by David W. Marshall
(Trice Edney Wire) – It’s understandable why politics turns people off. It’s reasonable to conclude that many politicians don’t care. Unfortunately, as citizens, we cannot afford to walk away and become totally disengaged from those chosen to act, speak, and govern on our behalf. We need them to do their jobs as “representatives” serving their constituency. Too often, Republicans are elected to office with the belief they are not there to serve their constituents who happen to be members of the opposite party or did not support their candidacy.
Local and state governments are tasked with providing basic services to their citizens, and those services should never be made partisan or racial. Sometimes state and local officials need to work together to provide the basic necessities of life to their citizens. Jackson, Mississippi, is the perfect example of the challenges faced by a blue city trying to function in a red state.
Jackson is not just any city in Mississippi; it is the largest city in the state and the seat of state government. Despite these distinctions, Jackson finds itself in a political trap by being a blue city in a red state. In many ways, Jackson is no different from other Southern cities faced with court-ordered integration of the public schools along with subsequent white flight. The population, which soared to over 200,000, has since dropped to about 150,000 after more than 40 years of decline. When white residents fled the city for neighboring suburbs, they left their love for Jackson behind. Today, Jackson is not only a blue city, but it is also an 82% Black city with 25% of its residents living in poverty. The goal of racial separation was achieved, and along with the white flight, there was lasting damage to the city’s tax base. As residents continued to leave, home values plummeted, driving down tax revenues and requiring tax rate increases.
Businesses that could provide the city with a stable tax base also followed residents, relocating to areas with lower tax rates, newer infrastructure, and whiter populations. Those who chose to neglect and ignore Jackson because of the red/blue, White/Black, or the urban/rural divide may never realize that holding back and disinvesting in Jackson will also hold back the state. Mississippi’s rural lawmakers in the Republican-dominated state legislature are following the long tradition of “separate and unequal” by intentionally failing to provide the majority-Democrat city with the adequate funding and resources needed to address its aging infrastructure. The practice of “separate and unequal” will cause one to watch the suffering and misery of people of color without being moved by it.
Before Jackson faced its 2021 water crisis, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and Republican lawmakers repeatedly killed the city’s efforts to adequately fund essential water treatment upgrades. State lawmakers previously denied allowing the city to raise infrastructure funds through a sales tax increase. A bill that would have authorized a bond issuance to help Jackson repair and improve its water and sewer systems died in the Republican-controlled state House Ways and Means committee. In 2021, when approximately 40,000 Jackson residents went weeks without running water, Reeves told city leaders that they needed to do a better job “collecting their water bill payments before they start going and asking everyone else to pony up more money.”
While water is a basic necessity of life, denying it by allowing critical systems to deteriorate is cruel and inhumane. Due in part to severe flooding, Jackson’s treatment plant ultimately failed, leaving thousands of city residents without water to drink, bathe, or even flush toilets. “Ideally, infrastructure serves as a shared foundation for economic, environmental, and public health between different neighborhoods and municipalities,” scholars at the Brookings Institute wrote in March 2021, after Jackson faced another severe water shortage. “However, infrastructure is often poorly maintained or intentionally overlooked in particular places, leading to a lack of access, affordability, and safety for many communities of color.”
Understanding this single Jackson, Mississippi, example means understanding the governing pattern when blue cities are acted upon by red state governments everywhere.
As a result, a group of 15 Democratic mayors governing in Republican-dominated states is building a new Blue Cities/ Red States Coalition that aims to influence national politics as a center-left alternative to both the MAGA movement and what they describe as “far-left dysfunction” from groups like the Democratic Socialists of America. The founding mayors govern cities including Cleveland; Montgomery, AL; Little Rock, AR; Tucson, AZ; Jacksonville, FL; Miami; Atlanta; Boise, ID; Kansas City, MO; Lincoln, NE; Columbus, OH; Tulsa, OK; and Memphis. According to its website, the coalition is needed to address state legislatures’ infringements on blue city governments. In an era of political polarization, the coalition seeks to bring together mayors working to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges in complex “red state” environments. It shows that these local leaders understand what happens in Jackson can happen to them as well.
David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and the author of God Bless Our Divided America.
