Clarence Hightower

This past May, the University of Minnesota Law School’s Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity (IMO) published a new study titled The Rise of White-Segregated Subsidized Housing. The study’s executive summary opens by stating, “Subsidized housing in Minneapolis and Saint Paul is segregated, and this segregation takes two forms — one well-known, and the other virtually unknown.” […]

In one of the earliest “Anti-Poverty Soldier” columns, I explored the disturbing issue of hunger both in Minnesota and throughout the country. One of the primary topics in the column addressed the debate over funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program. To provide a little background, The […]

Recently I came across a couple of stories that addressed the misconceptions many of us have regarding the subject of poverty in America. Such misconceptions include the belief that the poor should be blamed for their own plight, the idea that Americans living in poverty don’t really have it so bad, and the assertion that […]

A recurring theme in The Anti-Poverty Soldier columns has been the idea of economic security. Although there are an estimated 50 million Americans currently living below the federal poverty line, many experts suggest another 100 million or so can be classified as economically insecure. In essence, this means that one major hardship or perhaps even […]

Beginning in 1994, the United States Congress established a process to designate a number of urban and rural areas as Renewal Communities (RC), Empowerment Zones (EZ), or Enterprise Communities (EC). These designations were used to identify many of the poorest communities in the nation. Through a competitive process, several communities were awarded federal grants, bonds, […]

In the wake of Prince’s tragic and untimely death, several of his more recent associates have disclosed details regarding the multitude of his philanthropic activities and participation in community development projects throughout the nation.

In fact today, of the 60 cities in the metro area with a population of at least 10,000, St. Paul and Minneapolis rank 58th and 59th in homeownership rates and are two of only three cities with a homeownership rate of under 50 percent.

A number of cities across America either have or are in the process of developing a $15 minimum wage in at least some of their service sectors, including New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.

There is an early episode of the 1970s sitcom Good Times titled “The Dinner Party” where the Evans family suspects that an elderly neighbor of theirs has resorted to eating pet food.

In February, Hunger Solutions Minnesota released its latest report detailing that collectively Minnesotans made nearly 3.3 million visits to food shelves in 2015.

On October 17, 1987, just months before his death, Father Joseph Wresinski stood before an audience of more than 100,000 people in Paris and declared that day the “International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.”

It was American author and historian James Truslow Adams that famously popularized the phrase “The American Dream” in his 1931 book The Epic of America. The above quote is Adams’ precise definition of that dream.

Among the most talked about issues related to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 have been the ever-increasing gaps in income and wealth in both in America and throughout the world.

For a good part of the last two decades, the issue of healthcare reform has either been at or near center stage in America’s political discourse.

In the nearly two years that I have had the privilege of contributing this column to the MSR, a number of recurring themes have been addressed, including a pair of refrains that seem to emerge more often than any other.

Not long ago I came across an opinion piece by the editorial board of ECM, a local company that publishes a variety of community newspapers throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Toward the end of 2002’s provocative Bowling for Columbine, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore highlighted a tragic story from his hometown of Flint, Michigan.

In the October 2015 issue of The Atlantic, award-winning journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates has penned an expansive and compelling cover story titled “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” The starting point for this essay is a discussion of the controversial Moynihan Report (officially known as The Negro Family: The Case for National Action).