Keeping Greenwood Bottom clean: honoring King’s legacy of service

Despite the rain and overcast sky, several dozen folks in neon green work vests, equipped with plastic bags and trash pickers, gathered outside a brick building off MLK Jr. Boulevard Saturday, Jan. 18.

They had come on the Saturday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the Greenwood Bottom Day of Service Community Cleanup — an event honoring King’s commitment to serving the community and taking action.

It feels like we’re all one on MLK day, Mercer University senior and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated (AKA) member, Michaela Tolliber, told The Melody.

“It’s one of those days where you can just go into the community and everyone’s celebrating his life, his legacy and everything that he stood for,” she said. “So MLK day, to me, means everything.”

A vibrant depiction of the pivotal civil rights leader stands out against a blue sky in a painted mural that covers part of the building’s
facade.

The mural was commissioned with a Keep America Beautiful grant, Asha Ellen, Executive Director of Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful, told cleanup participants Saturday.

King made one of his last visits before his assassination to New Zion Baptist Church, originally located just two blocks away from the building in which the mural honoring his legacy is painted and where folks began their cleanup.

“We wanted it to be more than just a display of art,” Ellen said. “We wanted it to be a talking piece. We wanted it to be an educational conversation.”

To further the conversation about King’s impact on Macon and his Poor People’s campaign for social and economic equality, Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful is collaborating with recent Downtown Diversity Initiative grant winner, WonderMedia, to make a documentary on the creation and significance of the mural.

The building owner and third generation barber, Brandon Harris, spoke about revitalization efforts for Greenwood Bottom, a once bustling Black area in Macon.

Harris’ grandfather opened the family’s barber shop in 1965, and today, Harris owns several storefronts in the area.

“It’s just important for us to occupy space as Black people in this world and do the best that we can,” he said. “If we don’t support, we cannot occupy these spaces.”

Revitalization is also an important focus for Macon-Bibb County District 2 Commissioner Paul Bronson, who wants to foster a space in which folks can feel safe living, working and playing.

Having served in the military and travelled to many different cities, Bronson said he has yet to see a clean and well-kept MLK or Malcolm X Boulevard.

“I want Macon, Georgia to be the tip of the spear when it boils down to developing MLK boulevards,” he said.

Continuing to make a difference

The cleanup on MLK Jr. Boulevard spanned from Edgewood Avenue to Hazel Street and parts of Elm Street. Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful provided folks with cleanup materials, such as trash bags, vests and trash picking tools.

Members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council showed up to provide a helping hand and students from Mercer University, Mount de Sales Academy and Howard High School also participated in the cleanup.

Event organizer and education coordinator at the Tubman Museum, George Crawley, hopes the cleanup left folks feeling energized and ready to embody King’s spirit of service.

Kendall Ross, a senior at Mercer and member of AKA, has seen firsthand how litter can negatively affect a community and felt it was important to take action.

Not only does her sorority do cleanups throughout Macon, she explained, but she recently did a school project on illegal dumping and blight.

“It’s something that you have to continuously do,” she said. “It’s not like a one and done situation. So even though today is really good, I hope we also continue to do this throughout the year too.”