It has taken place and continues to transpire in urban communities all over America. Ever since the Great Migration and afterwards, white people have found a way to "close down" black communities, blaming the residents for the closures. Whether it be a white woman yelling a false claim of rape and instigating mad white male mobs to "crush, kill and destroy," or an interstate that cleaves through and relocates residents to areas of the city that they can't afford, it's taken place and few people seem to care about it. Gone are the communities of Rondo (MN), Rosewood (FL) and others. Tulsa's Greenwood Community, known as "Black Wall Street" was moved on because of a single white female's lie and the envy of the white community. One would think that a hick town like Omaha would be too busy milking cows and having square dances to mete out its racist hatred on the only black community in the entire state. But such is not the case. This book, The Ruination of a Black Community, shows that the attitude shapes the action: racism knows no bounds. In this book, I point out how these cities beg and leech for Federal funding as they lie about using the money to "help the Negroes." And once the money comes, they use it instead for the white majority: freakishness, frolic, suburban expansion, riverfront development and airport access. I point out how grant-driven city leaves intentionally keep certain areas poor so that a "pocket of poverty" will qualify them for future grants. I provide background on the advent of Community Development Block Grants, which mayors see as a free pass to do with as they please. I use Nebraska's only black community, the "Near North side," as a case study to show how the abuse of more than $240 million (since 1975) in CDBG funding has been spent everywhere BUT in the black community. This is accompanies by "benign encroachment," led by outside interests, token negro leadership and an on-going relocation strategy, not to end segregation, but to re-define it and use "segregated pockets" instead. Immigrants and refugees have been included in the most recent examples of this "pimp to play" approach.
About the Author: Matthew C. Stelly is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee working on a degree in Urban Education and Community Policy. He holds three Master's degrees: Urban Studies (1982), Urban Education (1983) and Political Science (2000). He is working toward his doctorate in Community Policy/Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the former editor of the Milwaukee Courier newspaper, former director of the Great Plains Black Museum and the Plano (TX) African American Museum, and lead archivist for The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) in Dallas, Texas. Stelly has more than 2,500 articles in print and has won two national essay competitions. He is the founding director of the largest African-American neighborhood group in Nebraska, the Triple One Neighborhood Association and Parents Union. He is publisher and editor of the Triple One News, a two-time nationally recognized newsletter. He is the father of five children - Mandla, Malik, Clariece, Charisse and Shannon -- and remains actively involved in community organizing and neighborhood development in several cities, including Milwaukee and Omaha.