Aldermen Tuesday night got a talking-to from local and state NAACP president Teresa Haley (pictured).
“Ladies and gentlemen, city council members,” said Haley, noting she was addressing three Blacks and three women, “I am very, very disappointed, because when you talk about women’s suffrage and why you sit here in this horseshoe tonight. It was not representative of what we expect of our city leaders.”
What the council did was table a request for up to $400,000 in community development block grant money so a program that helps young people learn job skills can fix up homes.
Calvin Pitts, who is Black, runs the Southtown Construction Training Center. Aldermen mentioned, among other things, $4,000 in outstanding payments Pitts must make to a union for benefits. Haley suggested Pitts would have been treated differently were he white.