CITY MOVES TO CLEAN UP PROPERTY NEAR “BLACK POWER” SPEECH PARK

GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) – A city in the Mississippi Delta is taking steps to clean up some dilapidated private property.

The Greenwood Commonwealth reports that the Greenwood City Council has deemed more than a dozen properties a “menace to the public health and safety.” The council action authorizes the city, under state law, to clean up the property and assess owners for the cost.

On one street, two properties next door to each other have about six cars in various states of disrepair. Those lots are across from Broad Street Park, and a historical marker notes the park as the place where civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael gave his famous “black power” speech in 1966.

Council member Charles McCoy says the lots with the broken-down cars look like a junkyard.