DRUMMONDS, TENNESSEE-- An African-American family returned home from a grocery store run on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to find “KKK” markings on their driveway and mailbox.
Dorothy Campbell said she was gone for about three hours and found the graffiti when she returned home just before 1:00p.m.
“I’m angry, and I’m afraid. I don’t know who that could be,” Campbell said.
Campbell’s family has lived on Tate Road in Drummonds for almost 30 years. They were one of the first families to move there and remain the only African-American family on the street. She said they know their neighbors well and have never had problems with anyone.
On a day meant to celebrate the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Campbell said the message of hate and prejudice is clear.
“I know there’s prejudice still here, still in the state of Tennessee. They say there’s not. But that’s a lie. It’s here. It’s getting better, but it’s still here,” she said.
Neighbors are equally shocked.
“Everybody knows everybody on this street. So it’s just very unbelievable, really,” said Becca Ping.
Ping and her neighbor Kammie Gray have both lived on Tate Road for 10 years or more. They have never seen this kind of racism or vandalism.
“Whoever did that, I hope that they realize how wrong that was and that there’s nothing else to follow that. This isn’t the type of community that would put up with that type of thing,” Gray said.
Campbell has reported the incident to the Tipton County Sheriff’s Department. Dispatchers told Campbell they would have extra patrols in the area at night, but Campbell doesn’t feel that would necessarily help, since the vandals acted during broad daylight.
She fears they may be capable of much more. Just in case, her husband decided to stay home from his night shift.
Although the Campbell fears more trouble, she said she’s going to stand up to the problem. She said she’s not moving anywhere, and she’ll continue to teach her children and grandchildren what Dr. King preached.
“I always tell my kids you treat everybody the same. Because we’re all the same. God said we’re all his children. So why would we be any different? Everybody’s blood is red.”
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Tuesday, January 17th 2012 at 12:49PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
