Emory University students get an up-close tour of Freddie Gray’s Baltimore, and its problems http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-emory-visitors-20151206-story.html

One Divided Baltimore Dual Enrollment student’s story on how Renaissance Academy has changed his life. “What Renaissance Academy can do for its students”: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-renaissance-academy-letter-20151120-story.html

Governor Hogan shared his vision for Baltimore’s future in the Baltimore Sun on Sunday, September 20–see: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bs-ed-hogan-baltimore-20150917-story.html

The Governor’s comments will be a useful background for community forums on September 21 and 28, as well as those toward the end of semester when we address solutions.   (See the updated Community Forum Schedule)

See also from Sunday’s Sun an advertisement and related commentary on structural racism at: www.BaltimoreAspenWorkgroup.org

We have introduced the idea of structural racism in the course. Here is a source for more information. You will see that the Baltimore Aspen Workgroup has also recognized our course.

November 23rd’s community forum focuses on thinking about Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization. We’ve asked Wes Moore to share how he imagines the future, and then a long-time community leader who thinks about neighborhood revitalization to share his thoughts: JC Faulk on Conscious Neighborhood Revitalization.

And for a treat, community members are hosting a potluck Thanksgiving dinner following the evening’s forum.  We will provide plates and flatware as well as water.  Please feel free to bring something to share and enjoy the camaraderie following the presentations and discussion.

On Novermber 30th, we will be exploring solutions and welcoming Scot T. Spencer from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and co-leader of the Opportunities Collaborative Report, along with Maurice Taylor from Morgan State University to share the plan he and his colleagues have been working on.

December 7th is our last community forum with presenters, and Michael Cryor will share with us the plan for OneBaltimore. As a special treat, D. Watkins, UB graduate, will comment.  Most important, however, we will have the first of several student presentations on Baltimore’s future. Those will continue on December 14th, and we hope community members will attend then as well.

I hope to see you at as many of these evening forums as possible.

Joe Wood, Provost and Moderator for Divided Baltimore

I want to thank all of the students and community members who have participated in Divided Baltimore’s community forum. You have contributed to very lively discussions, and all of us are learning a great deal about the city in which we live and work.

Now, as we move past the half-way point in the course, I want to share with you the scheduled speakers for future community forums:

10/26 – “How does the media report manifestations of segregation?” will include Adam Marton of the Baltimore Sun and A. Adar Ayira from Associated Black Charities.

11/2 – For “Democracy, Public Policy, and Government: What is the Role of Government in solving the problem of segregation?” we have:

*Dr. Leena Wen, City of Baltimore’s public health commissioner;

*Victoria Schultz, UB Law and Sara Pratt, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Federal Housing Policy: From Barrier to Benefit in Baltimore

*Martha McKenna, partner in the Democratic political media-consulting firm McKenna Pihlaja and Antonio Hayes, House of Delegates – “Politics On The Streets of Baltimore”
11/9 – We have a special treat this evening on the role of culture and the arts and social entrepreneurship. Derick Ebert—Baltimore’s poet laureate and UB Divided Baltimore student–will read some his work in partnership with Kenneth Morrison of Dew More. Shelia Gaskins will talk about Artpartheid, and UB faculty member JC Weiss will address social entrepreneurship.

11/16 – “What is the role of churches and community leaders?” will feature Rev. Kevin Slayton from New Waverly United Methodist Church – “A History of Blind Faith”, A. Adar Ayira from Associated Black Charities – “Playing Your Position”, and Dayvon Love from Leaders of the Beautiful Struggle.

Starting then, we will begin to focus on community development and imagining the future of Baltimore with the following:

On 11/23 we have Wes Moore and JC Faulk.

On 11/30 we have the Opportunities Collaborative team with Scot T. Spencer, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Bill Cole, Baltimore Development Corporation; along with a report on the Morgan State University research study with Maurice Taylor.

We conclude on 12/7 with “Imagining One Baltimore” with Michael Cryor, executive director of OneBaltimore.

Starting on 12/7 and continuing on 12/14 students enrolled in the course will present their own visions of the future.

And then we will try to determine how to improve the course for another semester…..

I hope to see you at as many community forums as possible, but remember that you can always catch the video stream at a later time.

Today’s digital edition of the New York Times has a feature article on Baltimore that includes reference to our course–see:

(This post has comments from our community members.)

A Fragile Baltimore Struggles to Heal Itself
Six months since the death of Freddie Gray after a police encounter, the city is on edge as it seeks new leadership and the trials of six police officers approach….

The link for the article is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/us/a-fragile-baltimore-struggles-to-heal-itself.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

The link for the video is:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000003973175/uniting-a-divided-baltimore.html

Note especially one of the videos embedded in the article. It highlights one of our sessions, and it includes a profile on our GA, Sonce Reese.

In this blog post, I’m taking the course moderator’s prerogative to reflect on what we are trying to accomplish in Divided Baltimore.

We are trying to make meaning out of the condition of our lives in Baltimore. As one of our students put it after hearing Betsy Nix’s lecture on how Baltimore became segregated, “With this course, I (already) can begin to understand my whole life!”

We are about making meaning by:

1) understanding the historical context—how did we get here?

2) understanding the forces that work on our present condition—how do we live today in Baltimore?

3) imagining a different way to live—where do we go from here?

And if someone asks why we are undertaking this topic, I would argue that we are promoting reflection, discernment, civic advocacy, and, thereby, democratic participation—-all of the purposes of the American university since Thomas Jefferson created the University of Virginia.

For the first few weeks we have looked at the historical, geographical, and personal context. We then began to try understanding the forces that work on our present condition. In a few weeks, we will begin to focus on imagining a different way to live for all of us. As I have argued in our early community forums, we are not necessarily about THE solution, although it would be great if that might emerge from the forum. But as we come to understand our circumstance, and can make some meaning of it, we will begin to imagine a different future. That is what we are trying to accomplish in this course.

The following report complements well much of what we learned about banking, credit, and home ownership in the community forum last evening–9/21. See how Baltimore compares to other cities, and how cities compare to their immediate suburban counties.

http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/

The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up: How Your Area Compares

And feel free to comment.

For both Divided Baltimore students and community participants in our Monday forums, I have new recommendations for readings, following on my first recommendation that you read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Case for Reparations.”

In its September issue, The Atlantic published “Letter to My Son,” an essay adapted from his book, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015), which we have also mentioned previously. See: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/tanehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me/397619/

In its October issue, you can find his article, “The Black Family in the Age of Incarceration,” which revisits the 1965 Moynihan Report, in effect updating it and rehabilitating it.   See:  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/

I share these articles, because they provide an excellent background for what we will be addressing in upcoming communities forums–on housing segregation and family wealth (9/21), employment (9/28), education (10/5) and the justice and court system (10/12).  An updated schedule will be posted on Monday, September 21.

Although I recommend both articles–indeed all three by Coates–I strongly recommend for our forum on segregation and the courts Parts IV and V in the “The Black Family in the Age of Incarceration,” in which Coates reflects on the construction of blacks as criminals and as fugitives.

Please feel free to comment in order to expand the conversation.

To understand why we are offering the Divided Baltimore course, and especially why a historical context is necessary, one need only reflect on the Kerner Commission Report of 1968, excerpts from which follow here:

From the 1968 Kerner Commission Report on civil disorder came the following Recommendations for National Action:*

Introduction
            No American—white or black—can escape the consequences of the continuing social and economic decay of our major cities.
Only a commitment to national action on an unprecedented scale can shape a future compatible with the historic ideals of American society.
The great productivity of our economy, and a federal revenue system which is highly responsive to economic growth, can provide the resources.
The major need is to generate new will—the will to tax ourselves to the extent necessary to meet the vital needs of the nation.
We have set forth goals and proposed strategies to reach these goals. We discuss and recommend programs not to commit each of us to specific parts of such programs but to illustrate the type and dimension of action needed.
The major goal is the creation of a true nation—a single society and singe American identity. Toward that goal, we propose the following objectives for national action:

>Opening up opportunities to those who are restricted by racial segregation and discrimination, and eliminating all barriers to their choice of jobs education and housing.
            >Removing the frustration of powerlessness among the disadvantaged by providing the means for them to deal with the problems that affect their own lives and by increasing the capacity of our public and private institutions to respond to these problems.
            >Increasing communication cross racial lines to destroy stereotypes, to halt polarization, and end distrust and hostility, and create common ground for efforts toward public order and social justice.

We propose these aims to fulfill our pledge of equality and to meet the fundamental needs of a democratic and civilized society—domestic peace and social justice.
…

Conclusion
            One of the first witnesses to be invited to appear before this Commission was Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, a distinguished and perceptive scholar. Referring to reports of earlier riot commissions, he said:

           I read that report … of the 1919 riot in Chicago, and it is as if I were reading the report of the investigating committee on the Harlem riot of ’35, the report of the investigating committee on the Harem riot of ’43, the report of the McCone Commission on the Watts riot [of 1965].
         I must again in candor say to you members of this commission—it is a kind of Alice in Wonderland—with the same moving picture re-shown over and over again, the same analysis, the same recommendations, and the same inaction.

These words come to our minds as we conclude this report.
We have provided an honest beginning. We have learned much. But we have uncovered no startling truths, no unique insights, no simple solutions. The destruction and the bitterness of racial disorder, the harsh polemics of black revolt and white repression have been seen and heard before in this country.
It is time now to end the destruction and the violence, not only in the streets of the ghetto but in the lives of people.

*Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Books, 1968, pp. 23-29.