You’re Killing Living History

It’s just bricks and a building….

 

I’m paraphrasing something one of our Planning and Zoning commissioners said regarding Tremont Temple. Just bricks and a building. Once again, the city of Macon, Georgia seems poised to slap black history in the face. And I thought we had come so far, I’m proven yet again to be so naieve. Sometimes the world just won’t let you skip through it all sunshine and happy.

 

We’re dangerously close to losing the house that Charles Douglass owned, the one that Mr. Patel- who purchased and tore down Tremont Temple- said he would not touch after tearing down the church that was a part of the Civil Rights Movement in Macon. With my very own ears I heard Judge Randall speak of Tremont Temple in his own retelling of his Civil Rights story.

 

At any other moment in time, I could have gone to the church myself- stood in front and walked around. This was where freedom was fought.

 

They’re not just bricks and mortar. Why is historic preservation so important? We can hear as many stories as we wish, we can read as many plaques at they want to put up, but being able to go and experience an events or series of events and see them as they were through that building or living museum helps to capture the imagination even more. Can you truly imagine being able to experience the wonder that is the Hay House, or Monticello, or Warm Springs, Georgia without being able to walk inside of those buildings?

 

And now comes the news that Grant’s Lounge is being forced to shut down. I know my own impressions of Grant’s Lounge go back to the days of Club Money on Poplar- when I was frankly terrified to even drive down that street. Ten years have passed since then and Poplar is well on it’s way to become as developed as Cherry Street, and I’ve spent many a night in Grant’s Lounge looking over what is truly a living history- photos and memorabilia posted just as they were in their first instant on the walls. It’s not pretentious- it’s authentic. I pray that we will see it open again, but my optimism is, frankly, being put in check with some more news.

 

Capricorn Records in Cotton Avenue has been condemned by order of the City of Macon. It breaks my heart. You may think this is just a bastion of music history but it’s so much more than that. This is where the Civil Rights movement was fought in just another way. This was, as Jessica Walden states in her piece in The Telegraph, where the “first integrated office staff in the city of Macon” took place.

 

 

I really do hope that our city leaders have the foresight to at least save the facade of this building- even if they do not choose to save the building itself. We have not done a good job of preserving our African American history here, of saving monuments to the Civil Rights movement. Just because these buildings aren’t very pretty, or have an obvious architectural significance, doesn’t mean they’re any less important.

 

To Mayor Reichert, and others whom it may concern,

 

I voted for you. I believe you to be a good steward of our city, and more than willing to do what is best for all of your constituents. I’m sure this must not have been an easy decision to come to, but I urge you to listen to those who would ask you to not tear down this building. Please read what I have said above, please take note of what others are saying via social media- it is one of the easiest ways you can track the pulse of our community. I know you were saddened by the loss of Tremont Temple, and I know you do not wish to lose the home of Charles Douglass, I feel I can say these things simply based on your actions in the past to save them. Please don’t let this be one more loss to our community- so much progress has been made, let us not take yet another step back. This isn’t just African American history, but it is a symbol of how the black and white communities in Macon and across the South finally began to come together through something that is at the heart of our history: music.

 

 

Love to all y’all,

 

Molly