May/June 2005

CONTENTS

ISSUES & VIEWS
— Home Economics
While homeownership is up, the true measure of the state of Black housing is the extent to which renters and owners are living in decent, affordable homes
By Danilo Pelletiere

FEATURES
— Harlem on the Rise
Uptown is brimming with newcomers and skyrocketing real estate. Will longtime residents benefit from the economic “renaissance”?
By Tatsha Robertson

— Standing Their Ground
A Washington, D.C., mother and daughter organize their neighbors and buy their building, rather than succumbing to developers
By Ericka Blount Danois

—Westward Ho
California’s Bay area has some of the nation’s most expensive property, so house hunters are migrating to West Oakland, a close-in, neglected Black enclave
By Chauncey Bailey

—Cracker’s Fortune
Since its founding, African Americans defined and sustained West Palm Beach. Will the Florida destination’s future do justice to its past?
By Natalie Hopkinson

—The Crisis Interview: Alphonso Jackson
President Bush’s housing secretary touts administration priorities such as increasing minority homeownership and defends proposed budget cuts
By Leah Y. Latimer

Cover: John Labbe for The Crisis

DEPARTMENTS
- Editor's Note

- Letters

- Up Front: Historian John Hope Franklin at 90; 1946 lynching of two Georgia couples revisited; Toxic pollution in predominantly Black Mossville, La.; Black Army enlistment waning; National Fair Housing Alliance reports on housing segregation and discrimination; North Carolina apologizes for early 20th century eugenics
Questions: G. Bunch discusses plans for the National Museum of African American History and Culture

- Health: Celebrity sufferers draw attention to sarcoidosis, a mysterious disease that often affects the lungs, but may attack any organ

- Crisis Forum
* Media: Joyce Davis of Radio Free Europe has covered Middle East issues for three decades
* Gallery: King Center in Atlanta is in need of repair and struggling financially
* Books:
— Reviews of Promises Betrayed: What Kind of America Do We Want to Live In? by Bob Herbert; and
— and Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America by Fergus M. Bordewich

- Backstory: Doras Chirwa draws parallels between Black women and AIDS in the United States and her native Zambia

- The NAACP Today
* Youth and College division celebrates 70 years;
* Washington Bureau’s top issues include budget priorities and judicial nominations;
* California State Conference supports gay marriage bill, investigates police brutality

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