Some People in Monroe, Louisiana would love to try and correct me when they hear me talk of The City of Monroe as being "TWO DISTINCT CITIES!" First, you have the White City of Monroe, then you have The Black City of Monroe. It's no surprise that "WHITE MONROE" always seems to end up with "A MUCH LARGER SHARE" of the City, State, and Federal grants, contracts, funds, and other benefits that come down the turnpike, while "BLACK MONROE" always has to "SETTLE" and "ACCEPT" the "LEFTOVER CRUMBS!" You see, one of the "WEIRDEST THINGS" about the current circumstances in Monroe is that when Mayor Oliver Ellis first announced that he was going to be running for Mayor of Monroe,"HE REPORTEDLY STATED IN AN INTERVIEW WITH A KNOE NEWS REPORTER THAT ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS HE WAS RUNNING FOR MAYOR WAS BECAUSE MANY MONROE RESIDENTS FELT LIKE THE CITY OF MONROE IS A DIVIDED COMMUNITY," AND THAT HE QUOTE,''WANTED TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER OVER THINGS THEY HAVE IN COMMON, SO THEY COULD BUILD RELATIONSHIPS AND ADDRESS RACE RELATIONS & DIVISION." What Mayor Oliver Ellis said back then is hunky-dory, mighty-fine,"BUT THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS THAT HE DID NOT EVEN COME CLOSE TO FULFILLING HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISE TO UNITE THE BLACK AND WHITE CITIZENS OF MONROE! Additionally, all of the recent ridiculous stunts, just within the last 10 months, such as when The Mayor decided to waste "OVER $200,000 THOUSAND DOLLARS" of valuable taxpayers money, on the Reginal Brown Case ; when he deliberately went out of his way to undermine The Monroe City Council's authority to select The Monroe City Fire Marshal, by involving State Senator Cathey and Governor Jeff Landry ; and just recently, when he persuaded Monroe City Councilman, Doug Harvey to "LEAD A PUSHBACK CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE I-20 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT'S APPROVAL of A $4.5 MILLION DEAL THAT WOULD ALLOW A BLACK INVESTOR TO BENEFIT FROM I-20 CORRIDOR INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANSIONS," ALL RUN CONTRARY TO MAYOR ELLIS'S CAMPAIGN PROMISE!!! All I can say is that I can certainly understand why some of the "LEADING CITIZENS" of Monroe, Louisiana have decided to initiate "A RECALL ON MAYOR OLIVER ELLIS!" Enough about all that, let's get to this week's Black Pioneer, Zelma C. Wyche! Zelma was born on January 24, 1918, in the small town of Tallulah, Louisiana. Living in rural town in the early 1909s didn't allow for most young Negro Children to attend school, as a matter of fact, you were considered very fortunate if you could attend school for one month out of the year, let alone nine months! Therefore, most of Zelma 's education came by way of the farm. By the way, in his early Twenties, Zelma became a Barber by trade, but later played a very important role in fighting for the rights of Negroes in Tallulah as well as fighting for this country, when he enlisted in the Army, during WWll. After returning home from the war, he went back to his trade, as a Barber, and continuing to fight for the Civil Rights of Negroes in Tallulah. During The many protests that Zelma participated in. he was only arrested 6 times.The most serious arrest happen when he hit a White Doctor at a Truck stop on Highway 80, in Tallulah. Although Zelma was sentenced to serve 4 months in jail, he only served 34 of the days. One day, while cutting hair in his Barber Shop, Zelma got the inclination to run for Police Chief of Tallulah. However, once he qualified to run for election, WHITE POLITICIANS in Tallulah held the election as a "SPECIAL ELECTION," rather than as a regular election,"A POLITICAL TACTIC THAT'S STILL BEING USED AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE TO THIS VERY DAY," which confused most of the Negro Voters in Tallulah. Once Zelma found out about what had been done, he sued for another election to be held. Thankfully, he won his lawsuit, and he also won the next election for Police Chief, and on June 26, 1969, Zelma was sworn in and took his position as "The Newly Elected Police Chief of Tallulah, Louisiana!" Interestingly, his tenure as Police lasted all the way up until June 30, 1978. Finally, in 1985, for a "SWAN SONG," Zelma decided to throw this hat in the Race to become the next Mayor of the town of Tallulah. Surprisingly, he ended up receiving almost 56 percent of the votes, in winning the election, and he officially took office in 1986. On September 24, 1999, Zelma C. Wyche, "Mr. Civil Rights of Louisiana," Long-term Police Chief and former Mayor of the town of Tallulah, went home to ever be with the Lord! How Did I come across all this information you ask? Well, it's simple, I read it online, of course!
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