Jesse Jackson calls for plan to end Memphis contracting disparity
The Rev. Jesse Jackson rebuked the city of Memphis Tuesday for an "embarrassing" racial disparity gap and called on Mayor Jim Strickland to craft a plan within 30 days to give black-owned businesses half of all city contracts.
In his South Carolina drawl, the aging civil rights leader threatened to follow in the steps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and march on the city if Strickland doesn't take action by next year's celebration of King's life 50 years after his assassination in Memphis.
"Forty-nine years, and shall we come back to Memphis next year as Dr. King did, marching and protesting, or shall we come back in celebration?" Jackson said in a public address to the City Council, surrounded by fellow ministers.
Strickland, who met with Jackson and some 20 minsters shortly before the council meeting, said Memphis "has a plan and we're executing on that plan."
"I never want to overpromise and underdeliver," Strickland said. "There are legal issues involved, so I couldn't commit to that 50 percent (spending on minority- and women-owned businesses). We've gotten up to 20 percent. We need to push it even higher. Every year we're going to improve. Absolutely."
The share of city contracts going to certified MWBEs increased from 12.6 percent in December 2015 to 20.2 percent in March 2017, according to the city. In March, 13.3 percent of city contracts went to minorities, and 10.4 percent went to black businesses.
Those numbers aren't acceptable in a city with a population more than 60 percent black, Jackson said.
"There must be a reaction," he said, closing his remarks to the council and receiving a standing ovation.
Jackson compared the playing field for city contractors to the NBA playoffs, making reference to the Memphis Grizzlies.
"The playing field is equal," he said. "The rules are public, the goals are clear, the referee's fair and the score is transparent. That's not true beyond the ball court for access to Memphis city contracts."
Jackson, in town for a board meeting of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition and to announce an engineering-focused education partnership between the coalition and Whitehaven High, also called on the city to create a "serious" economic commission to set goals and timetables to close the disparity gap.
A major problem the city needs to address is the lack of capital available in the black business community, he added.
Strickland said the commission didn't come up in his conversation with Jackson, but the city needs more community involvement to close the gap. He said he hopes Jackson's involvement will encourage other people to get involved.
"We all want the same thing," Strickland said.
After the council meeting, council chairman Berlin Boyd said Jackson is saying the same things council members have said for more than a year. Especially during budget season, council members often taken division directors to task for overspending with white males.
"We're singing from the same hymnbook," Boyd said. "He's preaching to the choir."