1968 and 50 Years Later, Here is an Update

As I sat watching the events on tv in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Wednesday, April 4th, my heart was overwhelmed. Tears were flowing from my eyes as my mind was taken back to that specific day and I found myself asking the question “what has happened to us?” Our people we’re definitely more organized. The churches were more involved and so were the people.

1968 was a very significant year for African Americans for that was the year that our hero Dr. King was snatched away from us. It was also the year that the Civil Rights Act outlawing housing discrimination was signed into law and Shirley Chislom became the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives.

Now 2018, 50 years later, for people of color banks are shutting the doors to home ownership and this information is based on 31 million records, relied on techniques used by leading academics, the Federal Reserve and Department of Justice to identify lending disparities. A pattern of troubling denials for people of color across the country, including in major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Antonio, African Americans faced the most resistance in Southern cities. No matter their location, loan applicants told similar stories, describing an uphill battle with loan officers who they say seemed to be fishing for reasons to say no.

The analysis-independently reviewed and confirmed by the Associated Press-showed black applicants were turned away at significantly higher rates than whites in 48 cities, Latinas in 25, Asians in nine and Native Americans in three.

What happened to the protection of the Community Reinvestment Act, a 40 year-old law designed to reverse rampant redlining. And the Justice Dep’t. has sued only a handful of financial institutions for failing to lend to people of color in the decade since the housing bust. It is argued that the law shares part of the blame; it needs to be updated and strengthened. This information was obtained from an article by Aaron Glantz & Emmanuel Martinez of “Reveal News”.

Where are our leaders of today and what are they doing? I know that Dr. King’s heart would be overwhelmed by what is and what is not going on in our society today as it pertains to so many of our people. Many are still being murdered by police throughout this country and so many other injustices, as it pertains to affordable housing, jobs and so many other things are still going on.

Let me end this with the acknowledgement of the “Awesome” event that was held on this past Wednesday by the “Black History Committee of the Hudson Valley.” It was “The Dream Lives On” which honored many of the Elders in our community whom have and had dedicated their lives for the betterment of our city. The real beauty of the program were the young men of the “My Brother’s Keeper Initiative” which evolved out of President Obama’s White House and was initiated in our Newburgh School District two years ago. Hopefully, it will continue on for that program is most definitely beneficial to our young African American and Latino boys. They are the future and hopefully they will be among the many youth throughout our country that will be striving towards turning Dr. King’s Dream into their reality. “Wake Up!” Wake Up!” “Wake Up!”

Wow! I just found out yesterday (April 5th!) that the “Justice Dep’t “ of the United States of America will be holding a community based workshop here in our city on Thursday, April 19th at the Newburgh Police Department. The workshop is designed to bring together local law enforcement officers and community members to open (or continue) a dialogue about community engagement. This workshop is being held in select communities across the country to assess the effectiveness of the curriculum. It is for various organizations to attend but they must be registered to do so by Monday, April 9th, which will be two days before my column hits the streets. If I had known this Information before I would have most definitely put it in my last week’s column. And why did I not know for I am a member of the city of Newburgh’s “Police Community Relations Review Board!” Why did I not know!?

This is “Lillie’s Point of View” and I’m just having my say!