{"id":2792,"date":"2022-01-28T04:10:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T04:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2022-01-28T04:12:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T04:12:05","slug":"remembering-rev-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-a-tireless-champion-for-economic-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=2792","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: A Tireless Champion for Economic Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Charlene Crowell, Special to The Informer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, Jan. 17, the nation will pause to honor the life of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The only Black American to be honored with a national holiday, many will recall his historic civil-rights achievements.<\/p>\n

But Dr. King also stood as a tireless champion for economic justice. His last public speech, delivered a day before his 1968 assassination, was before a Memphis audience in support of a lengthy strike for fair wages among its largely Black sanitation workers. That prophetic oration often referred to as his \u201cMountaintop\u201d speech, also noted the city\u2019s economic disparities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all right to talk about \u201clong white robes over yonder,\u201d in all of its symbolism,\u201d Dr. King\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cBut ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It\u2019s all right to talk about \u2018streets flowing with milk and honey,\u2019 but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can\u2019t eat three square meals a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dr. King\u00a0moved his family into the city\u2019s Lawndale neighborhood, he described it as \u201can island of poverty in the midst of an ocean of plenty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChicago boasted the highest per capita income of any city in the world, but you would never believe it looking out of the windows of my apartment in the slum of Lawndale,\u201d\u00a0Dr. King\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cMy neighbors paid more rent in the substandard slums of Lawndale than the whites paid for modern apartments in the suburbs. The situation was much the same for consumer goods, purchase prices of homes, and a variety of other services.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, the King family paid $94 per month for four run-down, shabby rooms.\u00a0Durin<\/a>g the campaign\u2019s open housing marches on Gage Park and other predominantly white places, new and larger apartment dwellers paid only $78 a month for five\u00a0rooms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to today and the cost of rental housing remains a challenge for millions of families.\u00a0The average fair market price for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,295 per month. Yet the highest rent affordable to an average full-time worker is $977,\u00a0according to\u00a0the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLHIC).\u00a0Its\u00a0recent report, titled\u00a0\u201cOut of Reach,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0exposes the mismatch between wages people earn and the price of decent rental housing in every state, metropolitan area, and county in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Over 7.5 million extremely low-income renters are severely housing cost-burdened, finds the report, spending more than half of their incomes on housing.\u00a0On average, someone who works 40 hours per week all year round must earn $24.90 per hour to afford a modest two-bedroom home without becoming housing cost-burdened. The average renter\u2019s hourly wage is just $18.78 per hour, however, and minimum-wage workers earn even less.<\/p>\n

Additionally, ample research documents how consumers seeking to transition from renters to homeowners face even steeper financial barriers to building family wealth.<\/p>\n

In 2019, prospective buyers of a median-priced home of $321,500 needed to save 11 years to accumulate a 5% down payment of $26,000 on that home, found the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) in its independent and recent\u00a0report<\/a>. But buyers seeking the least costly loans, conventional mortgages, needed a 20% down payment of $64,300 plus another $9,663 for closing costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge disconnect between our collective view of America as the land of opportunity and this data, which show renters face a steep climb in saving for homeownership,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0CRL researcher and report author\u00a0Christelle Bamona.\u00a0\u201cThis climb is especially steep for Black and Latino Americans, essential workers, and people weighed down by student debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) underscores CRL\u2019s findings. Its 2021 research,\u00a0\u201cState of Housing in Black America: Emerging from the Pandemic Recession\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(SHIBA) found that although homeownership generates the largest part of building household wealth, fewer than 45% of Black households own their homes, compared to nearly 75% of whites. Further, Black homeowners captured only $198 million in savings from the Federal Reserve\u2019s lowering of interest rates during COVID. Nationwide, the savings due to this policy change totaled $5.8 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlacks have made little if any, strides at closing the disparate homeownership gap between those of our White counterparts,\u201d noted<\/a>\u00a0NAREB President\u00a0Lydia Pope\u00a0in the report\u2019s foreword. \u201cSystemic discriminatory regulations and policies continue to thwart any meaningful effort at closing the homeownership gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, mortgage pricing, and under-appraisal of home values are examples of how the growth of Black homeownership and, in turn, wealth is systematically suppressed. Since 2019, the rate of mortgage loan denials to Blacks (16%) has consistently been double that of whites (7%).<\/p>\n