Newark, a focus in newark because of the history of struggle here, protracted struggle, rebellion, resistance, triumph, tragedy, and moving forward, and the eventual ascension to the office of mayor of roz j. Baraka. Give it up. [ cheers and applause ] but its not just about him and i will never forget, i was struck by his slogan, hit me. He said when i become mayor, we become mayor. Right. And what that said was this is ujima, collective work and responsibility, and so there are policies being elam naboratedel. Last year we talked about a marshal plan becauses called for a marshal plan and we are going to work toward the creation of a marshal plan to get massive investment in these cities. No matter what our mayors do, for all of the good efforts that are made, unless we can get massive resources in our community, we are not going to be able to solve all the problems. So we must fight for reparations and we must fight for marshal plan. [ applause ] now of course this question of struggling justification is not without controversy. Its complex. Its difficult. And so there are voices who may agree and disagreen a and that fine. Disagreement as long as its constructive and intended to help move the process, it should be welcomed. Nobody ever said it would be comfortable. It has to be creative tension and out of that creative tension comes better partnerships. It sharpens our analysis and our thinking. I want to put that out there. This is not about a blanket endorsement of anyone. It is about an understanding that someone has the right vision, the right direction, because where there is no vision we for sure know the people will perish. So vision is the most important thing, and values behind that. So we just wanted to lay that out there in terms of where were going. We will be back to newark. Across this country, black people and black institutions are being displaced so we came here to newark, because there are at least efforts that are being made to try to mitigate this. It doesnt mean thats necessarily always being successful because gentrification is a monster. It aint the first time that black people have been removed. Thats what we talked about the negro removed in the 21st century. Last century it was urban renewal. As long as White Supremacy is in place and a capitalist political economy, we will always be challenged until we transform that system. [ applause ] so now i want to introduce a number of other people to you, because we had this summit for the last couple of days. It was a summit so everybody couldnt come to the summit because it was a summit. We convened some of the most brilliant minds, activists, organizers, elected officials, faith leaders, all across this country to come and deliberate and share our ideas about how we are going to deal with this crisis, and we are going to deal with it. In fact, david harris from the Charles HamiltonHouston Institute for race and justice from harvard, he said you know, ron, we came here under an emergency, but we are now emerging. Yeah. We are emerging. We will be victorious. We want to let you know we cant introduce them all because that would be too difficult. We want to have all of the resource people who came from all across the country just to stand up so people can see you. [ applause ] yeah. Yeah. All right, thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. All right, thank you very much. Now id like to introduce the panel today and the format is a conversational format. This is format to try to tap into the wisdom, the ideas, the experiences of these folks on the stage who have come from different cities from across the country, from different disciplines, different experiences, different expertise, to share with you and among themselves a part of what weve been thinking about, what weve been trying to do in terms of dealing with gentrification. Let me just start in no particular order, they can just give a wave and starting off with dr. Jeffrey lowe, associate professor in the department of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern university from houston, texas. Give him a wave. [ applause ] and returning, the return of the native son, i was so happy because i knew him from the jackson camp andy meon, one of your favorites here for you many, many years. He is now the president of the council of bishops of ame church. He is president of all the ame bishops. Would you please welcome your own Bishop Reginald jackson. L m lee the community of Economic Development from the great city of new orleans. Next brother needs no introduction, revolutionary in office, assem blaeman Charles Barron from East New York. [ applause ] all the way from omaha, nebraska, the africanamerican Empowerment Network in omaha and my judgment one of the most formidable powerful models of operational unity i know, would you please welcome willie barney. [ applause ] and you know, one of our Favorite Places happens to be down somewhere in mississippi, right . We got a whole lot of love for jackson, mississippi, right . Well, mayor lamumba couldnt be here. He apologized. He sent his chief of staff dr. Sophia amari, chief of staff for mayor lamumba. [ applause ] and of course, she needs no introduction either because she is like everywhere. She is a bad sister. Yall know her well. She just gets stuff done. She was on my radio show the other day and she almost took the show over, but thats all right. And thats frederica bayh, all right . And thats women in support of the million man march and has she been supporting the million man march, a great servant. Also we have joining us shortly if he hasnt already, chairman larry hamm. Did chairman larry hamm show up . The chairman. [ cheers and applause ] the chairman larry hamm is in the house. And finally another brilliant mind, one of the great faith leaders in this country has come to join us all the way from oakland, california, he is with the Live Free Initiative of the faith in action, they call him pastor mike, it is reverend michael mcbride, all the way from berkeley, california. [ applause ] reverend . And last but not least, my dear friend, who has been the one who has moderated in so many things, you see him on msnbc, his own radio program, did i forget dr. Julianne malveaux, i dont want to get smacked, all right, so i was going down my list. Yall know her, right . I dont want to miss her. She is black americas leading political economist and much more, the president emeritus of Bentley College for women, dr. Julianne malveaux is in the house. [ cheers and applause ] and before i forget i have to say because on your program you have danny glover, right . But i have to apologize for danny. Listen to me carefully. Danny was here yesterday. He was in new york, planning an event for Harry Belafonte but hes a film star in television and had to go back for a shooting but sends his regrets. You know danny is with us. You know he loves us so he sends his love and respect so lets give it up for danny glover anyhow. [ applause ] i guess i forgot another one. Oh, yeah. Okay, all right. Get it together, ron. And also from the rainbow push coalition, the Vice President and chief strategy for engagement programs of the rainbow push coalition, reverend dr. Sheridan todd yeri. From chicago. Thank you, reverend dylan for saving me from myself. And by the way, the way well do this is a conversation, moderated by my dear beloved friend coming up, time permitting. We will have index cards and well hopefully entertain a few questions, but the way well do it is youll raise your hand, get index cards to you, take the first four, see how that rolls. At the conclusionthe day, the m important thing is that we hear from our host, thats how we are rolling. Moderating the session, every time you turn on msnbc, he is on, my dear beloved friend dr. Mark thompson. Thank you, all right, god bless you. What it is. It is good to be here in newark, new jersey, i was just at reverend al sharptons convention, and i just interviewed cory booker a few minutes ago, and i want to let doctor mcdaniels and others to know i did my best to get him to change his schedule to be with us, we almost did it, but he also sends his greetings, as well, and understands the importance of this conversation. In terms of the elected officials, he was a student at howard university, in 1990, reverend wilson remembers we organized the student boycott of virginia beach, virginia, black lives matter is a new term, but our struggle has been going on all these years, and you remember what happened with the students at virginia beach, a place we always went to on labor day weekend, i want to acknowledge the longevity of the mayor, ras barakas , relationship, we had no idea where would be, it could have gone the other way, but god has put us in the position to continue to serve our people, and he is continuing in the footsteps of the great ken gibson, and his father, amiri baraka. Give a round of applause again. [ applause ] we were together in 1990, i usually tell people im a millennial, dont tell anybody. That 1990 story doesnt leave this room okay . All right, doctor ron daniels, i have a lot of affection for ron, because i know the sacrifices he makes for our people. He is not someone who is in the socalled celebrity echelon so to speak. He works so hard, and tirelessly, it is really very touching, you feel bad, and i see anybody i can do to help you, he takes it all on himself. At a stage in life there thats where a lot of folks are giving up, he has not done that. He himself, even though they were somewhat. , peers, we needed to figure out whos going to pick up the mantle in terms of conscious and woke academia. People going to the big ivory towers, they are not in touch with our people, ron has continued to do that, and has been a consummate organizer, think things, things like this, going all the way to the first black convention in gary, indiana, so we are just so thankful for what he does and what he continues to do. And i dont mind saying it, youre on cspan, sirius xm, he holds the record of any individual of having cspan broadcast as events. Is events. They say, how can i get on c span, get ron daniels, cspan will be right there. [ laughter ] give doctor ron daniels a warm round of applause for everything he does and everything he is. [ applause ] and doctor matt ron walters, we were dr. Ron walters. I made a decision that i would have dr. Ron walters come and sit with dyck gregory,. A working definition of self determination. Dick gregory. Self determination, a peoples command and control of their own cultural death destiny their own cultural destiny. And their own political destiny, without any external interference from any external forces. When we talk about this issue of gentrification, that is not selfdetermination. People decide where we live, where we move, what we do, they want to live into the suburbs, you can move back into the city, and if we want to move into the city, you have to move out, we cant have anything. Whos to say 50 years from now, they pushes out of the city, we want the suppers back, you have to move back into the city. That is not living, that is not being in control of ourselves as a free people. That is why this conversation is important. We will begin the conversation in the narrative, each of the panelists, joe responded to this shall respond to this, what does gentrification look like in your community, based on your organization or institution . This will give us a greater picture of how this is happening, for this International Audience that is watching, we know what is happening, but the panelists will give us more specifics and detail on what is happening right where they can see it. We will go down the line. Good evening, thank you dr. Daniels, friday night you could be anywhere, but you want to suck up some knowledge, so we appreciated. Doctor mcdaniels asked me to provide some cultural context to the gentrification, it is an assault, been there, and done that, africanamerican people were losing, the 2008 recession caused us to lose a significant amount of wealth, and opening the possibility for land takeover. In the wake of enslavement, i have this computer here, not because i need it, but a couple of numbers i need to have, 1880, black folks at one dollar for every 36 that white people had. In 1890, one dollar for every 26. 1900, 23, 1910, 16. But dig this. Today we have seven dollars for every 100 white folks have, or one dollar for every 18, from a wealth accumulation perspective, we are worse off. In 2018, then we were 1910. We were enslaved, or just out of enslavement, all these degrees, folks got running around. We did not have those degrees then, 1 in 100 of us, and know better than high schools really. Our churchgoing brothers and sisters, baking cakes, able to accumulate in ways we had never before now, and what happened . First of all, there is nothing trifling about the black community collectively, when we talk about the wealth gap, well tell you we have some deficiencies, we do not, we live in an era with posterity, and economic envy, when we get it, white folks wanted, that is just how it goes. In 1910 we had over 100 black owned banks, now we have 23, some of it was changing Bank Regulations that were intentional. And he was ostentatious, they took his bank, they said he was arrogant, they put it on a piece of paper. One of his contemporaries was the first black woman to start a bank, it was called penny savings bank. It into the consolidating in 1929, 1930, and it became consolidated savings bank. But bank had people getting homes because they were lending money to black people when other people would not. So its important to understand, we have a desk made economic progress, but economic envy is well real. Tulsa, oklahoma was about economic envy. The melanin deficient will tell you that tulsa was about a young shoeshine guy, raped or assaulted sarah page, a 17year old elevator operator, not, dr. Olivia hooker died, she was something else, she was 6 when it happened, she remembers hiding under her table, lots of white people come in, this memory of the folks who were so envious. Broke her muscle mothers rigor, burned close, just evil, because black people had too much. When the oklahoma governor later asked for a commission to investigate it, nobody went to jail, a black physician came out of his house and they shot him and killed him. We dont know how many people were killed, some say 300, some say 600, we know that blocks were eviscerated and millions of dollars were lost. And we know that nobody paid anything. The red cross did not even want to go to tulsa, they ended up going through external forces, they had us in concentration camps. The black women of the rich areas were not allowed to leave the reservation unless they would go through days work for white people. Limit to say this, i apologize, we want to give everyone three or four minutes, you have time to get the rest of it. He did asked for the historical context. History takes a long time. [ applause ] [ laughter ] anyway, the tulsa peas, white folks have been stockpiling guns and waiting for an excuse, when the Governors Commission came in, they said too many you know what with too much money. We need to be clear that anytime we could accumulate cup Public Policy has taken away from us, Public Policy has conspired against us, the g. I. Bill, when you look at Public Policy, the ways that we have been systematically discriminated against, and as i listen to mayor ras baraka, whether his vacant land, it needs to be redistributed to those who have been systematically sidelined. Is utterly inexcusable for this wealth gap to exist, as hard as black people work. A final point before he snatches the microphone. When we look at this in the context of economic envy, we must look at the ways that we have to resist, the resistance we must put out there, we have black mayors who dont have the sensibility of a ras baraka. They never met a developer that they dont want to slow dance with, to our detriment. . City councilmembers taking money under the table so they can exploit our people. Final point. Financial literacy is not Public Policy, we must be responsible stewards of that which we have been blessed with. Save and invest, but if we did that, we couldnt close the wealth. If you say Economic Development, you say financial literacy, we want our share, reparations now. [ applause ] amen. I apologize, i shouldve told you three or four minutes, i apologize. Let me also apologize, please keep dr. Malveuxs mother and prayer. Our esteemed elders have come into the room, i need to ask their permission to continue, dr. Jeffries. May we have your permission to continue . What does gentrification look like in your community, institutional, down the line, charles. Three or four minutes please. We will come back. I want to take the possibility that doctor mcdaniel spoke of to create the provide the creative tension, i would like to play that role. Only because we can talk about education, but there is a larger problem, a racist, predatory, bloodsucking capitalist system. The solution is revolution. It is socialism. The solution is us electing black officials that are not descriptively black, they look like us, but authentically black, they are committed to us. Our biggest problem in our neighborhood is black neocolonial puppets of the Democratic Party. That is the problem in our neighborhood new york. , we stop gentrification . How does a look and East New York . Does not exist. Because i have a beautiful African Queen wife, who was a city councilmember, im a state assembly member, when the developers came to our community and they showed us these pretty pictures, we asked them, what is the ami, the area Median Income requirement, because if it is not new york, you are not building it. East new york, the community has the largest increase in the black population. 13. 2 . Harlem lost 14 , a 400 increase in whites. Losing 16 of these. I can come before you and say i actually lost white population in my community. They left. I didnt asked ask them why, they left, if you see 15 whites in my neighborhood, they are passing through. On a serious note, we have 13,000 black elected members, we need to get radical, revolutionaries elected. Really committed to us, just having a black face in a high place doesnt mean anything. Ev