Welcome
to the first edition of Hush Your Mouth!, a community paper written by young
people of university and secondary ages that will place heavy emphasis on
Detroit youth and their positive activities.
But we will also address the goings-on of the elderly and everyone in
between.
Hush
your mouth
is an expression of stunning accomplishment, for our version of news is that
which educates and elevates, as well as informs readers about the challenges of
the city and its residents. When we
discuss challenges to the community, we do it from the perspective of grassroots
participation, neighborhood education and problem solving from the ground up.
This
edition focuses on the neighborhood of Northwest Goldberg, located on the old west
side of the city. The boundaries
are West Grand Boulevard on the north; Grand River and the Lodge Freeway on the east;
and McGraw on the south. The name
of the area comes from the name of a school founded in 1906 that was located on
Rosa Park Boulevard between Ferry Park and Marquette.
The school, in turn, had been named after a member of the Detroit School
Board.
Northwest
Goldberg is a yet-to-be officially designated historic area that has been or
continues to be the home of institutions such as Motown, Brazelton’s Florist,
Cole’s Funeral Home, White’s Record Shop, Providence Hospital and Nursing
Residence, Temple Baptist Church and, later, King Solomon Baptist Church.
King
Solomon was the major center for national gospel music during the 1950s through
the 1970s and continues to be host to veteran gospel groups.
The Rev. Clyde Cleveland and others founded the National Gospel Music
Workshop there in the mid-1960s.
The
church was also a community and education center during that period. The late
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall spoke there in the late 1950s shortly
after his victory in the landmark case, Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education.
Malcolm X delivered his major speech, “Message to the Grassroots,” at
King Solomon in 1963. The Nation of
Islam held conferences there during the 1950s and 1960s.
In
addition, the church was a boxing center for noted athletes, such as champion
Tommie Hearnes, as well as a cultural haven for local writers and artists.
Detroit playwright Ron Milner, for instance, got his first writer-in-residence
award there. And, of course, young
Detroiters used to go to King Solomon to roller skate during the week and dance
on Saturday nights to the sounds of the late famous disk jockey, “Frantic”
Ernie Durham.
Today,
the community seeks to designate the church as a historic site so it can resume
the role of community education, recreation and social service center.
The
present state of Northwest Goldberg is similar to many neighborhoods that are
casualties of downsizing and globalization.
The present demographics of the community reveal two major age groups:
senior citizens and their grandchildren. There are relatively few
middle-aged and young-adult residents.
There
has been a tremendous loss of houses and small businesses, resulting in lots of
vacant land that are an attraction for illegal dumping.
Northwest Goldberg has also been heavily impacted by pollution from
incinerators; light and heavy industry; underground storage tanks; lead paint;
and asbestos in the old buildings.
The
once-bustling community of factory workers and their families is today
struggling to make a comeback. The
challenge now is to re-spirit the community through community gardening, public
arts projects, a community choir, internal neighborhood transportation and
cooperative economic ventures. The
city needs to introduce environmental and public health education, for we have a
large population that suffers from asthma and respiratory ailments.
In addition, there is the need to renovate existing housing, as well as
to develop truly affordable housing that will allow the current residents to
remain in their present location.
These
challenges have ignited the imagination of many youth and adults in the metro
area and prompted many to become actively involved toward working for solutions.
To assist them, CPR-Detroit has adopted the community as a five-year
project to support community development and empowerment.
For our inaugural issue, Hush Your Mouth! wants to give a hearty truckload of thanks to CPR-Detroit; the Michigan Citizen; EMU Student Services; EMU Academic Service Learning Program; the 4-H Club; Friends of Duffield Library; EMU Journalism students; and Jessica Havens, an EMU senior who has worn the hats of managing editor and copy editor.
~ Charles Simmons
Founder, Hush Your Mouth!