New, more aware generation growing up in Marion Gent’s Addition
Young Black sees some adults as race’s big problem
“I am a citizen of Marion, a citizen that lives in Gent’s. I don’t consider myself a black man, just a man. Just Donald Allen, not black Donald Allen.”
But the community of Marion, Allen feels, has not let him or other young blacks drop the added labels of definition. Not that he is ashamed of his race, simply prouder of being a man.
Allen, 27, has lived in Marion most of his life. He is currently employed as a guard at the Veterans Administration Hospital.
Allen represents a new, more aware generation of blacks. It is a breed, he says that embarrasses older blacks and frightens whites.
Allen describes Gent’s addition as a “very depressed area composed of houses that should have been condemned years ago.” But he doesn’t blame many of the conditions of the racially segregated area on white discrimination, he points to another cause of subordination.
“I would have to say at this point that one of the biggest problems facing blacks would be older black adults. For years, the people who represented the black community represented only a small percentage. They seem to have this attitude; “Let’s just be quiet and every now and then they’ll throw us a bone.” But young black people are strongly opposed to older blacks ignoring how we feel and saying “we’re happy” when we’re not.”
Allen is a part time student majoring in sociology at John A. Logan College. He left Marion when he was 16 to go to Chicago, the usual trend, he says, among local blacks. While serving a term in the Army, Allen finished high school and later returned to Chicago.
“We kept talking about coming back home, all the kids who had left Marion around when I did. We’d call back and forth from Chicago to Michigan to Tennessee; and we wanted to do something to help, but we just didn’t think we could. Then we heard about this new man, this Rev. (Robert) Buchanan who had moved to Marion. He challenged us to come back for a year or two. We moved back to Gent’s and gave it a shot, a good one, too. But the senior citizens started bickering. This new breed of young people breaking psychological barriers scarred the older blacks.”
Allen says there have been two concerted efforts towards improving racial subordination since he has moved back. One, a Gent’s beautification program, eventually failed when senior citizens broke off into isolated religious denominations, denying the Rev. Mr. Buchanan support for the project.
Though the second organized movement also failed, its implications seem to represent the growing awareness among young blacks.
A 28 year old, black man, Cecil Jenkins, was killed in May, 1970. The ensuing investigation was, according to Allen, “one of the poorest investigations I’ve ever seen conducted in Marion. “The defendant was found not guilty and he should have been. The investigation was so poor they didn’t produce any evidence. When the trial was over, that was the end of the whole thing. One black guy was just dead.”
Allen said a small group of whites spoke up against the investigation. “They spoke up for ‘our Cecil’ –o—u–r, but they didn’t speak up publicly. You just can’t have a silent majority anymore; that’s as bad as oppression.”
Time to Speak Up
So Allen and about 20 other black youths decided it was time to “speak up” publicly. They organized black Brothers for Progress and staged a “non-violent demonstration against racial injustice.”
Allen says he is not for violence, but feels you should fight for what you want and for what you believe is right.
“There’s been a long cold war going on for years. Violence is going to break out soon, and they say there are no problems. I’m not ignorant, and I’m not intelligent, but I can see.” Allen said both blacks and whites until recently have chosen to ignore racial injustices. The older blacks he says point out advancements instead of questioning prevailing discrimination.
“I respect older blacks because I know they had to work hard to get what they have. And there have been changes; but these are just small milestones. There’s just so much more that we should have now.”
Allen describes political representation of blacks in Marion a as relying on tokenism. It’s not that people are not aware of political illegalities, Allen says, “it’s just that it’s so sickening we don’t know where to begin. “I call it ‘slopping the hogs’ because the politicians buy votes with barbecue and beer. The city dads don’t care about the guy shuffling around in Gent’s. When he’s saying ‘dad’, I keep thinking that he must be excluding us because no father would treat a child like that.”
Allen says there is a great deal of talent among blacks in Marion, but racial prejudice has blocked opportunities to prove it.
“It’s always the same thing, ‘You don’t qualify.’ But how many chances have they given blacks to qualify or even earn qualifications. If you do qualify, that represents a threat, because you’ll know something they don’t want you to.”
Allen speaks from experience. He was a police officer in Carbondale from August, 1969, until he resigned in October, 1970. When he took an admission test for the Marion police force, he was told he didn’t pass. But he was also told Marion was not ready for a young, black policeman. Allen is presently a guard in the hospital.
Mayor Robert Butler said applications for the police force are handled by the city’ Merit Board.
“Only three blacks have applied in the 15 years that the Merit Board has existed and about 50 whites. Quite obviously, very few of the whites were hired. Each time, the Merit Board chose persons who scored highest on the admissions test,” Butler said.
Allen says the absence of black policemen has had serious repercussions in Gent’s.
“When outbreaks break out in Gent’s, the police are shy about getting there. Maybe they are scared or maybe we really are meaner. But you’d be surprised how many whites come through there on weekends. Money speaks loud, especially with young girls.”
Welfare System a “Plot”?
Allen emphasized the need for constructive programs among blacks. The welfare system, he says, is “just a plot for whites and blacks to stay where they are and wallow in their own misery.”
“If you have an energetic, healthy person who is going to be on aid, give him work to earn it. If he needs an education, make him go to school.”
Allen places high priority on the need for education. He chose sociology major and a psychology minor so he “wouldn’t be able to sit back, be lazy and satisfied.”
“People are looking for their messiah, their Martin Luther King or their John F. Kennedy to come running through and pick them up. But it’s time to throw the pacifier away. There are people crying for help…for everybody.”
Allen said he has had a recurring dream since he was a child. The dream always begins with a lot of downtrodden people asking for help. Allen appears, but with a different name. Not Donald Allen, not black Donald Allen, but hope.
“Every man has his own thing that makes him move. The thing I’ve got came from a belief in God and the realization that your fellow man needs help. The bible has taught me that I have a responsibility to every man and there’s no mention of color.”
Allen is against bigotry and prejudice of any kind aimed at any target. Racial barriers, he says, “exist only in people’s minds. For us to be the most advance animal species, we’re really ignorant.”
“I was raised as a child to love every man, black or white, as a fellow man. But when I was told there were different rules for older people, that now it was every man for himself.”
“You know, I really used to think I was the one with a problem. Now I realize it’s the other people with the problem, the people who can’t see beyond the color to see the man.”
See Also:
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 1 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 2 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 3 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 5 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 6 of 6
(Southern Illinoisan article by Sandy Blumenfeld, published August 15, 1973)