The Jefferson Avenue Tops Market will reopen Friday, two months and one day after a racially-motivated gunman killed 10 Black people and left three others wounded at the site. Not all are happy about the development. In fact, Jerome Wright is circulating an online petition calling for the store to remain closed.
"We are back to square one. What will stop a copy cat from coming to the store again?" Wright said in a morning conversation with WBFO.
"One store for our community where all the Black people will go, that's what started this. We did nothing to ameliorate this."
Wright understands that he doesn't speak for the entire neighborhood on the matter, but he thinks the store should remain closed to honor the victims of the May 14 massacre. He argues a new store could be built on some of nearby vacant lots currently owned by the city.
While some will never step foot in the store again, Wright knows many will resume shopping at the site as they did prior to May 14. The neighborhood, he says, still has much to overcome.
"The mood is that the racist murderer is locked up. The real killer racism has gone unapprehended. Nothing has changed. We've done nothing."
