There is good news about the Collaborative for Community Trust in today’s paper. I’m glad to learn that the Simkins house will be saved and, perhaps, put to good community use. But how did this situation get so bad in the first place?

Cleve Sellars, who is on the board, wouldn’t comment on Catherine Fleming Bruce – who has badly mismanaged the Collaborative. Question is, where in the world has he and the rest of the board BEEN all this time? Seems to me that Bruce is not the only one to blame for running the Collaborative into a ditch.

Warren Bolton, who is on the editorial staff at The State, has been a longtime Collaborative board member. Sadly, he with the bully pulpit wasted an opportunity to shed light on the matter before it got to this point.

If you missed it, here’s a link to the story.

And if you haven’t seen the Simkins house, you can take a nifty virtual tour here.

Here is a letter from Ms. Bruce that ran in last week’s Free Times after the paper ran an editorial skewering her.

Simkins Restoration Requires Public-Private Partnership

I write today to personally acknowledge the support and encouragement shown by individuals, organizations, municipalities and corporations over the years to the Collaborative for Community Trust in its efforts with regard to the Modjeska Simkins House (City Watch, “Modjeska Simkins Deserves Better,” July 18). This has been a long and arduous journey for myself and for the Collaborative board, with our only concern being the preservation of a historically significant civil rights building that once bore an “uninhabitable” notice and whose legacy was on the brink of being lost forever. It is this passion that has kept the Simkins project afloat since 1995.

It is our wish and our agenda that our community have the civil rights centerpiece that we have worked all these years to bring to fruition. We took action so that Columbia might join the ranks of other Southern cities in embracing our role in the American civil rights movement through this facility.

The purchase, restoration and operation of a historic site is a gargantuan task, and even more so with a paucity of staff support and resources. Many would never have attempted it, as historic preservation is most often taken up these days by developers or well-financed institutions. But had the Collaborative not stepped up 12 years ago, the Simkins House would not be here today.

Even so, the restoration of the Simkins House could never have been accomplished by the energies of any private individual or private group alone. The nature of historic preservation mandates a public-private partnership. It cannot, nor was it ever intended to glorify, enrich or exalt any one person. When I got involved, I considered this preservation work to be a public service to the community. I had guidance from our board, help in submitting appropriate reports from our accountant and the encouragement of many friends. I hope that other ordinary people will continue to step out on faith to preserve history in their communities. The Collaborative board and myself took the risk, and while it required extreme personal sacrifice and challenge, I am grateful for their commitment.

I, along with the full board of the Collaborative for Community Trust, continue to pledge our full efforts to a successful Modjeska Simkins House as it benefits from ever broadening levels of support and partnerships.

Catherine Fleming Bruce
President, Collaborative
for Community Trust

Those of you who followed Brett’s free speech case will remember Lewis Pitts, the lead attorney. Lewis is a public defender who has dedicated his career to protecting the environment, promoting civil rights, and representing the most vulnerable clients in the system. You can read about him in a story in INDY.

Lewis worked tirelessly on Brett’s case and, although we lost on appeal in Richmond, we won in the court of public opinion, judging by the outpouring of support during and after the trial. The story touched a nerve in the lefty community as it was dawning on us just how dangerous the Bush Administration had become.

Spoma Jovanovic

On Saturday, Lewis married Spoma Jovanovic, a university professor, at her home in Greensboro, NC. It was a lovely ceremony celebrated by family and friends, many of them longtime soldiers for civil rights. What a privilege it was to gather for such a joyous occasion with so many great minds and large hearts. We wish the newleyweds a lifetime of happiness and continued success making our corner of the world a better place to live.

Becci Robbins

(from left) Lewis Pitts, Brett Bursey and Columbia attorney Jay Bender rally the troops during the Pay-In outside the courthouse in Columbia.

The Collaborative for Community Trust was a longtime member of the Network – in name only. This year, after tightening up our membership to include groups that were actually doing something, the Collaborative chose not to re-up. We weren’t surprised.

According to the mission statement printed in our directory, the Collaborative “is owner and steward of the Modjeska Monteith Simkins Center for Justice, Ethics and Human Rights. The mission dictates creating new synergies among new populations for concrete outcomes in social change and protection of human rights around the world.” Pretty tall order for an organization with a staff of one.

The Collaborative and the Network were born in the same year, 1995. The organization was among our first members, and for awhile we held our monthly Midlands meetings there. It was the only time we ever saw or heard from Director Catherine Fleming Bruce. We could never figure out what, exactly, she was doing with the buildings she was charged with managing nor why she kept getting funded, especially since we know so many of our groups are doing so much more on so much less. It was frustrating to watch.

So now it appears that the Collaborative has been run into a ditch. How this could have gone on so long without anyone blowing the whistle is a mystery. What a sad turn for a project that had such great potential and the support of the city. Sadder still is the squandering of Ms. Simkins’ legacy.

Read Kevin Fisher’s column about the mess in this week’s Free Times.

Becci Robbins

Network Director Brett Bursey was invited to be part of a panel discussion on hate crime legislation at AFFA’s program meeting last night at the Renaissance Hotel in Charleston. Also on the panel were the primary sponsors of South Carolina hate crime bills – Charleston Democrats Sen. Robert Ford and Rep. Seth Whipper – and Elke Kennedy, whose son died in May after being beaten, apparently for being gay. An 18-year-old is being held on murder charges in a Greenville jail.

Kennedy talked about her son and described him as a leader who, had he lived, would have worked to advance civil rights. She is now doing that work on his behalf, speaking out about hate crimes and pushing for just legal protection. See more at Sean’s Last Wish www.seanslastwish.com.

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