Obama’s win brings hope to black neighborhoods

MIAMI—In a desolate, weed-filled lot in a neighborhood nestled just beyond Miami’s glass-and-steel skyscrapers, business was brisk at Earl Quinn’s makeshift T-shirt shop. As soon as he could print them, T-shirts with President-elect Barack Obama’s name in glitter and his face in silver studs were sold.
Suddenly, this predominantly black community that had suffered for years with poverty, unemployment and racial tension had come to life the day after Obama’s historic victory. Customers arrived in pajamas, some still tired after a night of celebrating, just to grab a souvenir.
“You got the one that says, ‘It’s not a black thing, it’s not a white thing, but it’s a right thing?'” one customer asked.
Quinn shook his head. Sold out.
“You got the shirt that says ‘Mission Possible?’ The other day, you were wearing that shirt, ‘Mission Possible.'”
Quinn grinned.
“It’s not ‘Mission Possible,'” he said. “It’s now ‘Mission Accomplished.'”
Across the country, black communities large and small — enclaves that for decades have been plagued with poverty, foreclosures and crushing violence — are flush with the realization that a black man has done the unplausible. Yet beyond the discussions of hope and change, people say they believe an Obama presidency might bring more concrete relief: jobs, affordable housing and safety.
Jobs and hope have long been scarce commodities in Liberty City. Its name comes from a housing project built in the 1930s for poor African-Americans and is known around Florida for a few things.
One is its high school football team, ranked tops in the country by ESPN last year. Another is grinding poverty. The median household income hovers around $18,000 a year, some $30,000 less than the U.S. average.
It’s also known for riots.
In 1979, a black insurance agent named Arthur McDuffie was beaten to death by white and Hispanic police officers. An all-white jury acquitted them of charges including second-degree murder, and Liberty City exploded. The three-day riot left 18 dead, countless injured and 850 arrested.
Many of the neighborhood’s businesses — including some of the buildings near Quinn’s T-shirt tent — were destroyed, then rebuilt.
Then in 1989, police killed another black motorist, and rioters spewed into the streets just days before the Super Bowl was held in Miami.
The area has never fully recovered. Boarded-up buildings, drug dealers and, recently, foreclosures, have mushroomed. Racial tension among blacks, whites, Hispanics and even newer black Caribbean arrivals have simmered for years.