Healing of a Community, part 3

    "I never have gotten over it. But by me having faith in God. And doing all I can to stop this violence. That’s what keeps me going on. When my son got killed, that’s what got me involved. I wanted to do something to stop all these killing a nd to help all these other family members who were affected by that. Because you know, we tend not to get involved in this violence until it hits our family, then we want to get involved and talk. But then it be too late then. If we had did something in 1993 when we started to stop this violence, you know to get the people involved, we wouldn’t have this violence. This retaliation going on and on and on. And nobody wants to come forward. Only time you want to come forward when it affect your family. And all the faith groups going to do something. Because Jesus said, in Matthew 18,19, 20 go ye thou out into the world. We supposed to not stay in the four walls of the church. We supposed to go out there and help those poor, those lost kids out there. And right now we have a whole lot of lost kids. And those are the ones doing the killing."

Excerpts from an interview with Corrine Phelps.

    Corrine Phelps is a resident of South Richmond, CA. Her son, Arthur Lee "Gismo" Phelps was murdered in 1993.

     Left: Long abandoned railroad tracks in North Richmond, CA. The "Iron Triangle" neighborhood of Richmond, named for the shape created by various railroad tracks intersecting in the city, has a history of high crime.

    "You know Dr. King’s message “let freedom ring?” Well how can freedom ring when these young men, latino men, black men and now the girls are getting shot and the girls are doing just as much as the guys. The city fixes the street and they’re stained again with blood. How can freedom ring? So now it’s incumbent upon me to play my part. I know I can’t stop, no one person can stop these homicides. But we can surely get out there and make an impact, as a community working with youth."

Excerpts from an interview with Jackie Thompson, a longtime resident of Richmond, CA. Thompson is a community activist and a former coordinator of the Tent City Peace Movement.