Clayton’s ‘Walking Warrior’ logs final miles to public transit

Length of time Clayton has been without intracounty public transportation: 5 years

Residents without transportation

Clayton 7.5 percent

Cobb 4.1 percent

DeKalb 9.5 percent

Fayette 2.8 percent

Fulton 11.8 percent

Gwinnett 2.9 percent

Henry 2.5 percent

Note: Fulton and DeKalb have MARTA.

Source: neighborhoodnexus.org

For more on MARTA, see “5 Questions for the Boss” interview with MARTA chief executive Keith Parker in Business.

Brenda Crook has worn through multiple pairs of walking shoes since Clayton County scrapped its C-Tran bus service five years ago.

Her size 10 moccasins have logged thousands of miles around Clayton. And the 65-year-old Riverdale resident plans to walk right up to the moment she plants her feet on the Route 196 bus on Saturday, the day Clayton joins DeKalb and Fulton as the only metro Atlanta counties with MARTA service.

Four months after voters approved the expansion of MARTA, limited bus service will start with three routes, chiefly in the northern part of Clayton. MARTA Board Chairman Robbie Ashe has said Clayton could see rail within five to seven years if the transit agency can work out a deal with Norfolk Southern railroad.

Like thousands of Clayton residents, Crook had few options when C-Tran ended. Her children wanted to give the retired hair stylist a car, but she didn’t think she could afford the maintenance.

Crook lives on on $500 a month in disability pay. She became disabled after a life-threatening case of botulism left her unable to stand for long periods of time and ended her career as a hair stylist. She says walking has helped strengthen her physically and mentally. But she’s looking forward to MARTA’s arrival.

“I do miss (having a car),” Crook said. “There are times I want to go to Target or a hair salon. But a car needs a diaper. It’s the maintenance. I can’t afford the upkeep.”

So Crook walks. To the doctor’s office. To the grocery store.

Clayton leaders say MARTA will help boost the county economically and link it more solidly with the rest of metro Atlanta. But for residents, its advantages are more tangible, like being able to get to class.

“I’ve had students email me because they couldn’t get to class because they had no transportation,” said Joshua Meddaugh, assistant professor of political science at Clayton State University. “It’s really limiting their access to education. So this is a great opportunity for them to get back into the classroom.”

For Crook, it’s a matter of being able to depend on steady and reliable transportation — less than a mile away from her home come Saturday.

“We have to get our groceries. We have to get our water and personal things needed to survive,” Crook said. “My legs felt like they weigh a thousand pounds, but I have to go get water. I can’t wait for anybody to do anything (for me). I have to do it myself. I’ve walked everywhere and that’s why the buses are so needed here. It’s a civil right to have public transit in these days. We’re not in the horse-and-buggy days.”

That conviction prompted Crook to walk nearly two hours to get to a community meeting at the Frank Bailey Senior Citizens Center last year to discuss bringing MARTA to Clayton.

“She became the face of people who are without transportation,” said former Georgia representative and pro-transit advocate Roberta Abdul-Salaam, who met Crook at that meeting. Abdul-Salaam now serves as one of four Clayton representatives on the MARTA board.

Crook continued to attend community meetings, telling her story and along the way becoming Clayton’s shoe-leather advocate for transit, earning the nickname “The Walking Warrior.”

While local politicians took up the cause in the state legislature and grassroots groups knocked on doors to get residents’ support for MARTA, Crook walked.

Walking has given Crook an unvarnished view of life without a car, a fate thousands of Clayton residents deal with daily, navigating the heart-pounding traffic on Tara Boulevard without sidewalks. Nearly 8 percent of Clayton residents are without transportation. In the metro area, only Fulton and DeKalb counties — which have MARTA — have a higher percentage.

“The thing that hurts me the most is seeing young mothers with their babies in the stroller. Then, seeing people my age walking with their grocery bags,” Crook, a grandmother of seven, said of her daily walks. “I’m seeing young kids walking to school in the morning, arms under their T-shirts cause it’s so cold. I’ve been approached (while walking) by perverts wanting to give me a ride. I say ‘No, thank you. I’m fine.’ I’m sweaty carrying my food. It’s not that I choose to be this way. Life happens and you have to deal with it. There’s no way I could have walked these miles without God’s strength holding me up.”

She’s given her umbrella away to shield a mother walking with her baby from the sun. Another time, she came upon a man in a wheelchair unable to navigate a corner of the sidewalk. “I had to help,” she said.

During last year’s blizzard, she offered words of encouragement to a young teenager on his way to Saturday school. “You can make it,” she told the young man, impressed with his tenacity.

Errands that normally would take a half-hour at best by car are plotted out the night before by Crook.

“I plan my routes. I Google, ” she said. She checks the weather. In the summer, she’s up by 7 a.m. to walk before it gets too hot. She packs water and carries a tote bag for groceries.

Much of Crook’s grit and resolve can be attributed to her father, Eddie Crook Jr., a U.S. boxing gold medalist who roomed with boxing icon Muhammad Ali during the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Her family also attributes it to her days as a grassroots advocate. Two decades ago, she rallied on the steps of the Michigan Capitol for decent housing for the poor.

“This is a continuation of her fight,” said her daughter Ebony Crook. “She doesn’t look for change. She likes to be a part of the change. Her fight's from the heart. She’s out there now for those who don’t have transportation.”