FEATURE: A community shapes families in historic ward

Posted on November 30, 2016

Originally Posted on The Daily Cougar via UWIRE

Brother Deloyd Parker, the executive director of SHAPE Center, provides instructions to Phyllis Washington, secretary of SHAPE, regarding the activities that keep the community center running six days a week. Deloyd said SHAPE was born out of the civil rights movement and, more specifically, the Byron Gilliam case in a response to injustice within the community. One of SHAPE's goals is to empower and educate the community from the youth to elders. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Janice Brown oversees the majority of operations while she works at UH’s busiest C-Store. Janice uses her job as an opportunity to strengthen herself financially to pay for housing and support her family. She started cosmetology school after graduating from high school. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Janice and her boyfriend Josh, who live together, sift through bills from living expenses. Although this is regular practice for Janice, her finances are not solely for herself. In the past, she has assisted in paying part of her brother's school tuition and provided her parents with money when they needed it. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Brother Deloyd Parker, the executive director of SHAPE Center, provides instructions to Phyllis Washington, secretary of SHAPE, regarding the activities that keep the community center running six days a week. Deloyd said SHAPE was born out of the civil rights movement and, more specifically, the Byron Gilliam case in a response to injustice within the community. One of SHAPE's goals is to empower and educate the community from the youth to elders. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Janice and Josh traveled to the southeast side of the city to pick up medicine after she couldn’t make it to work for the week due to sickness. Cecil, a longtime friend of Josh, lives in Galena Park outside of Third Ward, but still provides wisdom found in most of Houston’s eastern residents. “Why join the race if you don’t think you are going to succeed?” Cecil said. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Janice uses her breathing treatment while packing to depart for a small family reunion at the weekend. The trip would have comprised of a drive to Galveston and a cruise along the Gulf Coast had it not been called off. In her free time, Janice parties occasionally, but holds her family in a higher regard than whatever making money and going out can provide. During her time at SHAPE, she helped with everything from cooking to cleaning and has her own experience in taking care of her younger siblings. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
The active staff of the community center consists 90 percent of volunteers who help with audits, evictions, table talks and legal advising. All volunteers must go through a required full-day orientation whether the individual is trying to provide an extra hand or fulfill community service hours. SHAPE identifies as an inclusive center for anyone looking to take steps toward the seven cultural principles that they adhere to. This includes unity, self-determination, collective work, responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Brother Deloyd has guided SHAPE through 47 years of growth in politics, activism and community involvement. Close partnerships with TSU and other local establishments have yielded positive results just through association. SHAPE’s annual Freedom Tour, which has seen 27 years, displays an ideal of the youth’s importance and recognition of the role black history has played in the United States. Strong ties with the capital also reflect with SHAPE’s involvement in the Million Man March and packing Dallas courts to oppose the death penalty. “A strong family constitutes a strong nation," Parker said. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Janice’s work schedule doesn’t give her much free time to do all the things she wants, including spending time with her family. She is aware that there are certain sacrifices to be made in the name of responsibility, and if the sacrifices we make are in vain then the burden of responsibility and growth becomes less significant. An important value she learned from SHAPE is “knowing that we are all we have.” | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Edith Irby Jones embraces a young volunteer in prayer before the Elders Institute of Wisdom holds their meeting. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the elders of the community gather at SHAPE to create an area for discourse and knowledge. Jones was the first African-American to be admitted as a non-segregated student to an all-white school. She later earned a degree from the University of Arkansas. Ed Banks, the Mayor of Third Ward, and singer Jewel Brown are also among the ranks of experienced elders within the Houston area. “I wasn’t elated about that, I just wanted to be a doctor," Jones said. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
Deloyd caters SHAPE’s elder meetings. Over the course of four hours, he prepares a balanced vegetarian meal for members of the institute. Providing a healthy meal goes hand-in-hand with the need for active members and elders to continue contributing toward SHAPE’s cause. The “Emancipation Now” movement has been a priority of SHAPE in a push to change the name of Dowling Street, named after Confederate Lt. Richard Dowling, to Emancipation Avenue. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
SHAPE’s kitchen is open during the week where the different flavors of the community reside. Occupants of the kitchen have generally made Pan-African meals, but the variety of Caribbean, Jamaican, South African, creole and more give customers plenty of options. Shamanda Papillion prepares her creole cuisine before parents and customers arrive in the afternoon. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar

Janice Brown is at UH almost every day, but not as a student.

She resides in Third Ward and knows the campus as well as any other student or faculty member. She needs water, shelter, food and compassion just as any human does.

Janice works at the C-Store in the Student Center South and has lived in Houston her entire life, spending most of her time in Pearland. After arriving in Third Ward, she started volunteering for the Self-Help for African People through Education community center. SHAPE’s main office has operated at the corner of Alabama and Live Oak streets for 47 years.

“There’s a lot of things that matter when it comes to lives,” Brown said.

Houston today is recognized for modern art, grassroots diversity and pop culture references from Drake and Travis Scott.

But on the east side of Houston, the historic Third Ward is an area that has been in transition. Third Ward’s population, which were previously and predominantly occupied by Jewish and white Americans, changed as suburbs and other settlements grew on Houston’s outskirts.

African-Americans then moved in, creating jobs, businesses and opportunities when in the past they were first denied on the basis of skin color.

According to Ezell Wilson’s article on the history of Third Ward, “One of the decisive actions against Jim Crow and segregation in Houston was a sit-in at the lunch counter in Weingarten’s”.

This is not a history lesson. The identity of Third Ward lives on through the people that reside there, an identity that mimics the students who sat-in at Weingarten’s, or the individuals who opened Riverside Hospital in response to poor treatment from general physicians.

“It provided a place for Black physicians and nurses to work and train,” Wilson said in his article. “Gentrification has made inroads in to some parts of the neighborhood, while other areas are poorly maintained.”

Wilson’s words made it seem as if the work put into the once segregated community is not fulfilled.

If Third Ward appears separated, the disconnection can be traced with Houston’s growing modernity. The community’s background, which is associated with historic movements and cultural appreciation throughout its existence, has not fleeted easily.

Although there is evidence of higher crime and poverty rates in Houston’s east side, statistics often lack the component of true engagement.

But the resilience of Third Ward is what stands out. In this era of information and fast-changing trends, the community is holding on to its history from the pull of modernity.

“(SHAPE) gives you a lot of experience and integrity. It makes you keep going, being around him and how humble he is.”

—Janice Brown, on Deloyd Parker and SHAPE

The population reflects this resilience through SHAPE community center, which has operated on a core principle of “strong family, strong nation.” Deloyd Parker, a co-founder of SHAPE, has been the executive director for all 47 years of SHAPE’s existence. Parker, who has molded the community center for almost a half century, is in accordance with his community and what SHAPE can offer.

“Change” is a word that is used in abundance in the United States. Change is promised almost on a daily basis — for better or worse. It promotes growth and gives people the opportunity to challenge their conditioned beliefs.

The upbringing and past experiences of all people serve as the foundation for advancing in life. While certain beliefs can remain constant throughout peoples’ lives, change can dictate and challenge contrasting perspectives to give meaning to the things we value in life.

The people of Third Ward carry with them subtle change through growth. People like Janice Brown and Deloyd Parker, who are not easily swayed in their beliefs, allow change through solidarity. They don’t matter because of their skin color or political beliefs, but because they are human.

They are our people.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“FEATURE: A community shapes families in historic ward” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

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