The AC Phoenix
April 1998
Pase 11
Proclaiming a Resurrection Faith for a Crucified People
Continued from page 10
brainchild of Rev. Fauntroy, the
Roundtable has not only adopted the
concept, but has also launched an effort
to raise a minimum of $300 from each
of its participating national organizations
by Good Friday, April 10, 1998.
Roundtable leaders hope that these start
up funds will enable them to acess the
new technologies that will enable them
to deliver the names of five voter regis
tration prospects to any willing worker,
anywhere in the nation.
You can become one of the first
Gideon Soldiers on record by filling out
and returning to the Roundtable office
the Gideon Army Enlistment Card pro
vided at the bottom of this page.
Proclaiming a Resurrection Faith for a
Crucified People
The theme on which African
American churchmen and church-
women are asked to launch the Easter
Season drive is one that takes not of the
fact that our people are being
"Crucified6 by assaults on public poli
cies like Affirmative Action that have
improved the quality of life for millions
of our people. We are being crucified by
drug trafficking in our neighborhoods,
and our children are being crucified by
the neglect of public school education.
We believe that strong voter participa
tion on our part in targeted races this
year will produce a "ressurrectionO of
our faith that we can and shall over
come! The theme that Roundtable lead
ers have chosen for their non-partisan
voter registration, voter education and
GOTV drive this year is, therefore:
"Proclaiming a Resurrection for a
Crucified People."F1ot Button" Issues
This theme seemed appropriate
because, sensing that African American
voters this year are in a fighting mood.
Dr. Ron Walters, noted professor of
Political Science; Dr. Yvonne Scruggs,
executive director of the Black
Leadership Forum; and Roundtable
President Walter Fauntroy came up with
three so-called "Hot ButtonO issues that
they believe will make the task of rally
ing African American citizens to vote
next Fall much easier. They beFeve that
African American people are ready to
defend themselves against the abandon
ment of Affirmative Action, such as hap
pened with Californiads Proposition
209 which has prompted the closing of
so many doors of opportunity to African
American youth of today that were
opened by our activism in the 1960s
and '70s. They believe, and
Roundtable/AOIP leaders adopted the
view, of African American neighbor
hoods as places for the illegal trafficking
of crack, cocaine and other drugs that
are literally destroying the lives of so
many of our people.
Over the next two months, the leaders
also plan to come to closure on a specif
ic list of public policy measures that
African Americans in about 14 cate
gories of American life want to see
passed in the first session of the 106th
Congress. Our African American labor
organizations have already come up
with their highest priority item: the
defeat of so-called "Pay Roll Protection
Acts" that are designed to destroy union
organizing. Our African American inter
national affairs organizations have come
together to designate the passage of the
Africa Trade Bill as that which should be
our highest priorty item in the field of
foreign policy in the next Congress. We
are looking forward to our health profes
sional organizations, our business orga
nizations, our education and criminal
justice organizations also presenting us
with what they consider to be the public
policy items that should be at the top of
our list for positive change by both
Democrats and Republicans whose elec-
/
tions we choose to seal with our votes in
November.
Those priority items should certainly
bind African Americans together in an
across-the-board collaborative effort to
get-out-the-black-vote this year, for each
of us, at every level, with have a specific
stake in the outcome of these elections.
Convening Our Black Leadership
Family in a Minimum of 28 Targeted
Congressional Districts
Our political scientists have identified
at least 28 congressional districts where
African American voters have the poten
tial for being the margin of victory or
defeat for those seeking election to the
U.S. Congress on Nov. 3, 1998. Many of
our organizations are now scouring their
membershnip rolls to provide the
Roundtable with the names of their
activists in as many of the 121 cities and
towns covered by those targeted con
gressional districts as they have mem
bers.
During the months of April and May,
roundtable meetings of activists from all
of our national organizations are now
being scheduled in Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina and
New jersey. In New Jersey, Coucilman
and State Representative Don Tucker
will be working with NAACP leaders to
convene their meeting. In North
Carolina, Dr. Lavonia Allison will be
doing the same. In Texas, Dr. Caesar
Clark and Dr. S.C. Nash, president of the
Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance
of Dallas, will be working with NAACP
leaders to convene the family of leaders
there. In Georgia, the legendary Rev.
Hosea William will be working with
NAACP leaders in the Peach State to
convene our activists around this coordi
nated and concentrated effort. And in
Alabama, the Rev. E. Randel T. Osburn
of SCLC will be working with NAACP
chapters there to convene meetings at
which, together, they plan the work and
then work their plan to turn out record
numbers of African American voters at
the polls in the districts targeted.
NAACP Agrees to Convene Local
Roundtable Meetings
If you have noticed that the NAACP
has been mentioned often in the previ
ous paragraph, it is because a wonderful
thing happened at the Annual Board
Meeting of the NAACP in New York City
Continued on page 13
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HELPERS
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Tired of Those
Unsightly Crocks.
Deteriorations &
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Total Restorations
722-2602
GRACE
PRESBHERIAN
CHURCH
(USA)
Too long persons have been hung
up on Eater’s empty tomb. Jesus
Christ is never found inside any
tomb.
The proof of His resurrection is
not found in the proof of an empty
tomb.
An empty tomb can always be
explained away; “his friends came
during the night and removed him,”
they said. Who can dis prove that?
“A soldier was bribed,” some
might say, and one cannot really
unlodge that theory.
The validity of Easter - the fact
of resurrection - rests not on the
emptiness of the tomb, but on the
fullness of Mary Magdalene’s
testimony: “I have seen the Lord!”
There’s proof of resurrection.
That’s the fact of Easter!
I Have Seen The Lord
The reality of Easter is found not even in the words of the angel, “He
is not here!” but in the words of Mary Magdalene; “I have seen the Lord!”
3901 Carver School Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27105
Samuel Stevenson, D. Min., pastor
767-7530