Nia Wilson, co-executive director of SpiritHouse, says the Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. Prepare for a long fight after County Commissioners Wendy Jacobs, Heidi Carter and Nida Allam fired Durham County Manager Wendell Davis.
Wilson, and a group of more than 100 concerned Black residents, are engaged in a new type of movement. Back in the days, protestors held signs while singing about overcoming and marching to fight a racist system. Durham Black residents say they’re combatting a new type of racism.
“The notion of disposable people has never sat well with Black people, knowing that it’s usually our people that are thrown away first and most often,” said Delvin Davis, a regional policy analyst at Southern Poverty Law Center. “When white America fails to see the full value of Black lives, the disappearance of those Black lives becomes normalized and a little easier to accept.”
Black residents activated Arrested Development of Durham County, a Facebook group page, on Sunday, May 16th. So far, over 100 people are following the page that includes a Google Doc attachment summarizing concerns regarding the handling of Davis’ termination.
“At the time of his firing, Mr. Davis had not received a performance review, and had lodged a complaint in February 2020 based on public comments made to him by a commissioner,” the document contends. “County Commissioners fired Mr. Davis without implementing an immediate successor, leaving the county without a leader in the County Manager position.”
Wilson questions the leadership of the non-Black women on the historic all women Board of County Commissioners who built platforms on the needs of the Black community while working in unison to silence and strip power from Brenda Howerton and Nimasheena Burns, the boards two Black women.
“You can’t have a platform that “protects” Black women while simultaneously working with white women to silence Black women in the office down the hall,” Wilson ranted on her Facebook page. “We are not interchangeable.”
The Arrested Development of Durham County Facebook page argues commissioners terminated Davis without naming an interim to maintain “power and control over the civic duties executed by the county manager.” Beyond the decision being an act of retaliation, the group says essential workers are operating “without executive level leadership during a global pandemic, social unrest, a local cyber-attack that brought the city and county government to a halt, and a gas crisis.”
The Facebook group cites concerns about the marketability of Durham as a thriving place to work and live, and growing tensions among County employees regarding their ability to raise concerns without fear of retaliation.
Delvin Davis’ Facebook post summarizes the sentiment of the Black people participating in this new movement.
“Whiteness has historically turned Blackness into a disposable commodity. Whiteness has historically used its power to remove Black people it disagrees with, is threatened by, or becomes uncomfortable with,” said Davis. “Whiteness even has the power to redefine its impact as something other than racial.”
In this new movement to be heard, Black residents are asking different questions. How does a community respond when action is taken to make things worse? How much will residents have to pay for this display of power? Will Durham County lose in a lawsuit? Probably. More than money lost, what will be the cost to Durham’s reputation?
381 days is a long time to fight. Old movements were about getting in the door. This new movement is about protecting the right to stay.
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