The Carolina Peacemaker’s Afrique Kilimanjaro on Cardes Brown, Nelson Johnson, Tim Bellamy, Bill Knight and Greensboro’s Black Community

"We can do better

In recent months, there have been some disturbing accusations made by Greensboro NAACP president Rev. Cardes Brown about the retiring Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy…

It was Rev. Brown and other concerned citizens, both Black and White, who came to several city council meetings to ask Knight to apologize for…his campaign rhetoric and venomous words.

Now, Brown says he may owe Knight an apology…

…Perhaps underneath all of the apologizing, Rev. Brown and Chief Bellamy simply do not see eye to eye on community and police department issues. It is obvious that Bellamy refuses to go along with the wishes of Brown and Rev. Nelson Johnson of Beloved Community Center.

Rev. Johnson said last month during an NAACP community meeting that he hated to bring it up, but the culture of corruption within GPD can all be directed back to the events of Nov. 3, 1979.

Many will remember that it was on this date when members of the Communist Worker’s Party, led by Johnson, were shot, injured or killed by members of the American Nazi/ Ku Klux Klan in the Morning Side Homes Public Housing Development in southeast Greensboro…

The Greensboro Police Department may have problems, but because Chief Bellamy does not agree with Brown’s assessment of the crime fighting unit, Bellamy is automatically tagged as being a part of a “culture of corruption.”

...It would not surprise me if [Mayor Knight’s] statement was advised by a paid consultant in order to achieve election as mayor…

Anyone who evokes race under the guise of winning supporters, as Knight has done, would have belittled the academic or career accomplishments of any person of color…

…It takes a big person to admit when he is wrong. I doubt that Knight will ever make such a metamorphosis.

…Can we ever begin to work on issues of economic parity between east and west Greensboro? Can we build a community where all Black parents are invested in their children’s futures outside of the unlikely prospect of becoming an NFL or an NBA star?

One has a greater chance of being stuck by lightening.

Greensboro’s Black community is confronting many issues- the most dangerous one being our apathy and nonparticipation in our own city. Such apathy is made worse when our leaders make accusations and forget to provide true leadership.

We must all participate, because we can do better."

Afrique Kilimanjaro
Carolina Peacemaker, 6/30/2010