On July 6, D.C. Councilmember Brandon Todd convened a hearing on upgrading the District’s board that studies Black life in the city. Todd, a Ward 4 Democrat and chairman of the Committee on Government Operations, presided over a public hearing on two bills: The Office on African American Affairs Establishment Act of 2017 and Commission on African American History and Culture Establishment Act of 2017. “This room is packed,” the council member said. “We should celebrate African-American history not only in February but all year.”

D.C. Council member Brandon Todd, chairman of the Committee on Government Operations, recently began proceedings to build up the city’s Commission of African American Affairs. (Courtesy photo)

D.C. Councilmembers Robert White (D-At Large) and Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) attended the hearing and voiced support for Todd’s efforts.

Even though the commission was created in 2015, it lacked a legislative presence, because it was not authorized by the council, which prohibited it from receiving any substantial city funds or having any grant-making authority with city funds. Todd’s bills would establish the commission legislatively, which would give it grant-making authority for Black history projects and programs as well as serve as a government advocate for the interests of Blacks.

In 1970, the District received national publicity when the U.S. Census Bureau reported it to be 71.1 percent Black, which outpaced other major cities in the country. However, by 2010, the number of Blacks in the District declined to 51 percent, according to the census, and the White population was at 40 percent. In a recent report, the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute stated that Black residents are the only racial or ethnic group to see an increase in their poverty rate since 2007 and that 27 percent of Blacks in the District live in poverty, up from 23 percent in 2007. And nearly three quarters of all District residents who live in poverty are Black. The median income for White D.C. households was $120,000 in 2015 compared to $41,000 for Black households.

“The Federal City Alumnae Chapter was chartered in Washington, D.C. in 1969, one year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the ensuing riots that nearly destroyed our fair city,” Toni McIntosh Harper, vice president of programs for the Federal City Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta said. “The riots of 1968 are pivotal point in the history of Washington, D.C. Many White residents of the city fled to the suburbs, causing a shift in demographics.

“By 1980, approximately 70 percent of D.C. residents identified as African American, earning DC the nickname ‘Chocolate City.’ Understandably then, one would argue that the need for a commission to address the concerns of African Americans didn’t seem necessary. Despite congressional oversight, politicians, police officers, and many other professionals running the city were African American.”

Harper said with the decline of the Black population it is imperative that “the historical contributions of African Americans to the history of Washington, D.C., especially of those that worked hard to rebuild and repair the city after the devastation of the riots” is preserved.

Maurice Jackson, inaugural chairman of the commission, testified that he agreed to serve as its chairman with reservations. “Key among them was the extent of support the committee would receive from city officials and agencies,” he said. “There was no office, supplies, or staff.”

Still Jackson persevered and issued a report “The Health of the African American Community in the District of Columbia: Disparities and Recommendations” published in the fall of 2016. The report recommended that the District employ a racial equity approach when conducting community health needs assessments, develop formal mechanisms to proactively examine planning efforts, analyze service utilization and morbidity data by race/ethnicity, zip code or neighborhood, and develop strategic partnerships with community-based organizations to hone in on specific geographic populations, policies and business decisions that may disproportionately impact people of color. This fall, he said he plans to publish a report on the housing, employment, and population trends of Blacks in the city.

Ivory Johnson, the president of 100 Black Men of Greater Washington, D.C., said the commission could influence the District school’s public and charter school system to educate students about the failed war on drugs that negatively impacted Blacks and Latinos in the 1980s and 1990s and the suspension rate where Blacks are disciplined more harshly than Whites.

“This is a joke. If the District government was doing what it was supposed to do, we wouldn’t need this,” Ari Theresa, an attorney told the AFRO.