Voter registration Sept. 24 at Dickerson Center SEE PAGE 2
East Central Florida’s Black Voice
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DR. WILLIE J. GREER KIMMONS: Small-college football players at serious risk SEE PAGE 4
A TRIBUTE TO FORMER DAYTONA HOUSING DIRECTOR MELVIN MOORE SEE PAGE 2
SEPTEMBER 17 - SEPTEMBER 23, 2015
YEAR 40 NO. 38
www.daytonatimes.com
Orange Avenue work still crippling stores Store owners say the city’s slow construction project has led to a huge drop in customers. BY PENNY DICKERSON DAYTONA TIMES news@daytonatimes.com
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inority businesses report profit losses as steep as 40 percent during the ongoing construction of Orange Avenue from Nova Road to Beach Street. The problem is twofold: Cars can’t navigate signage leading to complex detours and patrons are unable to access services and stores they’ve relied on for decades. The Daytona Times reported a year ago that some businesses in the plaza at 955 Orange Avenue and the one where Church’s chicken is located might close. One year later, they remain open but are challenged to maintain daily operations.
Quincy Culver remembered as businessman, church leader BY THE DAYTONA TIMES STAFF
Funeral Services for Mr. Quincy Lee Culver, Sr., were held Aug. 28 at New St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Daytona Beach with the Rev. Craig L. Robinson, pastor, delivering the eulogy. Mr. Quincy died Aug. 21 at Halifax Health Hospice, Port Orange, after a short illness. He was 86. Mr. Culver was the fourth of 15 children born Nov. 24, 1928, to Orleander and Ollie Smith Culver in Henry County, Ala. He attended the Henry County Vocational Training School. In 1941, he moved to Daytona Beach and attended Campbell Street School for a short time.
Owned gas stations He was the owner and operator of three full-service gas stations: Thrift Oil Company on the corner of Orange Avenue and Campbell Street (now Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard); Culver’s Service Center, a Phillip 66 gas station, at Second Avenue (now Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard) and Spruce Street; and Culver’s Amoco at Fulton Street and Second Avenue. He was known for his excellent customer service skills, knowledge and advice. Mr. Culver prepared and put his “finishing touch” on cars sold by such car dealers as Lloyd Buick and Cadillac, Southern Motors, Stephen Ferguson Pontiac, and Quality Cars. After retiring as a businessman, he worked for over 20 years at RJ Gainous Funeral Home.
‘Like a war zone’ What began by the City of Daytona Beach in June 2014 as an effort to optimize the quality of life and the economic development potential of Midtown through improved infrastructure has turned into a $17.6 million, slow-moving project and community quagmire. “It was like a war zone just a couple of months ago. You couldn’t even identify a road much less figure out which one to take, “said the Rev. Derrick Harris, owner of Cut Masters Barber Shop. “I have a diverse client base that is 20 percent new business and established customers, including older people who’ve been with me for 25 years. Loyalty encourages several to walk across gravel and dirt, but nobody is willing to tear up their Mercedes or Lexus tires or get debris on their cars when they can just drive somewhere else.”
‘Got the job done’
Above: A crane and valley of sand obstruct both views and traffic to business during ongoing Orange Avenue construction.
Reed responds The city has a sole legal responsibility to only provide access during construction. Commissioner Paula Reed pushed without success for financial grants to assist merchants in her district, and says the city needs to do more. “What the city opted to do instead of grants was provide advertising and signage so that all of the affected businesses could still be served,” Reed shared with the Daytona Times. “Signs were placed at various neighborhood intersections and streets parallel to Orange Avenue like Magnolia, Caroline and International Speedway for people not familiar with the area.” Reed holds firm that the city could have better directed advertisements, including newspaper and radio announcements, to better target the demographic that is most reliant and best served by Orange Ave-
Left: Minorityowned businesses like the Crème Stop are struggling due to patrons not having easy access.
Mr. Culver was an active member of New St. James Missionary Baptist Church for more than 50 years. He served in many roles, including as a deacon, trustee and treasurer. “He was a man of action and few words. He got the job done,’’ said his pastor. Mr. Culver is survived by his wife, Sallie Shelton Culver, and a blended family of seven children; 15 grandchildren; a host of great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and other relatives. RJ. Gainous Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
PHOTOS BY DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./ HARDNOTTS PHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Please see CONSTRUCTION, Page 2
Quincy Lee Culver
Wynn to lead international Black morticians group BY THE DAYTONA TIMES STAFF
Alexander C. Wynn, III, the owner of Gainous-Wynn Funeral Home in Daytona Beach, was elected president of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association (NFD&MA) at the organization’s 78th nationAlexander C. al convention last Wynn, III month in St. Louis, Mo. NFD&MA is a historically African-American membership as-
ALSO INSIDE
sociation of professional funeral directors, morticians and embalmers that was organized under the name of the Independent National Funeral Directors Association in 1924, and went through a series of mergers and name changes in ensuing years. The current NFD&MA has approximately 950 members worldwide and is comprised of chapters throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Africa. NFD&MA’s objectives are to foster research, conduct workshops and seminars, investigate funeral practices, develop and maintain standards of conduct
designed to improve the businesses of its members and to maintain high standards of service for the benefit of the public.
Handling tragedies For more than a century, Black morticians have assisted in times of tragedy. During a 19th century yellow fever epidemic, Black morticians furnished volunteers to assist stricken Whites, including handling human remains. In 1978, African-American funeral directors traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to recover victims of the Jim Jones mass casualty in Guyana.
NFD&MA member Andrew W. Nix, Jr., owner of the Nix Funeral Service in Philadelphia, was the U.S. government contractor in charge of handling the human remains from this tragedy. There were 913 bodies, including those of Jim Jones and his family. Many of the victims were transported to African-American funeral homes to be memorialized. NFD&MA chapters assisted during flooding in Albany, Ga. in 1994, where more than 400 caskets were displaced from cemeteries throughout Albany. In 1995, they coordinated their efforts with other morticians after the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. In 1996, members traveled to Dover Air Force Base to re-
ceive the victims of the Croatian air crash that killed U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and other members of his party.
Years of experience Wynn, a Sanford native, has decades of the experience in the mortuary business. A graduate of Crooms High School in Sanford, Wynn earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sociology with a minor in Business Administration from Shaw University, Raleigh N.C. He also earned an Associate of Science degree in Mortuary Science from Miami-Dade Community College. He received formal mortuPlease see WYNN, Page 2
COMMUNITY NEWS: DR. LEONARD LEMPEL: BLACK DAYTONA IN THE 1940S, PART 2 | PAGE 5 EDUCATION: STUDENT FINANCIAL AID APPLICATION PROCESS TO GET EASIER NEXT YEAR | PAGE 7