Domestic Marshall Plan: Ron Daniels

A Domestic Marshall Plan to Transform America’s ‘Dark Ghettos’

Wednesday, 21 February 2007

by Dr. Ron Daniels
Black Agenda Report
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=83

Black America must revive the concept of a Domestic
Marshall Plan to reverse the deterioration of the
nation's ‘dark ghettos' - most immediately, to restore
New Orleans' exiled population. Dr. Daniel's suggests
the campaign be called the Martin Luther King-Malcolm X
Community Revitalization Initiative, a mobilization to
begin on April 4. The guiding principle behind the
campaign must be the idea that oppressed people should
exercise the power to control their communities and the
conviction that every person in this country is
entitled to enjoy certain basic human rights, as
articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. A Domestic Marshall Plan to Transform America's
‘Dark Ghettos'

by Dr. Ron Daniels, President, Institute of the Black
World 21st Century

"We will call this proposal the Martin Luther King-
Malcolm X Community Revitalization Initiative."

This article is based on a presentation made by Dr.
Daniels at the Black Family Summit Policy Institute
convened February 1, 2007, by the Institute of the
Black World 21st Century at Howard University. It is a
discussion piece which is intended to assess interest
in and commitment to launching a bold initiative to
compel the American public and the government to
confront issues of racism, poverty and inequality in
this country as dramatically exposed by Katrina.

urbal_renewal_taxi_1970 In January at the Institute of
the Black World 21st Century (IBW) "State of the Black
World Forum" in Washington D.C., during discussion on
creating a "New Force in Black America" to revitalize
the Black Freedom Struggle, New York City Councilman
Charles Barron remarked that neither the Democratic
Party nor the Congressional Black Caucus has clearly
signaled what explicitly "Black issues" they are
prepared to advance since Democrats took control of
Congress. In this regard it is important to remember
that the Six Point Democratic Program for recapturing
control of Congress did not include Katrina/New
Orleans. Moreover, Katrina/New Orleans was completely
absent from President Bush's State of the Union
Address.

While there was no noticeable outcry from Black leaders
protesting this disgraceful omission, Capital Hill
insiders indicate that the Congressional Black Caucus
is focusing on aid/assistance for New Orleans and the
Gulf as a major priority. With Blacks once again
demonstrating unflinching loyalty to the Democratic
Party in the critical mid-term elections, however,
there is still the overarching and compelling question
as to what "race specific" initiatives will be advanced
by the Democratic leadership in Congress to address
crucial Black issues and concerns. Black America needs
an answer to that question, and I believe that one of
the responses ought to be to revive the concept of a
Domestic Marshall Plan targeted at rebuilding New
Orleans and America's "dark ghettos."

"The Six Point Democratic Program for recapturing
control of Congress did not include Katrina/New
Orleans."

I presented this idea at a recent Policy Institute
convened by the Black Family Summit of IBW at Howard
University. In so doing, I reminded the assembled
organization heads, scholars and activists that it is
important to realize that Katrina is a metaphor for the
disaster wrought on Black America's urban and rural
communities by years of benign and blatant neglect.
This was/is manifested by the almost total abandonment
of pro-active and corrective policies for problems of
inner-city and rural communities by Democratic and
Republic administrations. The toll on Black America,
especially on Black working class and poor people, has
been devastating. Many urban inner-city areas are like
zones of desolation and despair, racked by chronic
unemployment, underemployment, poverty, inadequate
health facilities, environmental degradation, poor
performing schools, the infestation of drugs, crime,
gangs, the illicit economy, fear, police occupation and
terror - all feeding a prison-jail industrial complex
where Black and Brown people are the primary fodder. As
depicted on the television series "The Wire," life in
America's dark ghettos can be deadly and destructive of
the aspirations of a people; the tragic consequence of
broken individuals, families and
communities.cityscapeWclouds

Most importantly, contrary to the exhortations of
"America's Dad," Bill Cosby, this is a fate which is
not of our own choosing. Nor are these the same
"ghettos" that past generations grew up in around the
country. As William Julius Wilson observes, in the face
of globalization, massive de-industrialization and the
calculated shrinking of ameliorative public programs
and services under the guise of creating a more
efficient government, the most disadvantaged of our
people are living in communities where "work has
virtually disappeared." Moreover, there is an almost
total collapse of supportive community based
institutions like settlement houses, health care
centers, hospitals and viable schools. And, African
Americans in past generations did not grow up in
communities where guns and drugs were so readily
available and violence and deadly force was endemic to
daily life.

"Ethnic cleansing is afoot in New Orleans."

Currently there is no acceptable response to our plight
by policymakers in Washington. Total neglect or the
conservative mantra of "blame the victim," is the order
of the day. To the degree that there has been a
response, it has been by developers moving in, aided
and abetted by local governments, to displace Black
working class and poor people from their neighborhoods,
scattering them hither and thither as Whites have
decided to recapture the "Chocolate Cities" of this
nation. Gentrification has become the "Negro removal
program" of the 21st century. It is precisely this kind
of "ethnic cleansing" program that is afoot in New
Orleans as local developers attempt to remake this
African city to create a Disney World, theme park
environment.

While we must continue to urge our people who are
imprisoned by these conditions to do all they can to
assume responsibility for rising above and overcoming
the pathology which now afflicts them/us, we must be
clear that the racist and exploitive policies of
government are primarily responsible for our plight.
Ultimately we must compel the government to rescue and
transform this nation's dark ghettos. And this will
require a massive allocation of resources, not only to
improve the physical environment but to heal and
restore broken lives and communities. The
transformation of America's dark ghettos demands
nothing less than a program equivalent to a Domestic
Marshall Plan.

Long advocated by the National Urban League under the
leadership of John E. Jacob but de-prioritized by his
successor Hugh A. Price, the concept of a Domestic
Marshall Plan was derived from the massive and
unprecedented expenditure of U.S. resources to rebuild
Europe and Japan after World War II. Mr. Jacobs
consistently questioned why the United States could not
rebuild urban areas here in America in the same way it
had rebuilt entire foreign nations. The same question
is relevant today. How is it that America can instantly
find billions of dollars to wage an ill conceived, ill
advised and illegal war in Iraq, including billions to
rebuild this strife-riven nation, and not muster
sufficient resources to expeditiously rebuild New
Orleans, the Gulf and transform the dark ghettos of
this prosperous land? Black America must muster the
resolve to compel America to respond in the affirmative
to this question.

"How is it that America can instantly find billions of
dollars to wage an ill conceived, ill advised and
illegal war in Iraq, and not muster sufficient
resources to expeditiously rebuild New Orleans."

Every organization that gathered for the Black Family
Summit Policy Institute, e.g., National Association of
Black Social Workers, National Medical Association,
National Association of Black Psychologists, Mental
Health Healers Alliance, National Association of Black
Veterans, International Association of Black
Professional Firefighters is engaged in treating some
aspect of the malady which afflicts our most destitute
and desperate communities. Each organization has
specific initiatives and programs designed to address
some dimension of the crisis. The value of these
efforts notwithstanding, strategically, I believe it is
imperative that a broad ranging collective of
organizations and agencies come together to adopt a
comprehensive/holistic, consensus strategy/approach to
address the desperate and deteriorating conditions in
America's dark ghettos - an approach that must
prescribe solutions to the physical, cultural,
educational, spiritual and social justice aspects of
the crises.

At a minimum the approach must include affordable
housing, public service employment, job training,
environmentally sustainable community economic
development, quality education based on culturally
inclusive curricula, Black adoptions, drug and alcohol
abuse counseling and treatment, AIDS counseling and
treatment, community based health centers with
facilities for mental health, community organizers,
gang prevention programs, re-entry programs for
formerly incarcerated persons and civic engagement and
empowerment programs. The same approach should apply to
rural communities with an additional focus on Black
land retention and programs to assist and enhance the
viability of Black farmers and agriculturalists.

At the end of his life Martin Luther King and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference were planning
a Poor People's Campaign as a way of articulating the
concept of an Economic Bill of Rights to guarantee a
basic quality of life for Black people and all
Americans. Similarly, Malcolm X was urging us to
control the politics and social life of our
communities, and to see our struggle not just as a
fight for civil rights but human rights as well. The
idea that oppressed people should exercise the power to
control their communities and the conviction that every
person in this country is entitled to enjoy certain
basic human rights, as articulated in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, should constitute guiding
principles for our approach to resolving the crises in
our communities.

"It is time to draw a line in the sand to rescue and
transform our communities."

While the Domestic Marshall Plan concept captures the
spirit of what I am advocating and has a familiar ring
for policymakers and the public, given the scope and
character of the approach envisioned, it might be more
appropriate to call this proposal the Martin Luther
King-Malcolm X Community Revitalization Initiative. In
addition, it is important to have a title which
resonates in the Black community as the base
constituency for this initiative. It is also important
to indicate that this initiative should not be viewed
as a substitute for affirmative action or, ultimately,
reparations, as policy prescriptions to repair past and
present damage to Africans in America as a consequence
of the long and tragic travail of enslavement and
racial apartheid in this country.

It is time to draw a line in the sand to rescue and
transform our communities. It is time to mobilize the
political muscle to demand that the Congress of the
United States and the President implement a
comprehensive/holistic program to rebuild depressed and
oppressed communities in this nation. Accordingly, as
a vital exercise in operational unity, I am suggesting
a Black and people of color led Emergency Mobilization,
April 4th to May 19th as the first phase of a campaign
to create public awareness of the plight of America's
dark ghettos and to demand the enactment of the Martin
Luther King-Malcolm X Community Revitalization
Initiative. We must mobilize Black people to take the
lead in issuing a clarion call to end the war in Iraq,
rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf and invest in
transforming America's dark ghettos, reservations and
neighborhoods.

I am proposing April 4th because it is the date Martin
Luther King delivered his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To
Break Silence" speech at Riverside Church in 1967, and
the date he was assassinated one year later in Memphis
as he was preparing to launch the Poor People's
Campaign. May 19th is the birthday of El Hajj Malik El
Shabazz, our "Black Shining Prince," Malcolm X who
increasingly viewed the struggle of Africans in America
as a human rights struggle. Hence, we capture the
vision, spirit and courage of two of Black America's
seminal leaders in advancing a powerful concept for the
rebuilding and restoration of America's dark ghettos. I
would also like to dedicate this Initiative to the
memory of Damu Smith, our young ancestor, veteran
social and political activist, founder of the National
Black Environmental Justice Network and Black Voices
for Peace; a stalwart in the struggle for liberation of
people of African descent and oppressed humanity.

The intensive emergency mobilization would be preceded
by working sessionsDL &W Railroad Willow with scholars
and policymakers to flesh out the basic elements of the
MLK-Malcolm X Initiative. IBW would also craft a
proclamation outlining the rationale for the Initiative
and a call to action. The model Initiative and
proclamation would be released April 4th followed by a
National Forum on the subject in Washington, D.C.,
April 6th where leading scholars, policy makers and
activists would address the importance of the
Initiative. A similar forum would be convened by the
New York area IBW Ujima Support Committee April 7th to
kick-off an extensive nationwide education campaign
utilizing Black talk radio, Black newspapers, the
internet and the majority media to promote the
Initiative and mobilize constituencies/participants for
a March/Rally in Washington, D.C. May 19th.

"America has the opportunity to erase the ugly images
of Katrina from the consciousness of the world by
transforming America's dark ghettos."

May 19th would mark the culmination of the first phase
of an ongoing campaign/mobilization to build public
support for the enactment of the Initiative including
injecting the idea into the presidential campaign. The
forthcoming State of the Black World Conference II,
tentatively scheduled for November 28th - December 2nd
this fall in New Orleans, would be another major focal
point for galvanizing support for the Initiative.
Ultimately, Africans in America and our allies must
generate sufficient momentum to force the Democratic
Party, which has taken Blacks for granted for too long,
and a nation which has been in denial about the
debilitating effects of racism, poverty and inequality
on Blacks and people of color, to take an affirmative
stand in favor of this vital Initiative.

America has the opportunity to erase the ugly images of
Katrina from the consciousness of the world by
transforming America's dark ghettos. There is no better
way to achieve this mission than by doing for the
dispossessed in this country what this nation so
magnanimously did for Europe and Japan after World War
II. Americans must demand that the U.S. government end
the war in Iraq, seal the "demonic suction tube" that
is draining vast resources away from urgent domestic
needs and massively invest in rescuing and transforming
America's dark ghettos. Africans in America and the
oppressed must settle for nothing less.

Organizations, agencies and individuals interested in
contributing ideas about this proposed Initiative or
organizing to support the campaign should visit the
website www.ibw21.org Email IBW at info@ibw21.org

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