By Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr., Jin-Kyu Jung, and Evan Dash
The U.B. Center for Urban Studies is releasing its study, The Harder We Run: The State of Black Buffalo in 1990 and the Present, by Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr., Jin-Kyu Jung, and Evan Dash. Thirty-one years ago, in 1990, the U.B. Center released its study, African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present. This investigation was the most comprehensive study ever conducted on Black Buffalo. This past summer, the Buffalo Health Equity Center asked the U.B. Center to use the 1990 Black Buffalo Study and answer the question, “Has Black Buffalo progressed since 1990?” The U.B. Center took on the project but did not request any funding. The report, The Harder We Run, answers the question, “Has Black Buffalo progressed since 1990?” The report tells us what happened to Black Buffalo over the past thirty-one years, why it happened, and what we can do about it.
TaylorHL The Harder We Run
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Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown has said he will not sign expedited legislation approved by the Common Council to eliminate school zone speed cameras because council members did not follow the proper process.
Read the full article from The Buffalo News here.
“Buffalo can take steps now to establish a civilian review board to investigate allegations of police misconduct, according to the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Such a board should hold final disciplinary authority over officers and subpoena power, and it should have a substantial budget and a qualified professional staff to carry out its duties, according to a letter from the office’s Civil Rights Bureau to Mayor Byron W. Brown.”
Read the full article from UBNow here.
“This victory reflected the people’s power. It was made possible by the millions who drew a line in the sand and said ‘enough.’ But history teaches us, the retrogressive forces in this country will resist. Even as they say, ‘justice was served, and this is the beginning of a new beginning,’ they will block efforts to defund the police and recreate policing as we know it. These same forces will fight reforms to improve the quality of neighborhood life among Blacks, Indigenous and people of color. They will work tirelessly to maintain the status quo. And the fightback will continue. The people will build on this ‘shining moment.’ The people will continue to the quest for that day when BIPOC will cry ‘free at last, free at last.’ This victory will cause them to keep the faith and raise the battle cry, ‘Remember George Floyd. Power to the People.’”
Read the full article from The Buffalo News here.
“Kimberly L. Beaty has more than 30 years in law enforcement and believes she has credentials to make a strong push for the Erie County sheriff’s seat as former deputy commissioner for the Buffalo Police Department. But according to her recount of conversations with the Erie County Democratic Party chairman, there was one thing Beaty didn’t have. The right look. ‘He said, “You’re not what a sheriff looks like, and what people are used to,” ‘ she recalled.”
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“Six out of nine city lawmakers voted Tuesday to get rid of Buffalo’s school zone speed cameras by September, but it is not a done deal. Their patience is running out.…According to the City Charter, Mayor Byron W. Brown has 10 days to sign the legislation or veto it. If he vetoes it, the legislation goes back to the Council, which then has 30 days to vote to override the veto. If Brown does not act then, the legislation becomes law.”
Read the full article from UBNow here.
“‘The partnership between the task force and the Community Health Equity Research Institute was instrumental in partially mitigating the deadly impact of the pandemic in communities of color in Buffalo,’ Murphy says. The vision of the website was guided chiefly by contributions from three members of the institute’s Steering Committee: Henry Louis Taylor Jr., professor of urban and regional planning, School of Architecture and Planning, and associate director of the institute; Kelly Wofford, community engagement coordinator in UB’s Center for Nursing Research in the School of Nursing; and Christopher St. Vil, assistant professor in the School of Social Work.”
Read the full article from Democrat and Chronicle here.
“Henry Louis Taylor Jr., director of the University at Buffalo Center for Urban Studies,said expungement ‘begins to close the road from the neighborhood to the jail.’ But to create substantive change, he said, the funding set aside in the legislation must include connecting people who were incarcerated to job opportunities and other resources, as well as repairing harms done to communities by marijuana prohibition.The changes, he said, that need to come from funding have to be transformative and may include items such as housing subsidies for communities and cooperatives.Importantly,he said, the community should have a say in how the money is spent.”
Read the full story from WIVB here.
“Experts say the racial slur is meant to describe people who are mixed race and it dates back to slavery and the practice of raping female slaves. ‘Rape was institutionalized, and it meant that women were the plaything of the plantation owner to be taken whenever he chose to. As I always say, when I look in the mirror I see the color of rape,’ said Henry Louis Taylor Jr., UB director of the university’s Center for urban studies. ‘It’s a reminder of a time when African American women had no control over their bodies.'”
