WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
New Orleans The Community Reinvestment Act or CRA is pushing towards its 50th anniversary. ACORN was one of the many groups pushing for its passage, and the first to challenge its effectiveness before the Federal Reserve. The CRA was designed to stop redlining and increase lending in minority and lower income areas where …
Pearl River Crime is an issue in all of the neighborhoods where we organize. ACORN members almost invariably want more police, higher police visibility, street patrols, and police who are connected to the community and accessible. They don’t want police brutality, harassment, and civilian killings and casualties, but they want security. That’s just the …
Pearl River Hancock County is not the poorest county in Mississippi by a long shot. My mother was born and raised in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta. The poverty rate there is over 38%, more than twice the 17.3% rate along the Pearl River where I’m sitting now. The 11.3% US poverty rate …