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The strongest man on earth is he who stands
most alone. Henrik Ibsen
VOLUME 57 NUMBER 19
DURHAM. NORTH CAROLINA SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1979
TELEPHONE (919) 682 2913,
PRICE: 20 CENTS
II?.ESOS
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(This is the first in a series
of articles which we hope
will shed some light on the
public school situation in
Durham; and evoke some
serious dialogue among
those concerned with the
education of aH of our
children.)
Our daily ; newspapers
hive been filled with much
information and criticism
of the Durham City
School Board particularly
since that Board decided
not to renew the contract
of Superintendent Ben T.
Brooks.
Various headlines used
the terms "fired" and
"given the ax". These
terms, in the. case of Dr.
Brooks, seem to us to be
disturbingly misleading.
Dr. . Brooks was neither
"fired" nor axedI, Dr.
Brooks was simply not
rehired. The Institute of
Government at the
University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill,
which is responsible for
much of the phrasing in
the School law of North
Carolina, in its publica
tion School Law: Cases
and Materials, by Robert
E. Phay, clearly states the
following in regard to
renewal of school person
nel contracts:
Courts have held ". . . .
there is no constitutional
requirement of disclosure
of reasons or a hearing to
challenge those reasons. If
the board is not required
lo bv j feasors
: qottyetenttontltll Wt 'rtfe
1 quired to : produce
substantial evidence ' to
support its reason.fafe
In criticizing the board
for its action, numerous
articles have suggested
that its reasons had to be
racial reasons for the
school board, as now con
stituted, is four blacks and
one white. If the board
had resorted to racism, in
its decision not to rehire
Dr. Brooks, it would have
been doing what black
folk had learned from the
functioning of all-white
and majority white boards
historically and would be
no better than they. And
we contend that this pre
sent school board knows
some things it has not
publicized.
Dr. Brooks has done
many good things during
his administration. His
judgment in some others is
questionable. Since the
good things have been
thoroughly discussed, let
us consider the other side
of the coin.
Let us consider, in this
first installment, the item
which has been publicized
as Dr. Brooks' big success
the Right to Read Pro
gram. Since the supposedly
successful Right to Read
Program was showcased
at W.G. Pearson Elemen
tary School, compare the
results of the Prescriptive
Reading Inventory (test),
Spring, 1978, used to
evaluate progress of Right
to Read and other pupils:
1. Pearson's First Grade
averaged 2.2 grade
equivalent (second grade,
two months) while a non
participating (in the Right
to Read) school , first
grader if; averaged X-ZA
(second grrtrf on? mon
ths) grade equivalent.
; Pearson's Second
Grade averaged 2.2 grade
equivalent (zero progress -same
as grade one) while
that same non
participating school se
cond graders averaged 3.1
rade equivalent (third
grade, one month).
3. Pearson's Third
Grade averaged 2.7
(second grade, seven mon
ths) while another non
participating school third
graders averaged 3.3
(third grade, three mon
ths). These data suggest that -it
took two years for the
average Right to Read
pupil to achieve five mon
ths of success in reading.
Since reading is basic to
academic achievement,
what is to happen with
these children who were
"guinea pigs" in this
reading experiment and
have already fallen
behind? What provisions
have been made for them
to catch up to grade level?
What is the legal liability
of the school board and
the superintendent if this
experiment is allowed to
continue? Did Dr. Brooks
heed, or better yet seek,
the criticisms of parents,
teachers and ad
ministrators who long ago
assessed the program as
nonproductive? Did the
progress reports given to
parents actually reflect the
lack of reading achieve
ment of Right to Read
pupils as compared to the
achievement of pupils in
regular classes? What hap
pened to those first
graders who gained two
years, two months in the
first grade and experienc
ed no gain in the second
grade? What happened?
Was there something in
the Right to Read pro
gram which crushed their
motivation to learn or
dulled their enthusiasm?
We are talking about
children who can least af
ford to waste time in
school.
Has Right to Read real
ly, been the success it pur
ports to be? Has Dr.
Brooks really been con
cerned about all of the
children in the Durham
City Schools? You be the
judge.
jNext week, we will delve
Mo another area of concern.
JOIN THE
HAACP
TODAY!
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L-V-'p'r
Problems in Desegregation
25 Years
Snce
Court
Declared
Separate
Schools
Unequal
Dick Gregory
Congratulates
Peace Corps
Director
Parren Mitchell To Speak
On Issues Facing Blacks
Rep. Paren J. Mitchell
(D-Md.) will speak on
"Critical Legislative
Issues Facing the Black
Community" at the
Howard University School
of Social Work's in
augural Awards
Scholarship on May 11 at
6:30 p.m. at the
Washington Hilton Hotel.
Mitchell, the former
chairman of the Congres
sional Black Caucus, is a
leader in promoting black
development as the House
of Representatives' whip-at-large.
Elected to office in 1970
as Maryland's first-black
congressman, Mitchell is a
member of the influential
Banking, Finance and Ur
ban Affairs Committee,
where he chairs the Sub
committee on Domestic
Monetary Policy. He also
serves on the House Small
Business Committee, and
heads a subcommittee task
force on minority enter
prise. Other congressional ap
pointments include
membership on the Joint
Economic Committee and
on the . Congressional
Black Caucus, where he
now serves as chairman of
its panel on minority
economic development
and housing.
Mitchell, will receive an
award for outstanding
public service at the school
of Social Work dinner.
His older brother,
Clarence, a civil rights
lobbyist, will receive' an
honorary doctor's degree
from Howard at its com
mencement exercises on
May 12.
ATLANTA, Ga.-The
Institute for Southern
Studies released on
Wednesday a 160-page
report, documenting the
progress and continuing
; problem! ;T Jn School
desegregatjow ht, the 25
years since the U.S.
Supreme Court declared
separate schools
"inherently unequal" in
the Brown v. Board of
Education decision of
May 17, 1954.
Julian Bond, the In
stitute's president, said the
report "provides an essen
tial foundation - for any
assessment of what these
last 25 years have ment for
bringing justice to our
school system."
While noting the success
of integration "in mixing
bodies inside school
buildings," particularly in
the South, Bond said that
many problems remain
including discrimination
against minority teachers
which cost them over S3
billion each year in lost
teachers' pay.
He said that the 11 -state
South now has a more in
tegrated school system
than the rest of the nation.
According to, the latest
data (1976), the portion of
minority students enrolled
in schools that are
99-1007 minority is 127
in the South, 17 Vo in the
nation as a whole, and
317 in six industrialized
Northern states (111., Ind.,
Mich., N.Y., Ohio, Pa.).
This is a change from 1968,
when the figures were
as protector of the poor
and of equal educational
rights.?
the report, entitled
JUST SCHOOLS, is
published as an issue of
(N. 1 of 3-MtT SERIES)
75 in the U-state South,
5iVt in the nation, and
36 in the si industrializ
ed Northern states.
"The hfiuffest failure of
school integration -liiiSlnttte's.- award-
abeni in theutbanterst
'''tf 'mfkmr'tmBm. Sffthem Exposure, which '
Since Richard Nixon - based in Chapel Hill,
changed the courageous; North Carolina. (Two
Warren Court that gave us months ago, Southern Ex
Brown to. hc cautious Posure received the 1979
Burger Court that gave us 9 George Polk Award for its
Bakke, the federal govern- recbrd of distinguished
ment has made a hasty regional reporting.) ,
and undignified JUST SCHOOLS pro-
withdrawal from its role Continued on page 17 ,
Lovott tfotSuro Iff Ilo Vill
Sook Donocratic Cbairnansbip
WASHINGTON, D.C. Dick Gregory (ceater),
well-known comedian and civil and haman righto ac
tivist, congratulates Richard F. Celeste (left), aew direc
tor of the Peace Corps. John Lewis (right), ACTION'S
director of domestic operations, also congratulates
Celeste, whose appointment by President Carter was
recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
"In all my associations with Dick Celeste, I found
him to be honest and sensitive to many problems that
exist in the world today," said Gregory. "I strongly
urge all people to consider joining and being a part of
, the Peace Corps and VISTA,"
NAACP Annual Freedom Day Celebration
' 'Mother Of The Year' ' Contest
Slated
For
li
ma
By Pat Bryant
Democratic Party
Chairman Willie Lovett
isn't sure if he will seek re
election to the county par
ty's top post, but says he'll
make a decision later in
the week. Lovett is the
third black to serve as
chairman since the party's
conservative wing was
voted out of control in
1968.
"There is ' "'l some in
formation ' j, there is
still some m. .eating that 1
need to do before I make a
decision," said Lovett
Monday.
Conservatives, bitter
over being out of power,
for those eleven years,
have been busily organiz
ing, attempting to take
over enough precincts to
'weasel' power from
blacks and progressive
whites. Widespread claims
that conservatives have
enough power are not
clear, Lovett says, in
dicating that all of the
precinct reports are not in.
Meanwhile, conser
vatives have been soun
ding possible choices to
run for the chairmanship,
but published reports in
dicate uncertainty about
who is going to run. At
torney James Hendrick
and Duke University
alumni affairs director
Paul Vick are frequently
discussed. Published
reports quoted sources
close to Vick this week
saying the Duke staffer,
reportedly a confidant to
Duke President Terry San
ford, has been chosen by
Continued on page JO
CHARLOTTE - The
North Carolina State Con
ference of, Branches, Na
tional Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People will sponsor it's
Annual Freedom Day
Celebration and "Mother
of, Year".Contest Sunday,
May 20, in the Raleigh
Memorial Auditorium,
3:30 p.m.
; The Guest Speaker will
be Richard E. Barber,
NAACP National Deputy
Executive Director of New
York City.
Barber is the son of a
Trenton, (N.C. farmer.
His determined efforts
through undergraduate
school at North Carolina
A&T State University with
a B.S. degree in Physics
and graduate school at the
University of Southern
California with a M.S.
degree in Systems
Management, with addi
tional work at the Univer
sity of Pittsburgh; has
earned him numerous
awards, accolades, and
also the reputation of hav
ing that unusual combina
tion of sensitivity and'
courage.
His concern for others
and a strong personal
desife to improve the liv
ing conditions of the poor
and downtrodden serve as
the great motivating
forces in his life! These
forces prompted him to
give up a promising career
with Westinghouse Elec
tric Company in 1969 and
to utilize his talents in the
black . community. He
resigned Westinghouse
Continued on page 1:1
Emergency Relief Funds
Going to Flood Victims
In effect to aid flood
stricken victims in
Mississippi, the National
Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored
People has begun awar
ding NAACP Emergency
Relief Fund checks to
those families who were
struck the hardest. The
.payments were announced
by the organization's Ex-.
ecutive Director, Ben
jamin L. Hooks, who is in
the state this week to per
sonally assess the amount
of damage, and to per
sonally supervise the pro
cessing of the relief funds.
Hooks said, "Even
though the NAACP is
presently in a serious
financial crisis of its
own," he had "instructed
the Association's . Comp
troller to release the
money anyway. We'll
worry about where to get
the cash for future salaries
and expenses later."
In addition to Hooks
being in Jackson,
Mississippi, W.C. Patton
the recently retired Direc
tor of Voter Education is
serving as coordinator for
the project, along with the
President of the Jackson
branch, Fred L. Banks.
Hooks told members of
the area that, "even
though most of the people
affected by the damage
are not Black, the
NAACP is firmly commit
ted to helping each and
everyone of those whose
property has been damag
edor whose ability to
lead a normal decent life
has been severely handicapped."
NCCU Professor Reports Blacks Moving South
More black oeoole are movins to
tiie Southern States now than are
leaving for the Northeastern and
North Central areas, a North
Carolina Central University
sociologist reports.
Dr. Isaac Robinson of North
Carolina Central University's
department of sociology told
scholars at the recent Annual Urban
Studies Conference at the University
of North Carolina system that the
migration of blacks into the South is
apparently a "reversal of the Great
Northern Migration: which began in
1910.
The "Great Northern Migration"
was at its height between 1910 and
1930, although it is considered to
have continued until i960. The
humber of blacks in the Northern
States doubled between the 1910
.census and the 1930 census, and
more than 75 per cent of the in-,
crease was the result of blacks mov
ing from the South.
Labor agents scoured the
Southern countryside in that period
to recruit workers for Northern in
dustry. In February, 1917, a Pitt
sburgh coal company paid
$4,491.95 for a special train which
carried 191 black migrants from
Bessemer, Ala., to Pittsburgh.
At the same time, such black
newspapers as the Chicago
Defender (the largest such
newspapers were in Northern or
Middle Atlantic states ) encouraged
black migration from the South.
The papers told of job oppor
tunities, improved social conditions,
and of individual "success" stories.
Headlines equated the departure
from the South with the flight from
Egypt the Exodus.
Estimates of the numbers of
blacks who left the South ranged
from 500,000 to one million, Robin
son reported.
Until 1970, census reports and
population studies reflected a con
tinued trend out of the South for
black Americans, Robinson told the
other scholars at the conference. By
this time the black populations of
the major cities were vast.
New York had 1.5 million black
residents in 1970, Chicago had 1.5
million, and Philadelphia had
700,000. Washington was 68 per
cent black in 1970, Detroit 47 per
cent black, Baltimore 45 per cent
black, and St. Louis 46 per cent
black.
During the past two decades,
Robinson reported, whites began to
leave the Northern industrial region.
The wealth of that region began to
be reduced. Between 1960 and 1975,
the Northeastern region actually
showed a 13.7 per cent decrease in
manufacturing employment, Robin
son reported.
By 1978, Business Week was
reporting that "The per capital in
come of Charlotte, N.C. has ex
ceeded that of New York City."
With the increase of wealth and
industrial opportunity in the South
came a gradual slowing of the black
migration from the South. Between
1960 and 1968 the number of blacks
moving to the North was two-thirds
greater than the number moving to
the South but by 1970 the movement
had slowed so that the out-migrants
outnumbered the in migrants only
by a 3-2 ratio.
In 1974, the Bureau of Census
"Current Population Reports"
showed that 24i,C00 blacks had
moved from the South since 1970,
but 276,000 had moved to the
South.
"This small but historically
significant net in-migration to the
South represents the beginning of a
reversal in a pattern of out
migration that .extends back to the
pre-Civil War era," Robinson said.
The trend continued, according to
"Curent Population Reports,"
whose 1978 figures shewed 270,000
blacics moving to the South between
1975 and 1978. They met 244,000
leaving the South for the North and
the West.
Robinson suggested that a
number of trends may have affected
the reversal. "The successes of the
Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s
and the ensuing legislation in the
areas of voters rights, school
desegregation, and discrimination in
employment have been accom
panied by economic growth in the
South," he said.
Robinson cited a "Black Enter
prise" magazine report which in
dicated that in January of 1979 the
proportion of minority-owned and
minority-operated business and in
dustrial firms outside the industrial
North was sixty per cent.
Three-fifths of the black elected
officials in the United States live in
the South, Robinson reported
(1,500 of 2,500.)
"The population of blacks now
moving into the south tends to be.
typical of the population that left
during the period of the "Great
Northern Migration
(Gary S.) Strangler and his co
workers report that these new black
migrants tend to be well-educated
young professionals seeking job op
portunities in their areas of .training.
For this group of blacks the South
may become the 'new; promised
land' of opportunity and upward
mobility," Robinson said.
"On the other hand," he warned,
"a heavy in-migration of unskilled
and uneducated blacks to urban
areas in the South could lead to a
duplication of urban patterns in the
North. , ' '
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