On Jan. 20 we celebrated throughout the country the birth of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was one of the greatest leaders this world has ever known. Not, just in Civil Rights, but across the board.
But the question that is still being asked, 46 years after his death in 1968, is “Are conditions for Blacks better, worse, or the same?”
Most people are saying they are better. Why? Because now we can spend our money anywhere we want? There are no signs saying For Whites Only, For Colored Only, yet stores are moving further and further away from the inner cities to get away from Blacks. Which means it’s harder for Blacks to shop in the inner cities of this country, and that you very rarely see a Black face working at most of these suburban stores, or the construction crews building all these stores and the roads leading to them. Now since the King’s day, more Blacks are able to sleep without the fear of being lynched or having their lives destroyed. This should help in the struggle you would think. But has it improved the conditions for the Black masses?
Well, first let’s take a look at the housing patterns. In Pittsburgh, like most cities, the population is dropping in public schools while the percentage of Blacks is rising. What that really means is more White parents are leaving the city for the suburbs to not just get their kids out of failing schools as they are saying, but really to get their kids out of schools with a large percentage of Blacks. Because they, along with many Blacks these days, automatically link Black and failing together.
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