A crowd carrying signs marched the Town of Tryon on Saturday, Feb. 7 chanting, “What do we want? Equality…When do we want it? Right now.”

About 50 Eastside residents gathered Saturday, Feb. 7 to take a stand against the Town of Tryon and how its leaders have decided to handle the home of Eunice Whitmire, which was damaged for more than 14 years with town sewage running through the yard and into the home.

Saturday’s march was organized in less than a week by Whitmire’s daughter Sonya Glover. The march included a meeting at the Roseland Community Center, where area residents discussed not only Whitmire’s home, but other issues Eastside residents say they feel the town neglects in their community. The march ended with residents marching from the Roseland Community Center to the St. Luke’s Plaza downtown.

Whitmire’s home on East Howard St. suffered town wastewater during heavy rains where manholes would overflow and sewage would run through Whitmire’s yard and for many years would back up into her tub and toilet.

The town recently completed replacing the sewer line through a grant and during construction paid to rent Whitmire another home and paid to keep utilities on at her property. The town says it has spent $20,000 on the rental and utilities for Whitmire.

. The town says it is giving Whitmire until Feb. 28 to move out of the rental property and has offered Whitmire either $80,000 to purchase her East Howard St. home or $25,000 to move back into her home.

Whitmire and her supporters say neither offer is good enough, as another home cannot be purchased for $80,000 and $25,000 is not enough for Whitmire to make her home whole again. They also say the Feb. 28 deadline is not enough time to purchase another home or fix the issues, which the family says would include replacing the soil in Whitmire’s yard and dealing with mold issues inside the home.

Many residents who attended the march Saturday questioned why it took the town so many years to fix the issue.

“If this had happened in my house on Melrose Avenue,” Patti D’Arbanville said, “how long do you think it would’ve taken?” The audience answered hours or days.

Whitmire said when she went to town council about her problem the town told her over and over again they were going to fix the issue. And she kept going back, sometimes she said, by herself.

“I didn’t put the sewage line in and it’s not my problem,” Whitmire said.

She said it’s not right for the town to give her $25,000 to fix her house or take $80,000 to buy her house.

“I’m 70 years old,” Whitmire said. “I don’t want to go into debt.”

Whitmire said at a recent town council meeting, commissioner Happy McLeod told her she knew of a house for sale in Tryon for $49,000.

“I said, would you like to live in that house?” Whitmire responded.

Whitmire said the town made her feel like she is good enough to live in a house worth $49,000, but town council members are too good to live in a house valued that low.

Elaine Morrison said when she moved back to Tryon it saddened her to see how much the community had gone down compared to other communities. She said she lived two doors down from “Mama Eunice” and she could smell the sewage so bad she thought it was in her own yard.

“I can’t imagine what she was going through living in it,” Morrison said. “Treating an elderly woman like that; it really saddens me.”

Others at the meeting spoke of what they called police harassment and the town neglecting the Eastside on other services such as leaf removal.

Marie Littlejohn said organizers of the march should have invited town council to attend. D’Arbanville said she posted it on her Facebook page so many of the council members should have known of the march.

Litttlejohn said she’s put brush on the side of the road and weeks and weeks go by before it is picked up.

“I pay Tryon and county taxes,” Littlejohn said. Littlejohn later said when she was growing up in Tryon black residents weren’t allowed to go to Harmon Field even though they paid taxes to operate Harmon Field.

Glover spoke of Ziglar Field for the Eastside community, but said its only access is from a bridge. She said it would be nice to have a festival for children but items such as inflatables are impossible to get there. Glover also spoke of the town’s recent revitalizations of downtown and asked how many Eastside residents frequent the depot plaza.

“Tryon has lost everything,” Glover said. “I used to frequent downtown, but you see all the businesses going to Landrum.”

Glover said the businesses in Tryon cater to people with money, saying her family is not going to pay $12 for a hamburger. She said she asks her children why they don’t go to town festivals and they answer they don’t belong there. Her children go into downtown businesses and people make them feel uncomfortable, she said.

“Every time you start a fire you’ve got to have an ignition point somewhere,” Glover said. “Please don’t let this be something that happens today then come next week we forget all about it.”

Dr. Joseph Fox encouraged Eastside residents to “show up.”

“We’re not showing up at the table so we don’t have a voice,” Fox said. “It takes more than just a couple of people showing up at the town meetings. Those people were elected and we need to hold them accountable.”

Fox mentioned the Eastside Citizens Advisory Committee and encouraged the community to get involved in that committee. Robin Edgar also mentioned the Thermal Belt Friendship Council, which meets at the Roseland Center.  Tryon Town Council meets at the fire department every third Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“We can’t say we’re not getting our voice heard if we’re not there,” Fox said.

Fox also said the Eastside community is not empowering itself. He said the black community used to have its own businesses and the community no longer has that anchor. At some point, Fox said, “we’ve got to stop blaming others.”

Linda Hudgens said it’s her dream for the two sides of Tryon to come together. She said when she first moved here she asked where are the black people. She said she was told the black people live over there.

George Littlejohn said the town would not have let Whitmire’s problem go for 14 years in any other neighborhood.

“Say if that home was on Melrose Avenue,” George Littlejohn said. “You think they would let that sit 14 years?”

He said it should’ve never gotten to this point and questioned why the town is asking Whitmire to move back into that house.

Mac Bond said he lives at Lake Adger and read about Whitmire in the newspaper. He said his sister is an anti-racism counselor.

“It’s about race,” said Bond. “It’s about racism whether we like it or not.”

Glover said the community has to come together. She said there are a lot of smart people in the community and residents have to become involved whether they feel uncomfortable or not.

“If our legends felt uncomfortable and stopped we wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Glover.

After a closed session meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 28, Tryon sent Whitmire a proposal on Friday, Jan. 30 giving her the $80,000 or $25,000 option that also said the town would clean Whitmire’s East Howard St. home, according to Glover. Whitmire said she received the notice in the mail on Tuesday, Feb. 3, which had a Wednesday, Feb. 4 deadline for her to make the decision.

Glover said after receiving the notice she asked the town for more time. She said she applied for a permit to hold the march from the Tryon Police Department. Later in the week her mother received notice that the town extended Whitmire’s decision for an indefinite time period. Whitmire still has to be out of the rental home by Feb. 28, Glover said.

Whitmire said at the Roseland Center Saturday that town council doesn’t care.

“I’m not going to give up because God is on my side,” Whitmire said.

A representative from the Rutherford County chapter of the NAACP attended Saturday’s march.