Government Help Will Never Be Enough
“My neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, is a perfect example of the income inequality, poverty, and legacy of racism that fuel so much political discussion today. Historically, Allendale was known as the “Bottoms,” the black side of town in the Jim Crow South, crowded with shotgun shacks and separate and unequal schools. Fannin Street, once a commercial strip with bars and brothels, was the name of a pounding Leadbelly song; it’s just a few blocks from where my husband Emmitt and I live today, where we mentor neighborhood kids”