Skip to main content
Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13
Subscribe
All Sections
Search
More

Cooper: NAACP report on Chattanooga forgets to mention personal responsibility

The Westside, where the pictured College Hill Courts are located, is one of the areas on which "The Unfinished Agenda's" conclusions focus.
The Westside, where the pictured College Hill Courts are located, is one of the areas on which "The Unfinished Agenda's" conclusions focus. The Westside, where the pictured College Hill Courts are located, is one of the areas on which "The Unfinished Agenda's" conclusions focus.

By Clint Cooper 5 min read

“The Unfinished Agenda,” a report commissioned by the local NAACP on segregation and exclusion in Chattanooga, tells only a partial story of the uneven renaissance of the Scenic City in the last 30 years.

The report asserts that while parts of the city have thrived – to the point that Chattanooga is now included on many “Best City” lists – the inequities in the black community have been caused by the strategies of “civic leaders” and “not by chance.”

Read more

* Report about black Chattanoogans offers bleak picture, calls for unified action* Sohn: City’s legacy is not renaissance — yet* Cook: The dream deferred in Chattanooga

The report lays blame on the city’s civic leaders for poor relations with police, for schools that struggle, for a lack of good jobs, for displacing residents and for chronic poverty in black neighborhoods.

It also includes a warning that “given current discord in African American communities in Baltimore, Cleveland, Ferguson and New York civic leaders would be naive to think it couldn’t happen here.”