A startup nonprofit in Jasper, Texas, wants to break down deep-seated racial division and tension in rural East Texas.
The organization Peace Beyond Understanding LLC is rebuilding a small beauty shop in the town after it burned to the ground this summer. Investigators confirmed it was arson.
Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jasper Cyndi Wunder is also director of Peace Beyond Understanding. She says the group aims to promote healing in the town through discussion and acts of kindness. The group is helping Dennis Austin rebuild his business. Wunder is raising money for the build and gathering volunteers.
“We have three build crews from three different churches. We have a demolition crew from a local gym. We had someone donate a lot of beauty shop equipment -- chairs and sinks, incredible. We’re still looking for plumbers and electricians who may be able to donate a few hours,” Wunder said.
Austin inherited the building from his grandfather. He’s been on dialysis for eight years. The 56-year-old is on a fixed income. He relied on the income from the beauty shop to make ends meet. When Wunder told him she wanted to rebuild the beauty shop, Austin thought she was a scam artist.
“I’ve work so hard for it, ma’am, and now I’m sick. There’s no way I can replace it. I’m short on my bills because of that,” Austin said, who was awakened in the middle of the night on July 31 to learn his business was destroyed in a blaze.
Wunder moved to Jasper less than a year ago. She’s been working to build relationships across racial lines there. She says it’s amazing how many people deny there is a problem.
“There’s so much resistance to just seeing that it’s here. I might be talking to an older white man who says, Well, half of the black people in this town are related to my great granddaddy. But, I’m thinking your great granddaddy would have been dealing with slaves,” Wunder said, who splits her time between leading the church and the nonprofit.
Wunder expects the build will take a month and a half and the volunteers will begin as soon as they get the go ahead from the fire marshal’s office. Peace Beyond Understanding has raised several thousand dollars and in-kind donations for rebuilding the small beauty shop.
A string of arson fires in Jasper remains under investigation.
