roots reborn
By Nancy H. McLaughlin Staff Writer for News and Record
Oct 18, 2006 - Updated Jan 26, 2015
Marilyn Poole dreams that one day more of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive will look like the much-heralded Southside development near downtown — the end of the street bustling with business and new life.
On her end of the street, in the Ole Asheboro community and beyond, condemned and boarded-up houses still dot the landscape and prostitutes sometimes stroll in the daylight.
“It hurts me to see a great man like Martin Luther King and they name the street after him and stuff like this is going on,” Poole said, resting on her Julian Street porch after a long workday. “There should be stores and everything. This is a perfect place for businesses. It’s embarrassing.”
Soon Poole’s dream may become a reality. New Zion Missionary Baptist Church broke ground last month for a sanctuary and family life center as part of a $24 million development project that will include housing and businesses on a lot once overgrown with weeds.