Mayor Ron Littlefield emphasizes that his surprise and controversial decision to move the Bessie Smith Strut from Martin Luther King Boulevard to the Riverfront, where it can be staged in the more secure confines of the well-policed Riverbend perimeter, is being done to make it safe — or safer.
Our fear is that such a mistaken move will kill the Strut by killing what it stood for: a symbolic, abiding effort not just to celebrate our cultural diversity and common heritage, but simply to share fun, funky, get-down times together in the African-American community’s old Ninth Street neighborhood– and to keep building on that.
Littlefield says his unilateral decision is not a surrender to the young black gangs whose increasingly frequent and frightening gun battles over turf could mar the Strut. Rather, he says, it’s a recognition of the city’s financial and moral liability for permitting a convenient venue for violence, and the moral responsibility to avoid that.
Yet it feels like a surrender to the fear of violence. It also reflects a seeming lack of determined effort to enlist help from black community leaders and neighborhood groups to ensure safety at the Strut; and just as importantly, to avoid the dismantling of the iconic cultural asset that the Bessie Smith Strut has become.
The planned shift of venue would impose other burdens of equity and access, as well. As a grand street party, the Strut has always been free to attendees and easily accessible to all comers. If that’s part of its problem for the city, it’s also part of its charm.