“The State of Saginaw’s Black Community” forum brought out feelings of optimistic accomplishment, mixed with frustration over concerns that remain unresolved.
An audience of 150 braved Monday’s cold, and more than half stayed for the entire session of nearly three hours, organized by C.A.P., the three-year-old Community Alliance for the People.
Bishop Hurley J. Coleman Jr. of World Outreach Campus COGIC served as moderator, well-acquainted with a pair of panelists — his son Hurley III, director of Saginaw County CAC, which hosted the event, and his brother Charles, president of the Saginaw Board of Education. Also speaking were state Rep. Amos O’Neal, Mayor Brenda Moore, City Councilman George Copeland, and Saginaw High School student Julian Morris.
The main optimism came from Charles Coleman, who lauded construction of Saginaw United High School on the riverfront, along with repurposing of Arthur Hill for a relocated SASA and Saginaw High as an East Side middle school, and a new Handley School behind AHHS.
Voter 2020 approval of a 6-mill bond issue will generate $100 million, but inflation and supply shortages have boosted the overall cost to $150 million, about half for Saginaw United. School leaders are filling the gap with federal funds that otherwise could have gone for classroom instruction and student services.
In the spirit of the C.A.P. forum, varied voices were heard. Arthur Hill grad Lionel Baldwin, known for his academics and his ACT-SO saxophone wizardry, now is a freshman band member at University of Michigan. He respectfully shared his view that the Arts and Sciences Academy is meeting needs for college prep, but AHHS and Saginaw High both are falling short. Board President Coleman joined the applause, indicating an aim to always hear criticism and to strive for improvement.
Should hockey be a goal?
For economic development, the first two audience statements were critical of the Memorial Cup, with the Saginaw Spirit hosting Canadian visitors for a 10-day junior tournament. The basic questions were, what does hockey have to do with black people, and why are civic leaders pushing this so highly when we still have long-standing problems here at home?
Mayor Moore answered that grant-funded infrastructure improvements will benefit the city long after the Memorial Cup becomes a memory. She acknowledged that the city lacks hotel rooms, and so visitors mainly will stay in Saginaw Township and Frankenmuth. The strategy is to keep the tourists in town with a STARS shuttle serving local entrepreneurs, who also are eligible for small SEDC loans up to $5,000 for added temp employees and for supplies for special promotions. It’s one project for economic development, not the whole deal.
Copeland said he intends to focus on housing, starting with his appointment as a City Council delegate on the Saginaw Housing Commission, aiming for both affordable ownership and rentals. He added that in addition to viewing council meetings on public access, residents also would learn from observing the City Planning Commission in action, also televised on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Other city boards, like the Human Planning Commission for citizen engagement, are seeking applicants to fill vacancies. The former Human Relations Commission, founded in 1958 with Henry Marsh as chairman, is idle because volunteers are lacking.
Hurley III said housing also is a top priority among CAC’s array of anti-poverty programs, federally and state-funded. The younger Coleman offered an array of simple statistics that captured the audience’s attention. including that the county’s poverty rate is one in three residents, compared to one in eight statewide. Eight percent of households statewide have no automobile and 11 percent lack a computer, he noted, with numbers no doubt higher in Saginaw.
Voting and not voting
Rep. O’Neal expressed that his first term in Lansing was difficult when Republicans controlled the Legislature, but the Democratic Party victory in the 2022 statewide election places him in position to help bring more monies to Saginaw, for example $30.3 million for the downtown $100 million Medical Diamond, promising 1,000 jobs by the close of the decade, as health care takes a top role in replacing the auto industry.
Just as first-termer Copeland suggests following SGTV as a first step forward, his predecessor on both the Council (and then the County Board) recommends the Facebook page for Representative Amos O’Neal. The school district’s website, spsd.net, airs live meetings and replays while offering an array of options for parents to get involved with their children’s schools. CAC spreads the word via saginawcac.org.
With the backdrop of the Martin Luther King holiday, Bishop Coleman summed up a goal for which the civil rights giant died, which is voter participation. The main 2024 election, of course, is in November — U.S., state, local — but as soon as the Feb. 27 primaries, the City Council is seeking a 7.5-mill special assessment renewal for police and fire. Later could come a referendum to finally remove local property tax rate caps frozen at 1979 levels.
“We need to move from 16 percent participation to 60 percent,” Coleman said.
The agenda featured concerns that affect all people, blacks in higher proportion, such as jobs and schools and housing. When it came to voting, C.A.P. President Jeffrey Bulls was race-specific in his outlook.
“We (C.A.P.) are for black people,” Bulls explained. “If we want black people to represent us, that’s okay, and if we want to tell other people we don’t want them to represent us, that’s okay too. I want someone who looks like me to represent me.”
Pruitt recalled the 1983 election as a benchmark, when an Al Loveless/John Pugh group, Operation Equality, produced a record East Side turnout. Voters elected the first-ever black majorities on the council (Joe Stephens, Larry Crawford, joined by Mildred Mason, Lou Oates, Joy Hargrove, Carter McWright) and on the school board (Ruben Daniels, Willie Thompson, joined by Hazel Wilson, James W. Woolfolk Jr.).
He lamented that this participation peak has subsided through the years, and that 2024 needs to be a new turning point.
As an example of Bishop Coleman’s “16 percent,” that was the East Side turnout in 2006. The low showing cost Carl Williams, now NAACP vice-president with Pruitt, his open door to become Saginaw’s first black state senator, losing narrowly to Roger Kahn. This was a shortfall that civic leaders aim to conquer now. The City/School/County Liaison Committee, which meets at 5:30 Thursday, Jan. 18, at board headquarters, has identified voter registration as a top goal and is seeking other ideas for action.
Looking ahead
Julian Morris, national ACT-SO winner in entrepreneurship for his S.W.A.G. magazine, sounded more like a wiser elder than a teen. He drew the only standing ovation as he delivered the old adage, “Education begins in the home.”
Pruitt noted that it’s the same for voter education, and that citizens should take time to make special commitments, especially during election years like this one.
“We wouldn’t be here in this room,” he told the audience, “if Dr. King’s dream, which we talk about all the time, had been totally fulfilled. Get involved. Educate yourself and do it.”
To keep tabs on upcoming forums, including health care, visit the Facebook page for Saginaw CAP.
