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Dr. Andre Perry, author of the upcoming book, ‘Know Your Price,’ talks race, equity, education, economic inclusion

NEW TRI-STATE DEFENDER — Dr. Andre Perry of the Brookings Institute and the Hechinger Report delved into his research on race and structural inequality, education and economic inclusion during a visit to LeMoyne-Owen College last week.  Perry’s visit to Memphis’ only HBCU (historically black college and university) included an interview with Brian Clay of “The Brian Clay Chronicles” for an upcoming podcast of the Big Business of Poverty. The New Tri-State Defender’s media partnership with the developers of “The Brian Clay Chronicles” netted this Q&A.

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Dr. Andre Perry’s most recent scholarship involves an analysis of “majority black places and institutions in America, focusing on highlighting valuable assets worthy of increased investment.” (Photo: Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell)

By TSD Newsdesk

Dr. Andre Perry of the Brookings Institute and the Hechinger Report delved into his research on race and structural inequality, education and economic inclusion during a visit to LeMoyne-Owen College last week. 

Perry’s visit to Memphis’ only HBCU (historically black college and university) included an interview with Brian Clay of “The Brian Clay Chronicles” for an upcoming podcast of the Big Business of Poverty. The New Tri-State Defender’s media partnership with the developers of “The Brian Clay Chronicles” netted this Q&A.

In this conversation, Perry touched upon his most recent scholarship – an analysis of “majority black places and institutions in America, focusing on highlighting valuable assets worthy of increased investment.”

Brian Clay – In the book, “The Mis-Education of a City,” which is pretty much an anthology of when you served as the CEO of the Capital One school in New Orleans, … basically what you’ve said in there is when it comes to each case, and especially with your work in New Orleans, it was about changing thought there. Where a city after Katrina and the storms there had to re-engineer their thought process about education. Tell me a little bit about that.

Dr. Andre Perry – This actually is one of the reasons why I do my current work on economic development. I often say kids don’t live in the schools, they live in the communities, and we have got to recognize the breadth of the experiences that kids go through that manifests itself at school. …

And you’re not going to fix those things in a child, per se. And that’s what we attempt to do; we try to fix children through punishment, typically. We try to punish problems out of them. But the reality is that if you want to change children and behaviors that are not conducive for academic success, you have to change the root causes. And a lot of that is the structural inequality that persists in majority black places. …

I’m presenting…this evening, and you’ll hear me use the refrain, “There’s nothing wrong with black people that ending racism can’t solve.” It’s my belief, predicated on data, that if you move policy, behaviors will change. …

Likewise, many of the successes we see in many populations are not the result of bootstrapping and individual effort. But it is the result of the direct investment in the people who do policy. And that’s what I’m trying to do. When I worked in schools, we did everything to fix children; we did everything to fix parents. We did little to change the overall setting that they lived in. So my work now is about changing the setting that people live in.

B.C. – … Do you think 1954, Brown vs (Topeka) Board of Education (case that outlawed public school segregation)…do you think we were trying to fix people then? Or was it a policy effort?

Dr. A.P. – I think, in the main, what we wanted to do is get to the source of inequality, and that was segregation. Now, what we did do is assume that white schools are better, and that’s a mistake. What they were, they were better resourced. So the problem of moving kids out of their communities and into others led to a whole other level of divestment. … But busing was not the solution that they thought it would be; primarily because you’re not trusting the assets that you had.

B.C. – …We’re so glad that you’re here at LeMoyne-Owen College. … Do you think that’s one of the things that we do value in the African-American community, our HBCUs?

Dr. A. P. – Well, black folk appreciate and value, but society does not. …When you look at the overall number of grants, federal grants they’ve received, when you look at the attention they receive relative to the production, they’re not getting the level of investment. 

I did a study recently that looked at the number of STEM graduates and business graduates coming out of HBCUs. If employers really wanted to fill that sector, they could look to HBCUs in doing so. HBCU grads, particularly in the STEM field and the business field, are achieving at high levels. … particularly in the south, but they’re not being absorbed in the high growth sectors of the economy. 

We know that people will cut their noses to spite their faces in terms of racism, but I think it’s more, in this regard, a level of evaluation. They don’t see the value that HBCUs add to society. If you were standing in a room with successful, whatever that means, black people, and you asked them where they went to school, and you asked did they go to an HBCU, invariably, most (in) the room will raise their hand.

It’s because they were nurtured in a caring environment, one that believed in them, one that addressed relevant issues in a diverse environment. When you go to an HBCU, we’re actually dealing with a diversity of black folk. … These are great places and they need to be rewarded.

B.C. – … (Your upcoming book) “Know Your Price” is a fascinating study because you take housing as your premise and you go into a certain comparison in where you live. …Tell us a little bit about that.

Dr. A.P. – So in the study, I looked at homes in majority black places, meaning the communities where the black population is greater than 50 percent and I compared those prices to homes and communities where the share of the population is less than 1 percent. …All majority black places, Memphis included. 

Most people understand that there are price differences, but most people will say, hey, that’s because education is worse and there’s more crime and the housing stock is worse. …I measured those things. …We control for them to get to an apples-for-apples comparison. So we found a black home that’s equivalent in certain conditions to a white home in certain conditions.

B.C. – What did you find?

Dr. A. P. – We found that homes in black neighborhoods are devalued by 23 percent, about $48,000 per home, about $156 billion of lost equity across the country. … (P)ut that in perspective, that would have paid for about 4.4 million startup, black-owned businesses based on the amount of startup capital that we open up businesses with. It would have funded eight million four-year degrees. … 

It’s an incredible number. Those dollars are typically used for communities to pay for schools, better policing. It goes to people to deal with the invariable and inevitable shocks that occur. …

(W)hat racism does is robbing people of the opportunity to lift themselves. Whenever something goes wrong in our communities, we talk about there’s something wrong, there’s something broken in the home, that this person doesn’t have home training. We look at the commentary from our President, talking about rat-infested communities, projecting a negative air that there’s something going wrong with our leadership. No, we have strong assets in the community, they’re just devalued, taking away our opportunity to lift ourselves.

Remember, whites were in similar position, and they still are in places. … In the Great Depression they were so in mass, but we used federal policy to bail people out. …Federal policy gave people an opportunity to own a home, to build one. It wasn’t this miraculous bootstrapping … 

But my study essentially looks at assets in majority black places. And I’m not going to stop with housing. I’m looking at businesses. I’m looking at education and other critical areas… Folks need to see that they have value; they have assets that we should be able to build upon.

B.C. – … What is the answer? How do we fix this?

Dr. A. P. – We have to bring value back to the community. You can do that in several ways, either encouraging micro loans to current homeowners so that they can fix up their properties and improve those conditions. I’m obviously encouraging long-term renters to become homeowners. We certainly need to give down payment assistance….

 I’m also advocating for individual level resource development. … I’m also an advocate of making sure business owners and entrepreneurs get the kind of low interest loans to start business and trying to take risks.

But most importantly…we need to advocate for federal policy that will enable communities at a large scale to do all of these things.

So, I’m an advocate for federal policy…and…encouraging people to do all they can to leverage their own assets so that we can bring attention to the lack of federal and state investment in black communities.

This article originally appeared in the New Tri-State Defender

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Federal Raids Target Migrant Kids, Split Families

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The Trump administration has reportedly removed at least 500 migrant children from their homes across the United States and placed them into government custody, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

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By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The Trump administration has reportedly removed at least 500 migrant children from their homes across the United States and placed them into government custody, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The children, many of whom were living with family members or other vetted sponsors, were taken during so-called “welfare checks” carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies. According to CNN, the operations are part of a larger campaign launched shortly after President Donald Trump returned to office, with federal authorities setting up a “war room” inside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review data on children who entered the country alone and were later released to sponsors. Officials have used the room to coordinate efforts between agencies, including ICE and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees the custody of unaccompanied migrant children.

Trump officials claim the effort is aimed at protecting children placed in unsafe conditions or with unqualified sponsors, pointing to cases where children were released to individuals with criminal backgrounds or those involved in smuggling. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the welfare checks have led to the arrests of some sponsors and the transfer of children into ORR custody. Federal data shows more than 2,500 children are currently in ORR custody. CNN reported that the average stay has grown significantly, from 67 days in December 2024 to 170 days by April 2025. Former Health and Human Services officials say new vetting rules—including income requirements, government-issued ID, and DNA tests—have made it far more difficult for parents and guardians, particularly those who are undocumented, to reclaim their children.

In some cases, reunifications that had already been scheduled were canceled. A recent lawsuit details how two brothers, ages 7 and 14, remain in government care because their mother cannot meet new documentation requirements under the revised policies. Mark Greenberg, a former senior HHS official, stated that the approach puts children in a difficult situation. “To the extent, the goal is to determine whether children are in danger or in need of help, this isn’t a good way to do that because it creates fear that anything they say could be used against their parent or family member,” he said. Immigration enforcement agents reportedly have visited children’s homes and asked about their journey to the U.S., school attendance, and upcoming immigration court appearances. Legal advocates say these visits, which sometimes include the FBI, are not standard child welfare procedures and can create fear and confusion among minors.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed the agency’s role, saying, “Protecting children is a critical mission for the FBI, and we will continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners to secure their safety and well-being.” Multiple outlets noted that the Trump administration has not provided clear evidence that large numbers of children are missing. Instead, it has referenced a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report from 2023 that noted more than 291,000 unaccompanied minors had not received notices to appear in immigration court. Former officials note that these figures do not necessarily indicate that the children are missing; some lacked updated addresses or were affected by administrative backlogs.

Within HHS, officials were instructed to expedite policy changes. Former ORR Ombudsman Mary Giovagnoli stated that a senior ICE official, Melissa Harper, was temporarily appointed to lead ORR. Her short tenure was followed by Angie Salazar, another former ICE official who now frequently communicates with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Trump’s team argues the Biden administration allowed thousands of unaccompanied children to enter the country without sufficient oversight. Jen Smyers, a former ORR deputy director, stated that all sponsors underwent thorough vetting, including Department of Justice background checks and reviews of the sex offender registry. “No amount of vetting is a predictor of the future,” she said. The Miami Herald recently reported that a 17-year-old foster child in Florida was removed from his home in shackles and transferred to ICE custody. The boy and his mother had crossed the border without documentation, but he had been living in a state-supervised foster placement. The case raised concerns about the state’s cooperation with federal enforcement and the message it sends to immigrant families. Concerns about federal custody of vulnerable children are not confined to immigration.

In North Carolina, a 7-month-old baby died after being left in a hot minivan by her foster mother, who now faces charges of negligent child abuse and involuntary manslaughter. In Hawaii, dozens of children have been forced to sleep in government offices and hotels due to a shortage of foster placements. In North Dakota, a foster couple has been charged in the death of a 3-year-old after surveillance footage showed the child being repeatedly assaulted. “These cases show what happens when systems meant to protect children fail them,” said Laura Nally, director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights Children’s Program. “There’s a growing concern that these welfare checks are being used to carry out mass detentions of sponsors and unnecessarily return children to government custody.”

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Protests of a Costly and Historic Parade

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — President Trump is planning an elaborate and costly celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army that coincides with his birthday.

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By April Ryan

It will rain on President Trump‘s parade on Saturday if most weather forecasts correctly predict the chance of storms. President Trump is planning an elaborate and costly celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army that coincides with his birthday. When asked if he plans to attend the massive D.C. celebration, New York Democratic Congressman Greg Meeks exclaimed,” Heck no!” He elaborated, saying, “It is clear to me that what Donald J. Trump is trying to do is to emulate Vladimir Putin.” Trump and Putin, the Russian president, are friends. Meeks feels “that’s where he initially got the idea from when he saw the tanks going down the street and how people bow down to Vladimir Putin, how…that authoritarian runs his country where no one questions what he does.”

Meanwhile, around the nation 1600 protests are scheduled to coincide with what is happening in Washington, D.C. Democratic Congressman Al Greene confirms he will attend several “No King Day” protest rallies and marches in his home state of Texas. The congressman questions the president’s comments about using “force” for anyone trying to stop the parade. Reverand William Barber plans to be in Philadelphia on Saturday. “We are having a rally bringing people together,” the civil rights leader confirmed. The leader of Repairers of the Breach added, “Those rallies are gonna be massive and multiracial of every race, color, creed, religion, geographic area, so this is not a moment. We must have a constant movement.”

Weeks ago, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser warned the parade, and all its military might, and pageantry would cost “many millions of dollars” just to repair District streets after the heavy artillery tanks rolled down the historic roads in the nation’s capital. Tall gates and other barricades around the White House are part of the parade’s security measures. The Secret Service has warned of a high-security presence in the area for the parade. You can expect to see military tanks, dozens of other military vehicles, and thousands of service members marching along a route stretching nearly four miles from the Pentagon to the White House.

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Critics Question 2024 Results as Musk Tactics Surface

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Now, a Wisconsin nonprofit has filed a legal complaint accusing Musk, his America PAC, and a Musk-affiliated group called United States of America Inc. of violating state election laws by bribing voters.

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By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2024 has reignited questions about election integrity, particularly after his remarks thanking Elon Musk for what he called a “landslide” win in Pennsylvania. “He knows those computers better than anybody… all those vote-counting computers,” Trump said. “So, thank you to Elon.” The comment set off alarm, including Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett. “So, Trump is rambling on about he and Elon rigging the election?! Am I missing something or is he confessing to yet another damn crime?!” she posted on social media.

Now, a Wisconsin nonprofit has filed a legal complaint accusing Musk, his America PAC, and a Musk-affiliated group called United States of America Inc. of violating state election laws by bribing voters. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and two voters allege Musk handed out $1 million checks and that his PAC paid $100 to registered voters who signed petitions and gave their contact information. Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value over $1 to encourage someone to vote. The complaint also cites violations of the state’s lottery ban. The plaintiffs are asking a court to declare the actions illegal, prevent future violations, and award damages if applicable.

The lawsuit follows a failed attempt by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to block Musk’s actions earlier this year. Kaul argued that Musk’s conduct amounted to illegal inducement, but courts declined to intervene before the April state Supreme Court election. Jeff Mandell, president and general counsel for Law Forward, which represents the plaintiffs, said this new case is being filed under more typical legal timelines. “We’re trying to create … accountability in a more regular timeline, in a way that gives the courts the opportunity to look at this more carefully,” Mandell said.

Musk, who served briefly as a Trump adviser and led a short-lived federal agency focused on cost-cutting, has denied wrongdoing. He initially promoted the giveaways as rewards for early voters but later revised eligibility criteria following legal scrutiny. The controversy has added fuel to growing concerns over anomalies in places like Rockland County, New York, where Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly received virtually no votes despite Democratic victories in other races. “We know exactly what happened and how it unfolded, and we’re asking the court to say this is not acceptable,” Mandel has said.

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