Coming back stronger: Local business owner partners with artist to share message of hope
Homewood resident Johnny Grimes, who is also the owner of Wheelhouse Salon, felt devastated when he realized his downtown salon had been looted during the May 31 protests, he said.
But once he boarded up his windows, he decided to cover up the “ugly plywood” with a mural in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I’m willing to have my windows busted out if the end result is change,” he said.
The protesters were rallying against the death of George Floyd and met on the evening of May 31 at Linn Park, which is approximately three city blocks away from Grime’s downtown salon. The salon’s close proximity to the rally’s starting point had Grimes a little worried about potential damage, but he said he thought to himself, “It’s Birmingham, you know? It’s not going to happen.”
A friend called Grimes that night and asked if he was watching the news. The protesters were in Wheelhouse’s back parking lot.
Grimes grabbed his cell phone and opened an application to watch Wheelhouse’s security footage. As soon as he opened the application, he saw a protester throw a garbage can through one of the salon’s front windows. Then, he watched as some protesters looted the place.
“I was devastated,” he said. “We’ve worked so hard for this. We’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into this. To see it just be destroyed, it was gut-wrenching.”
Four large windows were busted out that night. A couple of computers, a couple of iPads, card readers and phones were stolen.
The destruction also follows the damage left by the novel coronavirus pandemic. For the health and safety of his employees and clients, Grimes closed Wheelhouse in March, ahead of government orders.
“We were closed for two months because of coronavirus, and that was devastating,” he said. “We didn’t know if we were going to make it. Without government assistance, we wouldn’t have. Thankfully, we got PPP funding. Then we get open, and this happens.”
The salon had reopened less than two weeks before the May 31 protest. It was like another punch to the gut, he said.
He and his wife watched via security footage as the SWAT team cleared the building. Once he felt it was safe, his friend drove him to Wheelhouse, and Grimes saw for the first time in person the damage that had been done to the salon. As he looked at the damage, he continued to hear nearby gunshots from outside and counted about 30 police cars on the street outside. His friends brought as much plywood as they could find, and together they boarded up the broken windows as the California Fashion Mall building across the street burned in flames.
EVOLVING EMOTIONS
The emotions Grimes felt that night and into the early morning of June 1 were anger, frustration and sadness, he said.
“I was sad because I know this doesn’t represent Birmingham,” he said. “I know this doesn’t represent the African-American community. I know this was a group of bad people doing bad things and taking advantage of a horrible situation.
“But I also can identify with the frustration and anger that the African American community is experiencing. I too have those same raw emotions toward what’s happening in the county. I too, just like them, want to see change.”
He realized it’s just windows, iPads and computers, he said — all things that can be replaced.
“But George Floyd’s life cannot be replaced,” he said. “That’s what matters. That’s where the narrative needs to be. That’s the purpose.”
After closing the salon for one day to cleanup and build the outer wall out of plywood, he called Shane B. from Mammoth Murals and told him the message he wanted to portray outside of his building. The end result was a black-and-white portrait of George Floyd next to the words “Bham Strong.”
The community response to the mural has been insane, Grimes said.
“The entire time Shane was painting, there were people stopping in the middle of the street, rolling their windows down, and screaming, ‘We love it!’” Grimes said. “Literally parking in the street, getting out real quick to take a picture and then getting back in the car.”
He hopes the mural will provide a message of hope to the greater Birmingham community, he said.
“This is what it’s about. Even though there are a lot of terrible things that happened Sunday night, let’s not focus on those things. Let’s not let that be the lasting impression on this movement. Let’s stay positive. Let’s move forward. Let’s make progress and not let some of these people deter us from where we want to go.”
PUSHING FOR CHANGE IN HOMEWOOD
In addition to owning the Wheelhouse Salon downtown, Grimes and his wife also own the Wheelhouse on Linden Avenue in Homewood. Originally from Bessemer, Grimes has lived in Homewood for the past five years, and he said he feels privileged to live in Homewood.
“However, we must use that privilege in such a way that produces significant change in our society,” he said. “To sit by and not speak up for our black brothers and sisters is to be complicit in the violence.”
Hundreds gathered in Homewood Central Park for a rally against injustice June 2. Homewood Police Chief Tim Ross said the protest was peaceful in nature and that the Homewood Police Department did not interfere in any way with the protest.
After the rally was over, two FBI officers stopped and detained two people on Parkway Drive. Images circulated on social media of them being detained and were met with public outcry — it looked like police were arresting peaceful protesters, the posts said. But Ross said they were only detained, not arrested.
“They were persons of interests in some threats that were made that were considered credible by the FBI, and they were detained for, I would say, less than 10 minutes and then released with no charges,” Ross said.
Ross is thankful that all the police department has seen so far are peaceful protests in Homewood, he said.
When asked why the Black Lives Matter movement is important to people in Homewood, Grimes said it’s partly because he believes all people are created in the image of God.
“Being created in the image of God gives you intrinsic worth and value,” he said. “I also believe that if we are people of faith we are duty bound to stand up and protect those who experience injustice. This is the model Jesus set for us all.”
Black Lives also matter because the injustices to anyone, no matter their color, steal from us all our very humanity, he said.
Even though businesses like his downtown salon have been damaged, Grimes said he hopes all of the efforts, protests and rallies aren’t for nothing.
“I hope that what we’ve experienced leads to a national conversation on race and how blacks in America are treated, police brutality and how we can come together as a nation and really push for change,” he said. “It’s never going to happen unless we have those hard conversations — that’s why we painted the mural.”