Rev. Jesse Jackson is making a declaration he hopes will resound from the bloody streets here in this city, to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.: The Black community is in a state of emergency.
Rev. Jesse Jackson is making a declaration he hopes will resound from the bloody streets here in this city, to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.: The Black community is in a state of emergency. It’s a national emergency and a “legacy condition,” he said, but locally the impact continues to hit home. With gun fire claiming lives almost daily in some city neighborhoods, unemployment among African Americans predicted to be double-to-three times the national rate, proliferation of poverty, foreclosure rates that still aversely impact minorities and a stubborn economy taking its time to rebound, the circumstances are dire and the need for national government intervention is a real one, Jackson, head of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition told the Defender. “We occupy the bottom rung of every major economic indicator,” he said. “We’ve (the country) never addressed it in a meaningful way.” It’s time to do so, he said. According to Jackson, the violence that communities of color – especially the African American community – are enduring is not simply a cause of the state of affairs in poor, urban locales but a consequence of an even deeper problem, including joblessness. Nationally, the unemployment rates hovers near 9.5 percent. Organizations like Rainbow/PUSH and the local and National Urban League put that number at 25 to 30 percent for African Americans. It’s a harrowing condition, Jackson says, and one that the government should intercede in helping to turn around. “There’s no bailout for the working poor of our country,” Jackson said, pointed out that the federal government stepped in to save Wall Street and other entities. Jackson’s call for a state of emergency declaration is not new, but the civil rights icon may now be getting more support. The reverend explained to the Defender that to be official, the call for a state of emergency, in order to have national resources allocated to combat the ills, must come from the president of U.S. Congress. He said an official declaration would mean Congress would have to act and come up with a plan. Illinois Congressman Danny Davis, D-7th, sides with Jackson. "I certainly support Rev. Jackson’s position that there is a tremendous state of emergent need," Davis told the Defender. He acknowledged that drumming up support in the U.S. House of Representatives is a daunting undertaking, but he would be willing to do whatever he could to "push the concept." There is support also from some state leaders. “There is definitely a need to declare a state of emergency,” state Rep. Lashawn K. Ford told the Defender. He along with a fellow state representative, made a call earlier this summer for the National Guard to come in and assist Chicago police. Gun violence heads the list for many local community leaders who point to a need for declaring a state of emergency. "It’s concentrated in our community. We know that this level of violence in any other community would be a state of emergency and people would be looking for resources to address the situation," Rev. Marshall Hatch, pastor of Mt. Pilgrim M.B. Church on the West Side, told the Defender. "You don’t really have the level of violence in other communities like we have here and that issue alone raises everyone’s attention." But Davis and others caution against pigeonholing the circumstances that leaders say have a grip on African American and other communities around the nation. He said there is no one factor to blame, but a collection of many things that, over time, have taken a toll on African Americans and other racial and ethnic groups. "There’s no one thing that you can say is causing violence or anything else" in urban areas, Davis said. Joblessness is also cited as a damning culprit and a reason to declare an emergency. But Davis said it’s nothing new, "we’ve had joblessness before." Chicago Urban League President Herman Brewer acknowledges that there is a "crisis" but, he told the Defender, summoning help to resolve it must be concerted. "A call for a state of emergency has to be a comprehensive call," Brewer said. "It cannot solely be because there is rampant violence in the streets. That is a bit of a panic call." Brewer said what’s going on in African American neighborhoods is part of a "larger beast … a broader crisis, not simply crime." Still for some, what seems to be constant bloodshed is taking its toll. Citing the recent shootings of at least 52 people in the city, Rev. Paul Jakes, a community activist and pastor of Old St. Paul Church, said Chicago’s African American community is in "a state of despair" and called for a need for "hope and action" within the communities and neighborhoods. "We’re tired of the killings and violence and it must stop now," Jakes said. But Brewer pointed to other "violence" he said is also part of the problem: personal economic losses African Americans – and other Americans – have experienced, including losing homes to foreclosures and monetary savings to financial market collapses. "A call (for state of emergency) is not simply in the African American community, it is across the country," Brewer said. "We need a community recovery strategy." Rev. Jackson called for a national urban policy that would address such issues in the African American community as joblessness, foreclosure, impacting cuts in city and social services, high school drop out rate and prison recidivism, among other things. Still local faith and community organization leaders say that what’s going on in Chicago is urgent and has too be dealt with right here at home. Violent crime is the common factor, uniting opinions that something needs to be done immediately. Tio Hardiman, head of the gang and crime intervention community organization CeaseFire, said the violence should be addressed as a public health issue because it spreads like "an infectious disease" which destroys communities. High employment, gangs, drugs, homicides, and dysfunctional families are among the social ills that Hardiman said "creates a recipe for disaster." The Black Star Project’s Philip Jackson puts the African American community’s current state of affairs "way beyond a state of emergency." He called it a "perfect storm of self-destruction, a man-made catastrophe, by us and our government, from which the Black community may never recover." But others see hope and redemption, though they caution that the process of turning things around would not be an instant one and must be comprehensive in order to be effective. Jakes’ idea that community members and neighbors need to speak out more and turn assailants in who cause communities to become unsafe, lend to Davis’ idea that the change communities need will have to start with and come out of the communities. The Congressman called for a revival of the kind of activism in the past that he said led to fruitful results. "Change is a bottoms up process," he said. "Because it’s the people at the bottom who are hurting most." He added that there would have to be a "national organizing thrust" that began at the local level – with block clubs and local community groups – put in motion in order to get Congressional consideration. A call for intervention "has to be all over America. Not in one city. Not in one community. Not in one area," he said. Jackson plans to take his plea to the street in marches he’s planned all around the country next month. Defender Contributing Writer Lesley Chinn contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender.
Photo: Defender/Worsom Robinson
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