A unified push for closing Minnesota's racial gaps

Not since the peak years of the 20th-century civil rights movement — if then — had so many leaders of Minnesota's African-American community assembled at the Legislature. At the State Office Building on Wednesday, more than 75 representatives of grass-roots advocacy organizations came to promote a package of proposals they called the United Black Legislative Agenda.

The requests on their 11-point list are important, but so was their presence as a single lobbying force. Included were leaders of organizations both new and old, from Minneapolis, St. Paul and several Greater Minnesota cities. The venerable Minneapolis Urban League and the upstart Black Lives Matter were represented, as were both longtime Minnesotans and Somali-American newcomers. Leaders of both Christian and Muslim faith communities were on hand.

That unity illustrates the rapid evolution of the revived push for racial justice that has been mobilized around the country. First felt in city streets in protest of perceived bias in policing and the courts, the push is coming increasingly to the halls of government and embracing an agenda that reaches beyond the criminal justice system. The willingness of diverse Minnesota groups to speak at the Legislature with one voice attests to a growing political sophistication.

The agenda advanced in St. Paul on Wednesday includes criminal justice matters — including funding and strong accountability policies for police body cameras in the state's largest cities, a persistent plea since the galvanizing Jamar Clark shooting by Minneapolis police in November.

But the agenda leads with a plea for greater economic opportunity for the state's African-Americans. It calls for creation of a $75 million fund to aid minority business start-ups, as well as workforce development and summer jobs programs.

Reaching that sum will be a challenge for legislators, who have a smaller-than-expected state surplus with which to work this session. But the agenda's economic emphasis is the right one for a state whose poverty rate among African-Americans grew and median income dropped while the rest of the state made gains from 2013 to 2014. Minnesota policymakers will do well to understand that unsettling income trend and take at least initial steps to reverse it.