Loving and Fighting for Soria City, Mississippi

by: Mae Singerman

Wed Aug 04, 2010 at 14:08:23 PM EDT

A few months ago, JFSJ sent service learning participants to spend a few days with Ms. Dorothy McClendon, President of Soria City Civic Organization in Gulfport, Mississippi. Through the Civic Organization’s afterschool program, JFSJ volunteers spent time with local youth; bowling  and tutoring in the historic black community. Recovery here has been slow since Hurricane Katrina and now the Soria City Civic Organization is in a dispute with the City over the right to run their afterschool program and community center from a building that the City initially let them use. 

I interviewed Ms. Dorothy to get her take on what is happening with the City and what inspires her to keep fighting.   

How did you become a community activist?

I came home to Soria City in ’89. I started driving around in my community and saw that it had been neglected. After being away for twenty years, I decided to move home. I started going to council meetings and seeing how the municipality worked. I educated myself on the political games. I didn’t like what was going on, so I decided to run for council. That’s when I really became a community activist. I started communicating with the people in the community to get things done.

What is the main issue in Soria City?

We need to recieve funding to run our community, bringing programs, education and training for our youth and seniors.  Right now, our kids are having to hang on corners and don’t have nothing to do. When the kids would get out of school, they would just hang out.  They were behind in reading; weak in their math. We were trying to get the city to bring recreation in the black community. They have it in other communities. I saw there was a need. That’s when we started to bring the afterschool program. When it didn’t seem like the City was going to do anything, the Civic Organization just picked it up and started doing it. It was very successful. The Community Center brings in many different programs and we can't bring these programs to the community without the space.

What’s the problem?

The big issue now is the closing of our community center. When we first started the program out of a City building, we couldn’t get the City to be a part of the program. We were approved for CDBG monies to assist in the operation of the program. They wouldn’t give us one penny. Now that we got it running and successful the City wants to take over and receive funding. When the grant money came straight to our organization, we used it for our program. Whereas, if it had gone to the City, they could move the money to another community. There’s no guarantee they will put the money back in the community.

The building [where the after school program was running from] has been turned over to the school district. We met with the superintendent of schools and he stated that their hands were tied and they weren’t in the recreation business, so they don’t have any intentions of opening the building up. The city has stopped communicating with the Civic Organization. We have no communication. The school district locked the playground. It’s really sad, to see the kids playing in the alley because they couldn’t go and play on the playground. We asked the school district why they locked the gates and they said it was a liability issue. The City has cut off communication with us. SCCO is still trying to communicate to work and get things accomplish in the community.

What are your next steps?

This week, I’m wrapping up an agreement with a church. So, we’re going to run the program out of there. We’ll be able to run our program at least through December, with money we got approved for. We’re doing primarily tutoring, because there is no playground there. The Harrison County 4-H district will come in and do 4-H projects during the school year. Volunteers will come in on some Fridays to teach sports and crafts. Our long-term goal is to find us another building or try to partner with a larger organization that can take over the building and allow us to run the larger program.

What inspires you to keep fighting?

It starts from the elders in the community. I was able to see my mother, other elders and the business people, how they took pride in the community and how they brought different things to the community for the families. I can look back on that. What really got me interested was when I was going to college in Oakland, California. I was a tutor and I was in the Black Student Union. I started to see the needs of the black community. I saw that the black community was being left out. I never thought I would be-  politics and stuff like that- I didn’t even vote when I was in California, but coming back to my community and knowing how it is, seeing how the elders took pride about how they tried to provide. This opened my eyes.