Historic Church Occupied

During this time of financial crisis, many have lost their homes, businesses, and property, leaving them only the comfort of their faith.  Unfortunately, this, too, seems to be under attack by the banks, especially in traditionally low-income and African American communities around the country. Even in the heart of the faith-centric civil rights movement, a local church, Higher Ground Empowerment Center, stands to be foreclosed on by BB&T.

Higher Ground Empowerment Center(HGEC) is a neighborhood church in the heart of Atlanta’s Vine City. For the past 108 years, Higher Ground Empowerment Center has been a pillar in the historic Vine City community, one of Atlanta’s most under-resourced communities. HGEC has offered an array of much-needed programs and services including free healthcare screenings, a food pantry, job fairs, an annual Vine City Thanksgiving dinner, Karate classes for youth, Saturday tutorials, and summer camps for students.

In 2008, the church suffered a major blow in the form of a disastrous tornado that ripped apart the property. In order to rebuild, the church was forced to take out a loan, one that became increasingly difficult to pay back and unrepresentative of the resale opportunities as donations and property values fell during the recession.  The church repeatedly attempted to refinance the loan to be more representative of the property’s value, but BB&T, a company whose CEO, Kelly King, claims that their “foreclosure process is a values based on an approach where [they] work with our clients,” has not responded.  The cruel irony is that BB&T bank spends about 5 million dollars a year on teaching positions and research on what they refer to as “the moral foundations of capitalism.” We find these morals and values suspiciously absent when the opportunity to profit off of the very people who bailed out BB&T to the tune of $3.1 billion comes about.

HGEC’s Pastor Dexter Johnson stated, “108 years of history, we don’t want to see it disappear, be lost in foreclosure. 2012 is the year of triumph. Though we may be down, we are not broken, we will not be moved.”

Occupy Atlanta stands in solidarity with HGEC and the Vine city community. 1/12/12 Occupy Atlanta will be holding a press conference at HGEC, 561 spencer st NW Atlanta 30314 at 11am. We will be setting up an encampment outside the church and will not leave until BB&T makes a deal that works for the church.