Even with all of the Twin Cities' cultural and economic capital, the region has a troubled history with race, police misconduct and economic inequality now in the world's gaze due to George Floyd's death last month.
Clashes of culture and excessive police force in a city whose outward face is one of multiculturalism is, in part, due to the growth of the black community, says Steven Belton, president of Urban League Twin Cities.“There seemed to be fewer issues between white culture when we had less than two percent of the population in the 1950s," he says.Still, historically black communities like Rondo in St. Paul and South Minneapolis flourished with their own businesses, churches and schools.
Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton and Council President Jackie Cherryhomes discuss the city's affordable housing crunch on June 18, 1999, in Minneapolis. Sayles Belton listened to housing advocates, concerned citizens and members of neighborhood groups at a meeting to discuss the city's affordable housing crunch, an aftermath of a protest which stopped demolition of housing."That work occurred over a number of years," says Sayles Belton.
“He scored the second-highest on the sergeant’s exam and the chief at the time launched an investigation into how he did it,” Carter says. “They didn’t investigate how the person who scored first got the highest, it was that my father got the second-highest they wanted to investigate.”Photo provided by Office of Mayor Melvin Carter
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