Volume IX - Summer 2003

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Table of Contents

Articles
Black Middle Class Poverty Consciousness: Class and Leadership Within 20th Century Black America
Christopher Tyson
Abstract
America about intraracial class conflict. These discussions often rely too heavily on essentialist or fixed notions of socioeconomic class that preclude a more historically grounded discussion of the formation of class identities within the race. While the contemporary black middle class is unprecedented in size and character, its identity must be viewed within the context of past struggles against racial and class oppression within and outside of the black community. Since poverty is a constant variable in the black experience, how the black middle class has responded to black poverty is a key indicator of the class-consciousness within the group and its implications for future struggles. This article explores the development of the black middle class since emancipation and examines the complexities within black society and American society that shape black middle-class poverty consciousness.

Economic Salvation: Homeownership and the Black Church
Wayne L. Thornhill
Abstract
This paper argues that the black church through its aggregate resources of more than $50 billion deposited into financial institutions and its historical economic role in the African American community can help to increase the homeownership rates of Blacks. The black church has the economic influence, captive audience, and credibility to influence the homeownership rates of African Americans. The traditional benefits and risks are considered, yet the paper raises a unique psychological barrier by and by affecting Blacks that the church is uniquely positioned to address. Church members who give to the church could receive down-payment gifts from the church family; non-itemizers could receive homeownership credit for their charitable giving to the church, and ministers could integrate economic empowerment into the message of salvation to increase homeownership. The black church has a long and strong history of building wealth through landownership and education. Its legacy can be transferred to increase African American homeownership and contribute to the social policy discussion.

Federal Housing Dollars and the Demise of African American Housing Community-Based Organizations: How Racism Rears Its Ugly Head in a Government Institution—A Case Study (Milwaukee, Wisconsin )
Michael Bonds
Abstract
This article describes how racial politics in Milwaukee, Wis., impacted the allocation of federal housing dollars between 1988 and 1997 to community-based organizations (CBOs) by examining one public bureaucracy’s practices to determine if they were applied fairly to African American and Caucasian CBOs. An analysis of public housing records found that African American CBOs suffered major cuts in all housing categories. They were held to higher performance standards than Caucasian CBOs, which penalized these African American CBOs. Finally, African American CBOs lost millions of federal housing dollars, and the jobs and subcontracts associated with them.

The Ouémé Child Survival Program: Sustaining Livelihoods
Kendra Blackett and Carmen Coles
Abstract
Child Survival Program (OCSP), a four-year pilot program (1997-2001), funded by USAID and administered by Africare , Benin . OCSP sought to improve the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of communities in the Pobè Health Zone through the selection and training of 54 community health workers (CHWs). After interviews with actors of the public health infrastructure, the CHWs, and their supervising committees, as well as a review of the malaria statistics for the Pobè Health Zone, the evaluators have concluded the following:

Procurement, supervision, and training relied heavily on Africare
The centralized coordinating unit is dysfunctional
Procurement is a major factor that links the community to the public health infrastructure
Rates for simple malaria have consistently decreased

As a result of these findings, the evaluators recommend that 1) CHWs should be fully integrated into the public health infrastructure; 2) NGOs should create a sense of ownership among community members; and 3) such projects, which rely on a synergy between local and governmental actors, should incorporate a rights-based approach to the training of community actors.

Speeches

Shared Responsibility and Shared Sacrifice in a Time of War
Forum Event with U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on February 10, 2003

More Perfect Union : From Civil Rights to Constitutional Rights
Forum Event with U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., (D-Ill.) on February 24, 2003

Interviews

Perspectives from Ron Kirk
Interviewed by Daniel Delk

In 2002, Ron Kirk made history when he became the first African American to win a primary runoff for the Senate in Texas . Although Kirk did not win the election, he continues to build coalitions and advocate for improved education and economic opportunities for people across Texas .

Ron Kirk was born in 1954 to a family active in the Civil Rights Movement in Austin, Texas . He was born the youngest of four children to Lee Kirk, the first black postal clerk in Austin, and Willie Mae, a schoolteacher.

Following high school, Kirk moved to Sherman to study political science and sociology at Austin College . There he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1976 and returned to Austin to earn a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in 1979.

After law school, Kirk worked as a legislative assistant to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.). Since then, he has served as assistant city attorney of Dallas, secretary of state of Texas under Gov. Anne Richards, and two–time mayor of Dallas .