The Covenant with Black America - Ten Years LaterTavis Smiley In 2006, Tavis Smiley teamed up with other leaders in the Black community to create a national plan of action to address the ten most crucial issues facing African Americans. The Covenant with Black America, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller, ran the gamut from health care to criminal justice, affordable housing to education, voting rights to racial divides. But a decade later, Black men still fall to police bullets and brutality, Black women still die from preventable diseases, Black children still struggle to get a high quality education, the digital divide and environmental inequality still persist, and American cities from Ferguson to Baltimore burn with frustration. In short, the last decade has seen the evaporation of Black wealth, with Black fellow citizens having lost ground in nearly every leading economic category. So Smiley calls for a renewal of The Covenant, presenting in this new edition the original action plan--with a new foreword and conclusion--alongside fresh data from the Indiana University School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA) to underscore missed opportunities and the work that remains to be done. While life for far too many African Americans remains a struggle, the great freedom fighter Frederick Douglass was right: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." With Smiley leading the charge, the time has come to finally convert the trials and tribulations of Black America into the progress that all of America yearns for. |
Contents
Establishing a System of Public Education | 27 |
Correcting the System of Unequal Justice | 51 |
Fostering Accountable CommunityCentered Policing | 79 |
Ensuring Broad Access to Affordable | 107 |
Claiming Our Democracy | 133 |
Strengthening Our Rural Roots | 153 |
Accessing Good Jobs Wealth and Economic Prosperity | 171 |
Assuring Environmental Justice for | 197 |
Closing the Racial Digital Divide | 221 |
Cornel West | 241 |
Acknowledgments | 279 |
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adults affordable housing African American African American community areas Black Americans Black community broadband Center citizens civil rights color County Covenant created crime criminal justice system cultural CWBA Dickson County digital divide disparities disproportionate drug economic elected officials ensure environmental justice ethnic Executive Order 12898 farmers federal funding Hispanic homeownership households Hurricane Katrina Ibid improve incarcerated income increased Internet Katrina Leader and Elected levels live low-income ment million minority National neighborhoods opportunities organizations percent of African percent of Black percent of white Pew Research Center police departments population poverty prison programs public transit race racial profiling rates reform residents right to vote rural Black Sentencing social Tavis Smiley tion toxic U.S. Census Bureau U.S. Department United urban voters Voting Rights Voting Rights Act white Americans youth