By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNNPA) – A few weeks after President Barack Obama won four more years in the White House, dozens of Black leaders crowded around a podium in the Congressional Room of the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. to announce plans for a Black agenda designed to address the myriad economic, social and political disparities that afflict the Black community.

But three months, later those Black groups represented at the news conference, with several centuries of years of collective experience in organizing, mobilizing and marching, have failed to produce a finished document to present to the president and Congress.

Last December 3, leaders of the National Urban League, the National Action Network, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation convened the meeting of 60 leader civil rights, business and economic leaders and crafted the foundation of a public policy agenda that included “five urgent priorities:”

- Achieve economic parity for African-Americans

- Promote equity in educational opportunity

- Protect and defend voting rights

- Promote a healthier nation by eliminating healthcare disparities

- Achieve comprehensive reform of the criminal justice system

“We’re providing our recommendations to the president. We’re providing our recommendations to Congress,” said Melanie L. Campbell, president of the Black Women’s Roundtable and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Campbell also called on citizens to step up and be leaders in the conversation as well as each member of the convened group sought input from their diverse constituents.

Although, Melanie Campbell said that a working draft is floating around the White House and Congress, the lack of a final draft may reflect deeper issues.

Not only did many Americans feel the need to adjust their political lenses to view the nation’s first Black president, many civil rights groups also found themselves navigating life with President Obama unchartered territory. Challenging him publicly was often met with sharp rebuke from their peers and constituents.

In 2011, President Obama addressed the Congressional Black Caucus at their annual Foundation conference and seemed to scold Black leaders, urging them to stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying and to trade their bedroom slippers for marching shoes a speech that energized some and left other lawmakers seething.

“It was brand new, not just for organizational heads, it was brand new for the country,” said Campbell, referring to the election of the nation’s first Black president. “There were some things that were different in knowing how to deal with that, but I don’t think that there was ever a time that we didn’t work to try to push on issues that were important to our community.”

Not everyone agrees.

“It’s an easier target when you have Republicans in power so that you can easily mobilize for symbolic benefits,” said Lorenzo Morris, political science professor at Howard University, Washington, D.C. “The problem with Obama is, without an easy target, some of the weaknesses in their own organizations might have been shown.”

Easy target or not, much work remains to be done on behalf of African Americans.

“The real question is: how will Black interests groups bring issues to the table? How will they lobby him? How will they pressure him?” asked Dianne Pinderhughes, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. “Instead of expecting that as president, he would take initiative in doing everything.”

Other groups are taking a different tact.

“The communities that have gotten a lot of attention have gone to the president and asked for something. If you don’t ask you don’t get,” said Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Those communities have been very organized and very vocal about what their agenda is. Our agenda is all over the place when it comes to our communities across the country.”

In Washington, D.C. the Congressional Black Caucus released their own policy agenda for the 113th Congress with three major points:

-Voter Protection and Empowerment
-Poverty and the Economy
-Immigration Reform

“We chose immigration reform because that’s what’s on the table right now,” explained Fudge. “We don’t set the agenda for America. We do the best that we can to influence the direction that we’re going, but immigration is the topic of the day. If we do not engage ourselves in that discussion, then our communities will lose.”

Immigrants face some of the same problems we do as African Americans, such as racial profiling, Fudge said.

“When you talk about low wages poor working conditions those things are very much the same in immigrant communities, as they are in African American communities,” said Fudge. “How can you fight for justice for African Americans and not fight for justice for immigrants?”

Choosing immigration over other issues such as criminal justice reform or education is baffling to some observers.

But not to Kathie Stromile Golden executive director of National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

“There are Afro-Hispanic folks. So it makes sense for the CBC to take up that issue as well in terms of shaping their agenda they know the kind of environment that they are operating in and they need to have successes as well because the success is what legitimizes them and leads to them to having some impact on other issues,” she said.

Some political analysts believe that Blacks would benefit more from a narrow focus from their leaders – concentrating on jobs and voting rights, for example – because too many menu items makes it harder for the general public and the media to digest the heart of their message.

On February 21, Reverend Al Sharpton and other Black leaders met with President Obama to talk about issues affecting the Black community. According to a statement released by Sharpton, the group discussed voters’ rights, job creation, sequestration, the criminal justice system and gun violence.

“The president engaged us in a spirited conversation and seemed to be listening intently,” said Sharpton in the statement. The group did not present the Black agenda at the meeting.

Pinderhughes said, “It’s the responsibility of the Black interest group community to create a political strategy that results in legislative change. [President Obama] needs to be pressured just like any other president.”

And like any other president, said Pinderhughes, you have to give him a reason to respond.

Still, there is some reluctance to force Obama to respond.

“He is the president. He is not the president of Black folk, he is not the president of White folk,” said Stromile Golden. “If he were just promoting a Black agenda, how long do you think that would last?”

By Minehaha Forman
Special to the NNPA from The Michigan Chronicle

DETROIT—After nearly three months of examining Detroit’s finances, a six-member state review team declared Tuesday that Michigan’s largest city is in a state of financial emergency.

“Certainly I am not surprised by the findings of the State’s financial review team” Bing said Tuesday in a statement. “My Administration has been saying for the past four years that the City is under financial stress.”

Now that the review has been completed, the findings leave whether or not to appoint an emergency manager to Detroit up to Governor Rick Snyder. Snyder has said he would act quickly once he got the results. Detroit could have an emergency manager by early March.

“If the Governor decides to appoint an Emergency Financial Manager, he or she, like my Administration, is going to need resources — particularly in the form of cash and additional staff,” Bing said.

Under the new emergency manager law, Public Act 436, passed in December, the state is responsible for paying some of the costs of hiring an emergency manager and state-appointed staff. PA436 is similar to its predecessor, Public Act 4, which was voted down by a ballot initiative in November. Namely, allows the powerful emergency manager to break collective bargaining contracts.

Bing said he plans to keep working to address problems in the city.

“As I have said before, my Administration will stay focused on the initiatives that most directly impact the citizens of Detroit: public safety, public lighting, transportation, recreation and neighborhood blight removal,” Bing said.

Detroit faces a $327 million budget deficit in the current fiscal year, ongoing cash flow problems and a long term projected budget debt of more than $12 billion.

“The cash condition has been a strain on the city,” said state Treasurer Andy Dillon, a member of the review team. “The city has been running deficits since 2005, masking over those with long-term borrowing.”

All six members of the review team members agreed that their findings showed a case of financial emergency.

If Snyder decides to appoint an emergency manager, it still wouldn’t be an immediate appointment. A lot depends on timing.

The new emergency manager law taking effect in March gives local governments the choice between an emergency manager, a mediator, filing for bankruptcy or to offer their own financial restructuring plan to the state.

Am emergency manager would be responsible for all of the city’s finances. Once a manager is in place, only the EM can decide whether or not to file for bankruptcy.

Detroit would be largest city in Michigan to go under the supervision of a state receiver, but not the first. The cities of Flint, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Ecorse, and Allen Park are in state receivership.

By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – After years of being on the rise, the number of Black men locked behind bars in state and federal prisons decreased 9.8 percent between 2000 and 2009 while the incarceration rate for Black women fell 30.7 percent over the same period, according to a new study.

The report, “The Changing Racial Dynamics of Women’s Incarceration,” was issued by the Sentencing Project, a non-profit group that advocates for criminal justice reform.

As the incarceration dropped for African-Americans, the imprisonment rates for White women jumped more than 47 percent from 2000 to 2009 as the number of White men in prison increased by 8.5 percent. Some experts say that the uptick in methamphetamine abuse among Whites is one of several factors contributing to increase in that race’s incarceration rates.

“If we look at the numbers, it seems like the most significant part of the decline for Black women comes through fewer drug offenders,” said Marc Mauer, the executive director of The Sentencing Project.

The report found that women were more disproportionately affected by the ratcheting up of the “War on Drugs” 30 years ago. The adoption of mandatory sentencing policies for drug offenses also ushered in a new wave of non-violent criminals: the girlfriends of drug dealers.

“Since the only means of avoiding a mandatory penalty is generally to cooperate with the prosecution by providing information on higher-ups in the drug trade, women who have a partner who is a drug seller may be aiding that seller, but have relatively little information to trade in exchange for a more lenient sentence,” according to the report.

On the other hand, the boyfriend drug dealers usually had more information to trade and were thus able to negotiate softer sentences than their female partners. Researchers reported that 25.7 percent of women in prison were drug offenders compared to 17.2 percent for men.

One of the most notorious cases that illustrated the “girlfriend problem” involved Kemba Smith, a young college student that never sold drugs, but was found guilty by her association to an abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend. Smith, a first-time offender, was sentenced to 24.5 years in 1995 for conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements. Following a campaign by Emerge magazine, legal assistance by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a public outcry, President Bill Clinton granted her clemency in 2000.

Now, with increased access to drug treatment through community groups and changes in drug policies, the groups that suffered most are now reaping the benefits. In 2000, the report stated, Black women were incarcerated at a rate six times that of White women. By 2009 that disparity between Black women and White women decreased to just less than three to one. The incarceration gap between Black men and White men also narrowed falling 16.9 percent from 7.7 times – 6.4 times the rate of White men over decade.

During the first decade of this century, arrest rates for Blacks also declined in three major groups: violent crime (down 22.2 percent), property crime (11.5 percent) and drug offenses (11.8 percent). Whites saw increases in arrest for property crime (up 16.6 percent) and drug offenses (2.2 percent). The rate of Whites arrested for violent crime fell 11.1 percent.

Because of the study period, it’s unlikely that recent changes to the notorious Rockefeller drug laws and the implementation of the Fair Sentencing Act (that educed the disparity between the amount of crack cocaine and powder cocaine needed to trigger certain United States federal criminal penalties) had any impact on the changing dynamic of the racial makeup in our nation’s prisons.

The Sentencing Project report suggested that increased support for substance abusers and programs geared towards helping ex-offenders return to their communities were likely contributing factors to changes in the incarceration rates.

“These include initiatives such as treatment diversion programs, sentence reduction incentives for participation in prison programming, enhancing reentry support, and reduced technical violations of parole,” stated the report.

States have also turned to closing prisons in an effort to save money.

According to the report: “During 2011 and 2012, 17 states either closed or considered closing prison facilities, with a total capacity reduction of more than 28,000 beds.”

Nadirah Aasim, community advocate and former drug offender from Washington, D.C., said focus needs to remain on keeping women ex-offenders with drug problems from returning to prison.

“[The authorities] need to see that women come with more issues than men come with,” said Aasim. “We have to deal with the children, we have to find housing. It hurts us more when we can’t reconnect with our children.”

Aasim said that family issues for women ex-offenders are compounded by unemployment, readily accessible drug markets, and less than supportive probation officers.

A 2007 report by the Department of Justice found that Black women stood a 34 percent chance of returning to prison following release compared to 26.4 percent of White women ex-offenders.

“In 1980, about 13,000 women were incarcerated in federal and state prisons combined representing 4% of the total prison population,” the Sentencing Project report found. “Since that time, the rate of growth of women in prison has exceeded the rate of increase for men, rising 646% from 1980 to 2010, compared to a 419% increase for men. As a result, in 2010 there were 112,000 women in state and federal prison and 205,000 women overall in prison or jail; women now constitute 7% of the prison population.”

Aasim said that more programs that focus on helping women drug offenders are needed inside and outside of prison.

The report outlined a number of recommendations designed to help lawmakers tackle the racial disparities that exist in sentencing policies, including the establishment of state commissions to help identify racial disparities in the criminal justice system and to study the impact of current and future sentencing policies on the race and gender makeup of prison populations.

Mauer said that he’s cautiously optimistic about the recent changes in the incarceration rates for Blacks.

“For a lot of people, I think the attitude is that, ‘this is a sad situation and there’s nothing that we can do about that,’” said Mauer. “The [recent trends] show progress and we have an obligation to continue that progress and learn from it, too. So, I hope that policymakers would come away from this with that message as well.”

By Maya Rhodan
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Many of the students at Harvard School of Excellence in the Inglewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side are the same age as the 20 first- and second graders who were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Aisha McCarthy, the principal of Harvard School, was surprised by how her students reacted to the shooting spree 844 miles away in Newtown, Conn.

“There was no reaction,” McCarthy, principal at Harvard School of Excellence, says. “My own kids were scared and we talked about it, but there was a different reaction when I went to school the next day.”

The different reaction might be because children have been forced to deal with violence when their minds should have been focused on the simpler things in life.

Last year, 21 people were killed in the neighborhood. While the murders in Newtown may have shocked the nation, most of McCarthy’s students were not alarmed.

“A lot of the kids are numb to it, they don’t even have a reaction when things are in the news,” McCarthy says. “They hear about some kind of violence on a weekly basis. If they don’t see it, then they definitely hear about and they know about it.’

A couple weeks into the New Year, a shooting down the street from Harvard forced the school to go on lock down, keeping kids safe for a while after school.

McCarthy hasn’t been hardened by the violence in Chicago. Every day after school, after the last students have trickled out into the neighborhood and on to their homes, McCarthy can’t help but worry about whether she’ll see or hear something about a student on the evening or morning news.

“I don’t want to read in the newspaper that something happened to them,” says McCarthy. “I always tell them to have a safe weekend.”

For kids across the city, at McCarthy’s school and elsewhere, news of a shooting can be as common as a weather report.

There are 438 students in pre-k through 8th grade at Harvard, an Academy of Urban School Leadership turnaround school that just six years ago had been among the worst performing schools in the state.

Now the school, which saw a 34.5 percentage point increase in standardize test results between 2007 and 2012, has improved academically but remains threatened by the environment that engulfs it.

Since 2007, more than 270 school-age children have been killed in Chicago. Since the school year began in September, 21 kids have died from a gunshot wound, including Hadiya Pendleton, a member of King College Preparatory High School’s marching band who just days before had performed at the president’s inauguration.

Pendleton was just blocks away from her school when she was gunned down while walking in a park.

“We wind up dealing with a lot of issues that happen outside of school,” says Nikki Boone-Ross, a social worker at Chicago Public Schools. “If something happens over the weekend, eventually it comes back to the school. Students may get into a fight or altercation, but eventually it comes back to school.”

Ross works out of Dulles and Fisk Elementary Schools in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood. She mainly deals with students with special social and emotional needs; so in a school with 450 students, she may handle a caseload of 30.

Ross says the emotional baggage students often carry around after witnessing violence leads to problems in and outside of the classroom, but there aren’t enough counselors in schools to address the needs of all students properly.

In Chicago Public Schools, one counselor is assigned to every elementary school regardless of enrollment. At the high school level one counselor is assigned to every 360 kids.

“We as educators set the bar so high, but some students don’t even see themselves living that long. They think about today and getting through today,” says Ross. “They carry a lot of baggage—all of that as a result leads to violence inside and outside of schools.

“But in my building of 200 kids, my caseload might be 12 students. There are a lot of children who are not getting mental health services on a regular basis who really need them.”

Ivory Tolson, an associate professor of counseling at Howard University’s School of Education, agrees.

“Children exposed to violence can develop post traumatic stress disorder and can be very fearful in their environment,” Tolson says. “They don’t experience violence any differently than an adult does. They become less productive and less motivated because they are focusing on a lot of other things. We need to see in the inner city, Black neighborhoods the same things we would see at a Sandy Hook or Columbine—more empathetic counselors,” Tolson adds.

An empathetic counselor is what Pam Warner prides herself as being at South Shore High School, where she’s been since 1999.

On any given day, Warner finds herself fighting a myriad of battles-from fighting to keep a student struggling to balance a turbulent home life and a heavy course load in school to working with students in relationships to help them make smart decisions about their futures.

“I tell people all the time, ‘If you came work with me for one week, you’d be running out of the school,” Warner says. But the CPS veteran, who has been working in the school system since 1977, has sprinted toward the school, not away from it.

“There are a lot of good kids, but I’m just seeing fewer and fewer as I get older,” Warner says. “It’s exhausting. You care so much about the kids, you find you can’t sleep at night because you basically are the parent—the only thing we don’t do is birth them.”

It’s that feeling of parenting students that makes dealing with their problems so stressful, according to Warner.

“A lot of kids have no sense of living for tomorrow,” Warner says. “It’s a trip trying to convince someone they have a future when they don’t believe they do.”

But how can they?

According to the Chicago RedEye’s homicide tracker, between 2007-2013, 538 people between the ages of 15-20 have been killed. Between 20-25, the number shoots up to 681.

During the 2011-2012 school year, of the 319 Chicago Public School kids had been shot, 24 died.

There have been many calls for Congress to tighten gun control laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, shootings in Aurora, Colo., and other mass killings. But many feel Chicago’s problem is being underestimated.

“I don’t think they have kids in Chicago in mind or their safety when they have these gun talks,” Warner says. “But they have the kids at Columbine in mind, they have them in mind for Newtown.”

Edelman, who has written on gun control in her weekly NNPA column, agrees.

“Common sense gun laws are a critical first step to protecting all children living in our inner cities, in our suburbs and in rural America,” Edelman says. “Having one set of laws in a city like Chicago, and then another set of laws right outside the city limits or in the next state makes no sense.”

She adds, “We regulate cars, toy guns and teddy bears, why on earth would we not regulate real guns? Those within the community need to stand up and act now, as Hadiya Pendleton’s mother and father are doing. As Trayvon Martin’s mother and father are doing. We need mothers and fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers – we all need to say enough. Our children deserve a vote to make America safer now.”