Black Mobilization

Brown Iowa's Dana Boone's latest piece is Black Leaders Hope Mobilization Helps Make a Difference.


"The problems afflicting African-Americans in Iowa have received widespread attention this year, hastening into action black leaders and ordinary citizens.

"With the issues facing African-Americans, there is an urgency," said Gretchen Woods, youth adviser for the Des Moines Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "We really just don't have time to waste."

. . . The problems even inspired three high-profile black leaders in Des Moines -- two of whom are Iowa legislators -- to set aside their personal differences to work jointly for community betterment. . . .

Genie Bundy morphed from ordinary citizen into activist after learning about the disproportionate number of blacks in prison. Iowa tops the nation for imprisoning blacks at a rate 13.6 times that of whites, according to national study by The Sentencing Project. Bundy, a family support worker at Primary Health Care in Des Moines, organized three community forums this fall about the issue.

"I think that it has to take something like this to get the community truly riled up like dealing with the overrepresentation of blacks in the prison system," she said. "Our families are truly being destroyed by the black men being removed from the home."

. . . Funchess and others are urging blacks to participate in the caucuses, vote and make their concerns and wants known to state lawmakers in 2008."

Much more is in the Iowa Independent.