In 1995 the Reverend Paul Southerland moved his congregation, the Redeeming Church of Christ, into an old funeral home at 67th and Dorchester. He had big plans for the run-down property that surrounded his new church, which he wanted to turn into “a beacon of spiritual prosperity in the west South Shore community.” Things aren’t going quite as planned.
But Southerland also wanted to build a new 800-seat church, with lots of glass to let in light, and a new school building. He wanted to turn the funeral parlor into offices and a social center that would offer, among other things, a baby-sitting service. He even wanted to build condominiums along 67th Street priced at up to $500,000. Between 1999 and 2000, with backing from South Shore Bank, Redeeming acquired property to the east of the church, lined up a construction company, and mapped out a five-year building plan for the $8 million project.
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Southerland firmly believed that his alderman’s support was critical to the success of the project. “You cannot do anything without the alderman on board,” he says. He discussed his plans with Fifth Ward alderman Barbara Holt, just as he’d discussed things with her predecessor, Larry Bloom. Holt was helping Southerland work out a deal in which he would buy from the city the property west of the church, but she was defeated in the April 1999 election.
Hairston says she was horrified by what she saw inside the church. “There were infants lying on the floor next to exposed electrical sockets. Next to the infants were toddlers lying on air mattresses, and six- to eight-year-olds were lying in the pews. There was a musty smell in the building, like there had been flooding, and it was dark. The hair on my arms stood on end. Children were being jeopardized, and parents needed to be concerned. I reported what I saw [to city officials].”
Southerland still wanted to move ahead on his expansion plans, and says he began calling Hairston once a month, hoping to get her approval. He says she never returned his calls. She says she never got the calls. He says he’s also lobbied everyone from Leon Finney, chairman of the Woodlawn Organization, to Charles Bowen, a mayoral aide assigned to religious issues, to intercede for him, to no avail. “I’ve contacted many people in the community for help in dealing with her,” he says, “and they all say, ‘She hates you. She doesn’t like your name being brought up.’”
When Southerland finally arrived, an hour later, he asked Hairston to help him get the special-use permit, but she refused. “There is a process that has to be followed,” she says now. “He has to make an application for the zoning change. He wants me to approve something without having seen the paperwork. That’s backwards, and I won’t do it.” Yet Kennon says, “The alderman can prevent you from getting a special-use permit and can be a thorn in your side. But once she says she’s in favor of it, it practically goes through.”
On the day of the meeting Southerland, who still hadn’t applied to the city for the special-use permit or the building permit, led 50 picketers to the Evangelist Temple. But its minister had just undergone bypass surgery, so the temple was closed. Southerland offered Redeeming as a substitute meeting site, and Hairston replied, “Reverend Southerland, I’m not going to a church where there are building-code violations.” She held the meeting in the street.
