North Columbia ‘rewriting the narrative’ of violence with community march
A choir sung a verse of “We Shall Overcome” in a slow, determined rhythm to begin a march through four north Columbia neighborhoods. By the second verse, the choir quickened the tempo, proclaiming the refrain with joyous and rapid hand claps.
“We know music creates different energies and vibes for the atmosphere,” said Romell Dash, leader of A Touch of Faith Gospel Choir of the University of South Carolina.
The Sunday march, called the The Empowerment for Peace Walk, was all about creating a different energy in the north Columbia communities of North Pointe Estates, Bethel Bishop, The Colony and Booker Washington Heights. The march was organized by the North Columbia Youth Empowerment Initiative, a consortium of organizations with a mission to make the northern part of the city safer and to create opportunities for youth.
“Today is when we proclaim a new narrative,” Gentarra Williams told marchers as they gathered at a youth baseball field behind North Pointe Estates and Bethel Bishop. The marchers were going to begin to rewrite the script as one of “unity, peace and hope,” she said.
North Columbia is deeply affected by violence and gun crime, authorities have repeatedly said. The State has frequently written about crime in the northern part of the city, including a 2018 article that labeled the 100 block of Ripplemyer Avenue as Columbia’s “most violent block.” The block runs thorugh the heart of North Pointe Estates.
The article showed the block had the most reported homicides, aggravated assaults, robberies than any other in the city.
Several of those attending the rally criticized The State for calling the area Columbia’s “most violent block,” saying such titles perpetuate stereotypes and push the area to be defined by crime rather than the neighborhoods’ efforts to improve.
“Rewrite the narrative” of North Columbia was a chorus for marchers and organizers like Regina Williams, president of the Booker Washington Heights neighborhood association.
She told those gathered that all ideas were welcome for creating a new story for north Columbia “as long as it’s for the positive development and progression” of the community.
“This is a community that needs a presence and needs a spotlight,” said John Dozier, a marcher whose family goes back five generations in Columbia. “This is a place of hope and opportunity. It’s not a place we should be scared of.”
After the opening ceremony, which included prayer and poetry readings, about 200 marchers wound their way from the baseball park through the north Columbia neighborhoods. Children carried signs that said change was coming, including one sign depicting a handgun with a large red X over it and the words “no shooting, no killing, no violence.” People came out of their apartments to see the march with many rally goers encouraging the onlookers to join in. Dozens of people joined the walk as it progressed by their homes.
Being part of the march was a seminal moment in his three-decade law enforcement career, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook told those gathered.
“I’ve seen courage, hope and a sense of pride,” Holbrook said. “It’s contagious.”
He told the crowd that he needed more “people with courage to come forward” to work with police on the issues north Columbia faces. He promised “fair policing” and asked for more “community cooperation” before saying he wants the police department to be part of the narrative of change in north Columbia.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott called for the same cooperation with police.
“This community has accomplished a lot but there’s a lot more we can accomplish together,” he said to the crowd.
While the march was focused on shifting the story of north Columbia to one of change and solutions, Omari Fox, a community organizer, told the ralliers, “We would be blind to not recognize that crime still persists.”
“As a black man it hurts my heart” to see so much violence, Fox said, “when so many aren’t about that life.”
Both Holbrook and Lott often say the vast majority of crime in north Columbia is committed by a small group of people. Not allowing the violence of a few to be the calling card of north Columbia would help end that violence, said Kassy Alia Ray, founder of Serve & Connect, a group which helps build connections between police and communities. The group helped organize Sunday’s march.
Serve and Connect was formed after Ray’s husband, Forest Acres police officer Greg Alia, was killed in the line of duty.
Columbia and its residents need to “see them (north Columbia residents) as their neighbors and not some ‘other,’” Alia Ray said. People living in north Columbia know the answers to alleviating their issues “but we have to listen and lift them up,” she said.
Asia Small marched with the crowd through the neighborhood known as The Colony. Nearing a hill that led to West Beltline, the walk stopped and she addressed the marchers. She lives in north Columbia, a single mother in North Pointe Estates, she said.
“My kids are two and four and they won’t be a statistic to violence,” she said before asking the gathering of north Columbia residents, police, city and county officials and others from different parts of Columbia to “please hang on with us.”
The walk began again and the crowd started to chant, “Not gonna let nobody turn me around. I’m going to keep on marching.” When marchers moved through the street the refrain changed. “I’m not gonna let no violence turn me around,” people shouted.
As the march neared the last hill into Booker Washington Heights people chanted, “Together we bring peace.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 9:56 AM.