Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1500333
4 UCW MAY 31 - JUNE 6, 2023 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com MANAGING EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Hannah Lee assistanteditor@upandcomingweekly. com ART DIRECTOR Courtney Sapp-Scott art@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Isaiah Jones graphics@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITERS Alyson Hansen Ashley Shirley Kathleen Ramsey Chayenne Burns Katrina Wilson Aubrette Reid CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Rep. Richard Hudson, John Hood, Ben Sessoms, Laura Browne, Cynthia Ross Saundra Blair, Denise Merritt MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister linda@upandcomingweekly.com SALES ASSISTANT Sheila Barker salesassistant@upandcomingweekly. com COVER Spring Lake Family Support Services Founder/CEO Debora Hudson (right) and Office Manager Sandy Woltmann (left). Cover photo and design by Isaiah Jones. Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200- FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Published weekly on Wednesdays, Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Army Airfield, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. Association of Community Publishers It is still Fort Bragg. But only until June 2. en North Carolina's mammoth U.S. Army base will become Fort Liberty. Still, it will always be Fort Bragg in my memories. My first experience in a racially integrated work situation was in ROTC summer camp at Fort Bragg in 1961. I was the product of a segregated sec- ondary and college education. It was different at Bragg. Not only were there many Black cadets in my company, but the regular Army lieutenant colonel in charge of us was Black. He was a won- derful leader. I remember the welcome speech he gave on our first day. He gathered his cadets around. We were scared to death, and he told us the story of Fort Bragg, and how it came to be named for a military leader, a general in the Con- federate army named Braxton Bragg. I thought many years later that he must have had to bite his tongue because Bragg had fought to keep Blacks in slavery. Many of the Black cadets were po- tentially superior future officers. ey prepared me, as the Army of the 1950's and 1960's prepared hundreds of thou- sands of other southern men, for the changes to come in civilian life in North Carolina. I arrived at Fort Bragg as a white boy who had never gone to school with Blacks, never eaten in the same restaurant, never drunk at the same water fountain, never rode in the same section of a bus or a train — and put me right beside some of the best people I ever met (not all my same color). I was never the same. When I left that summer, I don't want to say I was free of racism, but I was a changed person. I rejoiced in the diver- sity that Army life brought me and the great strength that came from mutual trust and respect. And I knew that the principal beneficiary of the opening of doors of opportunity was me. If our nation is ever successful in completing its task of erasing racism, intolerance and injustice, the Armed Forces and particularly the Army and Fort Bragg must be given due credit. e Army has led the way. Like many other North Carolinians, I have spent other times at Fort Bragg, including almost two years when I was on active duty, living on Bragg Boulevard. e most memorable time was on anksgiving weekend in 2002 when, as I wrote then, a little after midnight I picked up my son, Grier, at his Raleigh home, helped carry his heavy gear to my car, waited while he ran upstairs to tell his wife goodbye, get a look at his brand new daughter, and then begin our drive to Fort Bragg for the begin- ning of his long journey to the other side of the world. It was raining as we approached Fayetteville, turned off Business I-95, and then on to Bragg Boulevard, passed the house where I lived as a young Army officer, and then passed by the shopping centers, pawnshops, night spots, mobile home lots, car dealer- ships and the other strong marks of a military town. Still under the heaviness of the rain, we came on the base, passing through security where my son returned the sa- lute of the guard, a signal that we would soon arrive at the point of formation, where my son and his traveling com- panions would gather this early morn- ing to begin their trip to Afghanistan. I will be happy to call it Fort Liberty from now on, but I will always remem- ber what Fort Bragg has meant for me. Editor's Note: D.G. Martin, a retired lawyer, served as UNC-System's vice president for public affairs and hosted PBS-NC's North Carolina Bookwatch. PUBLISHER'S PEN Goodbye to Fort Bragg by D.G. MARTIN Letters to the Editor Do YOU have something to say? We want YOU to be heard! We want EVERYONE to be able to voice their opinions on current community events. Let us be a place to start much needed conversations. ALL VOICES WELCOMED! EMAIL: editor@upandcomingweekly.com CALL: 910-484-6200 D.G. MARTIN, Contributor COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200.