District 10 candidate calls for separate African American schools

Bayview organizer Charlie Walker
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

By Pat Murphy

Copyright fogcityjournal.com 2006

January 25, 2006

District 10 supervisor candidate Charlie Walker yesterday called for creation of a separate San Francisco school system for African Americans.

Separating blacks from whites is necessary because current education of African Americans is not working, Walker told the Sentinel.

"I am hoping seriously that we consider separating blacks from whites because it's not working," Walker reflected.

"What good did it do us to demonstrate to get our freedom when we didn't get nothing out of it.

"The women, the gays, the Asians, the Latinos - they got it and we're still sitting around here. In San Francisco alone, 42% of our people are unemployed.

Walker, a longtime Bayview community organizer, made the remarks following a Board of Supervisors vote urging the outgoing school superintendent not to accept her severance pay. The superintendent is African American.

"Yes, we've got to have separate schools but we've got to have a budget that is equal to the budget that you educate whites with.

"It costs $10,000 a year to educate a white child - it costs $10,000 to educate a black child. It's got to be just that simple.

"I don't think America has really come to grips with the crime of slavery.

"Whether white people want to admit it slavery is the Achilles' heel of this country.

"They have not been fair economically to us.

"They have not been fair to us in any way, shape or fashion.

"So what do you do when, in 1860, ninety-eight percent of our people worked for white people and in 2001 - guess what - ninety-eight percent of our people still work for white folks.

"So what do you expect to happen?"

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