A Day at the Barber Shop with Jimmy Dickens

In the final days before Kennesaw's Nov. 8 municipal elections, there’s a lot of coming and going at in downtown Kennesaw.

The shop is decorated with Elect Jimmy Dickens campaign signs. A steady stream of customers, friends and family stop by for a shave, a trim or a simple hello.

Shop owner and mans his barber station. He laughs and chats with the men at the shop—but his eyes remain focused on the work at hand as he uses his tools to clip, trim, brush and shave.

That day, a large topic of conversation is Courageous, an independent Christian film that deals with the subjects of faith and fatherhood. Dickens, who has a wife and eight children, says anyone with kids needs to see the film.

The general consensus among the men at the shop—it will make a grown man cry.

A Cornerstone of the Community

“Growing up, a child learns early on that the barber shop is where a man can let out his frustrations or his feelings,” says Dickens. “You trust your barber, and you can tell him things.”

Dickens, who previously owned barber shops in Marietta and in his home state of North Carolina, says he set up shop in Kennesaw six years ago. Since then, he says his Main Street shop has grown to become a "cornerstone of the community."

“If you have a good barber shop in the community, people will support it," he says. "People have given their life to Christ here in the shop."

"Faith is very important to me," says Dickens, who is a member of . "Trust me—the way we grew up, you had to have faith."

"We were extremely poor, and my mom and my sister—we lived in the Salvation Army for maybe five or six years," he says.

"There was a time when I couldn’t go out and play. Me and my sister would just look out through our window at the Salvation Army and play 'that’s my car.' I think about that during rough times in life," says Dickens.

"That was a time when I couldn’t go anywhere. But now I can go wherever I like."

Giving Back

Dickens says his childhood has influenced his call to give back to the community.

The barber shop hosts food drives and Thanksgiving dinners. It also offers free hair cuts to struggling mothers and unemployed people who are getting ready to go out for job interviews.

"Anybody can be down on their luck or going through a dry spell," says Dickens. "It’s our job as a cornerstone of the community to help them through the hard times."

Kids who can't afford their own video games are welcome to come in and use the Playstation 3 set up in the back of the shop.

"I feel the parents with their kids come here because they don’t have to hear a bunch of vulgar language. They get encouragement," says Charles Barnes, an employee and longtime friend of Dickens. "(Dickens) is a leader out front. He’s always concerned about the kids."

Dickens says he's been mentoring and speaking at local schools for years. He currently runs a mentoring program with kids in Kennesaw, Acworth and Canton. He also started a program for families living in transitional housing, offering free hair cuts and setting up talent shows for the kids.

Barnes, 41, says he met Dickens about 20 years ago when they worked together in North Carolina. Years later, Dickens helped him through a rough time by offering him a job and a place to stay.

"When I moved here, he created a barber station for me," says Barnes. "He allowed me to live with him until I got on my feet, until I got established here. That goes to show the kind of person he is. He don’t forget his friends. He doesn’t mind giving a hand up."

Campaign for City Council

Dickens says he was invited to a meeting at about two years ago addressing the need for African American mentors in local schools.

"I told them at the meeting that I don’t think the biggest problem is that there isn’t enough African American mentors," says Dickens. "The problem is not enough of the African American mentors know that they’re needed."

"I need to be that link to let people know this is what’s going on," he says. "I think that’s when it clicked for me that I want to run (for City Council)."

Dickens, the first African American to run for Kennesaw's City Council, says he's received an amazing amount of support from the community.

He says despite receiving threatening notes relating to his race on his storefront, he has not been discouraged in his campaign.

On the Issues

Dickens says that besides traffic congestion, downtown development is the biggest issue facing Kennesaw today. He says , which has an attendance in the tens of thousands, is an example that "people want to be downtown." He says the expansion of is a good start but that

Dickens also says he is a but that he feels it should have been implemented years ago.

He says he's the best man for the post because he feels between some of the leadership at City Hall and Kennesaw residents.

Dickens says he heard rumors about when he first moved to Kennesaw but decided to have lunch with him to make a judgement for himself. The two men have since become friends, he says, and Myers even stops by the barber shop every once in awhile.

"Even though I don’t agree with Dent Myers' views on certain issues, it’s that communication that we still have to keep," says Dickens.

"You see—just because you are opposed or against a certain issue or a certain idea, you still have to sit down and communicate, to listen, to have dialogue in order for things to change, in order for things to get better."

When it comes to projects and initiatives of the current Council, he says, "I don’t know everything that’s going on."

"I think that’s the best thing going because a lot of times, if you come from a political background, you think political, and most of the issues that we’re facing is just a day to day average person’s issue."

"We have a failing economy, and we have people that’s looking for jobs, people that are being underpaid, disrespected and underappreciated. And that’s not political. That’s human."