"Letter From an American Gulag" -- The City That Started it all, 50 Years Later

It was almost 50 years ago when Martin Luther King, Jr. sat down to write his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.”

Birmingham was a 61 percent white city then; today, Birmingham is a 74 percent black city.

Recently, David Sher – the proprietor of the blog “Birmingham: The Comeback Town” – published a letter I wrote to him. Though he refused to link to this site, I’ll gladly give him the benefit of an increase in traffic by linking to him.

The Birmingham City Council (7 of 9 members) saw the male members wear 'hoodies' in honor of Trayvon Martin... before they made him an honorary citizen of the 74 percent black city

What Birmingham must “come back” from is beyond me, since the glorious civil rights revolution ushered in an era of peace, tranquility, economic prosperity, and a business bureau incapable with keeping up with the demand of outside corporations (scared off by those evil white bigots/segregationists) to invest in the city.

Right?

Oh – that’s right: Birmingham is no longer the “Magic City”; it’s the “Tragic City.”

Or, as the mayor of Bogota, Columbia found when he toured the 74 percent black city in 2012 – “one of the most depressed areas I have ever seen” [Sustainability consultant tours good and bad of Birmingham, 2/16/12, Birmingham News]:

Hopping aboard a bike, for­mer Bogota, Colombia, Mayor Enrique Penalosa took a six-mile ride through the good, the bad and the ugly of Bir­mingham in advance of today's Sustainable Smart Cities Confer­ence. 

After biking through depopulated portions of Titusville and Elyton, marred with abandoned and burned-out houses and grim housing developments, Penalosa was aghast. 

"What I saw today was one of the most depressed areas I have ever seen," he said.
He suggested that residents in the sparsely populated areas be bought out to make way for a "crazy" project -- something on a massive scale, a veritable new city of five- to 10-story buildings that could accommodate 20,000 new residents, packed with parks and streets reserved for walkers, bikers and buses. 

"Something has to be done that is a shock. There are great opportunities to be radical," he said.

It tells you something about the state of a city when the mayor of a city located in a third-world nation (with extreme levels of poverty and violence) classifies Birmingham in 2012 with having “one of the most depressed areas I have ever seen.”

But he’s right. Something radical must be done in not just Birmingham, but in all of America. Too many cities are collapsing under the strain of the reality of racial differences, with the population that build and sustained a city (white) replaced with one whose culture and proclivity for violence drove said population away.

Since the election of the first black mayor of Birmingham in 1979 (Richard Arrington), the city has operated – like McDonald’s - under a 365Black initiative, with each political and economic decision being cast under the prism of, “is this good for the black community?”

Not the whole community, but only the black community.

Hunter Wallace of OD has documented the embarrassing Birmingham City Councilman Steven Hoyt’s racially-motivated decision to vote down funding the lily-white Honda Indy Grand Prix:

“Councilman Steven Hoyt questioned why a majority black city should continue to give money to the event run at the Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds. 

“I’ve seen nobody, nobody who looks like me make any decisions with Barber sports. None. Zero,” Hoyt said.”

How can such rhetoric be used in the enlightened age of 2013? We’re on the precipice of gay marriage, by God, and for a cretin like Hoyt to utter such divisive language targeting a predominately white event (which brings a much needed economic shot to the metropolitan area) is cause for national outrage!!

Not quite.

Councilman’s Hoyt’s decision to view the allocation of city funds through the racial-tinted contact lenses registered not a blip on the national scale – 50 Years Forward in Birmingham means the elected black officials are given carte blanche to run the city as they see fit.

After all, this is a city where one year ago the male members of the 9-member council (all black) wore ‘hoodies’ to show their solidarity with one Trayvon Martin; one that same day, the council (7 of 9 members are black) voted to make Trayvon Martin an ‘honorary citizen of Birmingham’; where two years Mayor William Bell bestowed pop-star Rihanna with a key to the city of Birmingham (telling the Birmingham audience awaiting her concert “we fixing to get crunk in this place/we fixing to throw down/I’m a rude boy”); and spending $10,000 of city money to rent out the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex so Kanye West and Jay-Z could rehearse for their 2011 tour.

No, the conditions of 74 percent black Birmingham have been immune from criticism thanks entirely to the political capital those civil rights protestors (led by men like Martin Luther King and Fred Shuttlesworth) earned back in the 1960s.

But it is in the ruins of Birmingham, where the echoes of a once-proud civilization are heard on a quiet day beneath the crumbling façade of still immaculate early 20^th century sky rises, that truly represent why the “Magic City” symbolizes the battleground for a rebirth of western civilization.

Once, Birmingham was a city (founded) run by white men who dared plant seeds in a civilization whose branches they would never have the honor of seeking shade under; today, Birmingham is a city run by black individuals who collectively have based every decision on short-term improvements impacts.

All the while the fruits of the civilization whites created grows rotten, festering under the incapable hands of those who inherited the city when their progeny vacated Birmingham to its new black majority.

Forever stuck in 1963 -- an actual memorial found in Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park

Let us now just post links to stories and quotes that illustrate life in the currently 74 percent black city of Birmingham, where elected officials proudly judge every decision they make on how it well best impact the black citizens.

Let’s start with the new $64 million minor league baseball stadium, whose triumphant opening day was held April 11 (with the type of hysteric euphoria normally reserved for greeting a returning, victorious military). It was nothing more than a jobs-program for connected black companies [Birmingham's ballpark building team now in place, AL.com, 9-4-11]:

Construction of a new $60 million downtown baseball park is projected to create 500 jobs with a payroll of more than $18 million. 

The construction and de­sign team for the new base­ball park next to the Bir­mingham Railroad Park is in place and includes more than 61 percent minority firms, and most companies are based in Birmingham. In all more than 50 companies, suppliers and contractors are expected to be part of the construction, design and development of the project, officials said. 

"The baseball development is about more than just a new recreational facility," Birmingham Mayor William Bell said Friday. "It is about jobs and economic development and growth for our city. The push to use local and minority business owners will infuse capital into our local economy and put individuals to work on a project here at home that we all will benefit from."

 How about the city council attacking a nonprofit group for not having enough ‘black faces’ on its staff? [Operating budget set for members' vote, Birmingham News, 6-23-2008]

Council members again discussed their list of commitments to nonprofit groups including Vulcan Park. Councilman Steven Hoyt, a frequent critic of the park's management, said he still had problems with the operation and racial diversity of the staff. 

 ''Sometimes we just need to get folks' attention, and the only way to do that is adjusting our giving until they get it right,'' Hoyt said. While the council did not cut Vulcan's funding, park officials will be invited to meet again with the council to answer Hoyt's issues. ''Still, it is a city park,'' said Councilwoman Valerie Abbott, who reminded the council that private donors raised $17 million to restore the attraction. ''I don't think we can pull the rug from under our own city park.''

Unlike the $64 million baseball stadium, plans to build a ‘dome’ stadium to lure bigger events to Birmingham have never come to fruition. Though, were they to find funding, contracts would find their way to black- (how can a black-owned business have ‘minority’ status in a 74 percent black city?) owned businesses:

The Birmingham City Council should have the final word on the selection of a firm to design the downtown dome, or the council won't pay for the project, five council members say. 

"Maybe they need to do it by themselves," said Councilman Steven Hoyt. "Birmingham is the one putting the most money in, therefore it needs to be a consensus of the council." 

Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex board members on Dec. 17 unanimously chose Kansas City, Mo.-based HOK Inc. to design the $500 million domed stadium. 

Council members Hoyt, Carol Duncan, Joel Montgomery, Roderick Royal and Maxine Parker say they are outraged that an out-of-state architectural firm was awarded a $20 million contract by the BJCC board and no local or minority companies were selected to help with the work. 

The BJCC should come before them before spending money that comes from city coffers, they said. 

"They are not going to get my vote if they don't include minority architects in this project," said Hoyt, chairman of the council's economic development committee. Hoyt said he would discuss the issue at his committee meeting Jan. 8.

In a city which has banned licensing new payday loan, title pawn, or check cashing stores (what one council member called the “only growth industries in the city”), plans to create a minority-centric group to handle recruiting outside corporate investment in the city have been pushed: 

A Birmingham state representative proposes legislation to create a group dedicated exclusively to recruiting and expanding business within the city limits. 

While there are existing business groups -- including the Birmingham Business Alliance -- state Rep. John Rogers said Birmingham's economy suffers in part because it lacks its own chamber of commerce. 

"We've got businesses in this town who can't make it, and if we can create a business council that can help them, they can make it," Rogers said. "That helps the whole city."Several suburban cities, including Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Hoover, Homewood and Bessemer all have smaller chambers of commerce in addition to their participation in the larger BBA.  

The bill, which is currently being advertised, would create the new organization, allocate funding and set up the board. While Rogers said his group would not compete with existing groups such as the BBA, he said the city needs an advocate for its own specific interests. Rogers said this new group would be "for Birmingham, by Birmingham." 

"People who really operate those councils don't even live in Birmingham. They will be concerned about Birmingham, but they live in Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook and everywhere else," he said. "Everybody develops every other area, and Birmingham seems to be lacking." Birmingham City Councilman Steven Hoyt said Rogers' idea has merit.Hoyt has been a critic of BBA, saying the organization lacks diversity and focus concerning Birmingham, specifically smaller, minority-owned businesses. 

"Our best effort is to grow Birmingham on all sides, and there doesn't seem to be any focus in growing North Birmingham, Ensley, Woodlawn or any of those areas," he said. "Our focus should be on Birmingham proper, since Birmingham is one of biggest contributors to those entities."

For those who believe Councilman Hoyt’s views aren’t shared by other members of the 74 percent black community, take a look at this 2009 event at the Five Points West Library where mayoral candidates (all black) debated the importance of basing city contracts on how it will help minority businesses. Or, read how when he appointed a white man to a board, his black constituents complained about his abandoning his “commitment to diversity”[Birmingham mayoral forum participants tackle issue of minority contracts,12-2-09, Birmingham News]:

The seven candidates to be Birmingham's next mayor who participated in tonight's forum at the Five Points West Library drew the questions they were asked from a hat.  

But they had a pretty good chance of drawing a question dealing with the city's utilization of minority-owned companies.  

Moderator William Muhammad, co-chair of the Committee to Develop Birmingham, which hosted the forum, said most questions focused on that topic because the organization is striving to ensure that more of those businesses -- which they refer to as under-utilized businesses -- are given city contracts.  

"Our main goal is to reduce the level of poverty in the city," Muhammad said after the forum. "If we could move the focus on equal opportunity for black businesses, those businesses tend to hire blacks, who live within the city, and we can reduce that poverty."  

The candidates -- Steven Hoyt, William Bell, Scott Douglas, Jason Sumners, Jody Trautwein, Harry "Traveling Shoes" Turner and T.C. Cannon -- appeared to agree there is a need to increase the number of contracts going to minority-owned businesses, though they differed on the best way to do that.  

Bell pointed to a measure implemented during the time apartheid was in effect in South Africa. At the time, Birmingham passed an ordinance prohibiting the city from doing business with companies doing business with South Africa.  

That ordinance, he said, also called for companies doing business with the city to employ "a good cross-section" of the community. That measure has never been enforced, Bell said, and if elected that is something he will change.

If black people in Birmingham call the “liberal plantation” home, they do so willingly.

And how is the nation of South Africa doing in 2013? About like Birmingham in 2013…

Even in the face of natural disaster, the Steven Hoyt views decisions by the majority black City Council of Birmingham through those racial-lenses [Councilor wants info on tornado cleanup subcontractors, My Fox AL, 10-23-12]:

Could one of the most powerful Birmingham city councilors be taking Mayor Bell to court? 

Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt said today he's willing to sue Bell if that's what it takes to get a list of subcontractors who did tornado cleanup work for the city in the wake of the April 27 tornado. 

Hoyt says he suspects minority-owned contractors didn't get their fair share of the contracts and work after the storm and he wants to see a list of the subcontractors hired by firms that won the cleanup contracts from the city and FEMA. 

"I'm just trying to see what economic impact this had for the folks who were victimized," Hoyt said Tuesday. "Because number one, FEMA wants some of the money they spend to go back into these communities, and I wanna see what kind of real economic impact it has had." 

Mayor Bell's office declined comment today but has said in the past that they worked hard to include minority-owned firms in the storm cleanup work.

Better yet, read how Mr. Hoyt found using stimulus money “debt” to engage in $106 million in bond transactions was questioned because of the lack of work with ‘minority’ firms:

The city will also refinance $67.5 million of existing debt. Finance Director Tom Barnett said the city could save about $3.5 million by doing so. Councilman Steven Hoyt Monday objected to the new process proposed by Barnett because he said it limits smaller minority firms. The city normally selects the bond team and insists there be minority representation, but without that process, there's no guarantee of diversity, Hoyt said. 

"I want full participation in every aspect we can have it," he said. "There is little to no minority participation in that process because minority companies don't have the billion-dollar capacity. The issue is to have inclusion as much as we can on the buying and the selling." 

Hoyt the said the issue is not about a handout or favoritism, but enabling minority companies to grow their capacity for larger transactions. That can only be done through partnerships with larger companies, Hoyt said. 

"I'm not looking for somebody to write a check," Hoyt said. "I'm looking for people to be able to participate from start to finish."

There is not one city in America where a white councilmember (or white mayoral candidates) speak openly about how legislation or city contracts will benefit white people or the white community.

After all, it’s 2013… that doesn’t fit in line with the progressive thinking that dominates the intellectual classes.

But let’s end on a happy note. The letter sent to David Sher was nothing more than an acknowledgement that the conditions found in the 74 percent black city of Birmingham are a reflection of the people who both politically run and who live in the city.

It is on p.238 of There's Hope for the World, the self-serving autobiography of Birmingham’s first black mayor, Richard Arrington,that these words are written:

"Like cities worldwide, Birmingham continues to face serious challenges, and just as progress in those cities ebbs and flows, so will the same happen in Birmingham. But Birmingham has turned the corner and its future as one of America's progressive medium-sized cities is assured. In the chamber of the Birmingham City Council, on one of its walls, is the following slogan: "Cities Are What People Make Them."
 The slogan reminds me of Shakespeare's words from Coriolanus, Act III: "What is the city but the people?"

Perhaps it’s the most dangerous idea imaginable, that ‘cities are what people make them.’

Looking across the nation, is there one majority black city (outside of Washington D.C., which is now the Disingenuous White Liberal capital of America) that is attracting outside investments – be it from corporations or from people interested in relocating there – and that isn’t losing population?

What does that tell you about the type of communities black people create?

It was almost 50 years ago when Martin Luther King, Jr. sat down to write his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.”

Birmingham was a 61 percent white city then; today, Birmingham is a 74 percent black city.

So, Mr. David Sher of “Comeback Town” (I’ll give you a link, so people can check out your site - be open minded, if you will) and Councilman Steven Hoyt -- "What is the city of Birmingham in 2013 but the people?"

In Birmingham, just like at McDonald's, it's 365Black all the time. And it is for this reason, the state of Birmingham must be classified as in need of being a 'comeback town.'

Fifty years later, does the condition of 74 percent black Birmingham not offer stark evidence as to why some people were so strenuously against the movement led by Saint Martin Luther King?