Part II: African Americans in Americus

By Linda Wright

There are a few Blacks in the community who are considered to be in the upper echelon of local society, but the majority of Blacks are considered and treated as subordinates by Whites in power. This is very evident by unequal representation and unequal job opportunities. According to Dr. Marshall and I agree that, "They treat the educated and highly qualified Blacks as a major threat to their racist "good ol' boy" system and the less educated and poor Blacks are just simply abused (J.D. Marshall, M.D., personal communication, June 27, 2007).

Members of the dominant group in my community treat people like me with respect to a certain degree. Negative non-verbal communication is sometimes shown by both Black and White citizens. For instance when attending public functions the crowd or audience is usually segregated by choice. This is a nonverbal way of races indicating the preference to be separate and not to be uncomfortable, in other words-getting too close. This is a clear indication of mistrust.

Most places of employment that I have been affiliated with use work manuals with rules, regulations and guidelines for that particular company or business. I have experienced personally that whatever is written in a worker's manual is not necessarily written in stone. White management sometimes takes the liberty to manipulate rules and regulations to fit their agenda. And on occasion I have also seen Black supervisors bend the rules to benefit themselves or an employee as well, but more often White supervisors get away with this more than Black supervisors. Locally there are more Blacks who are terminated from their jobs than there are Whites. This is evident in the number of complaints brought to the local NAACP. Americus needs more employment opportunities along with educational opportunities and health care availability. When you are struggling to live on minimum wages or public assistance with minimum educational skills the future does not look promising. According to the local Chamber of Commerce and the 2000 Census; in Americus the education of the labor force varies and the majority of eligible workers falls within the category of a high school graduate or GED equivalent making up 30.4% of the total labor force between the ages of 18- 65+. The next highest is 30.3% with only some high school education for the same age range. 22.4% have some college, 9.9% had a four (4) year degree and only 7% had a post graduate degree. The desire to excel and achieve goals is an admirable motive for all races, but Whites in our community treat this idealization as an exclusive right. The similarities are very basic. We both want to see our people advance and do well. We both want political power to make sure we advance and get our share of the prosperity that can come more easily if we let all boats rise together. We can all win if we can convince the Whites in power that you can't fool the people all of the time and you cannot grow while trying to keep a whole race of people down. That is why Atlanta is so progressive while many other southern towns that held fast to their discriminatory ways and now none of them can touch Atlanta (J.D. Marshall, M.D., personal communication, June 27, 2007).

There are several differences in Americus between Whites and Blacks as far as not putting stumbling-blocks to hinder growth. According to Dr. Marshall, "The difference is simply to allow everybody to reach their fullest potential and not hold one back and advance the other that happens to look like you". For the most part minority interests are not represented within our community. The NAACP has scheduled monthly meetings and we have an open-floor segment so that people with complaints of mistreatment and/or abuse can bring their grievances to the organization for review. The leaders in our community treat Black people like outsiders. They do everything they can to operate with minimal or no Black input. They are transparent when it comes to hiring Blacks for key positions in the schools, hospital and county government. The majority of the top positions are White. They are absolutely shameless in their discrimination even if the Black person is more qualified than their White counterpart. As NAACP president, we deal with multiple cases of unfair racist behavior by White leaders in Americus (J.D. Marshall, M.D., personal communication, June 27, 2007).

In order to change these unjust conditions, African-Americans are going to have to realize the importance and power of their votes. They need to get registered and then be sure to vote on Election Day for candidates that they believe will have their best interest at heart and mind. I asked Dr. Marshall, "What would he do and change to resolve the inequities within Americus and Sumter County and how and why he would perform this resolution?"

The first thing that I would do would be to remove the editor of the Americus-Times Recorder, the administrator of the local hospital, the school Superintendent, all of the city and county officials and replace them with people who are ready to see to it that all of our citizens advance and reach their greatest potential. We can have a great community if the racism and hatred was removed (J.D. Marshall, M.D., personal communication, June 27, 2007).

As long as the White race in Americus and Sumter County and elsewhere refuses to accept that a change from the status quo is inevitable, there will be racial confrontations. There is a race stigma embedded into most of our minds both locally and nation-wide. This stigma needs to be plucked-out in order to advance. The mental chains of bondage such as not getting the job that you qualify for because your skin is brown, not being approved for a loan for the home of your dreams, not being able to afford tuition to send your child to college because you know you are being paid less than your co-worker because you don't look like "them", and the list goes on….will be broken….some day. And not just for Blacks and other minorities but for Whites as well.