MOVING A MOUNTAIN

MAJOR ERIC JOHNSON addressed Shingle Mountain for the first time in September.

“We are moving forward with the cleanup of Shingle Mountain. A request for bids from contractors was issued today. This has been in litigation since I became mayor, and I am pleased to see the cleanup of this environmental injustice move forward. Our city is not a dumping ground.”

Even after homeowner Marsha Jackson sued and a judge ordered Blue Star Recycling to clean up the 100-foot-tall pile of hazardous material that stands 50 feet from her home, it remains.

A newspaper story brought attention to the illegal dump in southeast Dallas in 2018, and last summer, an Oak Cliff church stepped up to amplify the message. Friendship West Baptist Church bends toward social justice. Pastor Danielle Ayres became the church’s social justice minister in 2005, shortly after moving to Dallas.

The ministry’s first mission was taking on a 24-hour adult megastore that was under construction in Red Bird, near a charter elementary school, A.W. Brown Fellowship Leadership Academy. The owner scrapped those plans in 2007.

The church also gives assistance to those freed from prison as part of former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ exoneration program. It owns a credit union that serves church members and communities where predatory lenders are more prevalent than banks. The church fights hunger and homelessness with food pantries, clothes closets and caches of supplies in schools and community centers around Oak Cliff and South Dallas.

Friendship West staged some creative protests around Shingle Mountain this summer, including a parade, which called city leaders to the carpet. Ayres answered some of our questions about the work.

The city has and, I will say, continues to drag their feet to remove the toxic waste while Marsha every day is dying slowly. So we talk about the physical violence in the streets. When people are out in the streets protesting about police brutality, they should understand that there’s this structural violence that people deal with every day. That is killing more Black folks than the physical violence. Because you’re killing people slowly, right? In areas where the air quality is bad, the water is not fresh. They don’t have access to fresh produce, and they don’t have access to a living wage.

It’s a never-ending push for what I would call a just world. Material impoverishment is so great, and we know that’s not

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

by accident. It’s because of broken social structures. So, what can we do in our lifetime? How do we capture the kairos moment when we sense that it’s our turn and our time to make a difference to create a better world?

I think of Angela Davis. One of her new books, the title is “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle.” This fight for a just world is part of an ongoing struggle. Each generation does its part, hopefully, to push us further.

THE MESSAGE:

We’ve been trying to ask Marsha and Southern Sector Rising what we can do for them. We wanted to do whatever we can, use whatever resources and whatever platforms we have to join them. When we have an opportunity — if we’re preaching or we’re doing a Bible study or if we have events outside of the church — we always bring up Shingle Mountain to keep it at the top of mind.

THE MORALITY:

How are you able to morally say, “We can’t clean up this toxic waste,” when we know people are breathing in fiberglass? Forget the politicking and morally do the right thing. When you know people are slowly dying and choking to death, not being able to breathe … to “other” her like that, as if her life doesn’t matter, is very problematic, not just for her, but for many others. I’m grateful to everyone who has helped to expose Shingle Mountain as much as possible and keep the human side of it live. This is about a person who is suffering daily. Every day that Shingle Mountain is there, her health is suffering, and that will never come back.

THE RESPONSE:

The mayor has never bothered to go out there. The mayor has never bothered to call [Marsha Jackson]. The mayor never said one word about Shingle Mountain until [Sept. 11] in a tweet, as if they’re doing this out of the kindness and goodness of their hearts. The fact is that it’s the ongoing persistence of Marsha and Southern Sector Rising and many others who have been lifting their voices for the past three years. It’s been the press conferences and phone calls and attending City Council meetings and lifting our voices. For the mayor and certain City Council members to come across as if they’re leading the charge, I think it takes away from the fact that people power pushed this to this point, and we have to keep it right there.

The bids will close Sept. 24, and the work is supposed to begin Oct. 5, but we will see. Marsha has heard that before.

You don’t have to be a member to be a part of our justice efforts. They can just email justice@friendshipwest.org. You don’t have to be a member in order to party with us. Or they can just go to southernsectorrising.org and become involved that way.

THIS TACO JOINT IS A NEW FAVE

SOME OF OAK CLIFF’S FAVORITE haunts are ghosts now, but a new prospect is vying for your TexMex heart.

Del Sur Tacos offers $1 tacos and $3 margaritas every Tuesday, and there are usually mariachis performing in the evenings.

That’s enough to get us in the door, but it’s what makes us stay that’s magical.

Huge breakfast burritos with house-made chorizo served every day, cochinita pibil that melts in your mouth and “super tacos” such as Del Norte, topped with an egg and cheese.

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by KATHY TRAN

Texas Monthly once named the chile relleno taco its “taco of the week” and gave them high marks for using superior corn tortillas.