Coming up next: four months after massive flooding a popular diner reopens in Millville.

On Q chronicles the slow road to recovery.

Also tonight, meet the local people who have fulfilled the dream of Martin Luther King.

Stay connected On Q starts right Welcome to On Q magazine.

I'm Stacy Smith.

Today marks four months since the region was overwhelmed by raging floodwaters.

Back on September the 17th heavy rains and swollen creeks left their mark in villages, towns, cities, and countie throughout the Pittsburgh area.

It was certainly a day that few people will ever forget, especially in places like Millville.

Some are still trying to recover, especially since new flooding has affected the same neighborhoods in recent weeks.

This evening, we see what it took for one business just to get back on its feet.

As On Q, contributor Harold Hayes reports on our cover story.

2004 was a very unusual year for the P&G diner.

Lunchtim at the P&G Diner in Millville.

It looks pretty routine, like a proces that's gone on for generations.

It had but serving up lunch is certainly no longer taken for granted.

The last time there were routine operations here, Thursday, September 16 2004.

In anticipation of a festive weekend.

Thursday was actuall the first day of Millville days.

A lot of people did get to celebrate that night just leading into Friday.

The fact that the diner reopened for business following that Friday is in itself extraordinary.

Extraordinary in the sense of how far they've come since September 17th, a da when the water got up to here.

The shop owner across the street capture these pictures that afternoon.

It just kept raining and raining and it must have been about 2:30 we realized that it was just coming down too fast and it wasn't draining.

And the street filled and the firemen were actually bailing out one of the business her their basement started flooding.

Jennifer, the owner of Lincoln Pharmacy, told us that she didn't think it was safe for us to be here anymore that we should probably leave.

That's when we were ready to leave.

And I thought, we have all these photos on the wall of many years ago memories of people came in and looked at all the time.

This is the era that we're going to We didn't manage to save a lot, but that was sort of I dont know, like the symbol fo wasn't it?

The salvage and restoration process had begun and it wasn't easy.

Place was just filled with water.

There was five feet of water inside here.

And then everything we had moved was for useless because everything was just floating.

We had freezers upside down.

Everything was just gone.

The Lincoln Pharmacy set up a makeshift operation behind the building on the relatively dry side.

How much you can see?

You could see mud everywhere in the days and weeks that followed.

It was heartbreaking.

I just I felt like I lost part of my home here.

But the emotional roller coaster hadn't stopped yet for Michelle.

Mazzellla Not long after the floods, President Bush visited Millville.

He met Michelle Mazzella.

After an awkward pause for a photo.

Push the button down.

I did.

Somebody get a picture?

Somebody, please.

Thank you.

I had been standing, and I said I didn't come all this way not to speak to him, so I said, I'm going up and saying something to him.

And I did.

Hang in there.

What was your business?

I have a diner dow on the corner and the pharmacy I saw the pharmacy.

Big sign up there.

Eventually, the president recalled a similar story of business rebirth.

What's going to happen to you?

Hang in there.

I will.

As the president headed back to Washington.

The slow work of restoring the diner marched on.. This has been covered with mud or you had to put down a new?

Oh, no.

This was the bottom.

There were four layers before.

And since the water came up from the bottom and down from the top, we had to take four layers off.

By Thanksgiving, the floor was taking shape and a target date for reopening was set.

Although reopening still seemed far off, but within a couple of months, the room that seemed forever filled with mud and debris was ready for customers.

This actually used to be the Wellness Center and the Wellness Center is being moved.

The pharmacy that once had to set up shop in the first dry rear door available, is up and running.

Now, last time I was here, they were still picking up the floor.

These were the original floors and they've been restored.

Okay, so this kind of looks like it would have in the 30s, you'd think?

Yes.

That was, the look we were going for back to the way it used to be.

Now the counter looks a littl different than the way it was.

Everything was pink and purpl and shiny and stainless before.

Now we're back to the wood and brass and mirrors.

The way it used to be.

You might think that with th attention the P&G diner received given Michelle Mazzello' interaction with the president Good afternoon Glen.

There was a federal hand in the restoration.

Think again.

It really wasn't government grants or loans or anything that really got you back on your feet?

No, not at all.

Right away, Pam and Gail got a loan from the bank.

They have excellent credit with them, and they were willing to get them back and running whatever it took.

So that's how we were able to keep moving and open so quickly.

So the place that has always been a centerpiece of the Millville business district is back in business.

And how are you today?

All right.

How are you doing?

I talked to a lot of customers and they couldn't wait for us to get back open.

Most of them would meet here daily and with their friends and, you know, have lunch or breakfast and really, that wasn't happening for three months that we were closed.

So they were excited for us to be open too.

We're glad to be back.

I'm glad that you came back.

We need the support of all the customers.

This is Harold Hayes reporting for On Q. Now, Harold also reports tha the diner donated its first day profits to the North Hills Community Outreach Center, which will help other businesses and families affected by the flooding.

Still ahead, local people who have carried on the dream of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

You're going to meet Alma Speed Fox, founder of Freedom Unlimited.

Also coming up, a couple who have spent their lives helping the children of Pittsburgh.

We have a tribute to the Reverend Jimmy Joe and Betty Robinson.

So stay connected.

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The members of WQED on this holiday honoring the life of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

We spotlight two Pittsburgher who have fulfilled King's dream.

The Reverend Jimmy Joe Robinson and his wife, Betty, are the founders of the Manchester Youth Development Center.

The Pittsburgh communit recently honored the Robinsons for their 32 years of building better lives for children.

And at the black tie dinner, guests watched a video tape highlighting the Robinson's struggles and successes.

The McCune Foundation granted us permission to show it to you when you drop eight pennies in the jar.

One, two, three.

Four.

The Robinsons should get a lot of credit for giving parents choices.

Como se llama?

What's the name?

Jim and Betty Robinson have opened the doors for a lot of the youth.

It's giving people hope certainly love.

Consistency.

Continuity.

They've taught me far more than I've taught them.

Betty and I have been led by God to be in this place.

I'm Jim Robinson.

At an early age I became interested in sports.

I was big and strong.

Football was my sport.

I was the first Black football player at 17 years old to pla at the University of Pittsburgh.

I can remember the first week I was there.

We went into a restaurant, in Oakland, and we sat there and sat there about 6 or 7 of us right across from a place where we were living in those days in Oakland.

And, the waitress came up and said, I can't serve him.

Well, thats so dumb I didnt even now what she's talking about.

So the players who were great, who accepted me totally took the table, turned it over put all the food on the floor and walked out.

I didn't like football players.

I didnt like sports.

You know, football players, at any major universities, attract ladies.

But my older sister bet me tha I couldn't get a date with him.

That's all I needed.

We went on a double date, and, I wasnt all that much interested in her because I had other fish to fry.

My father thought he was a little slow.

Because he never talked.

I mean, never talked.

We became attracted to each other.

We really did.

But she was special.

I would say that our marriage is a gift to God because our friends gave us a year.

And we've got 53 coming up.

The best thing aside from God, the Lord, ever happened to me.

The woman is strong.

She's smarter than I am.

She's prettier than I am.

She's tougher than I. I began to get involved locally in the civil rights struggle to try to right injustice.

That's a march from Freedom Corner.

But the primary reaso is to get Blacks into the union.

We were in many, many things together.

Fair housing, employment, demonstrations.

I suppose the, the one of the most serious demonstrations we had, Jimmy Joe was one of the leaders in that parade that we had across the bridge when the police lost their cool and attacked us.

Jimmy Joe, was not to be intimidated.

So that's I think, what I like about him.

He wanted to come to Manchester.

He came by through, with the grace of Jimmy Joe.

He made a great impact on Manchester.

I felt that God had led me to this place.

The first three years were awful.

They should have fired me because I felt that I was better than the people at Bidwell.

I felt that I was bette than the people in Manchester.

But after a while, I knew that God had put me in this place.

I never knew what poverty was until I came to this side of town.

I thought everybody had a dadd and a mother and they came home.

He came home at night.

Mama didn't work.

You sat down to eat your dinner.

I didn't know.

Bidwell church said that this is going to be our mission.

And our mission, and every church should have a mission, is to work with young people in a way that we can help them to grow up, to be strong citizens in this world.

That we have an after school which is what we started with.

And the nursery school has been going on since ‘79 MYDC since ‘72 and the charter school since ‘98 I'm glad you found your glasses man.

The Manchester Youth Development Center is basically an educational component.

It is a school after school for children, mainly kindergarten through 12th grade.

Understanding that the hours from 2 to 6 are the most crucial hours of the day for young people.

It is a safe place for kids to come to.

Very nice.

And I don't doubt that we haven't given sanctuary of one for or another to lots of children.

I think they enjoy coming here.

I don't think a afterschool program that was volunteer would have lasted as long as it has.

if children didnt want to come.

I like the school becaus I grew up in the neighborhood.

I like it because I've been here a while and I know everybody.

I have a lot of friends, and I like the teachers.

You just see tha nice things are going on here.

It balances out the negativity that is associated with Manchester.

Not only enabling the students to have a place to go, you know, for after school or just the school in general, but also, if you think about it, they've employed a lot of the people in the community and giving them an abilit to give back to their community as well.

So by empowering adults in the community, they've also empowered the children.

Two people.

Where he's community and I'm education, and we allowed each other to be what we were for the common good.

He shies away from notoriety and I won't have anything to do with it.

So nobody wanted to be out front.

And that's important.

Children have to be out front.

They have to know that they're important.

I feel as though that the people working her understand that it has to go on.

I think that the foundations will continue to fund it because it's done what it's supposed to do.

I feel as though that it will go on.

I think it has a great future.

Retirement from this environment?

Yes.

It's going to be tough.

All we did was take a little piece of property and attempt to do in this little spot what God would want us to do.

To help children.

The children come first.

This building.

Every building here is for the kids.

I hope we accomplish some things through the help of the Lord and the children and the community.

Yes.

Would I change anything?

I dont think so.

now, besides the Robinsons work on behalf of children.

Reverend Robinson is also given credit for calling for calm and saving the Northside from ruin and riots after the assassination of Dr.

King.

Coming up next, a woman who could literally write the book on the local civil rights movement.

Stay connected and you're going to meet her.

When viewers request, we respond.

Is there an On Q story you think bears repeating one you heard about from friends?

Or maybe missed the first time around?

Let us know by logging on to our website wqed.org.

Then click On Q to submit your request for an On Q story.

On this holiday, many people are reflecting on how far we have come and how far there is to go in pursuit of equality.

Chris Moore is with tonight's guest.

Thank you Stacy.

And our guest has been active in the civil rights movement.

For many, many years.

She refuses to tell us exactly how many Alma Speeds.

Fox is president of Freedom Unlimited, a group that was founded in 1956 by the NAACP.

If that gives them any idea.

Welcome to the program.

Glad to have you here.

I thank you very much, Stacy, saying I could write a book.

Maybe I will as soo as I learned how to spell book.

Okay I know, I know more than that.

In fact, you have a story, similar to, the one that they were talking about with Reverend Robinson in leading Freedom Corner.

I want to get to that in a minute.

But on this day that we honor Dr.

King, I wonder what you think of his memory.

And I know you never met him, but you, are one of my sheroes of the civil rights movement.

And I want to know what you think of his legacy and whether it's still pertinent today when we talk about nonviolence not only to one another, but worldwide.

Well, you know, I never did meet Dr.

King.

However, the longer I live the more respect I get for him.

I think as you listen to some of the speeches, and I've been lucky to hear some of the speeches on another show you're on, and you always give a speech that's not popular or a part of somethin that he said that's not popular.

I've learned a lot from that.

A far as his legacy is concerned as I reflect on it, Dr.

King gave me hope.

He gave me persistence.

And those are two things that we need if we are to succeed.

What has happened, however, is there are many people like me that did not realize the value of listening, and I mean listening, to Dr.

King's speeches.

We heard them.

We knew what he said.

And then we would go about our business of doing things the way we thought they should be.

I certainly did not I was not the nonviolent type because I would say, oh, boy, yeah, go ahead.

Matthew Moore told me a story about his father being with Dr.

King somewhere, and someone spat upon Dr.

King, at which he wiped it off and said, well, I hope the Lord will bless you, young man.

And later he asked him, Matt Moore What would you have done He said, well, I would have punc him Dr.

King.

And that's what Matt Moore would have done too, because I knew Matt Moore very well.

That's what we came from.

That was our NAACP upbringing, so to speak.

Of course, there wasn't that much violence there, but there were certainly those that did not believe in turning the other cheek.

There was a story, we talk about Freedom Corner.

We talk about Reverend Robinson leading the march from there.

You were ther for some of those marches and, you sent me by emai an essay you did for a speech.

That tells the story of something that happened right after Dr.

King was killed.

Yeah, I was at a lot of marches with Jimmy Joe.

This happened in April of 1968, and it was Palm Sunday, right after Dr.

Martin Luther King had been assassinated.

Was the title of this?

What did you call it?

The day all hell broke loose.

That's how I feel about it, too.

Well, Byrd Brow was president of the NAACP then, and we had coordinated what was going to be a peaceful demonstration to start at Freedom Corner and go to Point Park.

Riots had already happened.

Riots had already happened.

The Hill District was up in flames and Homewood was up in flames.

But we were going to have this peaceful demonstration from Freedom Corner to Point Park.

So when I got out of church now, everybody was coming directly from church.

When I got out of Church You had your Sunday go to meetin Honey and I had on some Sunday boots.

You know, they had those high boots.

Now with the heels, I was really going down there to march and be a lady.

And, the report came over the radio that the march had been canceled.

There was no march.

I said, that's not true.

It's not the language I use.

But I said, that's not true.

No one has the authority to cancel it other than Byrd Brown or I, and I certainly didnt.

And so my husband and I got down there and we we got down there You were the NAACP I was executive director title then was executive secretary, but I was executive director of the Pittsburgh branch.

And when I got down there, it was lined up from one corner to the other and the police, it was a tactical police force.

And they were standing there with their billy clubs stretched out and the foot of each officer touching the foot of the other officer.

Well, we weren't going anyplace.

They were not going to allow us to go.

This crowd was screaming and hollering and everything, and they began to push.

And as the crowd began to push, I fell to the ground.

And when I got down on the ground, I saw this great big opening there between the legs of one police officer, and I scooted through and I got to the other side.

When I got to the other side, said, come on, come on, you can do it.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Well, then that's when all hell broke loose because the crowd began to surge and it just went up.

And in the background were the flames coming from the hill district and the smoke and everything.

And I just.

I interrupt you only because we only have a minute left.

And I wonder what you think.

You have a son who is a police officer.

Now, I wonder what you think in terms of progress from that date to this date.

There has been progress.

There's been a whole lot of progress.

But what's happening?

We're going back.

In what way?

We're going back as far as the degree of racism that's in the city of Pittsburgh.

We're going back as far a racism in the police department.

If I see things, if I hear things that way and it's not my son talking, okay, I don't talk to him.

Make that perfectly clear.

These are people these are big shots.

And what about nonviolence amongst our own, particularly our young people?

I think what has happened as far as that is concerned, those of us my age that wer coming up, we dropped the ball.

We didn't teach them the hope and the vigilance and the persistence to get to where they have.

Of course, a lot of this, you know, they didn't bring on themselves and you if you need a job and you can't get a job, then you resort to to other things and what have you is your last memory of Dr.

King quick.

My last memory of Dr.

King is, I will say, hope and the need to continue that hope, because we need it just as much today as we needed it in 1966.

Almah Speed Fox, thanks for being here on this Dr.

King Day.

Stacy, back to you.

And, happy Martin Luther King Day to you too, Stacy.

Thank you.

Same back to you.

Before we go tonight, here is a look at some of the other stories we are working on this week.

You're looking at something very few people in the world are doing today.

Tomorrow, meet a local artist who paints icons using rules established by the Orthodox Church centuries ago.

And then on Wednesday, revitalization in Clairton, you will see the first new housing construction there in more than 20 years.

And learn about the new program that helps people become first time homeowners.

Here we go Steelers, Here we go!

Our sensational Steelers.

Will it be a Super Bowl championship?

Hopefully we can just ride this thing all the way out.

And just imagine being a rookie on this team is this like a dream?

It's the best team in football.

So I mean, it was it was just a fantasy to be in the position that I'm in right now.

The in-depth story of Steelers rookie Max Starks.

What a year.

Thursday night at 7:30 On Q. And thanks for watching.

We'll be back live at 7:30 tomorrow night.

Stay connected and have a great night.