Spend five minutes with Tyrone Legett and you’ll instantly hear his passion to rejuvenate broken communities in Louisiana. The former NFL Player played many games in the Mercedes Benz Superdome (then Louisiana Superdome) but the touchdowns he is scoring today are worth much more than points on a scoreboard.
Legett, a native of Colombia, South Carolina, embraced Louisiana as home as a Defensive Back for the New Orleans Saints in 1995. After his NFL career ended he decided to remain in the area. “I saw a need here and I wanted to help provide solutions,” said Leggett. “64% of the residents were renters and most of the jobs were service jobs. Without a realistic path, many of these hardworking people would never be able to own homes. They deserved to own their homes,” he said.
“The opportunity to own your own home is the best part of the American dream. It should be available to all people.”
He began Legett Construction with a plan to build affordable homes for low income families but also help them qualify for the homes. “We have helped people who have never owned a home get the opportunity to buy homes for the first time,” he explained. Through the Community Reinvestment Act, he was able to share his ideas. Those ideas eventually attracted a partnership with Whitney Bank. With funds available through the Federal Government and the support of Whitney Bank, he became the liason to bridge all entities together.
Legett Construction has built homes all over the Greater New Orleans Metro. His homes are now occupied in Harvey (Westbank), the Lower 9th Ward, the Bywater District, and Uptown New Orleans. The company has also built homes in Baton Rouge. His company has actually been the link to bring other minority construction companies into the fold by contracting them to share the work opportunities. Legett is responsible for building hundreds of new homes and helping over 300 families qualify to buy them.
“Mr. Legett is not just building homes. His commitment is much deeper than that. Working for him, I have learned his greater passion is rebuilding Black families,” said Joyce Burges, Leggett Construction Administrative Assistant. “He gets it. The consequences of poverty and the stronghold of financial debt. He is on a mission to help people turn their lives around,” she said.
Burges, a former City Councilwoman in Baker, LA, says Leggett’s ideas were so illustrated that she could see his vision to restore the community plain and clear. Rather than seek another term she vowed to work with Legett to rebuild her town. “He not only had the resources but he had a plan. A clear plan that would hire people, rejuvenate areas which were deteriorating, but he also had the tenacity to fight the kind of opposition that would surely come his way,” she said.
Maybe that’s the reason he stepped out on Faith and opened the only Black owned grocery store in Baton Rouge, LA in an area that’s predominately Black and always overlooked in comparison to other thriving areas of the city. North Baton Rouge, which consists of Baker, Scottlandville, and Glen Oaks communities saw it’s landmark Winn Dixie close down two years ago. A tragedy that would require residents to drive an even further distance just to make groceries. “It wasn’t fair that these residents should continue feeling ostracized from the economic growth that other parts of the city have become used to,” said Leggett. “So, I made up in my mind that I would do something about it.”
After Winn Dixie closed down, he entertained the idea of several grocery chains but the Sav A Lot Corporation seemed to make the most sense. “It was the best fit for this community. Not only have we created jobs in the store but we continue to motivate our workers to think bigger than Save A Lot. This store should be a stepping stone. It should not be the final step.”
Legett sees the store as a way for residents to get affordable groceries while providing jobs to help produce stable work opportunities in an area that had become used to seeing businesses come and go. “We are here for the long haul. Our vision doesn’t stop with just this one location,” he said. “We plan to open two more stores.”
When residents heard their new grocery store was Black owned, it made them even more proud to shop there. One customer cried when the store opened, telling Tyrone… “I’ve never seen someone who looks like you doing the things you do.” She amongst others, drive from other parts of the city just to shop in a Black owned super market.
