MIAMI — Taking the microphone at a church in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Miami, the Rev. Jesse Jackson asked how many in the crowd knew someone looking for a job.
Most of the several hundred people in the televised town hall gathering stood up. How many knew someone facing foreclosure? Student loan debt? In jail? Considered suicide? Crowds of people stood up in answer to each of his questions.
“This is a state of emergency,” the civil rights leader and one-time Democratic presidential candidate declared.
The Congressional Black Caucus organized a town hall gathering in Miami to address Black unemployment rates on Monday evening, one of five taking place in August in distressed communities across the country. At issue is the stubbornly high unemployment rate in the Black community, now at 16.8 percent nationwide, more than double that for Whites and a figure that doesn’t even include those who’ve stopped looking for work.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. and the caucus chairman, said representatives are frustrated at being unable to advance bills in Congress aimed at encouraging job growth. Caucus members have introduced more than 40 such bills since January and none of them have passed. Republicans took control of the House nearly nine months ago.
Now, the lawmakers are taking to the road to ensure angry constituents that they are doing all in their power to help, while offering a job fair in each city as assistance. In Atlanta, Cleveland and Detroit, the events have drawn thousands, and more than 1,000 people streamed into a downtown convention center Tuesday morning for the Miami job fair. Another will be held in Los Angeles at the end of the month.
“We left the complaint counter, and that’s why we’re on this tour,” Cleaver said.
