Preserve the Carver

               The city of Marked Tree has no use for the Carver. The deterioration of this historical land mark is a disgrace and should not go unnoticed. Once a high school for my Father and Mother, better known as the Carver gym that paved the way for me and many of my contemporaries. After speaking with my father and hearing the conviction in his voice I had to write this short journal. He was a student in this very gym that literally paid for my college education, before the schools were integrated; this is where all of the blacks went to school. Some prominent members of our community were students there: Mr. Grant is a college graduate, Mrs. Simpson is a college graduate, Mrs. Watson is college graduate, just to name a few. This and many other reasons explain why my father is disappointed about the decision for the Carver gym.

               I know nothing about segregation because I was born in 1985 but my dad was not so fortunate, he was born in 1951 three years before the passing of Brown vs. Board of Education. He was raised during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The past climate produced generation upon generation of uneducated, young black men and women. But, my father always knew and stressed the importance of being educated, one reason because his elementary teacher, Mrs. Watson who was a student that excelled at the Carver Institute.

               BACK TO THE CURRENT CLIMATE; the current situation shows the gym has gone through massive deterioration.  My question for the city and community leaders (on the side of the track where the gym resides) is how could you let this happen? I have a simple answer! You all are selfish and not putting the kids first. The Carver was the only positive thing that the community had to offer for young black males and females. The Carver provided a safe haven for many of us to play football, basketball, and build culture we have never been provided after school. This equated into multiple state championships for the city of Marked Tree. It also provided me with a free education that my parents would not have been able to afford. Now the city wants to tear it down because it does not want to spend taxed city dollars to preserve a historical land site? Why is this?

               I am asking that City officials do the right thing and preserve the gym for the young youth. Times are different from when my father was growing up; they are different from when I was growing up; now the conditions for my only son Carmello and his contemporaries are the worst I’ve ever seen.  At least give them a chance to survive and a chance to finally thrive. I want to leave you guys with a quote below because most of my empirical knowledge came from hanging and playing at the Carver.

“Learning and liberty march hand and hand, or they do not march at all: the one is the condition of the other.”

Hartley Shawcross

               Depending on information I receive from my dad I will continue to write short journal articles concerning this matter and have them published in the local paper.