Joe Womack

Well, here in Africatown of course, when they brought the enslaved people over, it was supposed to be outlawed in this country, but they did it anyway. And when you look at that, it was outlawed. It was against the law. But they did it anyway. And that’s what had happened, you mentioned, in my life and that’s how I think about Africatown in the area. People are used to breaking their law for their convenience. Doing what others don’t want them to do because it’s something they just want to do. That was done back there, and that’s still going on today. That’s why we are fighting. We’re fighting for people to do the right thing based on the law that’s there. We’re just simply asking you to obey the law. But we have others out there that says to themselves, I don’t have to obey the law. Just like the family back then didn’t obey the law and did this anyway, the people are trying to enforce their will upon these people, enslaved people from Africa, that’s happening today where people are forcing their will upon the Africatown community against the will of the people that are here today. And that’s what we are basically fighting. Again, we’re fighting against not only people who are polluting, but the people that brought them here to create the pollution that exists. And so we have people that started out forcing their will against the people, today forcing their will against the people. It’s the same basic slavery issue that started in 1860 with the last slave shipment and still going on today.