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The Impact of Black Flight on the Future of
San Antonio's African-American Community

One of the questions John Wiley Price asked of San Antonio's
African-American community at last month's NAACP banquet was whether our
young people were leaving the city and what were we doing to hold them
here.

The Flight of the African-American young -- especially college educated
persons -- is a growing phenomena in San Antonio. More and more of our
young people are choosing to leave San Antonio for the greener pastures
and opportunities in cities such as Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and points
north, south, east, and west.

Twenty-two year old Karama recently moved to Houston. Although one of
her major reasons was to attend the University of Houston next semester,
she also says that she felt that San Antonio has little to offer young
African-Americans such as herself, and she probably will not return her
to live. She likes the fact that Houston has a larger African-American
population and it is an everyday occurrence to see African-Americans
working in all types of responsible positions in the city. She is
impressed, as she interviews for employment, to, more often than not, be
interviewed by an African-American and to be able to choose between two
or three African-American radio stations to listen to.

Karama says she made a decision a couple of years ago to live elsewhere
-- Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia were her other choices -- because
"there's nothing for Blacks here in San Antonio."

Kelly also left San Antonio after earning her Master's degree in social
work. She felt that there would be greater opportunity for her career
advancement in Houston.

Many of those leaving San Antonio leave because there is a perception
that the Black voice in San Antonio is moot. Our small numbers and the
failure of the City to embrace African-Americans beyond the traditional
boundaries of the "Black community" lend credence to that perception.
Young people as well as older African-Americans who have left San
Antonio also say that they feel that, San Antonio does not have enough
for African-Americans in the areas of culture, political power, and
community influence.

However, the major reason that many young people, especially college
graduates, leave the city is because they find that they can make more
money in other cities.

 And they�re probably right. A recent study shows that San Antonio�s
wages are abysmally low, and city and business leaders are still using
the city�s low wages as an incentive to get companies to locate here
although COPS and Metro Alliance have been successful in preventing the
city from offering huge tax incentives for companies that pay poverty
level wages.

Not only do other cities offer better wages than San Antonio, many young
African-Americans who have left the city say that there is limited
opportunity here for African-Americans.

Vincent Gray, the son of Allen Gray who is active in Metrol Alliance, is
a junior at Xavier University majoring in Business Administration and
minoring in political science. His father says that his son recently
told him that if he had to make a decision right now as to where he
would live and work, he would choose Atlanta because there is just so
much more opportunity there for African-Americans.

When his father asked him "what about San Antonio", Vincent responded,
"And do what?"

The young man believes that, in terms of making money and becoming
financially successful, if you are not a doctor or lawyer, there is not
much opportunity for African-Americans.

Mr. Gray says that he tried to argue that his son could come back and
make a difference, to which the young man responded that if San Antonio
doesn't want to change itself, he could simply go where there is more
progressive leadership.

There is also the perception, among African-Americans, that
African-Americans' position as San Antonio�s 'minority-minority' puts
African-Americans and Hispanics in competition for jobs in areas that
have historically had a good record in hiring
African-Americans-particularly government jobs.

Many African-Americans return home with their degrees only to find that
an inability to speak Spanish throws them out of the loop for good
paying jobs. Paulette is one such person.

Paulette wanted to remain in San Antonio after graduating from North
Texas State University with her degree in sociology. With her degree in
hand, she set out to interview for a job as a probation officer.
Although African-Americans make up a large percentage of the people on
probation, she was told that she needed to be able to speak fluent
Spanish in order to be employed.

After several months of futilely searching for a job in San Antonio,
Miss Webster took her job search to other parts of the state. She soon
found a job in her field in the Midland/Odessa area -- an area that also
has a large Spanish speaking population, but where her inability to
speak Spanish was not a hindrance to employment.

 She later transferred to Austin where she works as a probation officer,
has bought a condominium, and has become part of the social and civic
fabric of Austin's young African-American community.

Former City Councilman and pastor emeritus of Mt. Zion First Baptist
Church Rev. Claude W. Black has been concerned about the requirement for
bilingualism for years. He points out that many state and local
government jobs have, as a requirement, that job candidates must be able
to speak Spanish.

"This requirement of bilingualism," Rev. Black believes, "cuts out the
reality of applications being made by many Blacks." Often, he says, the
ability to speak Spanish is not even necessary to the performance of the
job.

"We're taxpayers," he emphasizes. "We should not be eliminated from jobs
supported by tax dollars." He goes on to say that, even in the private
sector, "it (elimination from jobs) is a violation of our rights as
taxpayers and citizens because the private sector companies enjoy the
benefits of what our tax dollars pay for -- streets, police protection,
etc."

The problem of young African-Americans leaving the city after earning
their degrees is not unique to young people who are just graduating from
college in the past 4-5 years.

Yolanda and Norma are sisters, both professional woman -- one in her
late 30's, the other has just turned 40-- who have chosen to live
elsewhere. One lives and works in Louisville, KY; the other in Atlanta.
Both grew up in San Antonio and their father and brother still live
here. One of their main reason for leaving was that there was such a
small number of other young African-American professionals and they
found, after returning here from Howard University, that
African-American cultural experiences were limited.

Although young people of all ethnic groups are often finding better
opportunities outside San Antonio and are opting not to return to the
city after earning their degrees, the Flight Problem affects the
African-American community much more profoundly than it does San
Antonio's Anglo and Hispanic communities.

San Antonio�s African-American population is about seven percent of the
total population. As more and more of its young, well-educated
population leaves the city, it is being left in a position of an
eventual decline in its numbers as older African-Americans pass away.
This also creates a future dilemma of a shrinking African-American
middle class.

 The loss of educated, upwardly mobile African-Americans may also play
itself out in a loss of African-American influence in San Antonio's
corporate and private sector communities, similar to what is happening
in San Antonio's police department.

A significant number of  San Antonio's African-American police officers
are at the point where they will be retiring within the next 5-10 years.
As the City has failed to hire younger African-American police officers,
when these officers -- especially the higher ranking officers -- leave
the force, there will not be a large enough pool of younger officers to
replace them, resulting in a net loss of African-American police
officers, particularly in decision making positions.

The same is happening throughout the city. The flight of younger
African-Americans -- those in the 18-40 age group -- from San Antonio
leaves a smaller pool of African-Americans to replace older
African-Americans in key positions of leadership and influence in the
workplace and in the community -- public and private.

The �Flight� also leaves African-Americans in San Antonio politically
vulnerable. If San Antonio�s already scattered African-American
population gets any smaller, African-Americans will become more
marginalized politically than they are now; the needs and specific
problems of the African-American community will continue to be
overlooked. The so-called �African-American seats� on City Council and
in the State Legislature are becoming increasingly at risk. The East
Side, which has always been the area considered the bailiwick of
African-Americans is steadily losing ground to Hispanics, who now make
up about a third of the population of the 17 census tracks that make up
the East Side and is steadily growing. While the Hispanic population on
the East Side is steadily growing, the African-American population is
not; San Antonio�s Seven Percent Black population is scattered
throughout the city with not enough weight in any one area to be real
influence, therefore its voice is becoming more ineffectual.

 Retired Col. Roy Burley, in an earlier interview with African-American
Reflections, put forth a solution to retaining some semblance of a Black
presence in the political arena. He urged African-Americans living in
other parts of the city to become active and known in their neighborhood
associations so that African-Americans from areas other than the East
Side have an opportunity to be elected to local political offices such
as City Council. The question remains, however, will there be someone to
advocate for the African-American community if the East Side District 2
seat is lost?

Rev. Black feels that the inability for prepared, educated
African-Americans to find good jobs here is the crux of the problem. He
says he has been concerned for years that mid-management jobs are not
available to African-Americans who are qualified, and, therefore, our
most qualified African-Americans are having to go to Dallas, Houston,
and Atlanta to find opportunities.

What occurs, he says, is that the community is affected in that this
phenomena of keeping prepared persons from getting the better jobs is
keeping our children from enjoying the best opportunities in education,
healthcare, and other resources. If parents are restricted and limited
in their income, they are hard pressed to be able to help their children
move to the next level.

 Based upon what Rev. Black is saying, this creates a domino effect that
results in the African-American community failing to thrive economically
and, therefore, socially and politically because the cream of the crop
of African-Americans are taking their talents, skills, and potential
contributions to the African-American community and the community as a
whole to other locales.

 The question framed by John Wiley Price is important: What are we, as
an African-American community, doing to hold our young people here? Our
young people, like Mr. Gray's son, don't  feel that they should have to
fight the battle of creating opportunities and if there is a lack of
progressive leadership to tackle the problem, they will continue to fly
away.

 Mr. Gray makes the point that San Antonio is "subsidizing Austin with
an educated workforce" because Austin offers much more opportunity for
young people -- although its African-American population is not
significantly larger than San Antonio's.

At this point, it looks like San Antonio is subsidizing a lot of cities
by just giving them our cream of the crop young people to work, live,
and contribute to their communities.

 African-American Reflections
 Nov 17, 1998