Beatties Ford Road - The River of Life
It is Sunday morning on Beatties Ford Road. The street itself is nearly empty, but the parking lots are full at Friendship Baptist, Memorial Presbyterian and most of the other churches that line this corridor.

At Gethsemane AME Zion, the Rev. George Battle's voice soars above the amens. "What kind of life is this?" he shouts. "We see young men in fast cars, living fast lives in the dens and the dives, robbed by drugs of their physical energy and spiritual power - and sometimes they cry, What kind of life is this?"

To attend such a service is to understand the fundamental contradiction of Beatties Ford Road. For Charlotte's black community it is a symbol of strength, lined with churches and schools, a university and neighborhoods with sturdy houses and families struggling to build a better life. But fear intrudes these days, and you can hear it even in the sermons and the prayers.

Beatties Ford Road, at its southern end, runs through the heart of a neighborhood with problems - an area where, in the first four months of 1990, 935 crimes were reported (although police statistics for years following reflect a dramatic decline).

One of the most spectacular crimes came the night of March 30, 1990, when eight young men with guns lined up three others against a wall at Northwest Middle School. Apparently enraged by a bad drug deal, they opened fire, leaving three victims bleeding and lucky to be alive.

Even police were shocked. "This is like Chicago," said Capt. Don Harkey.

"That's about as cold as it gets," said Capt. Howard Dozier.

But to many who live along Beatties Ford Road, and others familiar with its history, crime and drugs are not the whole story. Nor is the pattern of neglect from the city, and which westside activists blame for slowing development along the Beatties Ford corridor.

THE RIVER OF LIFE
On its meandering journey of 15 miles Beatties Ford has long been a symbol of tradition and hope. It spans the gaps from urban to rural, black to white, from landed gentry to urban underclass.

"In the richness of its history, it's unparalleled," says historian Dan Morrill of UNC Charlotte.

That history came up often in a debate over a proposal to rename a 3-mile stretch of the road Martin Luther King Drive.

Even in predominantly black areas, the proposal is controversial - not because blacks are reluctant to honor King, but because of their long identification with the name Beatties Ford.

"It's the river of life for the black community," says the Rev. Clifford Jones, minister at Friendship Baptist Church.