Residents of central Brooklyn and inner cities across the nation live every day with the disparities that it took a hurricane to reveal in Louisiana. They are increasingly beset with economic, health, and a host of other challenges, holding on as best as they can, and asking, “Where are Black people supposed to go? What is going to happen to our young people? How will we survive?”
This is the atmosphere that charges today’s political season and the Brooklyn Black political leadership has decided it’s time to have a “family meeting” on the conditions of African Americans in central Brooklyn and set a community-wide agenda for the solutions. So it was on the steps of the City Hall that virtually the entire Brooklyn Democratic delegation came together to announce the “Brooklyn Black Empowerment Convention.”
Councilman Al Vann, (D-Brooklyn) explained it will be a time “where leadership from throughout Brooklyn will come together in the same house and ratify an agenda that will establish our priorities and an action plan toward making life better for Black people.”
It will be an action plan with a number of bold topic points and education will certainly be prominent.
As Lester Young, Jr., former head of the Department of Education’s Office of Youth Development and School-Community Services put it: “In a country that espouses ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ when it comes to Black people in Brooklyn or even nationally, that reality is not possible. It can’t be possible when 42 percent of our ninth graders never get to the 12th grade, when more of our young men end up in special education than any other student population, when more of our young people are more likely to earn a GED [General Educational Development] than they are to earn a college degree.
We’ve got to change that reality. We need to do that by having a platform that gets beyond political correctness and personal convenience. We need a platform that recognizes that leadership is a broad concept. It’s not just the designated leaders; it’s the entire community. The empowerment convention provides an opportunity for that to happen – an opportunity for the entire community to come together, to define the problem, to specify solutions, and to challenge the system to make sure that our young people get everything that they are inherently entitled to,” said Young.
On the business front, Roy Hastick, founder and president of the Caribbean-American Chambers of Commerce and Industry, endorsed the convention, saying, “There was a recent study of Black businesses, and Kings County had the third highest total number of businesses nationwide. So we feel that the needs of Black businesses have to be addressed. We need to strengthen Black businesses and come up with an action plan to help them grow.”
Asked if the Community Benefits’ Agreement (between Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner and several community-based organizations) would be a guide, Assemblyman Roger Green (D-Brooklyn) said, “It’s part of the discussion dealing with economic development.” He noted that the CBA has already become a model for major development including Yankee Stadium and the Jets Stadium.
However, he also said that an “honest critique” is needed “if there were mistakes made with the first one, we can strengthen it.”
Speaking of the poverty rates and the challenges faced by surrounding communities such as the Fort Greene Houses where “the unemployment rate is as high as 66 percent,” the assemblyman said: “There is $22 billion of development work proposed for downtown Brooklyn. We’ve got to get at that. And yes, we do hope that it is part of the discussion.”
“We have to remember that we have work to do as a family,” said Dr. Esmeralda Simmons of the Center for Constitutional Rights, speaking of voter education. “We’ve used the Voting Rights Act in the past to make sure that we expanded our political power. The Voting Rights Act is now up for reauthorization and one of the congressional districts is being challenged. A Caucasian councilmember has jumped into the race against four very qualified Black candidates and is basically attempting to divide and conquer.”
“Noting that that district was our first congressional district,” Simmons said, “members of the community should not be outspent and out slicked by someone who brings in a lot of money from outside central Brooklyn, outside of that district; instead we should continue to elect a candidate of our choice, and in the past that has been a candidate of African descent. We will be discussing that and getting some kind of consensus around the direction we need to go in terms of what the community wants, so that they can speak on election day.”
Speaking in regard to what is happening after the convention, Dr. Simmons said, “We already have task forces working on an agenda. Those task forces on various policy issues are not going to disband after the convention. Instead we’re going to use that convention to catapult us to implementing that agenda we come out with.”
“This is about us doing for ourselves,” she continued. “Not looking for other folks guidance. This will be the impetus to get us moving. We’re familiar with the problem, what we want to do is agree on the solutions. What we really need to do is do it.”
Councilman Vann called the convention the beginning of a move in Black Brooklyn to change things. “The convention brings everybody together and it serves as a reference point. It lays before us the agenda, the priorities that come from the people. These are our needs. If you’re concerned about the well-being of Black people in Brooklyn, then you need to deal with these issues. Whether you are a White or Black politician, whatever position of power you have, if you want the respect of Black people in Brooklyn, then you need to address this agenda.”
The councilman says that coming out of the convention there will be a leadership structure of 25 to 30 people from across Brooklyn representing political, clergy, policy advocates and community leaders who will serve to follow through on the action plan.
“We’ll have a document at the convention but the real work is mostly post-convention. For example, the health and human services cluster may be 20 to 25 people, but post-convention, it could be a couple of hundred people who are interested and have equities in that area, coming together to put meat on those bones. So every cluster is an organization of people who are concerned about that element of the Black community,” Vann said.
For voters, particularly those organized around political and social agendas, this is the happy season. All of the politicians and their aides will be in one place at one time and anxious to give an ear to politically motivated people.
Assemblywoman Annette Robinson (D-Brooklyn) commenting on what makes this convention different from the perspective of someone who has spent a generation in office spoke of the ability of a convention to affect change, saying, “In 1980, we had the Coalition for Community Empowerment of which I was a part and as a result of that involvement I’ve served in elective office for many years.”
Assemblywoman Robinson spoke of issues and concerns that should be raised “internally.” “We have to look at our families in terms of the cultural value system, at the culture of violence that is permeating our communities, as well as the health issues, the economic development issues, housing and the gentrification of our community. We’re looking at that as a whole to make sure we can continue to exist in our own communities. We want to see the community stabilized so that our children and grandchildren will be able to raise their families. Everyone wants to live in a safe, crime-free and drug-free environment. And we want that for our community and we want it to be economically sound as well.”
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn) said that it’s “past time” to come together and develop strategies that will help to “lift our community out of some of the very difficult situations” that we are in, “especially for our young people, figuring out a plan for them to be able to reach their potential and on what to do about affordable housing for our people. What are we going to do about the health issues in our community, the fact that so many African-American women are contracting HIV/AIDS and dying? So we need this now; it’s very urgent.”
As Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr. (D-Brooklyn) said of his political opponents a few days later in the Marriott’s Archive Room, “Look, we know you don’t like us but we’re the ones in power. So let’s talk about what the community needs and let’s work together to get it done.”
