Tom Dent interviews James Allen in St. Augustine, Florida. He works as a Family Outreach Counsellor with the Teen Alliance Center. He talks about the drug problem in St. Augustine. People have guns or can get them. He discusses gun control and the job climate in the area. There are no black department heads in the City of St. Augustine. He is a St. Augustine native. His ancestors were Cherokee. His parents were not from St. Augustine. Allen says families were closer ten years ago, and single parent homes are on the rise. He talks about growing up in Lincolnville, where absentee landlords are common. Respect for elders is largely a thing of the past. He talks about having a brick thrown through the window of his van. Some upstanding community members decided to stay in the neighborhood, but others moved out. Allen thinks community involvement is the key to ending crime in the area. He talks about the economics of the area. He worked on a project rehabilitating homes on a federal grant. HOPE [Help Our People Economically] formed a charter with the state to help black businesses better themselves. The black community of St. Augustine is too fragmented. Allen has organized a roundtable to open communication. They are getting West King Street paved. The program is funded through the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. The Brentwood Teen Alliance Center is in Jacksonville, but they do not receive the same funding. He talks other various social programs available. The counsellors are white. Some of the board of directors is black. Allen talks about how he became involved in the program while he was in college. He took a group to a play called Momma Don't, about a family that became involved in drugs. Allen is going to get his degree starting in the fall. He talks about trips touring colleges he has taken kids on. They discuss the civil rights movement in St. Augustine. He is looking for footage to show the kids, because they do not believe what happened. Dent tells him that there is footage in the long version of Montgomery to Memphis.
