Knowledge is everything… If you want change, do it yourself

In life, you must have a plan that you have created for yourself as a manual for your own success. Often times all we do is talk, talk, complain and talk some more. With all of this talking nothing is being accomplished. In comes the importance of the person with a plan on how things can and will be done.

I first met Ralph Beauford during a neighborhood organization meeting in which we were discussing our annual block party and what needed to be done to ensure success. Saturday morning came and Beauford picked me up. For two hours, we went from place to place getting things done for the block party. In those couple of hours with Beauford, I grew a respect for him and an understanding of the importance of doing things yourself before looking to others to do it for you.

Beauford was born in 1935 in Dothan, Alabama, to Mitchell and Georgia Lee Beauford. The third of eight children, he grew up on a farm in the Deep South during segregation and Jim Crow rule. Beauford would attend elementary school at a church and then would attend Carver High School to 10th grade. After leaving high school, Beauford would enroll in a trade school and take up brick masonry.

When Beauford was 16, he bought his first piece of property. At 18, he married Yvonne Hart and had three children. In the late 1950s at 23, he moved his family to Brooklyn. Having lived in the Deep South and relocating to New York, the culture shock might have proved difficult for many. That was not the case for Beauford. In New York, he would become an entrepreneur owning real estate and a distribution franchise. Beauford says he started working at Coca Cola in 1963 and can remember that vividly because, he says, that was the year President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As a supervisor at Coca Cola, Beauford learned the basics of how a company works. He wanted more out of this opportunity. Therefore, in 1966 he purchased his own Coca Cola franchise, becoming a distributor of all Coca Cola products in Long Island. His franchise was Beauford Beverage Distributors, Inc., because, he said, “I wanted to make more money.” This was a monumental accomplishment for a black man in 1960s America. Beauford said he was the first and only black to own a Coca Cola franchise during that time.
While in New York, he met his second wife, Dreama Beauford, who worked as the bookkeeper for a general corporation. They met in 1972 and married the following year. After selling his company, the Beaufords retired to West Virginia. They moved to Roanoke in 1992, not with intentions to stay. They bought a house on Gilmer Avenue and became involved in the process of revitalizing Gainsboro.

Beauford has shown me the importance of putting your money where your mouth is when it comes to community change. If you see an issue in your neighborhood with housing, Beauford advice – buy it. Ralph Beauford like many in his generation has proven that through hard work, sacrifice and being a good person, you can make a tremendous impact on the place you live. “You should always treat people well because you do not know what that person might be able to do for you later on down the road.”

I have learned from Ralph Beauford that knowledge is everything. If you want to see change, you have to do it yourself and believe in yourself.