- Just ahead on Black Issues Forum, Western Carolina locals work together as they try to bounce back from the destruction left behind by Hurricane Helene.

- But we're still continuing to do what we can with whatever we have.

And, we've witnessed God blessing it, right, because there has been enough, and more than enough.

- Coming up next, stay with us.

- [Announcer] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you, who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.

[upbeat music] ♪ - Welcome to Black Issues Forum.

I'm Kenia Thompson.

It's been weeks now since Hurricane Helene, but the recovery efforts in Western Carolina have only just begun.

I spent the last few days here visiting with residents and organizers in counties like Rutherford, and cities like Spindale and Asheville.

And what stood out to me the most is that this community, whether Black, white, male or female, have come together in love to make sure that no one goes without.

Here's their story.

[gentle music] - I was on my way home on the highway yesterday and there was just truck after truck just full of diapers, and charcoal, and just everything you could think of.

And I passed this one man, and he had a trailer of just racks of bread.

And my first thought was, God's sending the manna.

It's a terrible tragedy.

The outpouring of love has been wonderful.

To see God working.

- My name is Robert William Godfrey Jr.

I'm the pastor of Hope in the City Community Church, located right here in Spindale, North Carolina.

What I've saw over the last two weeks with the hurricane is good and bad.

Bad, houses damaged.

People missing their loved ones, some finding them dead.

Without power for weeks.

Food, water.

The good is brotherly love.

I've saw people showing love that I've never saw before in this county.

Me, I love my community.

I've been loving on my community before the hurricane came because, for me, to help someone, it's the true love of Jesus.

- The Holy Spirit's been flowing through here like a river.

It's just... You know, years ago, this was what the community did.

They all got together.

They drink coffee, and, you know, chat before they go to work, you know.

And they'd hang out here, and cook out.

And all that has been gone for years.

Been amazing how the community here has come together.

Everybody's worked so hard here the last couple weeks.

Most people lost everything.

Everything they've ever had that, you know.

A lot of people here, they just live a simple, easy life.

You know, they don't have a million dollars in the bank account.

Everything is what's in their yard, and it's washed down the river.

[gentle music continues] - Without Democracy Green, it would've been hard for a lot of people to have food, a lot of people to have items that they need for their homes.

So we are very grateful for them.

- I am La'Meshia Whittington, president of the board and co-founder of Democracy Green.

Democracy Green is a full-service, mutual aid and disaster relief and recovery organization.

And we are the first in the nation to be an environmental climate justice conservation organization that has a disaster relief recovery response and mutual aid program.

I'm from the west, from Western North Carolina, born and reared.

My entire family, my mother, Sonya Whittington is executive director of Democracy Green, another co-founder.

Our other co-founder is my brother.

Robert Whittington Jr, and Emertus is our grandmother who is now deceased.

And we came together with other partners that are on our board, but we are Western North Carolina Afro-Indigenous people.

Our ancestral lands are in the mountains, our ancestral burial grounds including where my grandmother is buried now.

So Democracy Green was formed in 2018 in the, we say the storm-torn waters of Hurricane Florence.

But before we were activated during Hurricane Florence, many years prior, my mother, who was a small business owner in a very small rural community called Morganton in western North Carolina, we ran her storefront business.

And a customer came in, a young woman in her family, and she began to say and tell us how she was displaced from Hurricane Katrina and just how the impact on her people, the loss of life, and just no support from the government.

And it came delayed, if any.

And so my mother in that moment was moved.

I remember parts of the conversation, but I was in high school at that point.

My mother took it in prayer and she came back and she said to our family, myself, my brother, my grandmother at the time, and she said, "I think we need to become disaster trained."

And we're like okay.

She said, "I think we have to be prepared to maybe someday deploy into communities that are impacted by hurricanes like Hurricane Katrina."

Several years later in 2013, we did just that.

We were trained by Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other volunteers that trained us to be ServSafe certified, disaster relief and response training.

Like all of this training happened in 2013, but we weren't activated until 2018 Hurricane Florence.

2018, Hurricane Florence hit.

And we were already as a family in partnership with other communities at that time, other families across Eastern North Carolina.

And we were conducting voter registration and education.

We were talking about environmental issues and contamination.

And when Hurricane Florence was about to darken the shores of Southeastern North Carolina, we began to receive phone calls on Facebook.

That actual Facebook feature that you can do through the Messenger.

And folks were saying, "Hey, you just visited my community.

You brought a great event, you brought great food, and you talked about environment."

And the connection was some community members, they said to us, "You're the first family of color, Black people that we've heard talk about the environment.

So we wanted to call you because we need help."

And we were like, "What kind of help do you need?"

And they're like, "We need to be evacuated."

And in that moment, that disaster relief training from 2013, the prayers years before for Hurricane Katrina, that conversation in my mom's door came live.

And so we had no idea that that prayer, that conversation around Hurricane Katrina and Morganton would be the actual deployment.

Hurricane Katrina was nearly 20 years ago, and it's 2024, and here we are back in Morganton, back in Rutherford County, Burke County, McDowell County, Buncombe County, all the counties we're serving right now of Hurricane Helene is exactly what we planned, prayed for, prepared for.

And now we're activated doing that same work here.

- We hooked up with Democracy Green through my brother Romi, Romi Patterson.

We grew up together, good preacher fan of mine.

He called me and Romi always helped out when we give out to the community.

And he knew that I would be doing that.

And he hooked me up with Democracy Green.

And they have donated truckloads of stuff to us.

I mean, they're driving from Raleigh, North Carolina.

I mean, I believe I was talking to my sister over there.

She said that she left at 5:00 AM and been on the road, that takes love, that takes a wheel to help people.

They pulled up, she was like, "I got some trucks coming your way."

Four U-Hauls, big U-Hauls pulled up.

They donated so much stuff that we had to cut them off.

We had no more room.

So they are a big part of what we've been doing lately.

I'm grateful for them.

What size are you?

- 12 to a 13, I got a nice pair for you.

I'm gonna put your toilet paper and stuff in this, all right?

That way you can carry it better.

[gentle music] - We love what we do.

We always say, "We're called to do what we do," and folks who understand a little bit of the Bible Belt will understand what that means.

But the work hasn't been easy.

It has come with hurdles and harm that we couldn't have even predicted.

We were scheduled to actually visit Hope in the City Community Church, which is where we are today, with our first drop.

And we as a core team, we have 300+ volunteers.

We have so many great folks who are like, "Oh, I'm ready to deploy."

But before we send them out, we say, "Well, we'll make sure the roads are safe ourselves."

And so our core team, myself, Ms. Sanja, Rob, we deployed out, and we were going with aid to Hope in the City Community Church and a fire station.

And we were a couple packs of water short to make sure that these folks had enough water.

And so we were looking around locally, and we ended up in Statesville, which we've been there before.

We're from the area, so we're not strangers to it.

And so there was a grocery store, Ingles, that is right off 40 on Sullivan, is the store on Sullivan Drive, I believe it is.

And so we went in, my mom and I.

We walked into the store, and we saw a sign that said, "Limit one pack of 24 water."

"Well, while we're here, let's go and get some tissue.

Let's get some batteries," 'cause we know fire stations need some batteries, and some charcoal.

So as we were walking down the aisles picking up those stuff, we saw, "Oh, the sports drink aisle."

And we looked, and we were like, "Is there a limit?"

And there was no limit.

There was no sign posted.

And we were like, "Great."

We even took a picture to see what our options were, and we decided to get electrolyte water.

You know, your Gatorades and Propel.

So I got six Propel 12-packs.

My mom got the same.

And as we were checking out, the cashier wasn't too friendly, but you just never know what somebody's going through.

So you try to keep grace, and I understand we're all going through something.

A hurricane just hit.

And so, I just still told her, "Hello, how you doing?

God bless."

And initially, the cashier told me, "Oh, you can't buy that water in that six packs."

And I said, "Well, that isn't on your sign, and there's no signage, so it's electrolytes.

It's sports water, so it's not up there.

I think we can buy it."

And she just says, "Okay."

And from there, I'm talking to my mom, who's beside me and behind me with her basket.

And I looked to the cashier.

I said, "Would you mind taking your wand and just beeping the Propel water so I don't have to pick up the packs," right?

And at that point, she just goes, [sighs].

Still ignoring it, I was like, "Okay, that's fine."

Again, it might be a bad day.

And she walks around to my basket, and I'm speaking to my mom.

The next thing I know, I feel a ram in the side of my hip, like a literal hit, and it hurt.

There was a flash of pain, and I looked, and I realized it was my basket.

And I see her at the end of the basket, and I look at my mom, and I'm shocked.

I'm just in a stunned moment.

And I look at the cashier, and she [body jolts] hits me again with my basket.

This time I see her do it.

And I look at my mom, and we're trained, again, disaster relief, so we understand about deescalation.

And I see my mom gives me a look.

Ms. Sanja's like... And of course, I'm hurting, but it's like, "Okay, let's just get out of here," because we have a timeline to get it to folks who are in critical water need.

We're on a timeline.

So we finish the transaction.

I pay for my Propel and that one pack of water and the extra stuff, and we leave out the aisle.

I do, and I stand at the front of the store waiting for my mom to check out.

And at that point, what happens is that cashier begins to harass me.

- [Manager] Sell 'em.

- [La'Meshia] So you have to honor what the customer request is.

If you want it, without being sold- - [Manager] Our warehouse is closed.

Like, I can't.

- [Sanja] That has nothing to do with this.

and you have to have it on your sign, it's not- - [Manager] I'll update it for you- - Well, no, no, no... - No, it's not for us.

That's too late.

- It's the datemark.

- [Manager] I can't give it to you.

- [Customer] Okay, you're not giving to us?

- Nope.

- [Customer] Okay, this man standing here at Ingles say that he is not gonna give us water that we're taking up to western North Carolina for disaster aid.

They do not have it advertised, and they're denying us because the woman thought- - [Clerk] You're not in, I don't need your face.

- [Customer] The woman thought that we was hoardin' this water personally, and got rude and hit Leigh her heels three of four times.

- [Leigh] She hit me twice in my hip.

- [Manager] Now I get a truck tomorrow in with a bunch of water.

I can give out so much then, but I can't- - [Customer] We have to go, we have to head back to Wake County where we will be getting our warehouses and get all the water we need.

Have you given water to people in your community?

- Oh yeah, that's right, I don't power 'till Friday.

- [Customer] Say what?

- I don't even have power 'till Friday.

- [Customer] Okay, then what about other people that don't have power?

That don't have water?

- Well, I'm in the same boat as them.

- [Customer] Then you need to put it on your advertisement.

- [Manager] We will, you need to get out.

- And stop being rude to your customers.

- [Manager] Get out!

- [Customer] No, you get.

- [Leigh] Oh, my God.

- I am not telling you again!

- [Customer] You put your hands on me one more time.

[indistinct yelling] - [Customer] You get your hands off me.

Get your hands off of me.

- Call the police.

- [Customer] Yeah, 'cause he assaulted me.

[melancholy music] - My mom, you know, she's reared me, I understand exactly those looks, you know, what a mom gives you, and I don't know how she did it, but when she was pushin' back against him, she looks at me like, uh uh, because she knows what can I do?

Protect my mom.

And so I just.

[melancholy music continues] So as my mom's pushin' back, the assistant manager gets in between them both, and she hits my mom in the chest.

And the assistant manager says, "Call the police."

And my mom says, "You assaulted me, so call them.

Call 'em."

And we wait, and we wait until the police arrive.

And at some point the officer watches the video, watches it two or three times, and he steps back, and he's like, "Well," he's like, "I can't press charges because I didn't see it.

"I didn't witness it, and I can't press charges "and I can't arrest him for misdemeanor, "but y'all can go down to the magistrate's office "and file it if you want to."

And he was like, "He has a right to remove you off the property."

And my mom said, "But he doesn't have the right to touch me.

"And he did not ask us to leave.

He didn't ask us to leave."

There's a reckoning that's happening that's coming full circle.

Many folks don't know that Ingles has its operations in Black Mountain, Asheville and Hendersonville.

Our community, our family being Afro-Indigenous, our ancestral land is in Hendersonville.

And Ingles for years, you know, and I'll say allegedly since we're recording, allegedly, you know, amassed land and prevented competition from being able to purchase the land to ensure that we didn't have food insecurity in that area.

This has been a historic issue of mass land grabbing and ensuring that property taxes are goin' up, which made it harder on elders and folks to afford areas like Hendersonville.

And so now here we are in a storm, and the descendants who are recovering that are here either helping, Democracy Green, helping, or helpin' our people recover who are still here.

And we have been receiving reports, now that this incident has gone live, 'cause we posted on Facebook, we've received thousands of people who are responding in love and support, but also folks are talking about how they've been mistreated at the same chain during this Hurricane Helene, and other incidents before, but how it has escalated where doors have been closed in people's faces, food allowed to rotten and thrown out the back door instead of being given to people as aid.

And this is what has been happening as a culture from a grocery store that has definitely benefited from our dollars for so many years, as well as our land for so many years.

And here we are.

In Hurricane Helene efforts, the attempt was to stop us.

Even the co-manager, his last response was, "Well, I don't have it."

In paraphrasing that moment, I have it on video.

It's online, but paraphrasing was like, "Well, I don't have it.

They don't need it."

And it wasn't just stopping us.

It wasn't just the discrimination of allowing me to purchase water, but not my mom.

It was the assault, but it was also right before that assault, it was, "So what that other people need water."

And this is a part of that Hurricane Helene effort story because while there are great folks doing blessed things, there are other folks in corporations who are doing their hardest to stop people from getting the critical aid they need.

And they don't need a benefit from the people of Western North Carolina if they cannot help the people of Western North Carolina when they're in their greatest need.

- So I am Douglas Bynum, Pastor of St. James AME Church here in Asheville, North Carolina.

Asheville has a very deep history in terms of racial divisions and issues over the years, and so witnessing the response of people coming together has been amazing.

We are right now at St. James in what's called a Legacy Neighborhood.

So in Asheville, there are several communities that are the historically Black communities, and East End/Valley Street, which is the name of this neighborhood, is one of the oldest.

One of the neighbors here in our community was posting on Facebook through social media and made that contact with Democracy Green.

They saw the post and responded.

And so we have been tremendously blessed by that work as well.

- We always attempt to find community-owned, community-controlled spaces so that it can get to community.

- It's been really great to have someone that in some way specializes with helping organizations in the equity that goes into all of this come about.

- Unless you're from the community, unless you have done door to door, unless you have a cousin down the block or a great aunt that is up the street, you have no idea where folks are.

And in a disaster, sometimes it takes just one narrow window of life or death.

And so we find trusted community messengers, and we ask for them.

And that's how we found hope in the City Community Church because they were referred as a trusted community messenger.

They're folks who were already doing the work, not trying to figure out how to do it, not just preaching to folks, but actually reaching folks.

- We gave out toilet paper, paper towels, baby wipes, Pampers, Pull-Ups, canned goods, instant mashed potatoes.

We gave out shoes, for all the way from kids to adults, women and men.

It's a beautiful thing to see so many different people coming together, different churches, different organizations.

I've met people and helped hand out food with people in this county that I've never met before, and I've been here for a long time.

Also, it was a wake up call.

[gentle music] We're doing it now what we wasn't doing it before.

So it's a wake up call.

And I believe that this is going to change things when it comes to our community.

I can't speak for another community, but when it comes for our community, I believe that now more churches, more organizations, whether you're white, Black, purple, pink, or green, you're gonna start coming together to help your community.

- The Black church has been in the center of nearly every movement in the United States, right?

The Civil Rights movement would not have occurred without the Black church.

And we are of the belief that the church is at its best when we are serving the community.

The AME Church was founded on principles of social justice and social action, and so it's part of who we are as a people.

And so whether it's, again.

Opening up our doors for a meeting space, for those volunteers that needed to organize the sit-ins.

Now we're organizing the water distribution, right.

- We need more Black churches out there in the community for their people.

We need Black churches helping their community.

Where they're, so, how we expect them to trust us?

How will we expect them to, how can we give them information and then believe it, if we're not out there with them?

So, again, like I said, I believe this was a wake up call for everyone.

Because, in my county, you don't see too many Black churches out there.

I mean, we do have some, you know.

Kudos to those who do it.

But, we could use a little more.

[soft music] We stay on the battlefield.

We stay giving, we stay helping.

We stay focused on the community, those that are in need.

And then, we help rebuild.

Oh my God, the rebuilding process is probably gonna take years.

So it ain't, what we're doing now, we must continue to do that in the rebuilding process.

We can't give up what we, it's, we're giving them what they need now, but they're gonna need us even more when it comes to rebuilding.

They're gonna need us coming together, cutting down trees out of their yard.

They're gonna need us coming together to bring meals to the elderly that's not able to get out their homes.

They're gonna need somebody to go down in that deep driveway where nobody else is gonna go down.

So they're, that's the part that we must stay focused on.

You know, right now, yes, we're helping.

But it's gonna have to continue.

Continue on, continue on help building the community back up.

That means doing things that you wouldn't normally do to help someone else.

[soft music continues] How do we continue?

By giving true, genuine love.

That's gonna always be my answer, because that's important to me.

That's who I am.

Unity in the community.

Unity is an action word.

There's a statement that a lot of people use.

They say, well kill 'em with kindness.

Well, I'm not trying to kill 'em with kindness.

I'm trying to heal them with kindness.

You see, we have to relearn the process of life.

You know, we were, when we come into this world, things are already lined up for us.

Leaders, powerful people, they take that different.

People think you're crazy, they think you're weird.

They think you don't know what you're talking about.

Those are your leaders, the ones that's gonna stand strong, the ones who are gonna volunteer their time with nothing in return.

So I believe that this hurricane helped us, I always like to say, relearn, it probably isn't proper.

But I always like to say we have to relearn the process of love, of life, of living, of caring, of unity in the community.

- So in order for us to be unified, we have to know one another exist.

And for many years, a lot of people would say to me, when I moved to Raleigh for school, and then, you know, work at what we do, they would say, I didn't realize Black people live in the mountains.

And it was shocking 'cause we're like, well, of course, of course.

And so now folks really do know Black folks live in the mountains.

And now the hurricanes that were on the east coast are now the hurricanes in the west mountains.

And so we, as Democracy Green have connected the East to the West, not just because of hurricanes have connected us, but because the community and us coming together, that is what connects us.

When crisis happens, we understand who we are and who as we are, and we activate.

We step up.

And even folks who haven't stepped up before, are now stepping up.

It is our time because it is the year of truth.

It is the year of reveal.

It is revealing climate crisis.

It is revealing climate change.

It's revealing thousand year storms that have never happened, and Black folks are in the mountains just like they're in the East.

We are one people, and when one hurricane hits, it impacts us all.

- My time in Western Carolina was met with lots of hugs, tears, and even a few I love yous.

I'm grateful for their open arms during such a challenging time.

And to my Western Carolina residents, I wish you all the best.

To you, I thank you for watching today's episode.

You can continue to engage with us on Instagram using the #BlackIssuesForum.

You can also find our full episodes on pbsnc.org/blackissuesforum and on the PBS video app.

For "Black Issues Forum", I'm Kenia Thompson.

I'll see you next time.

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