Race relations tinged by a segregated past
PHOENIX— Three American Legion posts stand within miles of each other in central Phoenix, a curious reminder of how segregation once ruled the U.S. Southwest as well as the Deep South.
Soldiers returning after World War I in 1919 chartered one of the first posts of the U.S. veterans organization near downtown. But when black and Mexican American men returned from World War II, they opened their own posts, in their own neighborhoods farther south.
Decades later, tensions in Phoenix’s minority communities remain, spilling over this summer after video of police officers pointing guns and cursing at a black couple revived disturbing memories of the days of segregation, when black and Hispanic residents recall commonly being mistreated by police.
The couple in the cell phone video filed a $10 million claim against the city, and the police department launched an internal investigation.
Minority residents, meanwhile, packed meetings at a church and City Council chambers to express distrust and resentment of police, who they complained have historically meted out harsh treatment in their neighborhoods.
“That has long been a reality for African Americans, to not be treated fairly by the police,” said the Rev. Warren H. Stewart Sr., pastor of the Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix. “Segregation has been outlawed, but the remnants of systemic racism and discrimination remain.”
His son and fellow pastor Warren Stewart Jr. encouraged hundreds at a downtown gathering in June to help heal the community.
“Over 20 years ago we didn’t have a King holiday, and we fought and won that,” the younger Stewart said. “In Phoenix, we will be the initiators of that change.”
Arizona was among the last states to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a paid day off in 1993, after the NFL pulled the Super Bowl out of Phoenix because voters rejected an initiative to create the holiday.
Real estate covenants barred black and Hispanic people from buying or leasing homes north of downtown Phoenix, according to Thomas Sheridan’s book “Arizona: A History.”
As late as 1960, half of the African Americans in Phoenix lived south of downtown. Until the 1960s, nearby Tempe was a “sundown town.” Black people could work there during the day but were encouraged to live elsewhere.
Minorities in Phoenix today say they remain wary of law enforcement because of past racial profiling under former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He was convicted of contempt of court in 2017 for ignoring an order to stop patrols targeting Hispanics, but President Trump pardoned him.