Water Rights, Civil Rights And Black History Month

Black History Month. How will schools across our great country choose to celebrate Black History Month? I have a suggestion. Instead of writing another biography on Martin Luther King, maybe high schools across our country should examine water rights. There seems to be a disturbing pattern. One all to familiar to African American History, and that is water rights have become a civil rights issue.

As the income gap between Rich and Poor communities has grown, it seems that water quality, both drinking and sanitation are at risk for our poorest communities. Often times, those communities are African American. For example, in Detroit, where 41 percent of residents live in poverty and 99 percent of the poor are African American, more than 33,000 households lost water service for nonpayment of bills in 2014. Recently, Flint Michigan was in the news for unsafe water. An estimated 6-12 thousand children were exposed to high lead levels.
Most of those children were African-American. The government denied the problems until the U.S. Attorney General's office became involved. After investigating the problem, President Obama declared a state of emergency. It was after the Federal Government's involvement that state and local governments acknowledged the problem.

In the deep south, similar problems exist. However, Alabama has extended water rights to a whole new level. According to a recent report, The Alabama Department of Public Health estimates that 40 to 90 percent of households in rural areas have inadequate or no septic systems, and half of the existing ones are not fully functional or are expected to fail in the future. The problem is particularly stark in Lowndes County, Ala., where 70 percent of the population is African-American and only one in five residents is connected to a municipal sewer system. In this impoverished county, families are being arrested, fined and even face jail time simply because they lack the means to install and upgrade their own septic systems.

It seems a disproportionate amount of African Americans are being denied safe water and sanitation. Meanwhile, the rest of America is studying Martin Luther King this month. Ironic that classrooms will learn about civil rights at a time when many communities are lacking the basic right of clean water. Hopefully teachers will go beyond biographical assignments and ask their students to apply their learning in a manner that is useful to civil rights today. Water Rights....Civil Rights. It is time to teach honestly how our history impacts us today.