Stabilizing and Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods

Abstract

When I remember the civil rights movement, I recall an October 29, 1965, Washington Post article by reporter Bill Raspberry. In his article, Raspberry quoted the civil rights leadership of Washington, D.C., as saying that poor Blacks were not benefitting from the gains of the civil rights struggle. In their view, the issues and conditions that poor Blacks were plagued with were largely economic and not race-specific, Raspberry reported. Race-specific solutions did not then, nor do they today, address the problems of the poorest of Blacks, today's underclass. That is why my organization, the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE), works on behalf of this group of low-income people. The Center builds on strengths. We believe that the poor should be empowered to become not only the recipients of services but also the providers and deliverers of services. Although we acknowledged the economic factor in the plight of Black Americans more than twenty years ago, we did little to address it. That is why I believe forums like these are important; they allow us to engage in dialogue, discussion, and debate about the future course of Black Americans, particularly that of the one-third of us who traditionally have been locked in poverty. Such tensions can be very helpful. For example, we made a lot of progress in the past because of the thoughtful debate that occurred between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. I remember that when Dr. King took his position on the war in Vietnam, he was called a communist by columnist Carl Rowan, and Roy Wilkins soundly castigated him as well. We must start asking the challenging questions, not just