Pine Bluff Man Signs Up for Good Deeds

Call them signs of the times. A Pine Bluff man’s solo effort to push the positive.

“It comes from my background,” says Ron Jefferson. “I’ve always had to pursue positivity because like in a lot of families there was dysfunction and division in mine. And so not to be overwhelmed by sadness, I had to draw some positivity however I could get it. I guess I became a sponge to offset what could have been depressing times for me.”

Jefferson is a community coordinator for the city. Born in Pine Bluff, he and his mother moved to Detroit when he was six-years-old. 40 years later, he returned to take care of his mother who had come back to Pine Bluff when an elderly relative became ill.

“I was always curious about Pine Bluff because it was the place I would have grown up. And I always wondered what Pine Bluff was like, what would I have been if I had stayed,” Jefferson says. “One of the first things I noticed was that people here didn’t have steering wheel locks on their cars.”

Jefferson recalls that steering wheel locks were commonplace in Detroit. But, both Detroit and Pine Bluff are known as high-crime cities. And, it’s that similarity that led, in part, to the series of signs Jefferson creates.

“The idea came to me because I’m an artist and a poet. I see things from a visual perspective and words are very, very powerful,” says the father of four.  “I just believed I could impact people with that positivity by using famous quotes from people who are long gone and are no longer with us, but their words are still here.”

The signs were donated by political campaigns after the election season. Jefferson refurbished the signs, selected the quotes, printed and laminated the signs, and planted them around the city. He estimates his two-year investment in civic pride costs “maybe a couple hundred dollars.”

Jefferson is modest about his motivation. He says, “If you’re not contributing…then you have no grounds for complaint. So, I believe it’s up to each individual to make their day better and THE day better and that means doing some good.”