Statesville, NC Black History With Dr. Lisa Mozer - Episode 93

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What's going on? It's your boy Dwayne Breena from Not Just Music Podcast. Thank you for joining us another week. Let's go.

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What's happening people? Another episode of Not Just Music Podcast. We have a special, special guest coming from Statesville, North Carolina.

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Originally, if y'all follow me in this podcast, you know that I'm originally from Statesville.

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We've talked about this woman on our podcast before and we're blessed to have her in the house. We have the great Lisa Moser right here. How you doing?

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And between you and I is Lisa, but for everybody at the moment because it's business, it's Dr. Moser.

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Okay. Well, Dr. Moser. How are you doing? I'm good. How about you?

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And what do I call you? You can just call me Quincy.

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I can call you Quincy. Okay. Not baby boy, not boo boo. Okay. He's coming.

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So tell us a little bit about your story. Like, you know, you know, you're a bringer.

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What have you heard? It's not all true. What have you heard?

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Well, I heard you did time in the service. Is that true or not?

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Yes. That's true. Yeah. Not in the brig, but in service in uniform.

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Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I heard you originally had moved to Charlotte. Was it Charlotte in South Carolina?

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Oh, you got the homework. Okay. Yes. I grew up in Charlotte.

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You know, I was that generation that got integrated and bussed. I was bussed to South Mecklenburg, Wilson Junior High School.

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What elementary? Oh, God. Behringer. Behringer Elementary in Charlotte. So, yeah. Does that sound familiar?

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Yeah. Yeah, it does. So, so as a kid, as a type, as a kid, how were you like? Were you very into the politics, the world, like how things are now?

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When did it? When did I get your interest?

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You know, being a child of that generation, that last generation to experience segregation, growing up in Statesville, because I was a young child in Statesville.

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And I do remember I had an older sister, fortunately. I recently lost my sister. But when we were young, she was eight years older than me.

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And everywhere she went, I had to go, which was really good because she loved to go to the movie theater.

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And the only theater in Statesville at that time, we don't even have a theater right now, by the way.

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But at that time, it was downtown. And every Sunday, they would have either Elvis Presley or the Beach Boys.

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And my sister loved to go to the movies and I would get to go with her. And I remember only being able to sit in the balcony.

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And I would ask, why can't we sit downstairs? I want to sit down close, you know. And my sister would shh. Be quiet. Shhh.

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So the segregation is something that having going from segregation to a more integrated society or public was something, you know, we hadn't read books about it.

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We didn't get any instructions on it. But there was something that supposedly was supposed to be good and positive about it.

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You know, looking back, I can see that, hey, there was some real positives that we lost, you know, while we were segregated.

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We were more of a community. And so I think that on a larger scale, a lot of that was lost.

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But on the positive side, it was this feeling of excitement that, you know, we were unlimited in what we could accomplish.

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We could actually be whatever we wanted to be. And I grew up believing that. And so a little bit of ambition.

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And there were a lot of struggles, trust me, because there was still a lot of economic disparity, huge disparity.

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And so there was not a lot of opportunity. You really had to find that opportunity.

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And so, of course, going to school, I went to a P.W.I. and of course, I went into the military, the reserves.

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And so getting past some personal struggles, too. I had two sons at a very young age and wanted to make sure that I was a contributor to the lives of my kids.

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And so it was not all that we expected it to be. But at the same time, I do think that we have more opportunity readily open with affirmative action.

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It's unfortunate that that did not last very long. I do think that that opened up many doors for those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s.

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So it was a time of experimenting in new directions. And I think most young people, young adults, which is pretty much on their own, trying to find their way in what was considered to be the first and second generations with integration.

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So what age specifically was you when you when it sparked your attention? Like you remember the age specifically? Like you was you really young politics, you mean?

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Or when you when you know this, when you notice how segregated the world, like when they caught your attention, you know, five years old.

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Why come I couldn't go downstairs? I really wanted to go downstairs and sit down and I was ready to go.

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It's just nobody was saying, come on, you know, I'll go with you.

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So when did it spark your mind at age that you wanted to like try to change or be part of the change? Like what you're doing now?

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What I'm doing now is a recent effort, but I will say this and he's no longer here. I had a wonderful in undergrad.

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I went to undergrad in South Jersey at Rowan University at the time that I attended classes. It was a Glassboro State College.

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It was a teacher's college, but it's now known as Rowan University.

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And they were kind enough to send me a new degree. This is Rowan University.

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But I had an amazing African-American instructor, Dr. Gary Hunter.

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He's no longer with us. I'm sad to say. But I've had a lot of reflection on him since beginning this project in Statesville in our hometown because he was an instructor.

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He really made it real for us that we were African and our heritage was African.

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And he was just an amazing professor when he would come into class, you know, they had a dress code and he would come into class with a dasheki or a T-shirt on that had Jimmy Hendrix or, you know, Malcolm X or somebody on it and a tie.

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The dress code was to have a tie on it. So he he met the dress code with this tie on it and uncombed hair.

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And this is before I knew anything about dreads or OK, twist or what have you.

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I mean, we're talking late 1970s, early 1980s. I graduated in 1981 from undergrad.

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But he was such an amazing African-American history instructor. Right. When he came in, he would just begin the lesson and he knew all of his notes off the top of his head.

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Not like some instructors, they have the flashcards or the, you know, notes up on the board or whatever.

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He would just start writing and talking and asking us questions and he would know whether or not we had read the chapter or not, you know, just by looking at the whole responses at a glance.

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So he was just an amazing educator and he was so dedicated to black history. I was only required to take one class.

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I ended up taking like three of his classes because I was just really impressed with how much he knew. And it was really at that time. And, you know, I'm in my late teens, early 20s and undergrad school there.

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And it's where I really learned what it was for my heritage that I learned that I was a black person. And that meant that my heritage did extend from Africa and most likely from Nigeria.

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And it gave me a sense because I really needed that because I think for a lot of young people at that time, I don't know about now. I'm not young now. I want you to talk to the black young ladies out there too, because you're a representation of a black woman.

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So I want you to talk to them too right now. Well, I grew up at a time when we were when I was very young, we were still called colored. And then I remember going into being called Negro for many years as a young child and teenager.

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We were still called Negro. And it was like, yeah, you're American, but you got this special background.

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And so we don't call you, you know, like most young people that you meet, they might know that they're Scottish heritage or they're Irish heritage or, you know, some other, you know, French heritage or what have you.

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We weren't going around saying, you know, we're, you know, African heritage or we were just saying we were Negro. And there was something about that that was very shallow, you know, as a person, I felt.

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And so to find out that you know what, not only am I black and my heritage is well before enslavement, you know, I have a heritage that extends well before enslavement because before it always felt like our heritage was, you know, just developed out of this era of enslavement.

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And so to find out about, you know, all of these great the Zulu tribe and Mandela and just, you know, so many other great things that are a part of a history that we are connected to was very empowering for me as a young person.

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And I already had some ambition because, you know, when you have meager means, you want to do better, you want to provide for your family. And I wanted to provide for, you know, two young sons that, you know, I wanted to be responsible for.

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Okay. What do you think is the biggest misconception that us black people use that that wasn't there in time, but we make an excuse for it that you know because you say it's a lot of things that were good in our favor that we don't know and we we just look at the bad that was happening to us.

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What are some of the good things that we've done and some of the opportunities we had back then because I'm not old enough to know stuff like this. So you can tell us.

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Did you have family to go to Morningside in Statesville.

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I believe so because I actually grew up on South Green Street. So yeah, I actually grew up. Yeah, right on South Green Street. So yeah.

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Okay, let me add two things into your question. And that is Morningside. Okay.

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Morningside the original Morningside located on South Green Street before the one the high school that they built right across from the swimming pool, a little further down the original Morningside was located on South Green Street very close to Garfield Street but not, you know, within eyesight of where the second location is.

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That school was established in 1891. Now I want you to think about that 1891. It was the first all grade school, not just for the city of Statesville, but for all of our Del County.

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And you had one room type little shelters here and there in the county. And these, the system, the public school system really was not inclusive for black people at that time.

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So you think about our freedom in 1865. That's when you know the end of the Civil War and the Civil Rights and Emancipation Proclamation and all of that. But so from 1865 to 1891, you know, that's almost 30 years, right? Right.

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And so what was going on within that 30 year timeframe, it was kind of like a hit and miss with our education. So you had some students that could, you know, find their way to a teacher or a room or a church that was having some programs for education, but it wasn't the mass education of public school that it became.

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Because that took time, almost 30 years. So that means some, some of us probably grew up without having access to organized education. So Morningside is a landmark, even though the school was torn down.

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I think in the early 1970s, the school was torn down, but it's still that site because that site is representative of a large mass of black people not being educated, not having access to education to a large number of people having access to education.

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That's pivotal. I'm just trying to visualize it because I passed just growing up over there and just visualizing it. You know, it's like, wow, you wouldn't even know the history over there. You know, it's crazy. And that's why this is important to broadcast.

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And it's well documented, but we do need to have more of our story told because it must be remembered and it is our responsibility to have it remembered. And preservation of history is very important for any culture.

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Statesville has six highly sustained, well economic base for their heritage, but it has not been inclusive. And so this is what we've been trying to do is to bring about more diversity in the culture and to do that.

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This seventh, this is the Black Historic District is officially a historic district. It doesn't have a budget yet. It doesn't have preservation plan, but our efforts, we do now have a board.

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I'm not on the board, but that's a good thing, truly, because it was myself and other community members, as well as Celia, who is sitting here, Ms. Gentry.

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We were very instrumental in pushing this forward. So to have that board appointed by the city mayor now and our newest city council is a win for us. And it's a step forward.

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We still don't have a budget. We still don't have a preservation plan. And so it's not, you know, with ease that we're having these things done.

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But preservation of our culture, of any society's culture, is an economic base. And, you know, 20 years ago, foundations didn't have a lot of money or funds going into saving Black landmarks, but that's not true today.

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It is available today. It's a lot of money. And we have to be careful on who's controlling the money. We know that it's been withheld. We know that because you have six historical districts that are well sustained in Statesville, but where's the money for a Black landmark?

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Are we seeing it? That's the question.

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So we have to make sure that we show that we're concerned about this. We cannot let up on this issue. And it's not going to be easy. It hasn't been easy. So with the Green Street cemetery, where Morningside sat on this cemetery, is the earliest Black cemetery that we know of.

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Now that's not to say that there aren't Black cemeteries that were earlier than this cemetery. This is the one in Iredale County. It's the earliest that we know of. And over 2,000 unmarked graves, many of those that are buried there survived a lifetime of enslavement.

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And so when we talk about early history and freedom, we're not trying to say we want to celebrate that our ancestors were slaves. No, we want to celebrate that our ancestors were Black people. We want to celebrate that our ancestors survived.

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And then even after surviving without the type of economic base that a lot of societies get when they, you know, gain freedom and gain a new pivotal way of life, we were still in survival mode. Some of us today are still in survival mode.

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But it was really this neighborhood that you and I had our life experiences in at a young age. It was the heart of Black statesville. That's well documented.

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You have seven highly significant landmarks. So you have the cemetery there with some of our ancestors that survived enslavement. They are, you know, in unmarked graves. We recently did get a GPR survey and observation ground penetrating radar to document.

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And we thought that that was going to be the beginning of a preservation plan. But unfortunately, the community members were kind of shut out in the decisions of that. But God is good because we have to really be thankful to some wonderful and very progressive people in Salisbury, North Carolina.

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And Salisbury, North Carolina has the Dixonville Cemetery, which is also a very early black cemetery with some of those members there that survived enslavement that are buried at that cemetery.

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And they were able to do this absolutely monumental memorial, the Dixonville Memorial. You got to go by the and see it, my brother, because it's beautiful. And the young man that designed the memorial was actually a student at A&T.

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And so they have these granite pillars going around the Dixonville Cemetery. They've got engravement. They've got the sidewalks. They got the curving. They got the lights. It's beautiful. Beautiful. You know what we got in Staysville?

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We got a plastic sign.

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And that's not what we were pushing for. And they fought us against it. And I try not to dwell on that because it's very hard because I try to take it that they just didn't know or that they really thought that they were doing the best that could be done.

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We got a grant. One of the grants was forty thousand dollars and it was supposed to be a match grant of forty thousand. It was twenty thousand. It was supposed to have been a match of forty thousand. We really don't have clarity on whether or not the whole match was made available.

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But we got the GPR with that grant and we got a plastic sign and we got these boat markers. These markers that supposed to mark each grave. We don't even know if that was done correctly because they used volunteers and made it like an activity in April.

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And the community members we fought against that. We wanted a preservation plan. We wanted to have a design. We wanted to have the expertise of an architect, of an anthropologist to come in. And instead what we got was the mayor and a couple of social organizations and some volunteers.

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And they thought they had done a great job. But as I said, God is good because Salisbury spent seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

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Wow. Shout out to Salisbury.

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Thank you. And did a memorial that justified black heritage. And Statesville as you know is the county seat and is a four billion dollar city. And so you're telling me that one of the most...

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So we got money. That's what you're saying. We got money here.

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And it's out there. You can bring preservation money from the state because this is a historical site that is a site, a landmark that should have recognition at the state level if not the national level.

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And a lot of documentation says indicates that it should be at the national level because you have World War I service members, black men that served in uniform in World War I also buried there.

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There are at least three known headstones. Those military headstones don't go nowhere unless somebody take it.

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So you've got three of those there. And then you also have headstones that are military headstones for men that served in uniform from the 1889 war.

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And that is the Spanish American War. So that military connection makes it worth a memorial. And the fact that you have hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of those that if they did not serve a lifetime, they serve part of their lives during the enslavement era.

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They're buried there. So this is probably the most significant historical site that we have in Statesville. And it's the largest burial ground, not just for Statesville, but for all of Iredell County.

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It was documented with the research of some what the librarians did produce on it with their project. Oh, I did quotation marks if you...

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I mean, let's keep it real. We keeping it real.

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But the significance of it is worthy. And Celia was there. I fought to try it because to me it's like, hey, you know you've been spending tax money and doing preservation projects on all these other historical districts.

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Let's negotiate. So I'm asking for 10 million. Now, you know when you ask for 10 million, you ask for the top dollar, right?

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Yeah.

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They're calling me crazy or whatever. But you know, in my heart, I was saying ask for 10 million would take two. That's reasonable.

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Right.

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Now that was before we knew about Salisbury. But I mean, think about it. I was right on point with that because Salisbury, they were probably trying to get a million. They got 750,000.

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That's a long way from the little 20,000 in the plastic sign that we got.

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Right.

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They got 400 unmarked grades. We got 2000. What's wrong with that picture?

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It's a bad picture.

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What's wrong with that? Yeah. So, you know, I tried to, you know...

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I tried to, but it's hard because not only that, and I have to give credit to the librarians that were working, you know, to get this project completed or what have you, but it was, they totally cut out people in the community.

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And it's not just that it's in our community. It's also that we are descendants, you know.

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Many of the community members are community members that either went to Morningside or had family that went to Morningside. The community members have ancestors that, you know, we don't know where the grave is, but we've got a death certificate that says they're marked there.

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So any other research would have included the community members in it.

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Right.

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So why did our city decide that, oh, we don't need to include the community members? We're just going to do these boat markers and have the GPR and we're going to put up this plastic sign.

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We don't know. We have family in those graves. So, you know, it's crazy that we're not bringing attention to it. What are ways people can get involved with this to help? That's why I want to bring that up.

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So that's one of the reasons why I decided to run for a public office. But before I get back into that, you asked what can people do? And here's something that people really do need to do, regardless of where you are, where your people are.

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Make sure that you collect your documentation to show that you are from that ancestry of those that survived enslavement, because if you were in any other culture, they say don't forget, you know, when if you talk to any of your friends that have a Jewish ancestry, you know, they learn about their history.

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They learn about the hardships of being Jewish. And we have to do that for our ancestry as well. We cannot let people forget.

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And it is under attack. Our heritage is denied so much. They don't want it in the history books. They don't want it in the memorials in the city.

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But even if we don't win a preservation plan for Statesville, it's no excuse for us not to make sure that we collect marriage certificates of our grandparents. Go back as far as you can go.

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I was able to go back two generations that survived enslavement. So I'm five generations away from the last person in my line of family on both sides, my mother's side and my father's side.

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I'm the fifth generation away from enslavement and I can go back two generations of those and I have the death certificates and I have some birth certificates and I have some slave records of those that did live a life, survived during the enslavement years, you know, and they labored without compensation.

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And so when I say that I'm American, that's what I mean. I'm black and I'm American and I have the documentation. There's no question in my mind that I'm a black American and my ancestors here survived enslavement.

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And I think that every black person that has that heritage needs to be able to say that needs to pass that documentation down in their family because there is our heritage is under such attack.

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And you know you can still meet people today that are ashamed of being black. They're everything. They're mixed with Native American, they're mixed with Filipino and they're gonna marry some other race because you know, and that's all part of us not having the narrative for so many generations.

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Can I ask you, where should they, you know, because a lot of people are watching probably young, where can they find this stuff? You know, give them the resources that they should go to.

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First thing you do is look at your birth certificate, make sure you have a copy of your birth certificate. The second thing you're going to do is you're going to look at your parents birth certificates and your parents marriage license because those are documents that will have their parents name on it.

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And so and then you can use some apps and some websites that will help you ancestry.com is one of those you can also go to the library and many of the libraries, Library of Congress, local libraries, and see Ms. Gentry is in the clerk of court.

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So you can get these documents deeds wills are very helpful wills are very helpful because a lot of times our black ancestors were part of a will because we were treated as property.

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And so they were handed down to another generation of ownership. And so these are very, very helpful in finding your ancestry and so collecting this data, I think, is something that you should value and pass down in your generation because you know other families they pass down China and pass down relics.

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So, being able to say, and teach your family, your heritage is going to be an individual responsibility for many, for many of us because they are trying to take, you know black history out of the schools, and because it's offensive to learn but it's the truth.

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Right, you know it's the truth. And this is another reason why I think we are so behind in having black sites that are historical, recognized in the city of Statesville but it's true for other areas as well, but we're very fortunate in that.

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These are landmarks that are very close together so it makes it very ideal. And they're very significant for leadership, I mean just some really great leaders really made the beginning of our freedom possible with direction with hope with aspiration with prosperity,

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all there together, the seven landmarks by the way because I don't think I, yeah, yeah, yeah, we gotta get all of them. I talked about the South Green Street, you know that's probably our most significant one.

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We do have one historical landmark that is on the North Carolina historical landmark registry. And that is Mount Pleasant Church Mount Pleasant Church is right on the corner of Garfield Street and South Center Street.

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Now that church originally was a wooden church and it was established in 1868 my brother so literally built by people who had survived a lifetime of enslavement and got and saw freedom, went from being enslaved to seeing freedom.

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And then they even had, you know, just this amazing ability to move forward even further in 1906. They built the brick church that's there now there's a picture of it right there and it's a beautiful church is three blocks from downtown state City Hall.

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And it was not included in the preservation project that was renovation that was a renovation of downtown statesville and I brought that up because I thought we could negotiate with that now you guys know y'all spent $12.6 million renovating downtown statesville.

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Here's Mount Pleasant North Carolina landmark y'all were supposed to extend this another block and a half and you didn't do it. Why not? That's discriminatory. You just magically skipped that. I thought I had it but somehow, you know, some people that look like me just, you know.

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So what's the most challenging part of this? I know you say you know stuff not getting passed but like is it times that you, you know, people that want to take on council role because I've expressed interest in you in doing this also.

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And this is what I want to know what's the most challenging things. What's the hardest part about the job and what motivates you to keep. I asked you that first.

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The challenge. Okay, hold that question because you may have to ask it again because let me go ahead and go through all seven landmarks right there together. So I mentioned the cemetery Mount Pleasant Church.

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You have the Morningside School we talked about that a little bit. And then you also have it's not it's no longer there but the location is an open green space and there should be a statue or plaque or memorial or something.

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And that's the Billingsley Academy. The Billingsley Academy the leadership that brought that about it was a private school. It took six years for the community and this man's leadership to bring that school about.

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There's a photograph of it is kind of small but Reverend Wentz there's nothing in Statesville recognizing his great leadership. So in 1906 he brought about the Billingsley Academy and it was a very well established private school kind of like a grade school and

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combined trade school together. So he was just an amazing man and there's nothing have you ever heard of them before. Not okay and probably the greatest earliest black leader that you know is documented and we should honor him.

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So the Billingsley Academy then there's also the Negro Hospital recently Daisy Robinson who was a nurse in the early 1900s. She opened up her home and this was it made it possible for us to have medical service because the Davis Hospital the Statesville

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Hospital Davis Hospital did not allow us to be admitted to the hospital. Now you could go in emergency and get treated or have an operation and stay a little while in the basement. But if you needed care long term you were sent to what they call the Daisy House.

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Now this wasn't a makeshift this was actually she turned her home and it was officially the Negro Hospital and it was located on the corner of Garfield Street right across from the Morningside School.

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Yeah because like now you see the COVID happen and you have to stay overstayed. You know that would have been that time you know hey so the little things we take for granted you know that y'all didn't even have back then you know it was before my time before your time.

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Yeah because it was way way before my time. Those people yeah. Yeah our early leadership our early freedom leadership we had a Negro Hospital and she was over this hospital and they recently found her headstone in the Green Street Cemetery.

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I could not find any photographs of her could not find a photograph of the hospital but she does exist and I'm so grateful to God because you know our history is so easy to erase but we found her headstone Green Street Cemetery okay in the Green Street Cemetery

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and I was there when they uncovered it took away the debris and one of the trucks ran over it and I was very upset that a city truck ran over it I don't think it was done intentional but luckily it didn't break but this is one of the things that we have to have more standards about.

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You cannot treat our landmarks and preserve our landmarks the way you would some other society because other societies haven't gone through the hardships the disparity and we have to set about a way to make sure that people understand well just because you don't see anything here doesn't mean that we're not standing on holy ground.

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Because our freedom and the sacrifices that they made for us to be here because we already know so many black people their generations their line of heritage ended because they did not survive so we are the survivors and we are standing on the shoulders of survivors and that is to be recognized because American freedom is a great freedom to have.

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And so it's only possible because of those of the shoulders that we stand on and we want to honor that so you've got the Green Street Cemetery the Daisy hospital the Daisy House which is the Negro Hospital the Billingsley Academy Mount Pleasant Church Morningside School and so I didn't mention two others very quickly and that is the holiday house.

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I was gonna say that holiday house this holiday. This is holiday work to bring about education from mass black population with very few educated to having schools having as you can having educators and bringing about substantial curriculum and educating the population.

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And as I said there was a huge gap between the Emancipation Proclamation and Morningside which was the city school in 1891 so what was going on in between that really had to be corrected and so her coming to Statesville.

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I believe in I want to say 1913 something like that she was an early graduate of Hampton Institute which is now Hampton University she was a young single woman that came to Statesville specifically for this job she brought a lot of the funding or the connection to the funding with the Jeans Foundation the Jeans Foundation was set up specifically by a lot of white philanthropists up north that wanted to help educate because they knew we weren't getting educated down south.

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And so she was hired specifically for that position and met a great man right a great yes you did she married a black doctor and early black doctor Dr. Holliday her maiden name was called in Mary Colton holiday and he Dr. Holliday he practiced medicine from 1906 until his death in 1966 so another great leader providing medical services along with Daisy Robinson and the Negro Hospital and those were the two leaders.

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And I think those were like two houses apart now we are lucky and the house is still up thank you my brother.

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Okay the house is still up it's near collapse it's in shambles but it was an immaculate residence at one time and so to bring about preservation and restore this house of this power this historical power couple right if you will they didn't have that word back then but they were a power couple.

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And so to recognize them and all of the surrounding landmarks in this community truly is a substantial and distinct historical district.

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So why is it right now we still have zero budget and only have had two grants and have had some assessments. The good news is that we do now have a board we had pushed for a task force. We didn't get the task force last year but we have a new city council person and we're hoping that it can move forward a little bit but it is the reason why I didn't mention teachers row in Fort Doss can't get everything in.

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A lot of history. Yes, but it is, it is. If you had to say what it what would be a good historical black neighborhood.

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This is it in Statesville, it has all of that history. And there's no doubt in the documentation nobody doubts the documentation of it being historical. The only problem we're having is making sure that a preservation plan gets put in place, and the multimillion dollar budgets come to sustain

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it make it distinct making an economic base we'd like to see Morningside become, you know, that facility, where, and I'm not the one to say what could be and what couldn't be I'm just throwing a few ideas that we have discussed as a community.

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You know, it could be an aquatic center it could have offices for those entrepreneurs, you know, taking their first step into business is a lot of things that it could be as a service to the community. And if we build it as an economic base with all of these

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landmarks and these monuments, it could be collateral for other communities and it could be a model for other communities but not only that it sustains the taxes it sustains the community's heritage, something that is valuable that we can pass on for

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generation after generation, and you don't have to be a person that owns property in the neighborhood to benefit from it. If you're a business person anywhere near our Dale or statesville.

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This is a benefit for you because you can say hey, you know my business is located in our Dale County, where you have the black historic district who wouldn't want to come and visit the black historic district who wouldn't want to set up another business near a black

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historic district and it's something that has stabilized and been beneficial economically for six other districts. So if it's been beneficial and continues to bring in grants continues to bring in contributions continues to, you know, stabilize taxes and be

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tax exemptions for some, why wouldn't that be beneficial for us. Right. Well, I'm gonna tell you what the excuse is the excuse is, oh, we need to address the crime problem. Oh, we need to address the homeless problem. Oh, well, when they built Fort

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Dogs, they didn't even know what Fort Dodge look like there were no drawings of it. They just guessed okay well this is what French for it to look like at the time and so let's spend this $6.4 million and build for it down they had no problem with that right.

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So, why do we have a problem. You know you had all the same problems and part of our tax money and preservation funding went went into that. It went into downtown it went into all those tax exemptions some of those homeowners get in the other historic districts

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and that's our tax pool too. So we're supporting history. We're just not supporting our own history or it being inclusive of black history, and that's the problem that we have any museums or anything historical around here.

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And they just spent a whole bunch of money we don't even know how much because at one time, you had the historical collection was right across the street from the CVS and a whole a lot of artifacts and a lot of photographs, and a lot of the morning side early pictures

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of morning cider up there they were in a corner upstairs in the corner it's not good. But, you know, they just put and I've been if you follow me on Facebook I just posted again today about the Woolworth building, which is a massive project it has to be in the

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millions has to be and so they have moved. And this probably only took like a year and we've been working almost three years maybe a little more than three years, and only gotten those two grants, you know, $20,000 $40,000 and it's really sad.

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But, Stephen Hill is a historian by his own initiative and I'm sure he's probably I'm guessing but I'm sure he's worked with the library. And so, who knows how much money it is it hasn't been published anywhere but you can just tell the quality of it I had a chance to go in

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the building when the construction team was going in and out and I saw, you know, 18 very well, you know, constructed cubicles, nice lighting you know for when they hang the photographs on the wall beautifully done.

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The original ceiling high you know 20 foot ceiling, and it's two floors I understand I did not go on the second floor so I have no idea what that looks like. But it's going to be a major historical preservation location. And that only took, I would even guess that it wasn't even a year.

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And I and I would guess it's multi million I would probably guess it might be over $3 million easily. That's what we need I think in the community. So why come we haven't gotten that why why did we, you know, get looked down on and and scolded at when we went to city council

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asking for a task force asking for money for a landmark and to look at us like we were invisible at times and, and it was very hard is very difficult because I'm not a preservation expert but we come trying to be inclusive trying to go through the protocols, and we were treated rudely.

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We were treated rudely, but we hung in there we continue to go we continue to call we continue to make it known that we felt that this was excluding our heritage unfairly we let some of the state offices know.

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And we have a new city council person and so the old city council person he didn't do anything. And I don't know why he didn't do anything but he did not do anything. And so, we're hopeful that now that we have a board for history black history, that this historical

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neighborhood will see a preservation plan and a substantial budget. But that's yet to be seen and so this is another reason why I decided to run as an independent.

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Where are you with other black organizations.

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I wish I could say that you know all the organizations have come together and are behind this but it's only been recently that the morning side alumni has lit some support in that they've come and been on some of my social media go live on social media and

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come down and, you know, supported some of my message and Juneteenth recently invited me I'm going to be. I do these community tours, a lot of the information that I share here with you I do want to tour in the community and I actually go to each historical

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site and share the historic significance of each site. And so Juneteenth has done a wonderful job and getting from what I understand a sold out or registered out you can't even get a seat on the bus they've got two buses that are going to do the tours on Wednesday,

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June the 19th I think one is that three o'clock or four o'clock and then the next one, the following hour, and then they also have a panel and I'm on the panel so I'm the tour guide for the bus, and I've given a lot of tours but this is my first bus tour, so I'm excited about

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about that. And the NAACP has done a lot of work with the library. And of course, I'll just leave it in that we have not agreed about how substantial that project was I think that that's something that needed to be more significant.

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And apparently I think others in the organization and now beginning to see that it needs to be a much more distinct effort in in establishing what is really a relevant landmark.

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We also were led to believe with City Council and the city manager that the landmarks were under application, and no applications were submitted for the landmarks to get state recognition or national recognition and so we're very disappointed about that.

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And, you know, how do we correct that we do have a community group that is a nonprofit now. We don't have a lot of experience in preservation and so this is a trial and error, you know, for us as well we've learned some things but certainly some things have been made a

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mistake whether or not they were intentional is not for me to say but I've addressed it as if it wasn't intentional, because that's how it appears to me, I could be wrong, but more needs to be done.

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If you don't think that it's important to have black landmarks then you are part of the problem, because it's delusional to think that you can have a city that promotes itself as historical, and you only tell part of the story, any cultural diversity

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and yes you have a lot of other culture coming there now and I see when they see pictures and they try to make the city promotion and marketing look all culturally diverse and that's great, but it is the black culture that is the authentic historical culture

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and nobody can replace that we were the ones here. And it is our labor, that was the great resource to build this city in becoming the $4 billion city that it is today now a lot of people want to say well you got all this crime like well yeah you you create a lot of

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crime, you're going to have a lot of crime. You got other schools the police have to go to the school so frequently like well you know Morningside, it was all black kids a whole black school all black faculty all black staff, and I don't ever remember the police being called

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Morningside. I was gonna ask you that do you think the connection like us, uniting more as black people will help this also push you do you feel that it helps? I do, and I think that we have to be willing to, you know,

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admit to when we've made mistakes and I think I've tried to do that you know I've tried to apologize because, you know, you can't go around hurting somebody's feelings, but it's not my fault if I'm telling you the truth, and it hurts your feelings.

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That's not my fault you need to deal with that. But I have learned that I need to approach things a certain way because we all, we are all human.

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And I'm not claiming to be a perfect person and we do need to be of unity and it's more important for us to get this accomplished more than it is for me to be right. And so I need to admit that you know I'm not competent in all areas and I don't have the skill set to get everything done.

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I've mostly tried to be the messenger, and that's what my campaign is, is about it gives me that opportunity. Independence don't typically win races but what it does do is give you a platform.

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Well let's change that we're gonna speak it into existence. Okay, I like that. Let's change that. Thank you. Yeah, go ahead. So it is hard though I'm independent and I'm also a right in candidate.

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Okay, and so when you go to vote and I hope young people will come out to vote. When you go to vote. You can't just click all Democrats okay you need to go down the line and when you see and it'll 84th house should be up there close it shouldn't be all the way down at the bottom I hope not.

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But when you look for state representative look for the 84th house and there will be a space for you to write in. And so you're going to circle in the little circle, and in that little space, you're going to write in my name Lisa Moser Lisa spell it right LSA Moser M O Z E R.

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And that is a legitimate vote for me. And you know people have said well you got to do more with this you got to do it. You know what, with all the expertise that others have claimed to have and yet we've not resolved the crime.

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We've not resolved homelessness so I see no problem in furthering this platform because this is going to build an economic base, and that's going to help crime that's going to help education that's going to help other communities.

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So I have no problem with my platform being narrowed down to building a substantial historical black community is worthy of that. And it's something that even if we don't get to see the fruits of it, it is our responsibility to plant these seeds, and to make sure that it's nurtured so that we can move it on and so I'm not going to give up on it and I hope others do not either.

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And that's what I want to say that's why we want to give you this platform because we want others to take notes, other young people that's doing something to give honor and respect to our generation the older generation is trying to do something in our history.

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Have you ever seen the formation of some animals, I was looking at this I think it was on tick tock and it made a lot of sense. And I think human nature is like that, a lot to because a lot of times people say well you're a leader you lead I'm like, well because I'm older and I've been around

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the sun a few times, you know I'm in front but it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm the leader because a lot of times the strongest leader is in the back. And so we need some of these young people who are strong leaders in the back to kind of stand up a little bit more, you know,

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it's okay for us older folks to be out there in the front, because you know we might know the way a little bit, but we might not be able to get to the destination. And so, when people you know ask me about my leadership, I will say that I am the messenger and I try to be out there in front,

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but I do believe that there are some stronger leadership, and it's younger people, and I hope they're listening and I hope they hear the message and I hope that they will stand up, because it is our responsibility right now to build this economic base if we don't have a community.

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We're going to lose the power of our political vote. And so, if we lose the power of our political vote, then we also lose economic power. And so we just can't be consumers, we go backwards, we're going backwards.

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And what we came out of. Yes, it's so easy to go back to. And so we do need to have a community base and this is a star I'm not saying they shouldn't be the only one if you're young and you want to build a black bank, call me I try and do what I can do.

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I'm not sure what but you know we need a black bank that's an economic base, but having a historical district is economic base I do know a little bit about that and so that's the message that I'm trying to put out there because there are many foundations that give

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us multi million dollar budgets to have cultural diversity and we're very fortunate in Statesville to have a rich heritage that is very well documented, very well documented no one, no one debates the historical significance of these sites, no one, we just have

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a very good conservation plan put in place and so that's my message that that's what I'm going to be working for. And I'd like to work at that at the state level I'd like to make sure that all of our Del county benefits from states for having this distinct destination

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to be what it should be as a historical district. I think we touched on pretty much everything is it anything because I don't want to leave here without you feel like you didn't get to say everything you want to say is anything left that you want to end it off with.

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What can you tell me what you think I should do give me some advice you're a young person you're from Statesville.

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Tell me how I can reach more young people in Statesville. I feel like it takes more people like the one is you know my co host he's going on 40. So he's a little bit older so it takes a little bit of the older generation to like talk and mo like talk to the younger

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generation, because you're one of a lot of adults I feel that's adults are lost there you know the parents are they're confused now so survival mode yeah yeah they're having your survival mode but they're forgetting like you say the historical things and they were a part of

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that yeah some of them parents were so it takes people like you to step in that knows it you know that has the history and to educate you know the kids like me are you know just reaching out like just a phone call like how I talked to you on the phone, and I was

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blown away by what you had told me. And I and I remember a few things you told me so I mean obviously I was listening you know so we talked a long time.

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Yeah, yeah so we reached out on Facebook I write right right right so um I think it takes that and then it takes us just educating ourselves also and looking into things you know the generations but um, I think you know like you should just keep being hands on,

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especially with the younger generations and keep pushing your message you know don't don't stop even if you think nobody's listening. Keep going because you got my attention, you know, so eventually and it's and I was upset it took me this long

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to discover you but the thing of it is I discovered you, you know, so it's out there, you know, well you've been very encouraging. I'm so glad we had this chance to connect. Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Well that's another episode not just music podcast thank you all for tuning in.

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Peace.

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What's going on it's your boy Dwan Breeno from Not Just Music podcast make sure you stay tuned for next week's episode. All right.

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Peace.