Bones Hooks’ “Apartheid” Vision; Erykah Badu’s Stunt; Afflicting the Comfortable
by L. Arthalia Cravin
This website has garnered plenty of recent commentary about the newly installed sidewalks on North Hughes Street. Some of these comments have raised the question “Who Killed North Heights?” We need to put all of these concerns into historical perspective.
A couple of weeks ago I visited Bones Hooks’ gravesite. Mr. Hooks is buried in Llano Cemetery here in Amarillo, Section 61, Lot 11 near 34th Street. I followed the directions given to me by the main office and found my way through section after section until I found Section 61. What caught my attention first was the stark contrast between the area where Mr. Hooks is buried compared to the landscaping and large headstones and monuments in other nearby areas. I found Mr. Hooks’ grave site amid a very desolate- looking section of scattered flat gravestones, most of which were simple brick markers. Mr. Hooks’ gravestone has the name “Hooks” in the center, along with his name and the name of his first wife Anna. It was after I read Bruce Todd’s book, “Bones Hooks: Pioneer Negro Cowboy” that I fully understood where Mr. Hooks is buried. On page 99 of Todd’s book there is this sentence. “Bones was fifty-two when Anna died (at the age of thirty-nine.) She was buried in the segregated section of the Llano Cemetery, where Bones had his own plot prepared right besides hers.”
Andrea C. Freeman, 67, of Amarillo died Friday, March 26, 2010.
What do the many black churches in North Heights have to say about the ongoing decay in the community? That is my question. I am fed up to here with the various and sundry non-scriptural, self-indulgent, self-promoting, lookee-me, gimme-me money, so-call church leaders who have relinquished what used to be a voice for community change. What we have now are a bunch of air-headed, “Furst-Lay-dees,” “I can sang and wave my hand high in the sky,” American Idol in the pulpit wanna bees, who are content to watch their own personal wealth increase to the detriment of folks who can least afford it—black women. Hey, folks, the latest data said that a black woman’s average wealth is $100, compared to $41,500 for white women. But look at who is filing these church pews–a lot of older black women, in bondage to pulpits who are having a field day with their social security and SSI checks. Take a look at the preacher’s houses, car, and glad rags. Yet these same so-call “cream of the crop” church folks aren’t saying a word about the sidewalks and the general community decline.
Well well well……. Where shall I start? As a young Black person my first thought was, ‘ Somebody didn’t know what they were doing and they are getting paid to waste time, cement, sod, cheap metal mail boxes (look good right now but wait til the water hit em’), Black and Mexican talent, and money’. You know compared to the rich and classy White side of town when they built and rebuilt sidewalks and wheelchair ramps, what they have done on the Black side of town is very (excuse the expression) half assed. How in the world is a wheel chair about to fit on that one of several ramps without endangering the occupant and causing a potential mess? And not only that. I noticed that the new sidewalks slant at a very unhealthy angle in which if you get distracted and happen to be looking at something while walking, your body will go with the angle and you will find yourself out in the street possibly and more than likely putting you in danger. And yes I am a rather large person and when I was looking at the photos and the actual side walks, I was stuck thinking that if I wanted to go walking as exercise and I had invited a friend, how would we both FIT on that SMALL, NARROW, CROOKED, LUMPY, and ROUGH sidewalk? There is enough room to walk toe-to-heel but not the normal way of walking which is with your feet side by side at an even distance apart. I don’t understand. And what is up with the gaps and spaces between the new sidewalks and property? Is that supposed to be saying that whomever lives at the residence does not own the portion of sidewalk that crosses in front of their home and therefore cannot get happy and possibly be able to brag ” Hey check out my new jacked up sidewalk! Them cracks is nice, huh?” to whomever comes to visit?
