Jacqueline Bernetta Tate Smith owns a coffee shop in downtown Selma that reopened in a former segregated diner. When a tornado destroyed or damaged over 600 homes in 2024, an SBA disaster loan helped her keep the business running as a community gathering place.
Questions this video answers
November 2011.
January 12 (year not specified in this chunk).
About 40% of the housing stock was impacted; over 600 homes were destroyed or had major damage.
Chapters
I am Jackie Smith, owner, operator of the coffee shop here in historic downtown Selma.
Well, of course, everyone In Selma knows Ms. Jackie. She is what we call a local shero.
When I was growing up as a kid, this building that you are currently sitting in was the Thirsty Boy Restaurant.
And.
And it actually was a diner. It was a segregated diner. And my favorite was a ham sandwich. I had to be served from outside, and this was the window that I was actually served from. So we opened the coffee shop in November of 2011.
So it's just a place in this community, you know, where neighbors become family, where tourists become friends, and where it's just a hub for connection.
The coffee shop is definitely an asset to the community. It was much needed. We didn't have a place to gather.
And the coffee shop is a place where you come out of those silos and you develop partnerships and you learn to just appreciate the beauty of Selma.
I always use this phrase, I just want to open a little coffee shop.
Her heart is involved in her business, not just her head.
But it has never been a little coffee shop. I mean, from my grand opening and you can see the picture on the wall, it has just been amazing.
January 12 changed everything itself.
At 10:15, everybody's phone pinged and I said, this isn't good.
And normally, you know, there's a tornado warning. You might even have a tornado watch. But on that particular day, it was like within five minutes, the storm was here.
And so I called the shop and they said, yes, we've closed the doors, we've locked some customers in with us. We're safe.
The windows started shaking, the rain started pouring in, and all I could think about were my children, because my children were in school.
I mean, roofs caved in, roofs were lifted off of homes. But to God be the glory, no lives were lost.
You couldn't go anywhere, could not move. Like, there were no roads clear. No, I mean, trees down everywhere. There were fires.
We didn't even recognize our city.
It almost 40% of the housing stock was impacted. Over 600 homes were either destroyed or had major damage. My 9 year old at the time, when I finally got to him, he told me that they were all, you know, in the restroom, piled up, and that one of his classmates said, can somebody tell my mommy I love her if I die? Yeah.
So very traumatic.
I've never experienced anything like it in my life.
Within days of the tornado striking, Selma SBA was in here on the ground. SBA said, hey, Ms. Smith, we're here to help. You know what do you need? And then you look around and you're like, I need a lot. We need a lot. People needed food. A lot of people lost power for weeks. You know, I didn't lose anything physically, but I lost customers. I lost tourists. All those thousands and thousands of tourists. My income went from here to here.
People needed places to meet, to discuss things, and this was the place we.
Needed to make it go. And we did. We did for my employees. We did it for our community. SBA helped me to do it. And had there not been an SBA disaster loan, then it would have been hard for me to survive.
The way that the nation really rallied around Selma after the tornado, you know, it was. It was beautiful.
The leaders in this community pushed every day. We pushed the businesses. We pushed to help get other businesses open, to help get people approved for grants, to help get people approved for loans.
She understands the role that this business plays in helping us develop a stronger community.
When you have an amazing product, when the customer service is there, when people can come in your establishment and feel like family, that people will rally around you and your business and support your.
Local economy, it's just a wonderful example of what one person with a vision in the heart can do to help transform a community. I really do believe that my tagline.
Is more than just a cup of coffee.
And.
And we have truly been more than just a cup of coffee. We have been everything and anything that our community has needed.
