Broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West may not quite find the story of poverty they are looking for in Columbus.
Little is known about “Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience,” which broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West plan to embark on beginning Saturday.
But the duo, who also host a radio show (“Smiley and West”) together, will be in Lowndes County on Thursday, visiting with Habitat for Humanity homeowners.
“They wanted to see how the community has been helping us out through the bad economy and stuff like that, I suppose,” said Lee Wilson.
Lee lives in Caledonia with her husband, Dave, and 10 of the 12 children whom their house was built to accommodate in November 2009.
Producers for The Poverty Tour were looking for a military family who had been helped by Habitat for Humanity. Before moving into their Caledonia home on Kidd Road, the Wilsons were living at Columbus Air Force Base, in a duplex divided by a carport.
When Dave decided to retire in the area, the family reached out to Habitat for Humanity for help, hoping to move to Caledonia, where their children were attending school. Several of the children have special needs and had been helped immensely through programs at the schools, as well as at the Riding to Improve Development, Esteem, Strength and Spirit — RIDES — program in Caledonia.
“When (a Poverty Tour producer) first called me, he asked me had we ever helped a military family. The Wilsons were the only military family we had helped,” said Kathy Arinder, executive director of Lowndes County Habitat for Humanity. “Of course, he was very interested in this story, because theirs is a very unique one.”
Smiley and West will interview and stay the night with the family on Thursday.
“I told (the producer), ”You need to be aware, when you visit them, you are not going to see a family in poverty,”” Arinder said.
He assured her their goal “is to show solutions to the problem of poverty,” Arinder said, Habitat for Humanity being one of them.
Habitat for Humanity is far from a handout. Homeowners pay a monthly mortgage, though it is interest free. They also put in sweat equity, working on, not only their own home, but others as well.
The Wilsons are far from the picture of poverty.
Their home has six bedrooms, three full and three half-bathrooms, numbers chosen so there would be room for their large family. Since the house was built, two of the children have left home — one to pursue a photography career in Biloxi, the other to join the Army.
The children still living at home range in age from 5 to 19.
“The kids are very happy now that we are in a home,” Lee said. “They”re doing great in school. … The school has helped us out a lot. … The community has been great. We couldn”t have asked for a better place to retire.”
In addition to the Wilsons, Smiley and West will talk with the Minor family in Columbus. Wilda Minor has been taking care of her son, Stevie, 44, for the past 16 years, since he took a fall at the Magnolia Bowl football stadium in downtown and broke his neck. He now is a quadriplegic.
“I think they want to highlight some of the problems with health care and how it affects people on a fixed income,” Arinder said.
The Wilsons moved into their Habitat home, on College Street, in June 2009. Prior to then, Wilda rented a home in East Columbus.
“The previous house was not accessible to his needs,” she said, vastly understating the issue.
Stevie was confined to the living room for 10 years; the hallways and doorways were too narrow to move a wheelchair around, even into the bathroom.
The Habitat home features larger doorways, hallways and full handicap access.
“The whole house is built around his needs, and he can go through every room in the house (in his power wheelchair),” Wilda said. “He”s not confined in this house. … This house is truly a blessing.
“It”s truly a blessing,” she reiterated. “Now, he can come to the dining-room table and eat his dinner, go in his bathroom and take his shower.”
The poverty road trip will begin on Aug. 6, with a gathering of the nation”s Native Americans on the Lac Coutre Oreilles Indian Reservation near Hayward, Wis. The Poverty Tour also will stop in Washington, D.C., and wrap in Memphis on Aug. 12, with a town-hall conversation and a visit to the historic Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, while in town for a march with poor sanitation workers. Smiley and West will meet with some of the 1968 sanitation workers.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
