Joseph Henry “Mr. A.”Atkins, 84, of Syracuse, passed away on May 27. Calling hours were held May 31 at Bellgrove Missionary Baptist Church, he was later buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
There was more to Mr. Atkins than the nice old man who ran the liquor store. Joe Atkins like many of us in Syracuse had southern roots with parents from Birmingham, Ala. attending school in Syracuse obtaining a real estate salesman and broker’s license in addition he served on the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Not satisfied with just one job at Oberdorfer foundry Joe started his own janitorial service in the 1950’s. He was also active in the Central City Businessman’s Club, which was a force in a community where locally owned black business once flourished. There were record stores, multiple funeral homes, bars and restaurants all black owned or managed. This was a time when you could quit a factory job on Monday and be employed again the next week at another factory making more money.
It was the golden age for the black community in Syracuse.
On the political side Joe Atkins was a republican in Syracuse at a time when black communities actually considered it a choice to have a black republican and black democrat running for office in the 15th Ward. In the 1950’s there were certain jobs not available black or white unless you were a registered Republican. It wasn’t until the 1960’s when Lee Alexander and the Civil Rights movement made Syracuse blacks an appendage to the Democratic Party.
In spite of the reality that Syracuse had become a place where blacks would vote for a Ku Klux Klan-hooded Democrat over a black Republican. Mr. Atkins as one of the founding members of the Eagle Republican Club was steadfast in his defense of blacks participating in the two-party system.
My life was touched by Mr. Atkins as a toddler, the fourth child of a young widow searching for a home for herself and young children. This was a time when records now show that prominent Syracuse family-owned real estate interests were “colonizing” blacks – literally scheming to transform entire communities based on what color you were. Blacks were shown properties in “certain” neighborhoods many of our real estate laws and regulations came from that dark era in Syracuse and our nation’s housing history.
Mr. Atkins took my mother where she wanted to live – not in a cordoned-off area of the city “reserved” for “Negroes.”
As a result I grew up on Harrison Street on the Syracuse University campus. I was exposed to the anti-war movement on campus in 1968. The silent candle-lit procession of coffins to the War Memorial, my various jobs on University Hill, which gave me the opportunity to view life from a college campus, a cocoon that enabled me to work in various jobs on Marshall Street as a teenager.
I saw young black people attending college and moving onward and upward. I saw black athletes throw it all away in a stance against a celebrated coach. Growing up on a college campus and having life options was the most valuable experience I could ever have growing up in Syracuse.
That in part was due to a man who gave my mother choices on where to create a home for her family.
Thanks Mr. Atkins.
