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December 30, 2004

Planning for progress

The end of the year is the time to assess performance. Well-managed organizations prepare an annual business plan, together with a budget. After each year of operation they evaluate how well management has realized their goals and objectives. However, most individuals do little more than gather their financial data in order to file their taxes.

Many individuals fail to plan their lives and seem to drift through life. While this might be acceptable for some individuals, it is a prescription for disaster for organizations or groups. There no longer seems to be an organized plan for African Americans as a group to progress.

Although it might have seemed chaotic at times, progress in the civil rights movement was the result of the implementation of plans and strategies. Every plan was not always successful. For example, it was decided in the early 1950s to mobilize a mass effort to pass a federal anti-lynch law. This would create federal jurisdiction over murders which were thought to be lynchings. A massive lobbying effort sponsored by the NAACP in Washington was unsuccessful.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott which began in December 1955 appeared to be a spontaneous reaction to the arrest of Rosa Parks. However, community leaders in Montgomery had organized earlier for a planned protest and were only awaiting an appropriate situation.

The protests in Boston over school discrimination during the 1960s had well-developed strategies by Jim Breeden, Ruth Batson, Ellen Jackson and others. The intransigence of the Boston School Committee at the time left little recourse but to file a complaint in the Federal Court. And national leaders engineered passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A common characteristic of all of the battles of the past is that the focus has been to require those in power, all of whom were white, to change the laws and practices for the benefit of racial minorities. Sorely needed now are leaders who will develop plans to induce African Americans to pursue the highest standards of academic performance and personal conduct so that they can benefit from the expanding opportunities.

While individuals will continue to succeed, African Americans as a group will lag behind in education and employment unless more step up to take advantage of the opportunities. It makes little sense for blacks to become the victims of their own social decay. Change will occur only with a massive, organized effort.

A necessary commitment

Before the development of shopping malls, Dudley Square was the largest commercial area outside of downtown Boston. Department stores such as McLellan’s, Dutton’s and Woolworth were there, and Ferdinand’s was at that time one of the largest furniture stores in Boston.

Ferdinand’s has been closed for more than 30 years and all of the department stores have been shuttered for decades. Nonetheless, the Dudley Square area is in the throes of revitalization. Mayor Thomas Menino assured the success of development plans when he announced last week that the city of Boston would acquire Ferdinand’s and relocate city agencies there.

Renovation of the Dartmouth Hotel and the long vacant Hibernian Hall are almost complete. A group of ministers has a building under construction on the corner of Warren and Prentiss Streets. A new Walgreen’s drug store is under construction on Washington Street opposite Ferdinand’s and an office building and parking garage are planned for the Modern Electroplating Plant site once the Ferdinand building is under renovation.

Dudley Square renewal would be incomplete without the renovation of the Ferdinand building. Mayor Menino stepped up to make that happen.

 

 

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