African Americans and Minority-Based Inequity in Louisville - Case Study Example

Breaking the Invisible Barrier Breaking the Invisible Barrier: African-Americans and Minority-Based Inequity in Louisville Instructor Date Breaking the Invisible Barrier 2 ABSTRACT Louisville, Kentucky, lies at a regional and cultural crossroads and, as such, offers an interesting perspective on black-white relations. In spite of Louisville’s regional proximity and traditional economic ties to the North the city has, since the civil rights era, remained largely indifferent to the economic and cultural gulf that still exists between whites and blacks. Government support for economic integration is badly needed if the city’s African-American community is to reach its economic potential. This is a matter of import not only for Louisville, but for the state of Kentucky, which relies heavily on revenues from its largest city. Breaking the Invisible Barrier 3 Breaking the Invisible Barrier: African-Americans and Minority-Based Inequity in Louisville Louisville, Kentucky, has long been considered a crossroads of sorts between North and South and a barometer for the state of white-black relations in the United States. It is a place of historic contrasts: Kentucky was controlled by Federal forces during the Civil War but was a significant marketplace for the slave trade. A regional “border” town with strong traditional ties to the industrial North, Louisville was notoriously slow to respond to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In the 1970s, many white Louisvillians reacted violently to court-ordered school busing, overturning and burning buses in riots that received coverage on the national network news. Problems persist despite integration and economic advances made by many black members of the community – at present, a majority of issues facing blacks stem from the growing gulf between rich and poor which threatens the nation’s long-term economic stability. Louisville today faces new challenges in race relations that are both peculiar to the region and indicative of the work yet to be done at the national level. According to 2009 figures, African-Americans comprise more than one-third of Louisville’s population compared to whites, who make up 63 percent. German, Irish and English make up the bulk of the city’s white residents, though the vast majority of these have lived in Louisville for at least three generations. Likewise, statistics show that a large percentage of blacks are from families that have lived in the Louisville area for multiple generations. Citizens of mixed race account for just under two percent of the city’s population, while Latinos and Asians account for two percent each. Local government representation continues to follow Breaking the Invisible Barrier 4 historic precedent. Six of Louisville’s 26 city council districts are represented by African- Americans. The prevalence of representation based on each district’s racial make-up, which can be traced to the city’s beginnings, continues relatively unbroken down to the present day. African-American interests have also been ill-served by gerrymandering practices, the juxtaposing of city wards to serve partisan political designs. Louisville’s African-American population is historically identified with the city’s West End, one of the oldest and most impoverished sections of the city, though African-American communities today are in evidence in most parts of Louisville. Traditional African-American areas continue to be defined by the presence of a strong community-based church, though these neighborhood fixtures tend to be somewhat less prevalent where African-Americans have moved into predominantly white neighborhoods. In spite of the ameliorating influence of church and community support systems, the majority of blacks in Louisville are products of the kind of unequal social and economic development characteristic of the world-systems theory (Mossman, year). Surplus wealth has significantly accrued to the city’s affluent white core population over the past 50 years, leaving the city’s black and impoverished white populations at a distinct disadvantage. Economic disadvantage has encouraged racial profiling, a significant problem in recent years. The tendency to presume guilt on the part of blacks still causes tension in the city’s black community. In 2000, Louisville police officers shot to death an unarmed black youth named Desmond Rudolph, for which the city’s chief of police, Gene Sherrard, awarded meritorious conduct medals to the officers involved. Mayor Dave Armstrong fired Sherrard, but the situation Breaking the Invisible Barrier 5 flared into a crisis when police supporters and members of Citizens Against Police Abuse, a multi-racial group aimed at increasing citizen oversight, staged opposing marches at City Hall (Newton, 2007). Armstrong ignored subsequent calls for a civilian review ordinance, which led to further outbursts of civic unrest in the black community. The long-term effect of this seminal event has created an uneasy environment and led to the rise of a militant tone among Louisville’s black community leaders, such as the Rev. Louis Coleman and, more recently, Christopher 2X. These individuals have used highly inflammatory rhetoric, invoking powerful images of economic slavery and even genocide – the systematic extermination of an ethnic or racial population - committed by white Europeans in Africa in the 19th century. The local media, particularly the Courier-Journal, the city’s daily newspaper, has been quite vocal in its coverage of race-based abuses attributable to local government or the police department. The newspaper’s response to the Desmond Rudolph scandal was to run a series on police brutality in Louisville, particularly in relation to the black community. Overall, the Louisville media has devoted significant coverage to protest marches and other demonstrations carried out by members of the black community. One such story dealt with the decision to demolish - and not to replace - a sizeable housing development near downtown Louisville that has been home to African-American families for decades. The real estate concern that owned the property opted for an opportunity to maximize profit, offered to help the residents find alternate housing but could not avoid charges of breach of contract and discriminatory housing practices. Their decision was challenged but was upheld, to the detriment of the resident families. By comparison, white families in neighborhoods near the city’s airport were fully compensated for Breaking the Invisible Barrier 6 having to move to make way for the airport expansion. This type of discrimination reignited anger in the black community, which had been minimal in the years after the Rudolph affair. Other minority interests include the African-American History Museum, for which promised state funding was slow in coming. Accusations of racial bias were much in evidence at the time. The museum was eventually built but the experience fed a perception that there is a lingering racism and discrimination still at work within the Louisville community. It also raised dormant questions about the extent to which minority interests are truly being served in the area. Historically speaking, the state legislature, many of whose representatives are from rural, exclusively white areas, has eyed heavily urban Louisville with a degree of jealousy and suspicion. Approving funding for what many deemed a non-essential need, not to mention one concerned with African-American culture, proved problematic to say the least. Maurice Sweeney, an African-American businessman and community activist in Louisville, has experienced similar instances of outright (and borderline) discrimination during the course of his career as an engineer and businessman. In recent years, he has lobbied for minority hiring on an engineering mega-project aimed at building two new bridges across the Ohio River, a multi-billion dollar initiative that holds tremendous economic potential for the region. He is responsible for identifying and encouraging local minority-owned businesses to bid on a significant portion of the bridges project, which is among the nation’s largest civil engineering endeavors. Sweeney, who ran for U.S. Senate in the last election, believes that providing more and better business opportunities for minority groups in Louisville is essential if Breaking the Invisible Barrier 7 the city is to keep pace with Cincinnati, Nashville, St. Louis and other regional “neighbors.” This philosophy echoes his conviction that the political franchise should not be the exclusive province of the wealthy and powerful (Sweeney, 2011). Such opportunity has for too long been denied African-Americans and members of other minority groups in Louisville (Ibid). Sweeney and other black community leaders maintain that the best way (some would say the only way) to reverse inherent social and economic inequities in Louisville is to introduce more minority representation into the city’s business and political landscape. True integration cannot be forced by judicially or legislatively leveraged changes in schooling or housing, but by organically embedding dynamic new interests and viewpoints into the city’s social mainstream. This remains a slow and painful process for Louisville, which has resisted attempts over the years to level the playing field for African-Americans. It is important that it not be abandoned. Local officials need to take a more active role in seeking federal and state funding for minority business development, not just in traditionally minority-centered areas, such as the city’s West End, but in all parts of the city. Such development in Kentucky’s largest city holds major ramifications for the entire state, since Louisville is by far the Commonwealth’s largest and most productive economic engine. Another way to strengthen the position of minority businesses is to uphold changes in the way minority businesses are defined. This will increase opportunities for minority businesses to obtain federal and state funding. Loosening the requirements for earning minority business is a continuation of advances made in the latter years of the Clinton Administration, which proposed that a business could be so categorized as long as a minority holds 10 percent of the business’ Breaking the Invisible Barrier 8 stock (Harris, 1998). Finding ways to secure funding for minority businesses depends on the willingness among government officials to adopt more open and progressive ways of helping create opportunities for minority entrepreneurs. Breaking the Invisible Barrier 9 References Harris, H. “In the Driver’s Seat.” Black Enterprise. June 1998. Mossmann, J. (2007). Modern World System Theory. Norderstedt, Germany: Books on Demand GmBH. Newton, M. (2007). The Encyclopedia of American Law Enforcement. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 208. Sweeney, M. Interview with Maurice Sweeney. National Public Radio. 4 August 2009. Read More