[Head]  Smaller, Blacker, Stronger

by Tom Head
February 16, 2011

Last week, The Clarion-Ledger published an article (Gary Pettus, “City loses 19K white residents in decade,” 2/6/11) in which it summarized and responded to data from the 2010 U.S. census, which records an overall 5.83 percent population loss in Jackson over the past 10 years. But as the headline suggests, the issue is less population loss than the color of the population loss: Jackson’s black majority has grown from 73 percent to 79 percent since 2000. Not that this is only due to white population loss: Jackson has gained 7,500 net black residents, which has softened the effect of white flight on the city population. But according to the article, and the horrifically racist online reader comments below the fold, the demographic shift itself poses a danger to the city’s future.

Not that The Clarion-Ledger’s readership is alone in its reaction to the census. The day after article appeared, the blog of the Mississippi Business Journal called for commercial developers downtown to secede from the rest of the city, declare an independent “District of Magnolia,” and operate under the supervision of the majority-white state government (“MS should call Jackson the District of Magnolia, take it over,“ 2/7/11). And whites on Facebook who had previously described the city as a wonderful place to live seem to be experiencing a crisis of faith, bemoaning the city’s disappearing middle class despite the fact that the most recent economic census numbers, from 2007, were promising enough to allow for more than $1 billion in downtown development and extensive commercial development throughout the rest of the city.

If you want to look at how the city has really changed, go stand on the sidewalk in front of the King Edward Hotel and look around you. Then imagine how different your environment would have looked if you’d done that 10 years ago, when the city was whiter. Or 20 years ago, when the city was only 56 percent black, had a white mayor, and had nearly twice as many homicides per year.

We’re smaller, blacker, and much, much stronger than we were 20 years ago.

There is no question that Hurricane Katrina, followed immediately by the worst economic recession in U.S. history, has hurt the economic climate in Jackson. But we have to find new solutions to these problems; the old ones didn’t work. And we have to bring new people into Jackson; the old ones didn’t stay. And we have to find a new model for what our city needs to look like; the old one didn’t hold up. And we have to develop new commercial possibilities for the city, because the old ones were not ambitious enough to give us the renaissance we all know that we are beginning to experience.

The challenge that the new census numbers presents to white Jacksonians is this: “Are you willing to commit yourself to the future of a thriving 79 percent black city?” Because by any reasonable standards that take into account our city’s history and its location in the center of the poorest U.S. state, we are thriving. We survived a disastrous mayoral administration, pushed through the regional economic effects of Katrina, and continue to develop through a recession.

This did not happen by mistake; it happened through the hard work and sacrifice of people of all colors and ethnic backgrounds who are committed to the future of this city, and it happened because this is a city worthy of our commitment. Our enemy is, and has always been, segregation. We always knew we would defeat it. We just didn’t know when.

Maybe that time is now. Now that the possibility of a white suburban reconquista is demographically nonsensical, we all have the opportunity to stand together as a multicultural Jackson that represents everything that is good, everything that is new, and everything that is redemptive about Mississippi as it exists today—and continue to build, on the foundation of an extinct volcano, the greatest capital city we have ever had.

All evidence points to our success, but the greatest evidence will be our continuing willingness, as a community, to work together and get the job done. Every Jacksonian has the opportunity to be part of that process.

Freelance writer Tom Head is a lifelong Jacksonian. He has authored or co-authored 24 nonfiction books on a wide range of topics, is a civil liberties writer for About.com, and volunteers as a grassroots progressive activist.

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