Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991 TAG: 9104060200
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JUSTINE ELIAS/ CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"I believe if you turned contractors loose, they would pave the world," Tucker said Thursday at a benefit for the Concerned Citizens for the Preservation of Nellies Cave Community.
Nellies Cave Road, which runs through one of the oldest black communities in the state, was paved in 1989.
Residents there were angry that Montgomery County condemned private land to widen and pave a road that would connect two expensive new subdivisions with main roads.
The move sparked charges of racism from some Nellies Cave supporters, who said the action would not have been taken against an affluent white neighborhood.
Concerned Citizens asked Tucker to advise them on building a coalition to fight further development around Nellies Cave Road.
"This is not just a struggle for Nellies Cave," she said. "It's a struggle for people of color."
Tucker advised the local group to learn from the experience of other grass-roots organizations. "We can't keep inventing the wheel," she said. "We lose so much time that way."
Tucker, 60, has been a political force in Halifax County since the 1970s, when she formed a local grass-roots organization, Citizens for a Better America.
One of Tucker's biggest successes was the fight against a plan to mine uranium in Halifax. From her research, Tucker realized that undesirable developments and dangerous waste dumps were often located in poor or black communities.
Tucker described the dispute involving Nellies Cave Road as a fight similar to her own battle with the mining company.
She urged the Blacksburg group to move quickly to contact potential allies, such as environmental and civil rights organizations.
And, she added, share resources with other groups.
"`You can't get discouraged," said Tucker. "There are going to be times when you've got a whole lot more people than you need, and other times when you need a whole lot more than you've got."
"The real work is going to go on whether those people are there or not."
Tucker sees the history of black America in the history of Nellies Cave, once a thriving black community.
"Our older people are dying before we get to hear what our grandparents did," she said. "If you've got something historical in your community, you've really got to know about it."
African-American history - like the story of the Nellies Cave families - is still not being included in the history books, said Tucker.
"When you read a book and every other page is torn out, you don't get the whole story," she said. "We need to put those pages back in the book."
by CNB