Black Historical past Month starvation aid is about honoring lived historical past, resilience, and the continued work of caring for each other. Armistead’s life displays this.
On a Saturday morning, with temperatures hovering round 25 levels, Nashvillians lined up for a Second Harvest Cellular Pantry. Amongst them was Armistead — whose life displays the lengthy arc of Black historical past in Nashville.
The bins that day held acquainted staples together with dairy, eggs, and shelf-stable pantry objects to assist households via the winter. For Armistead, this second represented greater than meals.
It mirrored neighborhood, dignity, and the idea that nobody needs to be left behind.
Simply three months earlier, Armistead arrived again in Nashville from Houston. He felt compelled to return to Center Tennessee. He had gone to high school right here and had household right here. That household had since handed. He had misplaced three brothers and two sisters, all right here within the metropolis he nonetheless calls residence.
With nowhere to remain, Armistead slept in his automotive.
“I slept in that automotive for nearly three and a half months,” he mentioned. Even now, he can nonetheless hear the rain hitting his automotive roof when he lies down at night time.
The pressure took a toll on his well being. His legs started to swell badly, and a go to to the hospital led to remedy meant to cut back the fluid. However with no secure place to relaxation, the swelling by no means absolutely went down. Compounding all of it, Armistead was nonetheless recovering from a hip alternative, his cane by no means removed from attain.
“I by no means thought I’d find yourself again in Nashville like this,” he mentioned. “Nashville is my residence. I simply by no means thought I’d be homeless right here.”
Armistead is 82 years previous and holds two levels from Tennessee State College, a cornerstone of Black schooling and management on this metropolis. When requested how somebody along with his background might expertise homelessness, his reply is easy.
“How did the person find yourself blind?” he mentioned. “He was born that method. Typically issues simply occur.”
Finally, Armistead reached out to the pastor on the church internet hosting the distribution. That decision modified every little thing. By way of church and neighborhood connections, he was in a position to transfer into assisted dwelling and obtain the steadiness he wanted.
Years earlier, whereas dwelling in Houston, Armistead faithfully despatched month-to-month checks to that very same church in Nashville. When he wanted assist, the neighborhood he had supported stepped ahead in return — a robust instance of Black Historical past Month starvation aid in motion.
Life at Schrader Lane has introduced small however significant moments of kindness. Whereas serving to in the neighborhood backyard in the future, a girl observed the mattress he had been sleeping on — a worn mattress that Armistead had bolstered with a picket board to maintain it from sinking. With out hesitation, she supplied to assist.
“She mentioned, ‘Sir, you want a mattress, not a board,’” Armistead recalled.
That Saturday, she took him to a mattress retailer and acquired him a brand new mattress.
“I had by no means seen her earlier than in my life,” he mentioned. “She paid $1,000 for that mattress. I used to be simply grateful I wasn’t sleeping on that onerous mattress anymore.”
At 82, Armistead doesn’t ask for a lot. As a substitute, he focuses on others.
“Lots of people don’t have vehicles,” he mentioned. “Automobile notes are working $700 a month. However folks need to eat first.”
After the distribution, Armistead plans to share a part of what he receives with folks experiencing homelessness within the South Nashville neighborhood the place he grew up.
“Once you’re hungry, it doesn’t matter what colour you’re or the place you’re from,” he mentioned. “Once you’re hungry, you’re hungry.”
Armistead’s life spans many years of service. As a younger man, he marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., answering the decision for equality at a time when doing so required braveness, sacrifice, and an unshakable perception in a extra simply future. Armistead didn’t simply find out about Black historical past in faculties or from his household.
He lived it.
Later, he labored at Fort Campbell with the a hundred and first Airborne, educating studying, writing, and math to troopers. There, he noticed Second Harvest help navy households lengthy earlier than he ever imagined standing in line himself.
“I by no means thought I’d be right here,” he mentioned. “I had levels. I had jobs. However you get a blessing so you may take that blessing to any individual else.”
As the road slowly moved ahead, Armistead seemed round at his fellow neighbors.
“These aren’t grasping folks,” he mentioned. “These are needy folks. When of us line up at 5 within the morning and it doesn’t open till 9, that tells you one thing.”
For Armistead, the field of meals he receives represents the prospect to maintain giving — even now.
“I’m only a steward,” he mentioned. “A doorkeeper. That’s about all I can do. And I’m grateful I can nonetheless do this.”
