A Domestic Marshall Plan to Transform America's "Dark Ghettos": Toward a Martin Luther

King - Malcom X Community Revitalization Initiative

Author(s): Ron Daniels
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Black Scholar, Vol. 37, No. 3, BLACK SOCIAL AGENDA (FALL 2007), pp. 10-13
Published by: Paradigm Publishers
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A Domestic Marshall Plan to Transform
America's "Dark Ghettos": Toward a
Martin Luther
King
-
Malcom X
Community
Revitalization Initiative
by
Ron Daniels
Introduction
[This
article is based on a
presentation
made
at the Black
Family
Summit
Policy
Institute con-
vened
February
1, 2007,
by
the Institute
of
the
Black World 21st
Century
at Howard
University.
It is a discussion
piece
which is intended to
pro-
voke discussion
about,
and commitment to a bold
initiative to
compel
the American
public
and the
government
to
confront
issues
of
radsm,
poverty,
and
inequality
in this
country
as
dramatically
exposed by
Katrina. The use
of
term "dark
ghettos"
is a
reference
to noted
Sociologist
Kenneth B.
Clark's classic
book,
Dark
Ghetto,
which discuss-
es racial
inequality
in America's urban
centers,
espedally
as
reflected
in Harlem in the
fifties
and
sixties.]
is my conviction that Black America
must revive the
concept
of a Domestic
Marshall Plan to reverse the deterioration of
the nation's "dark
ghettos"
-
most immedi-
ately,
to restore New Orleans' exiled
popula-
tion. For reasons that will be
expressed
later
in this
essay,
I
suggest
the
campaign
be
called the Martin Luther
King-Malcolm
X
Community
Revitalization
Initiative,
a mobi-
lization which
hopefully
can
inject
this issue
into the
presidential campaign
and onto the
public policy agenda leading up
to and
beyond
the
forthcoming presidential
elec-
tion if
necessary.
In
January
2007 at the Institute of the
Black World 21st
Century's (IBW)
"State of
the Black World Forum" in
Washington
DC,
during
discussion on
creating
a "New Force
in Black America" to revitalize the black free-
dom
struggle,
New York
City
Councilman
Charles Barron remarked that neither the
Democratic
Party
nor the
Congressional
Black Caucus has
clearly signaled
what
explicitly
"black issues"
they
are
prepared
to
advance since Democrats took control of
Congress.
In this
regard
it is
important
to
remember that the
Six-point
Democratic
Program
for
recapturing
control of
Congress
did not include
Katrina/New
Orleans. More-
over, Katrina/New Orleans was
completely
absent from President Bush's 2007 State of
the Union Address.
While there was no noticeable
outcry
from
black leaders
protesting
this
disgraceful
omis-
sion,
Capital
Hill insiders indicate that the
Congressional
Black Caucus is
quietly focusing
on aid and assistance for New Orleans and the
Gulf as a
major priority.
While blacks once
again
demonstrated
unflinching loyalty
to the
Democratic
Party
in the critical mid-term elec-
tions,
there is still the
overarching
and com-
pelling question
as to what "race
specific"
ini-
tiatives will be embraced and advanced
by
the
Democratic
leadership
in
Congress
to address
crucial black issues and concerns. Black Amer-
ica needs an answer to that
question,
and I
believe that one of the
responses ought
to be
to revive the
concept
of a Domestic Marshall
Plan
targeted
at
rebuilding
New Orleans and
America's "dark
ghettos."
Six-point
Democratic
Program
for
Recap
turing
Control of
Congress
Did Not Include
Katrina/Nw
Orleans
presented this idea at a recent
Policy
Institute convened
by
the Black
Family
Summit of IBW at Howard
University.
In so
doing,
I reminded the assembled
organiza-
tion
heads,
scholars and activists that it is
Page
10 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME
37,
NO, 3
important
to realize that Katrina is a
metaphor
for the disaster
wrought
on black
America's urban and rural communities
by
decades of
benign
and blatant
neglect.
This
is manifested
by
the almost total abandon-
ment of
proactive
and corrective
policies
for
problems
of both
inner-city
and rural com-
munities
by
Democratic and
Republic
administrations. The toll on black
America,
especially
on black
working-class
and
poor
people,
has been
devastating.
Many inner-city
areas are like decimated
zones of desolation and
despair,
wracked
by
chronic
unemployment, underemployment,
poverty, inadequate
health
facilities,
environ-
mental
degradation, poor performing
schools,
the infestation of
drugs,
crime,
gangs,
the illicit
economy,
fear,
police
occu-
pation
and terror
-
all of which feeds a
prison-jail
industrial
complex
where black
and brown
people
are the
primary
fodder.
As
depicted
on the television series "The
Wire,"
life in America's dark
ghettos
can be
deadly
and destructive of the
aspirations
of a
people;
the
tragic consequence
of broken
individuals,
families and communities.
importantly,
contrary
to the exhor-
tations of "America's
Dad,"
Bill
Cosby,
this is a fate which is not of our own choos-
ing.
Nor are these the same
"ghettos"
that
past
generations grew up
in around the
country.
As
sociologist
William
Julius
Wilson
observes,
in
the face of
globalization,
massive de-industrial-
ization and the calculated
shrinking
of amelio-
rative
public programs
and services under the
guise
of
creating
a more efficient
government,
the most
disadvantaged
of our
people
are liv-
ing
in communities where "work has
virtually
disappeared."
Moreover,
there is an almost
total
collapse
of
supportive community
based
institutions like settlement houses,
health care
centers,
hospitals
and viable schools.
And,
African Americans in
past generations
did not
grow up
in communities where
guns
and
drugs
were so
readily
available and violence
and
deadly
force was endemic to
daily
life.
Ethnic
Cleansing
is Afoot in New Orleans
/Currently there is no
acceptable response
V^Ji to our
plight by policymakers
in Wash-
ington.
Total
neglect
or the conservative
mantra of "blame the
victim,"
is the order of
the
day.
To the
degree
that there has been a
response,
it has been
by
real estate
develop-
ers
moving
in,
aided and abetted
by
local
governments,
to
displace
black
working-class
and
poor people
from their
neighborhoods,
scattering
them hither and thither as white
suburbanites now deem it cost effective to
recapture
the "Chocolate Cities" of this
nation. Gentrification has become the
"Negro
removal"
program
of the
twenty-first
century.
It is
precisely
this kind of ethnic
cleansing
that is afoot in New Orleans as
local
developers
and
major
contractors,
such
as subsidiaries of
Halliburton,
attempt
to
remake this African
city
to create a
Disney
World,
theme
park
environment.
While we must continue to
urge
our
people
who are
imprisoned by
these conditions to do
all
they
can to assume
responsibility
for
rising
above and
overcoming
the
pathology
which
now afflicts
them/us,
we must be clear that the
racist and
exploitive policies
of
government
are
primarily responsible
for our
plight.
Ulti-
mately
we must
compel
the
government
to res-
cue and transform this nation's dark
ghettos.
And this will
require
a massive allocation of
resources,
not
only
to
improve
the
physical
environment but to heal and restore broken
lives and communities. The transformation of
America's dark
ghettos
demands
nothing
less
than a
program equivalent
to a Domestic Mar-
shall Plan.
Originally
conceived
by
the late
Whitney
Young,
President and CEO of the National
Urban
League
and
long
advocated as a
major priority by League
President
John
E.
Jacob,
the
concept
of a Domestic Marshall
Plan was derived from the massive and
unprecedented expenditure
of US resources
to rebuild
Europe
and
Japan
after World
War II. Mr.
Young
and Mr.
Jacobs
consistent-
ly questioned why
the United States could
not rebuild urban areas here in America in
the same
way
it had rebuilt entire
foreign
nations. The same
question
is relevant
today:
How is it that America can
instantly
find bil-
lions of dollars to
wage
an
ill-conceived,
ill-
advised and
illegal
war in
Iraq, including
bil-
lions to rebuild this strife-riven
nation,
and
not muster sufficient resources to
expedi-
tiously
rebuild New
Orleans,
the Gulf and
THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME
37,
NO. 3
Page
11
transform the dark
ghettos
of this
prosper-
ous land? Black America must muster the
resolve to
compel
the
government
to
respond appropriately
to this
question.
organization that
gathered
for the
Black
Family
Summit
Policy
Institute,
for
example,
National Association of Black Social
Workers,
National Medical
Association,
National Association of Black
Psychologists,
Black Administrators in Child
Welfare,
All
Healers Mental Health
Alliance,
National
Association of Black
Veterans,
International
Association of Black Professional
Firefighters,
is
engaged
in
treating
some
aspect
of the mal-
ady
which afflicts our most destitute and des-
perate
communities. Each
organization
has
specific
initiatives and
programs designed
to
address some dimension of the crisis. The
value of these efforts
notwithstanding,
strate-
gically,
I believe it is
imperative
that a broad
ranging
collective of
organizations
and
agen-
cies come
together
to
adopt
a
comprehen-
sive/holistic,
consensus
strategy/ approach
to
address the
desperate
and
deteriorating
con-
ditions in America's dark
ghettos
-
an
approach
that must
prescribe
solutions to the
physical,
cultural, educational,
spiritual
and
social
justice aspects
of the crises.
At a
minimum,
the
approach
must
include affordable
housing, public
service
employment, job training, environmentally
sustainable
community
economic
develop-
ment,
quality
education based on
culturally
inclusive
curricula,
black
adoptions, drug
and alcohol abuse
counseling
and
treatment,
AIDS
counseling
and
treatment,
community
based health centers with facilities for men-
tal
health,
community organizers, gang pre-
vention
programs, re-entry programs
for for-
merly
incarcerated
persons
and civic
engagement
and
empowerment programs.
The same
approach
should
apply
to rural
communities with an additional focus on
black land retention and
programs
to assist
and enhance the
viability
of black farmers
and
agriculturalists.
At the end of his life Martin Luther
King
and the Southern Christian
Leadership
Con-
ference
(SCLC)
were
planning
a Poor Peo-
ple's Campaign
as a
way
of
articulating
the
concept
of an Economic Bill of
Rights
to
guarantee
a basic
quality
of life for black
people
and all Americans.
Similarly,
Malcolm
X was
urging
us to control the
politics
and
social life of our
communities,
and to see
our
struggle
not
just
as a
fight
for civil
rights
but human
rights
as well. The idea that
oppressed people
should exercise the
power
to control their communities and the convic-
tion that
every person
in this
country
is enti-
tled to
enjoy
certain basic human
rights,
as
articulated in the Universal Declaration of
Human
Rights,
should constitute
guiding
principles
for our
approach
to
resolving
the
crises in our communities.
It is Time to Draw a line in the Sand to
Rescue and Transform Our Communities
the Domestic Marshall Plan
concept captures
the
spirit
of what I
am
advocating
and has a familiar
ring
for
policymakers
and the
public, given
their
complementary perspectives
on
eradicating
racial and economic
oppression,
the
concept
of a Martin Luther
King-Malcolm
X Commu-
nity
Revitalization Initiative more
fully cap-
tures the character and
scope
of the
approach
I envision. In
addition,
it is
impor-
tant to have a title which resonates in the
black
community
as the base
constituency
for this initiative. It is also
important
to indi-
cate that this initiative should not be viewed
as a substitute for affirmative action
or,
ulti-
mately, reparations,
as
policy prescriptions
to
repair past
and
present damage
to Africans
in America as a
consequence
of the
long
and
tragic
travail of enslavement and racial
apartheid
in this
country.
It is time to draw a line in the sand to res-
cue and transform our communities. It is
time to mobilize the
political
muscle to
demand that the
Congress
of the United
States and the President
implement
a com-
prehensive,
holistic
program
to rebuild
depressed
and
oppressed
communities in
this nation.
Accordingly,
as a vital exercise in
opera-
tional
unity,
I am
suggesting
a multi-faceted
black- and
people-of-color-led
mobilization
to create
public
awareness of the
plight
of
America's dark
ghettos
and to demand the
enactment of the Martin Luther
King-Mal-
Pagel2
THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME
37,
NO. 3
colm X
Community
Revitalization Initiative.
IBW
formally
launched the
Campaign
in
April
with the release of a Declaration of
Intent to
Organize
for
Change
at a series of
activities timed to coincide with the memori-
al commemorations of the assassination of
Dr.
King
and the fortieth
anniversary
of his
speech declaring
his
opposition
to the war in
Vietnam at the Riverside Church in 1967.
forward,
IBW intends to
partner
with
SCLC,
under the
leadership
of
President Charles
Steele,
to hold a series of
community
based
hearings
in selected cities
and towns across the
country.
The first hear-
ing
was convened
by
Councilwoman
JoAnn
Watson in
Detroit,
May
19, 2007,
the birth-
day
of Malcolm X.
Congressman John Cony-
ers,
Jr.,
Chairman of the House
Judiciary
Committee and Dean of the
Congressional
Black Caucus was
part
of the
hearing panel,
along
with former
Congressman
Rev. Dr.
Walter
Fauntroy
of
Washington,
DC and
Charles Steele of SCLC.
The Initiative has also been discussed on a
number of black radio talk shows around the
country
as
part
of an effort to create
public
awareness about the
plight
of
impoverished
urban and rural
communities,
encourage
interested
people
to download and utilize
the MLK-MX Initiative Declaration as an
organizing
tool
(www.ibw21.org)
and to
build
pressure
to
persuade
the
Congression-
al Black Caucus to
adopt
and advocate the
concept.
Indeed there
appears
to be a
grow-
ing convergence
of
opinion
that some form
of massive
program
is
urgently
needed to
rebuild New Orleans and urban America. At
the
Day
of Presence convened
by
Susan
Tay-
lor of Essence on the occasion of the second
anniversary
of Katrina and the National Poli-
cy Dialogue sponsored by
the African Ameri-
can
Leadership Project
headed
by
veteran
social and
political
activist
Mtangulizi Sanyi-
ka,
the idea of a Domestic Marshall Plan or
New Deal
type
Works
Progress
Administra-
tion
(WPA) program
was mentioned several
times. From various
quarters,
the
concept
is
beginning
to take hold.
Accordingly,
we must mobilize black
peo-
ple
to take the lead in
issuing
a clarion call
to end the war in
Iraq,
rebuild New Orleans
and the Gulf and invest in
transforming
America's dark
ghettos,
reservations and
neighborhoods.
Transforming
America's Dark Ghettos
may take
time,
but we must be committed
to
building
a movement to achieve this
goal.
We must use
every opportunity
to ask
the
presidential
candidates to
respond
to the
concept.
And 2008 will offer excellent
opportunities
to build momentum. For
example,
the fortieth
anniversary
of the
assassination of Dr.
King
on
April
4 should
not
just
be filled with memorial commemo-
rations,
there should also be teach-ins that
examine what Dr.
King
and SCLC were
plan-
ning
when he was
gunned
down in Mem-
phis.
There should also be direct actions
focusing
on New
Orleans,
the Gulf and
America's dark
ghettos
with a demand that
the nation and
government adopt
and
launch the MLK-MX
Community
Revitaliza-
tion Initiative. In
addition,
IBW's State of the
Black World Conference
II,
scheduled for
November
19-23, 2008,
in New
Orleans,
will
be another
major
focal
point
for
galvanizing
support
for the MLK-MX Initiative.
Ultimately,
Africans in America and our
allies must
generate
sufficient momentum to
force the Democratic
Party,
which has taken
blacks for
granted
for too
long,
and a nation
which has been in denial about the debilitat-
ing
effects of
racism,
poverty
and
inequality
on
blacks and
people
of
color,
to take an affirma-
tive stand in favor of this vital Initiative.
has the opportunity to erase the
ugly images
of Katrina from the con-
sciousness of the world
by transforming
America's dark
ghettos.
There is no better
way
to achieve this mission than
by doing
for
the
dispossessed
in this
country
what this
nation so
magnanimously
did for
Europe
and
Japan
after World War II. Americans
must demand that the US
government
end
the war in
Iraq,
seal the "demonic suction
tube" that is
draining
vast resources
away
from
urgent
domestic needs and
massively
invest in
rescuing
and
transforming
Ameri-
ca's dark
ghettos.
Africans in America and
the
oppressed
must settle for
nothing
less.
THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME
37,
NO. 3
Page
13