It was not difficult for U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO) to answer the question that formed the premise of an event Saturday at the Missouri History Museum, which Clay described as “one of the jewels of my Congressional district.”
Upon the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Missouri History Museum posed the question: “Has the Dream been realized?”
“We both concluded it had not been realized,” Clay told the American.
Of course, Clay represents the majority-black 1st Congressional District of Missouri. Waters, who represents California’s 35th Congressional District in and around Los Angeles, is a Kinloch native and Vashon High School alumna who is still followed closely by many in St. Louis.
Though Clay acknowledged that Dr. King would be “amazed” had he lived to see an African-American president of the United States, he would also see much of his dream still deferred in 2009.
“He would be disappointed to see huge disparities still exist in access to health care, median income, rates of homeownership and morbidity,” Clay said, noting some of the racial disparities identified in the 2009 State of Black America report released recently by the National Urban League.
“We have to deal with the second phase of the Civil Rights Movement: the economic opportunity the black community needs at this point.”
Waters – whom Clay introduced as “my colleague, my friend, and a true giant of the House of Representatives” – was very direct in urging the 200 or so in attendance to seize economic opportunity.
In an audience question period, Waters was asked what she had to say to people who didn’t want to go to college. The congresswoman urged everyone to pursue continuing education out of economic motive, if no other, because high school graduates on average make less money than college graduates.
Money of a larger magnitude also is on Clay’s mind, as President Obama’s stimulus package continues to get rolled out and distributed to state and municipal governments and other agencies.
Clay argued that Obama’s stimulus plan represents a “blueprint” for the economic revival of the African-American community in that “it targets economically distressed areas.”
Clay said he hopes some $5.4 million in federal stimulus funds reaches St. Louis Public Schools to fund a project to eradicate all lead-based paint from district buildings.
After a community effort led to a large extent by the local teacher’s union, the district’s appointed administrative board recently announced that it would find the money to make the district lead-free.
Obama appoints Census director
As chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, Clay also has been adamant that a thorough Census report on urban areas in 2010 would have a tremendous economic impact on minority communities when data from that Census begins to influence funding decisions.
Last week Obama nominated Robert M. Groves, a survey expert at the University of Michigan, as director of the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Dr. Groves is a nationally recognized expert in statistical research and survey methodology,” Clay said in a statement.
“I look forward to working closely with him to reduce the undercount of minorities and to increase the mail-back response for the Census questionnaire.”
