Marion Pastor Maintains

“Psychological walls” Mark Gent’s

The Rev. Robert Buchanan, pastor of the Bethel AME Church, Marion, doesn’t like the psychological walls around his home.

He lives on Monroe Street in the heart of Gent’s addition, but the barriers to which he refers don’t surround a circumscribed area. They surround a people. His people.

“Gent’s Addition is a ghetto. It didn’t have to be at first, but restrictions both inside and out have sustained the old ghetto way of life.

By a ghetto, the Rev. Buchanan means “a place where low-income people live in sub-standard housing without the aid other parts of the city receive.” Continue reading →