right to vote. Hoffmanns’ Civil Rights Connection still takes students to Mississippi and educates them about what “Civil Rights” is, and offers the perspective of meeting people who actually lived through the struggle.

“Freedom Summer” was a time when people like Shepperd recruited young people from campuses, and most were young, white and idealistic. “They were told they would be teachers in Freedom Schools, mentoring students of color whose learning had been limited by the state’s separate (and unequal) public schools. Continuing in his commitment to civil rights, today The Media Unit under Shepperd has created a production called “From the Back of the Bus,” which confronts youth with current contradictions of race. The show is a NAACP national award winner.

The employment opportunity welcome mat was only extended so far. On the home front in Syracuse, African-Americans protested at Niagara Mohawk demanding employment. But if you were a factory worker in manufacturing you had plenty of chances for a better life.

We’re not that far removed from our past of being marginalized, relegated to poor educational options
and low-wage jobs. For many black women scenes from the recent movie “The Help” reminds them of a time when many were “the help,” domestics doing day work in suburban homes when they were young and caring for children that became successful members of our community: Judges, publishers and leaders of business and industry. We, the African-American community, were “the help.”

We’ve been simmering like a pot of greens for decades in Syracuse. The last-picked, tough and cold, are the best tasting greens, plucked from the earth after the first frost. Seasoned and placed on the burner to cook, they become, tender loving, respectful and filling.

September 16, 2011

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