EXPOSURE TO LIGHT
Along Martin Luther King Avenue
Lisa DeJong of The Flint Journal
FLINT, MICHIGAN
In late summer 2001,
when Lisa
DeJong approached residents living along Martin Luther King
Avenue in Flint, Michigan, the photographer wanted to show what
life was like on this six-mile stretch of broken-down street.
Businesses had fled as Flint’s economy nose-dived in recent
years. There were no grocery stores or banks; only churches and
funeral homes remained. “All you can do on the street is
go to church or die,” DeJong says. Residents initially didn’t
want to cooperate with DeJong. They feared that The Flint Journal
only cared about another story highlighting the crime and poverty
in their community. So DeJong gained their trust by empowering
them. “I told them that their words would be in the paper,”
she says. “It would be a whole paragraph of what they thought
about the street. Finally, they felt like they had a voice.”
DeJong discovered a group of people determined to stick by their
neighborhood, people who take it upon themselves to plant flowers,
fix signs, and sweep the sidewalks. Through it all their church,
Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist, was a source of strength. At left
we see Rachelle Walker, the church secretary, singing in a church
stairwell as the music starts, and below, a parishioner fans himself
with an MLK fan during the service. “Without this church,”
Walker says, “there would be less hope on this street."
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