FRIDAY

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• New Orleans CityBusiness article on Pastor Jones
• About Pastor Jones
• Bethel Colony South

E-mail a friend

Tavis: All right, Jonathan, night four. Good to see you.

Jonathan Demme: Same here.

Tavis: Night four of "Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower Ninth Ward," courtesy of Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme. So we've met, again, some great people, some inspiring stories all week long. Tonight, if I can pardon the pun, a dynamic duo that you're (laughter) going to introduce us to.

Demme: They are a dynamic, spiritual duo. Pastor Melvin Jones and Pastor James Gibson. In fact, tonight's short film, really, it's two ministers and a nurse. We were taking a tour of Pastor James' - the neighborhood that he grew up in, in the Lower Ninth Ward, which was horrendously devastated. And he was sharing his feelings about that and memories, and it's quite beautiful.

And then when we arrived at his grandparents' house for a last stop, this extraordinary woman showed up, Mrs. Charles, a retired nurse. And she was such a gift to us; you'll see at the end of it, she's so incredible. So yeah, here we go again.

Tavis: Here we go again. Night four, "Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower Ninth Ward." No question about the role that faith played in the lives of so many people who've rebuilt their lives. So tonight, we'll go into this faith community, stay with us.

Pastor Mel Jones: [on the telephone] Pastor Mel, can I help you? Yeah, can I help you, brother? Well, brother, tell me your name. Well, Tyrone, if you need some help with drugs, alcohol, and you ready to change your life, just - all right, if you come and you really ready to change, 'cause we don't want to mess - we don't mess with this thing, man. We're serious about saving your life. So if you willing to come in and open your heart and be teachable, come under authority, we're more than willing to help you.

We have space. You need some help. All righty, well, what I want you to do is the Brother Aaron that called this morning needs some help, you stay with him. Brother Arthur or Brother - you stay out there with him. Brother Arthur or Brother Steve is going to pick you up at 9:30. Alrighty, well, they're going to be there in just - you just hang there until he gets there. But he's on his way. Brother Steve that's gonna pick you up. Brother Steve. God bless you, brother. Bye-bye.

James Gibson: Hi, how are you this morning?

Demme: Very well.

Gibson: Good. My name is James Gibson III. Actually, I'm a minister. I lived in this neighborhood. Actually, I grew up in this neighborhood. My family and my mother and father, we moved here in this neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward that we're in now. We moved here - actually, I was born in 1956, and we moved in the Ninth Ward by my grandmother's house on Alabo Street.

Alabo is about a half a mile from here, also here in the Lower Ninth Ward. There were still many White residents that were here in '60, '61. Actually, when I was five years old. And it was still many White residents that were here. And over the years, some moved and there were some that stayed. And then it became a Black neighborhood.

Demme: Okay.

Gibson: And - but this school here, actually, this is Joseph H. Hardin (ph) school here. And this is the school I went to for elementary, had some great times here in this school. Actually, I ran track here at this school for Hardin school. Had some great teachers here. It was a great time in elementary during that time, the teachers were really caring.

I didn't go to elementary school, because at the time, I was sick. I had pneumonia. And by the time I made six years old, I was too old to go to kindergarten. So I started first grade here instead of kindergarten, and I went all the way to sixth grade. But right now, you can see it's from the storm; it looks like it's just ruins right now. It almost just looks like a third world country around here. People that I went to school with, if I can say names, would that be okay?

Demme: Sure.

Gibson: There was a Croom (ph) family that lived here, Mary Croom (ph), she was a girl that I went to school with. She had a brother, several brothers that I went to school with. Willie B, one of her brothers was called. The house has fallen down, right there. They lived there. There's some people that I knew that lived - it's an empty lot now - right here on the corner.

Not this one, but right across the street where all the grass is. I actually moved from down here in '96 myself. I moved from here in '96 and I went to - actually, this is where, as I say, this is where I lived because my life became pretty complicated after a while and I found myself on drugs. And '96 I moved, I needed help, and my sister helped me to do that.

So I went to a place called the Brantley Center (ph) and that's where my life was turned around, and that's where I met Pastor. And we've been friends ever since.

Now, this is where I lived. This is - right here, where the truck is. Now the house is gone, as you can see, 1908 St. Maurice. You can still see the address. Somebody sprayed the address on over it. But I lived right there, and that's not only this was another house here, but right back there. And that's where I grew up at. Apparently, they've just moved the house last week, 'cause it was here a couple of weeks ago.

After the storm, I came back. Things were so turned over and I actually got disoriented in a neighborhood that I grew up in. I drove down here in my car and I went on the other street, Tupelo, just to see some other houses on Tupelo.

And I made my way going that way toward Galvas, and when I came on Galvas, I made the left turn and I came back up on St. Maurice to pass in front of my house again. And I got disoriented and I didn't realize that I was on St. Maurice Street until I saw the Lucas' house right here. And I couldn't believe that I had actually gotten lost. I actually had gotten lost and I couldn't believe it.

In a neighborhood I spent most of my life in. That I was just totally disoriented because of all the wreckage and everything is turned upside-down. It just doesn't look the same; it really doesn't. Actually, right now, just standing right here now I can actually go back and just hear. Just hear the people just sitting on their porches, just talking, and the kids playing in the neighborhood. I can actually hear that right now.

But just looking, it actually brings back a lot of memories, but it doesn't look the same. In my mind, I'm picturing something different, but with my physical eyes I see something else. It's really a loss for words. You just look around and see a place that you grew up in and now you're wondering if it really will actually come back to life.

I knew people lived in this home right here, this brick home on the corner, straight, right here on the angle. This guy, the Navarres, (ph) real good friend. We were like brothers. Real good friends, lived in this home. I spent a lot of time in that - real close friends. A lot of football, a lot of injuries, (laughter) lot of scarred knees.

You know how boys are; we would play daredevil games on our bicycles and stuff like that. Yeah, but we had a real good time in this neighborhood, coming up. The innocent days, before everything got real wild. But the innocent days. This, as I said, though, I don't mean to be redundant, but this neighborhood was a real good neighborhood. It was.

Jones: Most of the people owned their home, then.

Gibson: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Most people owned their homes, they did. And coming back here and working with Pastor Mel on the homes and everything, I didn't know it was going to be in this neighborhood. When he said the Lower Ninth Ward, but I still didn't know where at in the Lower Ninth Ward.

But when he said what street, I was blown away (laughs). When he told me the street, I was actually blown away. I couldn't believe it that I was going to be actually helping to build homes in the neighborhood that I grew up in. And I think that's a great thing. I just thank God for that. Giving me that opportunity. Amen.

Jones: Something, man. Something what God can do, as Brother James said. We couldn't stop using drugs. There was nothing that we could do. And only by the power of God. People that the world wrote off, James. Yeah. Amen.

Gibson: This is Alabo Street. I knew some people that lived here. I didn't know them real well, but I knew them. And a cousin that lived right here. He works for the city right now. He still works for the city. Now, this was my grandmother's house right here, 1234 Alabo. This house right here. I lived here for about three years with my sister and her family, and then my brother took over the house.

My brother was killed several - about two years, three years ago.

Demme: What happened?

Gibson: In a barroom. A guy came in the barroom and tried to rob my brother. And my brother was playing the poker machine, and apparently he saw my brother winning some money so he tried to rob him and the gun - him and my brother, apparently they struggled. Apparently they struggled and the gun went off and my brother took the bullet.

And on the way out, the guy robbed a barmaid, also. Find out the guy was on crack, he had just got out of prison, he had been in prison since '73, and that happened in 2003, I believe.

Ms. Charles: Can I help you? You in front of my place, that's why I'm asking.

Gibson: Ma'am.

Ms. Charles: Yes?

Gibson: You probably -

Ms. Charles: First, where are you from?

Gibson: You probably don't remember me, but my grandmother used to live over here, Ms. Thelma Gibson?

Ms. Charles: Uh-huh. You still live over there?

Gibson: Well no, not now. You knew my grandmother, my dad.

Ms. Charles: I most certainly did.

Gibson: Yes, you did.

Ms. Charles: I did.

Gibson: Yeah, I'm James, I'm James.

Ms. Charles: Oh, you're James, okay. So, are you going to rehab that place -

Gibson: Well, that's my brother's daughter.

Ms. Charles: Okay.

Gibson: She lives in California.

Ms. Charles: Is she going to rehab the place?

Gibson: Well, she's going to come down, and I think that's what she might be doing, yeah.

Ms. Charles: Okay. 'Cause we're concerned about this neighborhood, okay?

Gibson: Yeah, yeah.

Ms. Charles: And I'm on the Lower Nine Homeowner's Association. When my husband and I got married, he brought me here. This was his parents' home. This house is over a hundred years old. And I intend to rehab it whenever my governor live up to her promise (unintelligible). Which she has not done. Blanco, my governor, has had this money since April or May. It is at the end of October, and we still don't have anything.

Then she's concerned about whether we are, I guess, thieves or something. So we gotta go down there now and give fingerprints. I don't mind giving a fingerprint. I was a nurse for 40 years, so I got fingerprints on a whole lot of folks, even dead bodies, she can raise them up and get my fingerprints, and I don't mind. But the problem is I got to prove that I'm a homeowner.

And I got all of my documentation ready for her. Where was she when I made this loan to buy this house? She was nowhere around. So why do I need to prove to her that I know how to pay my bills? I don't need to prove anything to her. So all she needs to do is do what she went to Washington D.C. and said to the president and to the congressmen, "I want to make my people whole."

If she said she needed $150,000 per household to get those people, those homeowners, back on their feet, I'm going to use that against her. Because what I'm hearing, no one has received $150,000. She changed the game plan when she got back. Then she decided, "Oh, well, wait a minute. If you got FEMA money, we want to deduct that. And if you got insurance money, we want to deduct that. And if you got this, we want to deduct that."

So by the time she finished with all these deductions, I'll get $200. And then she said, "But I want the people to come back."

Gibson: We don't know anybody that's gotten any Road Home money. SBA, at first they started out wanting to loan us $106,000. And then they finally figured they wanted to loan us $10,000. We can go to the bank and get a $10,000 signature loan. We don't need the SBA to do that.

Ms. Charles: What do you think the strategy is for doing that?

Gibson: The strategy is to starve people out.

Ms. Charles: I've been thinking that. I think they want to wait you out and then you get disgusted.

Gibson: Get disgusted.

Ms. Charles: But see, they don't know me.

Gibson: Yes, ma'am. Yeah, I think they got more than what they bargained for with you. Yes, ma'am. (Laughs)

Ms. Charles: Don't tell them the secret. Don't tell them my secret weapon.

Gibson: Uh-oh, uh-oh, Jesus.

Ms. Charles: That's right, how did you know that?

Gibson: I knew it. (Laughter)

Ms. Charles: He gets me up every day and he tells me -

Gibson: Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Charles: And he guides me and he leads me.

Gibson: Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Charles: And I follow him.

Gibson: I can tell. I can tell. And a lot of other people like you that are just not going to give up their (unintelligible).

Ms. Charles: Because if they don't get this fixed, I can't leave the trailer. Who owns the trailer? Federal government.

Gibson: That's right.

Ms. Charles: Oh, yes.

Gibson: Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Charles: Oh, yeah. If they don't help me get my house rehabbed, they can't get the trailer back. And if they try to get it back, then they're going to have a war on their hands, because (laughter) I'm going to board the plane and go to Washington.

Gibson: Yes, ma'am. All right, Ms. Charles, you gonna have to run for state representative from this area.

Ms. Charles: Everybody tell me I run. No, no, I like kicking. (Laughter) If you understand what I mean.

Gibson: Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Charles: Okay. 'Cause it's easy to be from the bottom rather than stand at the top of it.

Gibson: Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Charles: I want to give her some time.

Gibson: Give her a little time.

Ms. Charles: Yeah. Till she can finally realize what's going on. And it might be too overwhelming for her. I don't know.

Gibson: Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Charles: But when you step on center stage and you say you want to run a state, you be prepared for whatever comes.

Gibson: That's right.

Ms. Charles: Whatever. And it just so happened this flood happened to have been one of them. The tester for her. Just like 9/11 was the one for your president. Your president.

Gibson: Actually, years ago, several years ago, it was a double. And my grandmother and my grandfather, they bust the wall in and they turned it into one home back in the early seventies. They turned it into one home. But there was a den right here, the bathroom was here, and there was a den right here. Then there was another bedroom there, and there was another bedroom there, and then another bedroom in the back.

I tell you, you go through life and you never imagine stuff like this. Why would you, though? But I guess how can you be ready for something like this? I don't think you can actually be ready for devastation like this.

I'm sure some people that had homes - you can't understand why there was no insurance on some homes, but some people didn't have insurance. You can't explain why, but I think that's another reason why a lot of people down here hasn't come back to even look at their homes or to even inspect their homes, probably because of those situations and stuff like that.

And some people just made up their minds they just don't want to come back, because they just don't feel safe down here anymore. They just feel like it's going to happen again, so they just don't want to come back. I've talked to some people that said they're not coming back. They don't trust the levee system anymore. I've had people tell me that's some reasons why they're not coming back.

But I'm back. I'm back. Number one reason why I'm back, because this is where God want me to be. This is where he started me starting up the ministry, so this is where he want me to be to continue that ministry and I just believe that anywhere God wants you to be where he wants you to be, that means I'm in his will. So that means he's going to take care of me, no matter what comes here again.

And I'll just believe that he's going to take care of me, 'cause this is where he want me to be. And there's a lot of hurting people here. A lot of hurting people, still a lot of homeless people, still a lot of people on drugs. You watch the news every day; you're hearing murders coming back again. It's coming back again, the killing. It's coming back again.

Mainly I would come visit my brother, but after he was killed, then it was really no reason for me to come down here. That's how I felt. There was no reason to come down anymore. So when my brother was killed, I had never made any more trips down here.

Demme: And your brother's name?

Gibson: His name was Joseph. Joseph Gibson. That was his name.

Demme: God bless him.

Gibson: Joseph Gibson. Good man. He worked for Bunny Bridge (ph) for 30-some years. Thirty-some years he worked for Bunny Bridge. Yeah. Something. It's really something.

Announcer: Stay tuned for more from New Orleans, as Tavis, Jonathan Demme, and Professor Cornel West pay a visit to some of the people you just met during tonight's episode of "Right to Return."

Male One: Professor Cornel West (unintelligible).

Professor Cornel West: Yes. (Applause)

Male One: And the brother sitting next to him, his name is Tavis Smiley. Brother Smiley. (Applause)

Jones: The battles that we fight, brothers, we fight them on our knees, okay? We fight them on our knees, and we fight them with the word of God. The bible says, "You shall know the truth, and the truth going to do what?"

Congregation: Set you free.

Jones: Set you free. Something else you brothers gonna struggle with when you go back to your families. Once you give somebody power, it's hard to take it back. (Congregation) It's hard to take it back. All right? People like power, don't they? (Congregation) All right. So, it's going to be hard to take it back, and you're not going to be able to take it back, you're going to have to earn it back. (Congregation)

And that's going to take time. Remember, time plus doing the right thing equals what? Trust. (Congregation) Three years ago, starting with nothing, absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. I had finished seminary, I had gone to a place called Bethel Colony (ph) in North Carolina. God said it was time to open up the ministry now, to help other men like you.

And we first took in three men, three men, and we grew from three men to six men to 12 men to 15 men to 35 men before the storm. And after the storm, we thought this whole thing was over. Let's give some praise to God. Who woke you up?

Congregation: Jesus.

Male Three: Who woke you up?

[Continued “call and response” with congregation]

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. Tomorrow night, the final episode in our "Right to Return" series and the story of a former Black Panther-turned-community organizer who's now a tireless advocate for the underprivileged and the overlooked.