Jennifer Jacobs

jejacobs@dmreg.com

The Iowa Brown & Black Forum will unfold Monday night in Des Moines in an election cycle when many black and Latino Iowans, like their counterparts around the country, feel under siege.

A string of deaths of black Americans at the hands of law enforcement dating to the 2014 killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., has called attention to festering tensions between minority communities and police.

The presidential campaign's inflammatory rhetoric about immigration, especially by Republican Donald Trump, and the Obama administration's holiday season raids seeking Central American immigrants for deportation have angered many Latinos.

All three Democratic presidential hopefuls, Martin O'Malley, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, will participate in the forum.

State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, a Des Moines Democrat who is assistant minority leader in the Iowa House and one of five black legislators, said the forum "will be the telltale," revealing who shares specific plans for change, rather than just restating the problems.

That sentiment was echoed by Antoinette Stevens, who lives in Des Moines, works for Principal Financial Group and has started a Black Urban Professionals group. She said she's looking for more than platitudes Monday night.

“I would want to hear the unpopular answers, … the real answers, how they feel they can change the climate," she said. “We don’t need you to pander to us."

But she's skeptical she'll hear hard truths from candidates accustomed to calibrating their responses with an eye toward winning elections.

Other observers have doubts, too, in part because of a format change. The three candidates will be on stage separately, unlike the debate format of previous caucus cycles. That's because of national Democratic Party rules that have limited the number of debates.

The Iowa Brown & Black Forum, which dates to 1984, is billed as the nation's oldest minority-focused presidential forum.

Fusion, a cable channel that champions an inclusive America with a mix of news reporting, coverage of pop culture, and satire and comedy, will air the event.

Moderators will focus on economic development, immigration, education, bias in the justice system and health care issues, organizers say.

The black population in Iowa remains small, but it's increasing slowly. Iowa is home to just over 100,000 African-Americans, or 3 percent of the population. But by 2040, blacks are expected to become 5.5 percent of the population, or about 187,000 people.

The Hispanic population continues its strong growth, now at 6 percent, and is projected to hit 13 percent, or 450,000 people, by 2050.

Both blacks and Hispanics in Iowa lag whites in quality-of-life measures ranging from K-12 test scores to unemployment rates to income.

Here are six things to watch for at the forum:

1. There's a sense of urgency because of recent events.

Izaah Knox, who works in employee recruitment for Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, listed a litany of issues he'd like to see addressed that affect blacks and Latinos in Iowa and across the country, including disparities in treatment by the criminal justice system, lack of equal educational opportunities and too many workers trapped in low-wage jobs.

Knox is also associate executive director of the Urban Dreams social service agency.

“The kids I work with now, it’s not that they can’t succeed, it’s that they don’t have the opportunity to succeed," he said. "They don’t even know these opportunities exist.”

It could be difficult to address all the pressing issues in two hours, said Rob Barron, a Latino and Iowa Democrat who was a staffer for former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin.

"The spectrum of issues that drive Latinos to the polls are as broad as with any group of voters," Barron said. "And the passion on the signature issues from this cycle — immigration and judicial equity — are hard to accurately convey unless that perspective is expressed by someone who has lived that life."

Photos: Hillary Clinton campaigning in Iowa

2. Some Iowa Democrats are unhappy that national party officials refused to allow all three candidates to be on stage together for a debate.

"Historically, it's always been a debate, and it won't be now, which I think is a travesty," said Heather Ryan, chairwoman of the East Des Moines Area Democrats. "That's not democracy. That's not the Democratic party. The hard questions that need to be answered will be talking points instead of genuine. It's just going to be spin now."

3. The moderators will try to press hard for answers.

Hillary Frey, Fusion's executive editor, pushed back at the notion that hard questions will go unasked.

"We absolutely do not want that to be the effect of this event, and we're doing everything we can to make it feel very alive and relevant and really do away with that concern in every way," she said.

The moderators will use their experiences to give "more of an emotional and personal relevance to some of the questioning," Frey said.

Alicia Menendez, one of the forum's moderators and host of Fusion's "Come Here and Say That," said: "Our goal is to get the candidates to go beyond their prepared talking points and really grapple with what would be some of the most pressing issues of their first term in office."

Photos: Bernie Sanders campaigning in Iowa

4. Fusion wants to attract younger voters, and give them a behind-the-scenes feel of the event.

The forum will be live-streamed on Fusion.net, YouTube and Facebook and re-broadcast in Spanish on UniMas at 10 p.m.

During commercial breaks in the digital broadcast, Fusion will do a special livestream with some of its talent, including Anna Holmes, founder of the popular blog Jezebel.com.

'I would emphasize how exciting it is that we're really meeting our audience where they're watching and offering various opportunities for participation. I can't wait to hear the candidates respond to our questions, but I'm also eager to see how the audience at home feels about their answers," Menendez said.

5. Watch the reception from the audience — and see if O'Malley has a big day.

"There is not a lot of difference between the three candidates' stances on the issues, and any of the three would be a strong advocate for Latinos," said Barron, a Des Moines School Board member.

As an example: All three presidential candidates have denounced the current wave of immigration raids, he said.

"The most important thing to see will be the reception they get from the audience," he said.

Barron expects O'Malley to get a warm greeting.

"O'Malley has invested a lot of time in cultivating relationships with Latino and Latina activists in Iowa," Barron said. "His support is stronger among Latino activists I know than it is expressed in statewide polling."

Photos: Martin O'Malley campaigning in Iowa

6. It's a chance for Democrats to stir pride in their party.

"It makes me proud to be a Democrat when I see our party and our candidates engage in issues that affect minority communities," said Omar Padilla, who is third vice chair of the Iowa Democratic Party.

"I feel robbed because the Republicans canceled their participation, but in some ways it doesn't surprise me," Padilla said.

In the past, the Iowa Brown & Black Forum was just a Democratic gathering. Republicans this year had announced they would take part for the first time. But the organizers in November canceled the GOP forum, citing "unresolved scheduling conflicts." Event co-founder Wayne Ford offered no further explanation.

The Iowa Brown & Black Forum

CANDIDATES: All three Democratic presidential candidates: former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

MODERATORS: Fusion cable channel's Jorge Ramos, Alicia Menendez and Akilah Hughes; and New York magazine's Rembert Browne.

WHEN: Monday, Jan. 11, at 7 p.m.

WHERE: Sheslow Auditorium, Drake University, Des Moines

TICKETS: Go to brownblackforumwaitlist.eventbrite.com/?s=50709245.

HOW TO WATCH: The forum will air on Fusion's cable network and stream live on Fusion.net, YouTube and Facebook. It will be broadcast on delay on C-SPAN, as well as on Iowa Public Television at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 13. You can also watch live video from the Black-Brown forum at DesMoinesRegister.com.

History

The Iowa Brown & Black Forum was founded in 1984 by former Iowa State Rep. Wayne Ford and Mary Dominguez Campos. Ford is founder and executive director of the Urban Dreams social service agency in Des Moines, and Campos is a prominent member of the Des Moines Latino community. This year’s forum is an element of Urban Dreams’ nonpartisan Project V.O.T.E. (Voting Opportunities Through Education).

Facts about blacks in Iowa

The median income for black Iowa households is $27,406 compared with $52,652 for whites, according to the most recent three-year estimate.

Shortly before Obamacare kicked in, only 44 percent of black Iowans had private health insurance, compared with 77 percent of white Iowans.

Blacks were arrested nearly 10 times as often as other races in Iowa. The cities with the highest disparities were Bettendorf (9.9 times) and Cedar Falls (9.7 times), according to a USA TODAY analysis of census data combined with FBI and U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics.

Nine percent of Iowa's adult black men are incarcerated — the third-highest percentage in the nation, Chief Justice Mark Cady of the Iowa Supreme Court said in his State of the Judiciary address at the start of the last year. Cady called for Iowa to lead the way in reducing theses disparities.

There has been a push for Iowa to join the "ban the box" movements — removing questions about criminal records from the first stage of job applications to give candidates a chance to show their qualifications before disclosing their criminal history.

Source: Des Moines Register archive

Facts about Latinos in Iowa

32 percent of Iowa Latinos were foreign-born, 2014 statistics show.

Half of Iowa's Latinos live in the state's biggest counties, but the smaller counties with high percentages of Latinos include Crawford, Buena Vista, Marshall, Muscatine and Louisa.

There were 3,402 Latino grandparents living with their own grandchildren in 2014, and 58 percent of those were responsible for children under 18 years of age. This compares to 29 percent for the United States as a whole.

The number of Spanish-speaking English language learners in Iowa's public schools jumped 203 percent between the 2000 and 2014.

Source: State Data Center of Iowa