The history of racism and discrimination at The Lake, aka, the LaSalle Park neighborhood, is no secret chapter in South Bend’s story, but it’s one that has never been fully, publicly acknowledged and reckoned with.
The Common Council’s formation of a commission to study long-term effects of racism in the city and recommend policies to address them looked to bring light and well-deserved attention to an issue that had for decades been shrouded.
In a sense, it promised the dawn of a new day, the beginning of a more transparent time of productive conversations about accountability, of acting and of healing.
Instead, the rollout and abrupt rollback of the South Bend Reparatory Justice Commission’s report, the result of yearslong work done by a committed group of residents, feels more like the old days.
The report found, among other things, that the city has “an extensive history of discrimination against its Black citizens” and identified the LaSalle Park Neighborhood as having the lowest life expectancy in St. Joseph County. The neighborhood is home to Beck’s Lake, where the then-Bendix Corporation and other companies dumped toxic waste for decades, beginning in the 1930s. At that time, it was one of the few neighborhoods in South Bend where people of color lived.
For many, the finding is confirming, not shocking. But before you could digest that conclusion, and consider the evidence supporting it, the document was pulled from the commission’s web site.
Reparatory Justice Commission Chair Trina Robinson said the report was mistakenly posted, and the commission is being cautious that no litigation can occur against the group following its release.
The city, for its part, declined to comment on the report, and says it hasn’t been finalized by the commission or the Common Council.
It’s important to note that the report ― the first page of which calls it the “Final Report” ― was filed with the clerk’s office on May 4 and is therefore a public document that must be accessible to the public. A Tribune reporter who went to the clerk’s office to request the document was prevented from physically going to the clerk’s office and told to email the request. According to Indiana’s public access laws, in-person requests and those made by phone must be acknowledged within 24 hours; for requests made by mail, email or fax, the response time is within seven days. The Tribune nor another citizen who shared their request with us had even received an acknowledgement from the clerk as of five days later.
The reason given, through official and unofficial channels, for withholding the report is that it still needs to be approved by the Common Council. But that excuse flies in the face of Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act. In a 1998 official opinion that has been cited repeatedly since, then-Indiana Public Access Counselor Heather Willis Neal wrote that “it is important to note that an agency may not deny access to a record on the basis that it has not yet been approved.”
What’s perhaps most baffling about various city officials denying the public access to the report is the fact it’s already out there. It was on the reparatory commission’s website. The Tribune has repeatedly published it, as we do again here.
Trying to deny what’s already visible to the public is sadly in keeping with the findings of the report itself.
Editorials represent the opinion of the Tribune Editorial Board. Its members are Audience Engagement Editor Alesia I. Redding, Enterprise Editor Cory Havens and Executive Editor Ismail Turay Jr.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Note: Reparatory commission’s report is a public document | Editorial
Reporting by Editorial Board, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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