NAACP Office on West Church Street, Orlando
By Gabe Kaimowitz
With visions of minority set-asides and training programs for black youth filling their heads, NAACP leaders in Orlando seem to have little attention to spare on the issue of dangerously high pollution levels found in the soil and ground water beneath Parramore ghetto.Orlando’s white leadership has kept their dream for this neighborhood alive for over 20 years. In the 1980’s, the city opened the new $110 million Orlando Magic arena, revamped the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, and made over the Citrus Bowl. A billion dollar makeover was envisioned for everything on the white side of I-4. Current plans under construction for the area would also cost over one billion dollars for two new venues and yet another Citrus Bowl do-over. White leadership is promising cleanup only at the site of the new half-billion dollar Event Center. No mention is made of the Parramore contamination or other numerous hot spots in the area of new and proposed construction. Most polluted southern tier cities from Phoenix to Augusta usually abandon such contaminated ground to its poor occupants, as Orlando did until the 80’s. Since then, the city has discovered that contaminated land so close to downtown has actually become valuable, as long as no time and money are needed for assessment and excavation. The city, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have invested millions to maintain control of the city’s primary water supply in Lake Concord. They know what a real clean-up of Parramore would cost. What will black residents get instead of a clean-up of Parramore? More set-asides and training programs. Also promised is a share of the economic pie created by the construction and operation of these venues. Set-asides do not happen as planned in Orlando. Our city seems to discourage fresh black professional, political, and business faces from settling in and doing specific local business. An architectural firm chosen to design the new Performing Arts Center is reportedly looking for minority participation. Anyone know of a good local black or integrated firm with experienced architects?
Enter the Reverend Roland Bracy.
Orange County NAACP President Reverend Roland Bracy got a taste of how set-asides really work when he lobbied for several home boys (including popular chef Johnny Rivers) to keep a concession they have held for a decade at Orlando International Airport. During the bidding war, Reverend Bracy objected to the award of the new concessions contract to a team from Atlanta and Barcelona. The Sentinel’s Beth Kassab reported on the issue. Bracy “said he thought the bidding process for the large contract was unfair, with rules that were bent to favor one [bidder] over another.” Then came the double white whammy: “Even Dyer, who voted against the prevailing contractor, said he discounted that assertion. ‘The two proposals are pretty much equal’, said Dyer, adding that he does buy into the notion local companies should be favored.” Kassab wrote: “Gardner, the airport executive director, said he ‘resented’ the insinuation of anything untoward. He said the decision, in large part, came down to the airport’s need to prove to customers it was willing to make a tough decision by turning down politically connected Hometown Concessions in favor of a group that promised more money.” Johnny Rivers was given a smaller contract for another concession the same day.
Blacks have always been part, albeit a small part of airport business. The late Champ Williams, who controlled all concessions in the 70’s and 80’s, included the popular Pappy Kennedy on his team. The late Commissioner Kennedy was Orlando’s first black city council member. His ties were influential enough to get Williams indicted but not convicted when he was found guilty of tax fraud in federal court. Kennedy’s indictment was a word to the wise; best to play ball with those in political power, not with mavericks.
Orlando’s modern day mavericks include hotelier Harris Rosen and developer Marc Watson. Together they unsuccessfully sought to get the proposed Events Center placed near International Drive and the Orange County Convention Center. City and county Mayors insisted the $500 million arena be placed downtown, no matter how polluted the ground was underneath. There was no interest in locating those venues in the residential neighborhoods on the white side of Interstate 4. Reverend Bracy went along, but claimed he would be keeping an eye on the venture. Mayor Dyer and the Orlando Sentinel made sure he got the same message Kennedy had been given; whatever the carrot, Orlando has a stick available to dangle it with to placate any uppity blacks.
Training, or scab labor?
What happened to those training programs? For the1989 Arena, Mayor Bill Frederick fought hard for “set-asides.” Johnnie Robinson, head of the African-American Contractors Association, was counting on doing some of the training. The unions stepped in, demanding trainees be paid at going rates. It then made sense to get experienced workers from Central Florida, who were virtually all white. Robinson knew there was not one black general contractor in Central Florida at the time. The entire work force was not only untrained, but comparatively unskilled. Former Orange County NAACP president Derrick Wallace was then brought on board. Unlike Robinson, he was prepared to do anything the city asked, including acting as a front for the corrupt Robert Demes, a favorite of Orlando planners in the 1980’s.
In the 90’s, when Orange County first chair Linda Chapin promised set-asides, a U.S. Supreme Court declared set-asides unconstitutional unless there was a documented history of racially disparate treatment. Robinson and others were so incensed they hired attorney Eric Vick, who immediately settled the litigation without consulting most of his clients, then left with his five-figure payment. He did wrest a county promise to exercise good will in allocating contracts for construction and concessions. Chapin never lost her smile with a deal like that.
Mayor Glenda Hood advocated for a tourist/entertainment district where the new Events Center would be placed. Blacks would own businesses to compete equally but separately with white concessions on the East Side of Church Street beyond the I-4 and the tracks. Church Street Station residents thought even the suggestion warranted disapproval. Mayor Hood got a $2.3 million grant with the promise that hundreds of jobs would be created after construction. Black workers were indeed hired but only for unskilled jobs; skilled electricians, masons, and others were predominantly white and earned union pay. Now 12 to 15 years later, blacks will be given the chance to operate food and beer concession stands, and finally get a piece of that pie.
Is this really what the local NAACP wants?
There is now a fresh team at the Orange County NAACP. Reverend Bracy was given his position in May after his predecessor was ousted by the national organization. On his team is his wife of 33 years, LaVon W. Bracy. The daughter of legendary civil rights pioneer Reverend Tom Wright, Ms. Bracy was one of a handful of blacks who integrated a local high school in 1964, before desegregation came to the Alachua County School District seven years later. She told her father if she must sacrifice her senior year she would do so. Reverend Wright had three other volunteers, but none for the senior class. Ms. Bracy wrote about that year: “On that first day, Dad drove me to school followed by a Gainesville police car. I received stares and was called all kinds of nigger. No one spoke to me. No one sat near me. I could expect each day to have some white male or female spit on me and call me nigger. I began to hate. The thought of looking at someone with white skin made me sick. After about a month at the school, a group of white boys jumped me and beat me bloody. No one offered any assistance. The principal said, ‘How do I know you did not come to school bloody from your home? I did not see anyone mistreat you.’ I stayed home for three days, pondering what to do. I refused to allow them to win. I returned. The year was long, silent, unhappy. The scars are still there. In 1965 I became the first black student to graduate from Gainesville High.”
Beverlye Neal, executive director of the NAACP’s Florida State Conference, speaks highly of Reverend Bracy. The Orlando Sentinel quoted her in May: “He’s a respected leader. I expect the profile of the branch to increase. People know his leadership, and they know he’s going to step out there and take positions.” Pray tell, what positions are those?
Now an unknown old white Jew has asked the state and local NAACP to carry the message of exploitation of poor blacks by Orlando white leadership to their membership and to the State Convention in Gainesville in September. After trying to contact the state and local chapters, I admit to having received no feedback, but there is another card I can play.
Perhaps someone will hear my prayer….
