When Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners met late last month, a tearful Kurt Derr shocked all present when he announced his resignation as District Three's representative, which includes Allentown's East Side. Derr is moving out of the area. Every one of Derr's colleagues, Democrat and Republican alike, expressed sorrow at his sudden departure. Chairman Percy Dougherty called it a "great loss. I'm really going to miss you."Commissioners have just forty-five days to appoint Derr's Democratic successor. According to The Morning Call, the deadline for applicants is Monday. One of them will be Lehigh Valley native Kevin Easterling, who currently serves as Allentown's Superintendent of Recreation.
In the last municipal election, Easterling finished seventh out of eight in a race for four at-large commissioner seats. But in District Three (Allentown 1st, 3rd, 6th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th 19th wards, Catasaqua and Hanover), the only candidate with more votes than Easterling was Gloria L. Hamm. Here's the actual breakdown: Gloria L Hamm - 3358 votes; Kevin Easterling - 2988 votes; Bill Leiner, Jr. - 2932 votes; Rich Gawlick - 2870 votes; Andy Roman - 2194 votes; Dean N Browning - 2193 votes; Roger C. Reiss - 1780 votes; and Brent Labenberg - 1718 votes. Easterling's vote total in his own district is higher than three of the four commissioners who were eventually elected.
Undaunted by defeat, Kevin in February entered the blogosphere with the Lehigh Valley Black News Network, which contains information and events related specifically to the Lehigh Valley's black culture. Kevin is himself a victim of Allentown's not so distant discriminatory past.
I could fill you in on how the City's red lining laws prohibited Blacks from purchasing property beyond that point in the City. At that time, you had 90% of the Blacks who lived in Allentown living in that area. That was the Black neighborhood by design. You think the LANTA thing was an issue, it was nothing compared to some of the practices that this City used to do in those days. When I first moved here to Allentown (from Bethlehem's South Side) they still had ‘Racial BUSING’. Do you know what that is? I lived on 5th & Union streets in Allentown (moved here in early 70’s) while in 3rd grade. It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to school because I had to attend Lehigh Parkway Elementary school to make a school quota of minorities. We only had one bus in the entire ASD that gave rides to ALL minority students, so we picked up every Latino and Black student on one Bus and took all of them to various schools in the District. We were not allowed to ride on any other school bus.
If appointed, Kevin will the the first African American ever to have served as a Lehigh County commissioner. In addition to his work with the Boys & Girls Club of Allentown, Kevin is a founder of the Black Heritage Association of the Lehigh Valley, which has promoted youth basketball in Allentown since 1994.
As the second highest vote getter in District Three, Kevin deserves this appointment. As of late Friday, there were no other applicants. Things are looking good for the former third grader who used to spend two and a half hours on the bus every day.
