Inside Macedonia Baptist Church, a well-kept brick building at 7944 Charles Barkley Ave., a spirit of gratitude is raising the roof that Barkley built.
He was the first black baby delivered in the segregated town hospital, the story goes, because his grandfather worked there as a janitor.
But all that is a distant memory today at Macedonia Baptist Church, where there are many thanks to be given.
She can look out her window and see the basketball court behind the projects where young Charles played.
A few white people live in the neighborhood now, but it was strictly black in the 1960s.
However, substandard income and poverty statistics for black Leeds residents show they do not share in that relative prosperity.
That half a foot -- give thanks unto the Lord -- was the difference between Leeds and limousines for Charles Barkley. »