Center finally opens in west Little Rock's Pankey

Building in community long-desired

The Little Rock Police Department honor guard marches to flagpoles to present the colors during Tuesday’s grand opening celebration for the long-awaited Josephine Pankey Center in Little Rock.
The Little Rock Police Department honor guard marches to flagpoles to present the colors during Tuesday’s grand opening celebration for the long-awaited Josephine Pankey Center in Little Rock.

Dozens of police gathered with residents of the historic Pankey community in west Little Rock last week in unified celebration.

They assembled to observe what many say has been a long time coming: the official opening of a community center named after Josephine Pankey, for whom the community is named.

The center will double as a police substation, with the aim of helping build relations between police and a community made up of black residents during a time of racial tension across the nation.

"This building is important, but a building alone is an empty shell without people," City Manager Bruce Moore said at a opening event Tuesday. "Today we celebrate that people are in the building. They are working, they are meeting, and they are also strengthening bonds -- collaborating within the community, fostering closer ties between citizens and city government."

"This is more than a building. It's a bridge. It's a connector, a conduit throughout which the city and citizens will have even more of a stronger connection," Moore said.

At the speakers lectern set up in front of the center at 13700 Cantrell Road, sitting to the right, was an easel displaying a 1930s portrait of Pankey and her husband, Samuel.

Josephine Pankey stands sort of matter-of-factly, her right shoulder toward the camera, in a fur-trimmed jacket and a small hat. Her husband stares face-forward wearing a bow tie and a suit.

The couple founded the community in the early 1900s as a haven for blacks outside the Little Rock city limits.

While the community has dwindled as development has moved westward -- with the city annexing the land in 1979, and more and more corporations encroaching on undeveloped areas in recent years -- residents continue to rally for their dreams and for growth.

One long-running dream has been the development of a community center. Many times, residents thought they were on the brink of getting one, only to be let down. In fact, construction started on the current building in 1999, but the project fell apart after a funding scandal.

Through a partnership with the community association and the city, construction on the Josephine Pankey Community Center is finally complete.

The partnership arose because the community needed funds to finish building and the city needed a new police station in the area.

Since the land for the center was donated by Pankey and designated for educational purposes, a compromise was reached in which a little more than half of the facility would house police and the rest would become the community center of residents' hopes.

The association owns the center, and the city leases it. Rent will be waived until the city recoups the money it put in for construction costs, and then the city will start paying rent.

There are two small classrooms, a kitchen, storage, bathrooms, a lobby and an open event space in the community center. To the right of the lobby is the secure police area, which houses meeting rooms and offices for the patrol division that covers that area.

"This started a long time ago, but the community didn't give up. It's about the journey, and the journey has been long but joyful," said Belver Nelson longtime resident of the community.

"We can't say thank you enough to Josephine Pankey for her dream and vision for this community. ... She dreamed of a community where people of color could own their homes, have school, worship together, educate their children locally. She gave land for the school. She gave land for churches."

The Pankeys bought 80 acres in 1907. Josephine Pankey donated land for the first church in 1911. In the 1920s, blacks flocked to the area after lynchings began. Pankey sold some of her parcels for as little as $10 or $15 or exchanged them for goods.

She and her husband didn't actually move to the area until a 1927 lynching of a black man accused of assaulting a white woman and her daughters. Rioters hanged him, shot him, dragged his body through the streets and set it ablaze. The angry crowd grew to about 5,000 people.

In the Pankeys' haven, black-owned and -operated businesses thrived, including Bob's Cafe and Pool Hall, Willie's Snack Bar, White Eagle Cafe, a movie theater, a grocery store and a gas station. None of those original businesses is still there.

Over time, having a community center to house youth and educational programs became a new central goal for residents to work toward.

"We knew often that keeping this center would be the anchor for our community. I hope this is not the end of celebration, but the beginning of celebration of what we will be doing together," Nelson said.

Metro on 11/20/2016

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