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14TKEatS3U9UTlSES SAT., BASCM t, ItU my mi to be covrnmm census JnSY WttPVullLAL RtPRESEHTATWiSl HSBWBi ADEQSXTE POVERTY FUtlD ALLOCATIONS, ANDPLAHHING F02 SCHOOLS ETC -ft! The State of Blade America The National Urban League recently released its annual report. The State of Black America. As in past years, it presented a grim picture of black disadvantage. The past decade saw a widening of the yawaing gap between blacks and whites. Black family income fell from over sixty per cent of white family income at the beginning of the decade to barely 57 per cent at the end of the seventies. Over a half million more black people were poor in 1979 than in 1970.. Many apparent black gains in the seventies fail to withstand close scrutiny. The increas ed numbers of blacks attending college in the ten years since 1970 for example, masks the fact that disproportionate numbers are in community colleges or other institutions that do not grant BA or BS degrees. The growth of the numbers of blacks in prof essional and managerial jobs leads some to assume that these higher status positions mean middle class incomes. But the report finds that three-fourths of black profes sionals and managers earn less than the na tional median family income. The same holds for the much-vaunted shift to white collar jobs. The bulk of the in crease took place in lower-rung clerical jobs, and half of black sales and clerical workers earn poverty-level incomes or less. The report finds the outlook for the eighties bleak. Blacks never recovered from the recessions of the seventies, and another recession this year will further widen the black-white gap. Growing competition for jobs is another threat. Between 1974 and 1977 blacks ob tained only five per cent of the new jobs in private industry. Black men suffered a net loss of jobs. Other emerging groups, especially white women, made gains while black workers lost out. Black gains in the eighties will be largely dependent 'on flew job opportunities for female heads of families. Over a third of black families are headed by women and 'most are poor because of the failure to pro vide full-time employment, a situation likely to continue and even worsen in the decade ahead. If the seventies were a decade of benign neglect, the eighties threaten to render Mack people, their needs and their aspirations, in visible. Closing the black-white gap has been a matter of national indifference for over a decade, and current national obsessions in dicate the issue may virtually disappear from national debate. The President's State of the Union ad dress, in sharpe contrast to the State of Black America report, ignored the continu ing disadvantage of America's largest minority. Candidates in both parties refuse to ad dress issues of black-white disparity, pover ty Vernon E. Jcrdin, Jr. ty, and a new deal for the nation's disadvan- nstead, a deteriorating international situation has resulted in calls for a renewed cold war and increased military spending. Despite the obvious need for a strong defense, substantive improvements in our military posture are not always identical with splashy new weapons systems and their in evitable cost overruns and malfunctionings. So we enter the eighties with the nation's attention focused on military weapons, energy, and inflation to the neglect of racial equality, full employment, and urban revitalization. The inevitable result will be further deterioraton of the living conditions of poor people and black people. But the state of America is interwoven with the state of black America; a strong, economically healthy and just America is as essential to national security as any missile arsenal even more so. It is vital to have a balanced national policy that includes important domestic in itiatives such as full employment, welfare reform, and health, education and urban in itiatives designed to secure parity between the races. Such measures would also benefit the na tion as a whole, improve the lives of all its citizens, and heal the wounds that weaken our nation domestically and internationally. Giving Minorities The Business Hawkins Goal Is Jobs For Youth By Gerald C. Hcrca, Esquire A time-bomb is ticking away at the U.S. Supreme Court and if it is not defus ed, blacks will be blown to smithereens. What is being referred to now is the case of FulIUove v. Kreps. It seems like every year a new anti-affirmative action case pops up like mushrooms after a spr ing rain. There was DeFunis, then Bakke, then Weber, now FulIUove. All have challenged efforts to increase representa tion of blacks at all levels of U.S. society. All ere serious challenges but it can fairly be said that neither have conse quences as far-reaching as FulIUove; all the more pity that this explosive case has received little publicity, has stirred few protest marches or pushed black groups into action. DeFunis and Bakke involved die interests of students and Weber in volved trade umcmists.'B6t$ groups hav k--bistoriespimU' protests; But FulIUove involves a ten per cent set-aside of government contracts for minority businesses pursuant to a law engineered by Congressional Black Caucus member Mitchell. And we all know tnat people are not prone to protest and demonstrations but i dry should. Why is FulIUove so important? Well, if Congress cannot pass a pro-affirmative acxaoa law. can the President Issue Ex ecutive Order 1 1246 (the main bulwark of affirmative action in that it mandates it.)? Probably not. And if the lawmakers are paralyzed, then blacks will be frozen into their inferior socio-economic position never the doctor, always the orderly; never the executive, always the janitor. Further, it is clear that if the disastrous economic situation fcr blacks, is to im prove, rhen a sine qua non is a growth of black business. But in a monopoly dominatad economy, this is difficult at best. For example, consider the case of :he biack moving firm in St. Louis which, :n trying to get a license to operate na rionally wan fought tooth-and-nail every step o: ;he way by :he industry's nineteen national carriers. But monopoly as strong as it is is not :he only obstacle in the path of black business. The White House, Conference on Small Business, January 13-17, 1980, focused on a host of other issues. Minori :v firms in manufacturing have average -ece:pts of $134,000 as opposed to $1.8 million for white companies. A central cause of this disparity is the simple fact that blacks have limited access to capital; i.e. black firms are "ghettoized" within the black market and, because of past and present discrimination, are barred from the more lucrative, predominantly white markets. For example, many black life in surance companies that began operations fifty years ago or longer when white firms refused black policies, are not only unable to squeeze into the white markets but are being squeezed out of black markets by mostly white firms Prodential, Equitable, MONY, etc. There are other obstacles strewn in the path, for example, contractors bidding on certain projects must post a five or ten per cent surety bond, which guarantees that the business is financially sound and has enough resources to finish the job. On the big SI million plus contracts (e.g. for Sianrifse meyp-rail. cpnstf)icwqj.the,;, botuia be over $100,000 in cash. Because of past and present discrimina tion, few black contractors have the track record or have this amount of cash on hand. Despite this dismal picture, undue at tention is focused by "60 Minutes" and other establishment media on the miniscule number of "black" firms that are actually controlled by whites in terested in obtaining contracts set-aside for minorities The reality is, however, that in a study done by the Greater Newark Urban Coalition, 32 per cent of public works projects in New Jersey did not "achieve the goal of ten per cent of 100 per cent minority participation and that twenty grantees had no minority par ticipation at all." This was a multi-million dollar loss for minority firms, not to men tion being a gross violation of law. It should be added that those in a position to know e.g. Major Clark, legal counsel to the minority task force of the House Small Business Subcommittee on General Oversight and Minority Enterprise deny vehemently that there are a plethora of "black fronts" controlled by whites. The fact of the matter is, as a study by James H. Lowry (a Chicago based consul- jant) demonstrates, that over seventy per cent of minority firms now moving ahead strongly did it with set-asides. . This has meant jobs for black workers and a generally positive expansion of the economy. Unfortunately, if the time bomb of FulIUove presently ticking away explodes in an unfavorable decision, all the king's horses and all the king's men will have difficulty putting the black economy together again. By Congressman Augustus F. Hawkins With great fanfare President Carter in his January 28, 1980 budget message to the Congress introduced his "new" youth jobs program. The proposed purpose of the President's "new" program is to improve the "future employability of disadvantaged youth" through in-school remediation and job train ing efforts. Sounds better than it reads, Especially if vou are reading the President's budget. What the President's own fiscal 1981 budget calls for is a tightened economy, geared for slow-growth, and an unemploy ment rate of 7.5 per cent. I said 7.5 per cent! So where are the jobs gbing to come from to emtoldv these vouth. when hv the end if ment, and almost five times more than it is willing to spend on youth. Even the pace the President intends to utilize in his "new" youth program is carefully contrived, and quite deceptive, since so much of the program funds will not be totally available until 1982. This means that the program will not possibly move into gear, until at least some period within 1983. Of course this kind of non-planning spells disaster for those needing jobs now! And I thought youth unemployment had some high priority within this Administra tion! Fortunately there's a better option. It's my own pul I he Youtn employment Act to the jobless frotls An even more fundamental question arises. . . .how can the President talk about job training for youth, when his faulty economic policies are going to drastically cut the productive output of this nation, con tinue the support of higher and higher in terest rates, promote greater double-digit in flation, and radically increase joblessness? And further in anticipation of the Increas ed unemployment his policies will create, his own budget provides for a budgej authority of a whopping $19 billion for unemployment insurance. This is more than twice what the Administration wants to spend on all of CETA, four times more than what is cur rently being spent on public service employ- fflxj''' he of-school youth (thereby doubling training opportunities to serve 200,000 youth) support expansion of community skill centers which would provide job training, basic education and counseling (10,000 youth to be served) provide better coordinated links between private sector employers, on-the-job-trainine nrrarams and private sector tax up centive programs to hire and train disad vantaged youth (250,000 youth to be served) It would also expand apprenticeship pro grams, improve coordination of youth employment, training and education ac tivities, expand efforts to train welfare mothers, and provide for employment opJ. portunities in federal agencies. , iiifceino his modest ends. Youth Employment Act is designed for im mediate implementation, requires no new bureaucracy, would support already existing, successful programs, and provides for over one million additional job training opportunities for youth. The Act would expand upon pilot pro gram demonstrations as outlined in the Youth Employment Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 (Title IV of CETA). Among some of its goals for disadvantag ed youth: guarantee 300,000 disadvantaged youth pan-time jobs if they stay in school (the pro gram now serves 28,000 youths) provide job training to in-school and out- I dp not believe we need any such animal. What we need is an effort which will com bine immediate remedies and long term systemic and structural changes in the in stitutions serving youth. Unfortunately, the President's answers are once again only partial responses to a problem calling for comprehensiveness. I believe my bill better addresses the pro blem of youth unemployment, by getting to the core of the issue1 quickly, and more effi ciently. It does this without the razzle-dazzle style of the Administration, which promises more than it intends to deliver. I tooooooopcioocooopo acaa A Postal and Federal Viewpoint Once in every great while a person is born who will leave the world a better place for having lived in it. Cherry Griffith Brown was such a person. Last month, at the age of 57, this remarkable woman died of cancer at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Ind. Her strength and determination would have had an impact in any field she desired to pur- J W . C Pennington Slave-born in Maryland, He had little early schooling, but when free he became a great scholar of History, Theolory, Literature and Languages. Later, as a lecturer and preacher throughtout Paris, London and Brussels, he won his Docter of Divinity degree from Heidleberg University!!!. sue. Fortunately for the National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees (NAPFE), Mrs. Brown's career was in the postal and federal service. Mrs. Brown was one of three women serv ing on a 16-member National Executive Board of the nation's oldest and largest in dependent black-controlled labor union. She was the second national vice president of NAPFE. An ardent union worker, and an advocate of women's rights Mrs. Brown was con sidered a pioneer among blacks and women in the federal service as well as in the in dependent trade union movement in the federal and postal services. She was one of the first three black women to enter the postal service in a non-custodian position in 1948. She was the first black woiran to work the window at the Indianapolis Main Post Office. In 1956, she became the first blac u receive a certificate as a U.S. Civil Service Examiner. Four years later, Mrs. Brown distinguished herself as the first woman to hold the offices of District President and 2nd National Vice President in the National Alliance. When Mrs. Brown first ran for national office in NAPFE, she pledged, if elected, to serve as 2nd vice president without financial compensation until such time as the union, substantially increased its treasury. Even after the union attained financial stability, she refused a salary for her office. Up to the time of her death, she only received reim bursement for union-related expenses. In recent years, Mrs. Brown had suffered two strokes. Despite partial paralysis and a speech impediment, Mrs; Brown while never gaining total recover, continued to serve NAPFE. Mrs. Brown was an outstanding individual in every respect. She gave much to the N By ROBERT L. WHITE tional Alliance and she is sorely missed by the union membership who loved hef so much. t.. s (USPS 091-330) L.E.AUSTIN Edftcf-Pubftsher 1927-1971 mm Tknaw fMftw iMMnM Maw.' P.O. Iw 3S29, DwfcM, H.C. 17712 Kta taM St t ftwnwn sn. 9mm, M.c.rnti.iwrf am PwtM HM H DwkM, tttrtt Caratw Z77C3L TIMES, P.O. Mi im, Owtow. R. C. TTKL suiscamoa rates-. 9m vr, 312.H mm urn uh$ tn m lwrl Car S.M.NMI MNMttMt' to ummtLUHttmmn&tuanimn: Pwliwri, tot,. 4 Wwt 48tt) twit, W Tt, Tt MMVpatV rwBHHN MtitKmKtRt Wmw mmjKBKK
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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March 8, 1980, edition 1
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