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39th Annual National Bible Week, . . V t ?
November 18-November25. 1979 -J
An mterfaith effort : -"' '
(USPS 631-380)
Words of Ubdoo
"Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth,
and set down as gain each day that fortune
grants."
Horace.
. : I III i ' I, I". ' ' i'n.ll.l.,1 ll'tl'l ...
In. ,i Tv, i.nMfx" . Kiin.ii i, ..mm i J wiJt I iVn. aTTTwr;,
nnouAu wodtw rnnuMA - Saturday, November 17. 1979
vj ifhllOfro
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913
PRICE: 30 CENTS
College Fund Drive
Launched In Durham
Mayor Proclaims Nov.
As UKCF Month
4 Proclamation Signing .
l.efl to right are: Chancellor Kenneth P)e, Dukt I'ftiverMty , Mayor Wade Cavin, Miss Cynlhia Perry, Regional
: Director l NCK, l)r, C, K, Itoulware, chairman of Durham Campaign,
A group of Durham
Citizens has organized a
campaign in the interest of
.the United Negro College
.fund. Mayor -Wade L.
-Cavin issued a proclama
tion Friday designating
the month of November as
United Negro College
Fund month.
UNCF represents a cori
Sortium of 41
predominately black col
leges and universities
throughout the United
States all are private
and fully accredited.
These UNCF institutions
provide aid for quality
education for more than
50,000 young men and
women. Without such aid,
a college education for
many of them would be an
impossible dream.
Durham joins Raleigh,
Charlotte, Winston-Salem
and High Point in North
Carolina in promoting
such a campaign in 1979.
The national effort in .
1978 raised more than
$19,000,000 to aid these
41 colleges, of which more
than $1.5 million went to
support the six private
black colleges in North
Carolina.
The steering committee
Continued on Page 2 J
( 1 171
J fit
!TGQDGD .
confinementl Fof seven straight years
-"The Case of Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt "
is a microcosm of the history of wack
people in the United States a strong' "
black leader that federal and state
authorities had to "neutralize"
' because they could not tolerate the -
combination of his strength, his leader' "
stop.? and his political delermination
that black and other Third World peo
ple should be entitled to the same
- benefits that are possessed by the ma
' Jority." " . .
Committee to free Geronimo Pratt
..By IKSCgrnait-' f,sV .
" ttrnV wsni f, "tijJZi uT. Cffonimo't-ndeteniilnaUoB v tad 1 built
XJ1$t&? snbroader support for the fight, ta vin-
oMS&S? ' dicate him ( lhrou8h - unconditional
ciesriave been willing to'go to;stop ree3s V ?
yufZn!l wLfcAlff'-' Oermonimo and 1 his .'"lawyers and
t.cular x the black struggle The fcam-, Supporters &rt. now winning this fight.
ffil fL l?eV1 " PbHc suppSrt continues to grow,
V 'r - . rjerommo will be fiee th s vcar.
tLike so manv black neon e. Pratt's
. r i -
f s ?
Geronimo was locked up in a dingy 4' x
8' cell 23 W hours a day. He was forced
to visit his family and friends in hand
cuffs and shackles; his contact with the
outside worjd was from behind a glass
screen. 1 But Geronimo fought- back
with & federal lawsuit which forced his
release into the general population at
San Quemin.
In February 1978, board headed -by
Ray Brown, who ' had ' worked
against, the Panthers as head of the
Oakland Police red squad, refused to
)el.4hy pafbt dAli tat CeroMrrtdL This ;
flagrant abuse oiilr-strenRfhened
oil tee is
I call on
: 1 he tun weight i or .rny
behind Geronimo's struggle
all of you to Join lis. .,' '
In 1969, Geronimo Pratt, a UCLA
law student,' rose to' national -prominence
as a leader of . i he 13!ack (Pan
ther Party, i Documents recently un
covered by his lawyer show, that the
FBI- gave "constant consideration'
during those years' L to
"counterintelligence measncs toward
neutralizing Pratt as an cffeciiVeipPP
functionary. M After failing ; several
times to stop his work and discredit:
him, the FBI and police finally iframed
Geronimo for a crime I hey knew h)f did
not commit, f ' 1 ;
Not cpnteBt with 'imprisoning
Geronimo, these same agencies' worked
with the California Department of
Corrections to keep him in- solitary
. roots are in the Deep South. He grew;
up in the Deep South. He grew up
"separate ' and ' unequal" in . rural
Morgan City, Louisiana, the youngest
f eight children In a close-knithard
working religious family, Determined
to see , their children educated, his
parents mahagod to put all his brothers
and sisters through college,
r When his father became too sick to
x work fratt then seventeen, enlisted in
. a the Army to earn money to support his
r family. He did two battle tours in Viet
' , Nam, rising to ' the ; rank of Staff
- Sargeant. His ability as a scout and his
mix of American Indian and Afro
.Haitian ancestry led to a nickname that
stuck"Geronimo".
. Along with two purple hearts,' two
, air medals' and ' manv other decora
tions, Geronimo returned in 1968 with
serious criticism of U.S. treatment of
Third World people, he started UCLA,
where he met Bunchy Carter, a leader
of the Black panther Party. Geronimo
studied Black History, joined the Par
ty, and determined to dedicate his life
to our continuing struggle for freedom.
These, were the years when black
people were . increasingly active in
fightig .their oppression. Throughout
the. country programs emerged to com
bat the wretched conditions people are
forced to, bye, under, programs tanging
from freeJbraWats.and.helth cae.to- -new
educational and cultural activities.
From the community, from the
prisons, from the campus... came the
demand for the right of black people to -determine
our own destiny.' A move
ment grew for 'Black Pride, Black
Power; and Black Liberation.
if.; Because of the Black Panther Par
fif role in this struggle, . J. , Edgar,
Hodveir named it "the greatest1 threat
to the internal security of the country"
and the "main target of the FBI's
Counterintelligence .' Program f
COINTELPRO. The stated purpose of
this infamous program was fo stop the
black movement by "discrediting" and
"neutralizing" its leaders. Previous
' black targets of the FBI included Mar
tin Luther King, Malcolm X, Andrew
Young and Dick Gregory.
Hoover had his FBI agents come up
with "hard-hitting proposals aimed at
crippling' the BPP." They forged let
ters and used other dirty tricks to turn
local black groups against the Party,
until their rivalry exploded into violent
conflict that cost many Panthers' lives,
including Bunchy Carter's. After Bun
chy was .killed in January, 1969,
Geronimo took his close friend's place
Public Education. Hlust Bo Rdsorvod
By ADA M, FISHER
as head of the Party in Los Angeles.
In 1 969, police raided and wrecked
Panther offices across the country.
On December 4, 1 969, Chicago
police mUrdered Panther leader Fred
Hampton in his sleep. An FBI in
former who had been head of the
security for the Chicago Panthers pro
vided a floor plan of Hampton's apart
ment, showing where he slept.
In the pre-dawn hours of December
8, 1 969, 350 heavily armed police at
tacked three Panther offices in LOS
AHgeJesiAt ohe Jocatlonv th Ranthef s
held the police off for five hours until
people from the community came for
ward to protect them. At another,
. Geronimo narrowly escaped death. T
Following the- raid, Geronimo and
seventeen other?,, were charged with
conspiracy .to murder the police. But
when the case Came to trial, the jury
found that the Panther had acted in
self-defense and acquitted them of all
major charges. . ,
Alarmed by the rhassjve public out
cry against the murder of Fred Hamp
tonT and other police attacks on the
Panthers, government officials feared
that another attempt to kill Geronimo
or jail him on political charges would
only create one more revolutionary
martyr. So they moved against him in a
way which would thoroughly discredit
him as a leader of his people.
In the fall of 1 970, they suddenly
brought forth an inforrner who claim
ed that two years earlier Geronimo had
confessed to a senseless murder com
mitted in the course of a $30 robbery
on a Santa Monica tennis court. This
agent was a former L.A. deputy
sheriff, now believed to have had ties
Continued on Page 2)
World's Most Premature Baby
SAN DIEGO Mimi Faulkner, believed to be the
world's most premature baby ever to survie, is cradicd
in arms of her mother, Myrna, with father, Curtis, in
background, at a homecoming party for the ha!-,v
family and Childern's Hospital staff. i; Pi r ,
Durhaotto Promoted ;
. WASHINGTON, D.C.
Metroplitan Police
Department Chief of
Police Burtell M. Jeffer
son announced the pro
motion of a Durham
native, Jimmy L. Wilson,
to the rank of Police Cap
tain on November 2.
' Captain Wilson, an
eleven year veteran of the
D.C. police force, is the
son or Mr. and Mrs. Larry
N. Wilson of 132 East End
Avenue. He graduated
from Hillside High school
in 1964 and received a ;
bachelor of science degree
in Administration of
Justice from the American
University e.t Washington,
D.C. where he also has
done graduate workv He
has a fourteen year old
daughter, ' Sharen A.
Wilson, who resides in
Forrestville, Maryland.
Captain Wilson, has
served as a" patrolman,
evidence technician and a
detective in the sixth
district; a detective, super
visory lieutenant and ac
ting branch commander in
the Interna Affairs Divi
sion. With his promotion,
Captain Wilson has been
reassigned as branch com
mander of The Special In
vestigations Branch,
Criminal Justice Division.
His most noteworthy ac
complishment was to
assist Ihe Virgin Islands
Chief of Police in prepar
ing procedures to be
followed by Investigative
and Support Personnel at
the scene of death in
vestigations and training
the chiefs staff in the im
plementation of the pro
gram. Mrs. Juanita Wilson,
the Captain's mother, at
tended the promotion
ceremony.
Dufio's Black Students Hold "Concerns" Rally
Rv Felicia M. Caael I
Th RlacV Student cerns and problems to : Black Solidarity Day.
Alliance of Dukc.Univer j ' Duke's student body and j They displayed their unity
The spotlight is on American education this week and
I think it's time we paused and gave thanks and support
to public education. Right now the public school system
is viciously under attack for frying valiantly to provide a
public education for a broad base of pupils. The com
plaints mount that all teachers care about is their salary
and tenure: students are uncontrollable; and parents are
totally umnvolved. ;
But I'd like to go back just thirteen year? ago to look
' at public education at its zenith. Though the schools i
were largely segregated, HillsideVgraduating class had i
over 400 members. At our tenth, reunion, .we had prori
' duccd three physicians several Ph.Ds, one pharmacist, j iv;
more than six engineers, six lawyers, several doctoral' ?
candidates, . draftsmen, pilots,? teachers, computer"1
technicians, hospital workers, assembly people, xtc
They were doing something 'back then and" it's ;
something that in many ways I can be proud of since, ,
public education helped me get where I am today. -
, So what happened? First, integration has scared the '
majority of whites out of the school system. The pro- .
liferation of Christian Academies and private schools "
are a way for whites and those blacks who are class con-'
scious to attack the base of public education. Second, :
the unionizatidn of teachers has, brought them more '
comfort, more benefits, and required less time in ;
teaching and student activities. jThird, parents have v
withdraWn ; from their responsibility to schools and
students. There is less parental participation in PTA's, !
chaperoning of student activities,' etc. Fourth, students '
have been allowed to seek mediocrity and have been
, channelled into tracks. Those with outstanding ability
are led to the path for college. Those with borderline
ability have been allowed to drift Aimlessly and not get ,
, perpared for the real world. But lastly and most impor- J
tantly, education has ceased to be a national priority.
This is ironic since- the cornerstone of democracy is an
educated citizenry. It is sad that the newly created
Department of Education will only have a budget of $15
billion which is less than that budgeted for the MX Mis
sle System.
It is high time we rethought our national priorities.
The right jo a good education is basic. To deny this is to
commit a holocaust on the minds of our children and
future generations. Any attempts to subsidize or exempt
religious and private schools from taxes or give them
special financial incentives should be vigorously oppos
ed as this pulls money from public education. At least
95 per cent of all minority and poor peoples must de
pend on public education to teach their children.
Without a strong tax base these schools can not do their
job. Further, all education should be unitorm in us
teaching of certain basics such as reading, writing, and
arithmetic. This will hopefully provide uniform stan
dards and an equal framework for establishing com
petency. At a time when public education is under at
tack, we must support and defend it for in so doing, we
look after our children's future. "Schools Do Make A
Difference" (The Lancet, April 14, 1979) makes a
strong case for humane discipline, strong and consistent
academic emphasis conscientious and punctual
teachers, homework with meaning which is reviewed,
and traditions. This is what public schools must be
about if public education is to be meaningful and pupil
competency Achieved. This American Education Week
with the theme, in this the International Year Of The
Child, being "Teach All TJW Children. The best way to
achieve this goal is to support and insure quality .public
education for all of our children.
sity organized several ac
tivities last week in an at
tempt to voice their con
administration. bv eatina breakfast, lunch
J Monday, the group and dinner together. After
recognized and celebrated' participating in day long
. . A...,:. ...... . ;.'.. ..
1 I aaA,,, , , .1 7
- l BIRMINGHAM MAYOR AND FAMILY '
Richard Arrington was sworn in Tuttday morning as tha first black mayor of Birming
ham, Alabama, a city onct synonymous wW radsm. Arrington. the son of a tharacroppar
wno won py atmost z,uuu votas ovar wnrta attomay, notds his young son. Mrs. Arring
ton it at right . - - ajtag
games and activities, the
day ended with an evening
church service.
Wednesday, 250
students marched from
West to Bast campus sing
ing "We Shall Overcome,
"Lift Every Voice and
Sing,! "And Ain't No
Stopping Us Now."
Upon arrival at West
campus the students
prayed 'silently for a mo
ment in recognition of the
four men and one woman
who were killed last Siuu;
day in Greensboro -by fb
Nazi Party and the Ku
Klux Klan.
The students then ht .
rally and outlined !
demands that they intent
to present to the ad
ministration in the for::
of a petition.
The students arc
demanding more Nad.
faculty, an Afro
American Studies Depart
ment, a full time director
for the department and an
Afro-American cultural
center.
Black Campus Minister.
Bill Hairson gave an
overall view of the black
academic situation in ,
America, while three '
Continued on Page 2 J