达莱桑德罗的政治力量.邦联将军罗伯特-李和石墙-杰克逊.取消种族隔离

 

达莱桑德罗的政治力量立足于工人阶级社区，尽管在白人区比黑人区更多。

1947年，当他第一次当选市长时，他在白人工人区获得了三分之二的选票，在黑人区获得了44%的选票。

D’Alesandro’s political strength was grounded in working-class neighborhoods, albeit more in White precincts than Black ones. When he was first elected mayor, in 1947, he carried two-thirds of the vote in White working-class wards, 44 percent of the Black wards.

1948年，他代表该市接受了位于怀曼公园的铜像，该铜像是为了纪念邦联将军罗伯特-李和石墙-杰克逊在马背上并肩作战。

巴尔的摩的银行家亨利-弗格森（J. Henry Ferguson）为纪念他儿时的英雄而遗赠了75,000美元的纪念碑。

"今天，我们的国家被企图破坏我们国家统一的颠覆性团体和宣传所困扰，我们可以从李和杰克逊的生活中寻找灵感，提醒我们要坚决地维护我们的神圣机构，"达莱桑德罗对三千名群众说，其中包括州长小威廉-普雷斯顿-莱恩。

 这座雕像当时没有争议，但后来却有了争议。

2017年，在弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔市就那里的邦联雕像举行暴力抗议活动后，巴尔的摩市议会下令将其拆除。

In 1948, he accepted on behalf of the city a bronze statue in Wyman Park honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, side by side on horseback. A Baltimore banker, J. Henry Ferguson, had bequeathed $75,000 for the monument honoring his childhood heroes. “Today, with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions,” D’Alesandro told a crowd of three thousand, among them Governor William Preston Lane Jr. The statue wasn’t controversial then, but it was later. In 2017, after violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, over Confederate statutes there, the Baltimore City Council ordered it removed.

 

话虽如此，达勒桑德罗在当时最具种族色彩的问题之一，即公立学校的取消隔离问题上有令人钦佩的记录。

在1954年最高法院对 "布朗诉教育委员会 "一案作出具有里程碑意义的裁决前近6个月，一位记者问他，如果法院下令取消种族隔离，该市将如何回应。

"他回答说："执行最高法院的任务将是我和学校委员会的责任。

That said, D’Alesandro had an admirable record on one of the most racially charged issues of the day, the desegregation of public schools. Almost six months before the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, a reporter asked him how the city would respond if the court ordered desegregation. “It will be my duty and the responsibility of the Board of School Commissioners to carry out the mandate of the Supreme Court,” he replied.

当高等法院裁定公立学校的种族隔离是违宪的时候，达勒桑德罗说他同意这个裁决。

"我问过修女们，"他说。

"她们说这是对的，所以我跟着修女走。

" 巴尔的摩成为该国第一批在全市范围内取消学校种族隔离的主要城市之一。

When the high court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, D’Alesandro said he agreed with it. “I asked the nuns,” he said. “They said it was right, so I went with the nuns.” Baltimore became one of the first major cities in the country to desegregate its schools citywide.

 

法院的裁决加速了白人向全国郊区的逃亡，增加了非裔美国人在城市中心的比例和权力。

在巴尔的摩，达勒桑德罗于1947年首次当选市长时，人口中大约有五分之一是黑人。

到1959年他离开市政厅时，黑人人口已超过三分之一。

到1980年，非裔美国人占了该市的大多数。

The court decision accelerated White flight to the suburbs across the country, increasing the percentage and the power of African Americans in urban centers. In Baltimore, the population was about one-fifth Black when D’Alesandro was first elected mayor, in 1947. By the time he left City Hall, in 1959, it was more than one-third Black. By 1980, African Americans comprised a majority of the city.