Eddy County NAACP Tidies Up

By Michael Bromka

In Carlsbad, the Eddy County NAACP focuses on local matters. Their biggest push is raising funds for the annual Daniel Johnson Scholarships to defray the tuition of college-bound students. These are awarded via application and an essay submitted to the committee for blind review, regardless of the applicants’ ethnicity.

They also offer dues and moral support to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s state and national networks. This nationwide group strives to preserve voting rights now being stripped away from ethnic minorities by federal courts and state legislatures.

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the world’s oldest organization defending civil rights. That term—civil rights—means equal treatment for people regardless of color, culture, religion, or ethnicity.

During America’s post-Reconstruction era of the latter 1800s and early 1900s, some Black Americans in former Confederate states periodically were brutalized and lynched—hanged by the neck until dead. Majority politicians passed “Jim Crow” laws constricting economic and educational opportunities. Segregation, exclusion, and inequity kept non-white minorities in poverty.

In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson lobbied a bipartisan Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. This federal law greatly advanced minority rights nationwide. Under Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, this law was reauthorized.

But in three 21st-century swipes, the Supreme Court has demolished that protection. Southeastern state legislatures have gerrymandered away majority Black Congressional districts. In Ohio, voters who vote sporadically have been purged from registration rolls. (They send you a fine print postcard of notification; most folks ignore it as junk mail.) In North Dakota, Native Americans on reservations lost voting rights by directing snail mail to post office boxes instead of their homes, which lack street addresses.

Eddy County’s NAACP recently conducted a litter pickup south of Northgate Plaza, focusing on the Shortorn ballfield, bordered by Solana Street, Blodgett Street, and the C.I.D. canal.

One member with a scheduling conflict spent four hours on Thursday and Friday preceding pickup day. He filled three bags with plastic cups, bottles, paper, cardboard, and rags from parallel alleys north and south of Pierce Street, west from Mesa to Lamont streets. Those bags he cached for the weekend crew.

On Saturday, Eric Threlkeld and Kelley Reid carried a discarded truck bumper to a dumpster. Rounding out their crew were pre-picker Michael Bromka, plus Saturday stalwarts Yolanda Jimenez, Collis Johnson, Ellen Krumm, Floyd Lee, Teri Young, and Randal and Amie McNeal.

Floyd Lee reflected on their labor.

“There were liquor bottles and syringes. It’s disheartening to find evidence of drugs and alcohol. Some folks evidently were sleeping in dugouts or even using a cardboard box to bunk down in.

“Those we left untouched—somebody’s dwelling. Sorta sad. I’m glad we have local programs like LifeHouse and Celebrate Recovery to offer a hand up. We can all access God’s grace.

“As for trash in the dry C.I.D. canal bed, I don’t recommend climbing down there with gimpy knees. I had to use the catwalk understructure to grapple my way back up and out,” he said.

“It was great for team building. We helped our community tidy up, got exercise bending over to collect and bag litter. We tied off heavy bags so as not to tear up the bottoms, dragging them. Our 8-10 a.m. efforts amassed a dozen full bags. Afterward, we celebrated over coffee at Blue House,” he added.

Via Councilwoman Mary Garwood at City Hall, any local service group can apply for a designated area to tidy up. The city provides sturdy bags. Grant money plus clocked hours of volunteering help our city and each group make Carlsbad prettier.