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SAT., MARCH 28,1823 TTjcy came to Richmond, Virginia to shape a Black' Agenda for the 80s blacks who had led the battles of the 50s and 60s ; faces and names that had first come to be known in the 70s. A cross-secton of black leader ship was there: Conference coordinator, Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana; Illinois Congress woman Car diss Collins; Andrew Young, Vernon Jordan, California Con gressmen Ron Dellums and Gus Hawkins, . Benjamin Hooks, Jesse Jackson, Mrs. Coretta King, Dick Gregory, Dorothy Height, Maryland Congressman Par ren Mitchell, SCLC's Joseph Lowery, New York . Secretary of State Basil Patterson, Pennsylvania Con gressman William Gray, California State Senator Willie Brown, Texas Congressman Mickey Leland, California State Representative Maxine Waters, Michigan Con gressman Charles Diggs, Eddie Williams of the Joint Center; Congressman Walter Fauntroy, Host Mayor Henry Marsh, Oakland School Superintendent Ruth Love, labor leaders Bill Pollard, Bill Lucy and Addie Wyatt. But there were others, too: an impressive array of professional, business, academic and political leader ship from virtually every state in the nation. Along with the staffs of the Urban Coalition, the Urban League, Congressional Black Caucus and the Joint Center for Political. Studies, they drafted the critical issue papers, ran the workshorw, battled and ultimately triumphed1, over logistical problems, asudden snowstorm and a I sometimes adverse press. v' With the exception of the. black press and a fraction ' of the majority media, much of the coverage focused' almost entirely on the failure of three presidential can-; The Retirement Income and Employment Subcom-1 .mittee of the House of Representatives has been holding J oversight hearings on the report of the Advisory Coun-, cil on Social Security. These committee members are ap-, pointed by the President. One of the proposals is to tax i fifty per cent of an individual's social security income, i Representative Don Albosta has introduced a bill pro-! hibiting this taxation. He stated that the Advisory! . Council shows a lack of concern for these elderly people who have already paid their dues. Even though income ; tax was paid on the social security when the employee was working, the Advisory Council is seeking to tax it agairv. With the present inflation rate, Albosta says peo ple living on social security can't afford to pay income tax on money they have always felt was coming to them on a tax-free basis. The congressman says that since there has never been a tax exempt social security benefit i written into law, he will offer a resolution in congress to 1 that effect. The reason given by the Advisory Council for such a ' tax is to provide for the social security trust fund. Representative Downey states that there is nothing in I the Advisory Council's proposal to ensure that if this , tax is passed, the money will go to social security trust fund. Some favor this proposal as a means for reducing I the federal deficit, but Downey says the better way to reduce the deficit is not to increase taxes but to reduce : hem. He says it's unconscionable for the government to ' go to a retiree who has contributed to the social security trust fund from ten to forty years with the expectation . of having a modest stipend in old age to say, "sorry, the ; rules have changed." This is another instance of some j of our leaders' really blaming the elderly and needy for i inflation. The Advisory Council is also considering raising the age for receiving social security benefits. The present law provides payments to social security 'recipients and federal retirees to be adjusted with each : major cost-of-living increase. The Administration wants to'HwinateJhwtnittgi and .home loans as a deternyaingrl costKH-Hving tactor. rne averagesoetwsewityrDeaaM is $280 a month. The thirteen per cent July raise will raise that amount around thirty dollars, while the actual living cost will have risen to around $73 or $100 a month THE BLACK AGENDA FOR THE 80s CONFERENCE By M.Carl Hclman dictates to appear on the day following the closing plenary, some booing of one of the country's outstan ding mayors by those who felt he had broken the rule against partisan political statements, and the grumbl ings of the usual handful of nay-sayers who .float around the fringes of all such gatherings. Nevertheless, the political leaders and organizations! (presenting millions of black people completed the first j pahse of the job they had come to do. Some had been worried about the closing plenary ses sion, remembering the explosive discord which-ended the Gary Convention in 1972. The 1980 session, co chaired by Hatcher and Holman, benefitted from the skill, sood humor and firmness of its parliamentarian, Republican attorney Samuel Jackson, whose credentials go back to Brown vs. Topeka. The delegates made their way through more than five hours of critical economic social, political and foreign affairs goals. Though disagreements had sometimes been sharp at the end of the session, the participants joined hands and, led by Dorothy Height and a young volunteer from the au dience, sang the Black National Anthem. A group of black businessmen and corporate ex ecutives pledged the resources necessary to help the twelve-person continuing Conference Secretariat disseminate, through a network of more than 300 private organizations and black political leadership groups, an agenda for the 80s which includes: A closely coordinated campaign to close the jobs and income gaps between blacks and whites in the 80s. An agressive, nationwide voter mobilization pro gram aimed at increasing by twenty per cent each elec tion, the number of black elected officials; and the measuring of candidates for the Presidency, the Con- Sess and state and local offices against the priorities set , the agenda. 1 r Opposition to crippling cuts in the federal human . eeds budget and to the unwarranted and even more in flationary growtlf of the military budget. Support for a national drive to sharply increase black ownership and management of business and economic enterprises, assisted by a new black business and economic development action and information ex change. A cut-off of all relations with apartheid South THE PEOPLE DESERVE SOLUTIONS NOT CAMPAIGN VICTORIES By Alfreda L. Madison because of heating and electricity costs. High interest rates affect utility cost which is passed on to the con sumer. So the $250 energy stipend does not keep up with the fuel cost. We have over thirty million retired workers and dependents and three million disabled people on social 1 security, with retired persons receiving $3400 annually and disabled persons $3840. These are poverty level in comes. Neither retirement nor social security is a government gift. These are monies the retirees have worked for and paid into the social security funds. The Administration is making the elderly the sacrificial lamb for inflation reduction and budget' balancing. Hopes for freeing the hostages have again turned to; gloom, and the hostages families' patience has begun to wear thin. President Carter, who emphasized very strongly that the decision to bring the Shah to this coun try, for health reasons was his alone, needs to explain to : the American people why he ignored the advice of thej proper advisors who warned of the danger of such ac tions. Since the Shah is still sick and needs another, serious operation that is going to be performed outside 1 of the United States and performed by a doctor being flown from our country to do so, Carter needs to ex plain why such could not have been done 'in the first place. His lone decision has fifty of our citizens languishing as hMa,trtjrtAa5s that the president is us- j; uig uic uu&gesjsuipa sochct irom puoiic oeoaie on nis deteriorating foreign and domestic policies, this present Shah illness and treatment, makes the President's original compassion excuse seem ludicrous. Yet any criticism of his actions, causes him to yell unpatriotic and damaging to freeing the hostages. It is time that the press, leaders and presidential candidates break Carter's gag rule and give the American people the truth. With the primary victories, there is no wonder the President continuesto remain in the Rose Garden until the hostages are freed. There is little doubt that his cam paign strength lay in the hostages incarceration. Bits & Pieces By Jesse H. Walker Wallace L. Ford II, executive vice president of Amistad DOT Venture Capital, Inc., headquartered in Washington, chastized black lawyers in the February issue of the National Bar Bulletin for not being as active in the field of economic development for the conditions of black people as they have in the law-directed fields of civil rights and human rights. He suggests more aquisi tion, expansion and organization of new business ven tures through minority enterprise small business com panies (MESBICS) '.'to provide investment capital to American minority enterprises." Africa and increased aid to other African and" Carib bean nations. Formation of a national Black Youth coalition to in volve young blacks, directly, in increasing job and educational oportunities and in opposition to the draft; drug abuse, police brutality, and violence within the black community. Responding to increased Klaa activity and reduced public support for civil rights through a new campaign, among black organizations and their allies, in support of affirmative action, black colleges, and the ERA linked to support by the Women's Movement of the basic Black Agenda. Perhaps two examples may bear out the conviction of most of the active participants that the coming-together in Richmond was not too late, but "on time. The wire to the President authorized by the final plenary urged postponement of the White House Conference on Africa, announced for this month, because of inade quate involvement of blacks. After a flurry of consulta tions, the Conference was postponed. Even before the upcoming follow-up meeting of the Conference Secretariat, it had urged the President and the Congress against projected budget cuts that would fall most heavily on minorities and the poor. Alliances of organizations from the Richmond meeting are now working together in support of job programs, Headstart and other potential targets. As intended, the Richmond conference was a beginn ing. In the difficult days ahead, the real test will be the degree to which those who were there and those who were not can translate the Black Agenda into significant results. The International Telephone and Telegraph Corpora tion (ITT) honored its own Black Achievers prior to the Harlem YMCA's Annual Black Achievers Dinner at the Hilton Hotel. ITT gave a reception for its own the day before in the Madison Avenue Executive Dining Room, with heads of various minority organizations as guests. ITT's Achievers this year were John R. Quarles, Regional ShippingTransportation Manager, New York Regional Office; Sharlin Ray Batten, Divisional Manager, ITT Gwaltney; Bernard Ford, Director, Ex port and Marketing Services at O.M. Scott & Sons Co., and Bob Sanders, Microwave Design Specialist, ITT Gilfillan. M.C. Woodward, Jr., executive vice president and chief financial officer of ITT and a member of the Board, presented the four Achievers, whose names were engraved on a plaque along with previous honorees at ITT World Headquarters. Nancy Hicks, former national correspondent for the New York Times, has been named president of the In stitute for Journalism Education (IJE) a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation whose sole purpose is to aid the newspaper industry in desegregating the nation's newsrooms. j W. Napoleon Rivers, Jr., 82, retired chairman of the department of foreign languages at the old D.C. Teachers College, now part of the University of the District of Columbia, died last week of cancer in Washington's Hadley Memorial Hospital. Dr. Rivers played baseball and football at Talladega and for 26 years was a referee for football games at black colleges. Arnold deMille, onetime NYC-based reporter photographer for the Chicago Defender, is the new president of the Society of the Silurians, the association of men and women who, fifteen or more years ago, worked on the staffs of NYC newspapers. -THE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT COUNTRY'S MOST SERIOUS PROBLEM By Alfreda L. Madison The Subcommittee on Employment Opportunities, . chaired by Congressman Augustus Hawkins, has been holding hearings on youth initiatives. There are three bills that deal with the youth training program. One is Congressman Jefford's bill. It requires joint grant ap-: plications prepared by local governments and the schools and specifies the content of those applications. This proposal assures that the funds will go to the students that need it. Representative Hawkins' bill is similar to the Jef ford's bill, but in addition he proposes that the present ! 22 per cent set aside which requires collaboration bet ween the local governments and the youth employment ,' training programs be continued. The President's bill fails in requiring collaboration or ' even sustaining the progress that has been made between the local education agencies and CETA. It eliminates . the present 22 per cent set aside for youth employment training programs and replaces them with provisions, that will Channel resources to the areas that will need them the least.-Title II of the President's bill has no teeth for requiring schools and local governments to change their practices to meet the needs of the disadvan taged youth. A very dramatic but alarming picture of the ghettoes was noted at these hearings. Rev. Leon Sullivan of Op-, portunities Industrial Center, said that as he passed! through the neighborhoods, he saw thousands of youths idle, frustrated, not knowing what to do with themselves or their time, and being angry and disillu sioned, and incorrigible, believing America has turned it's back on them. He said besides the Vacant buildings, ' many of those that are lived in, are just about unlivable. He stated that the President and congress must declare war on youth unemployment. It must have equal impor tance to Middle East peace, Iranian and Afghanistan, crises, enough oil, stopping inflation 'and balancing the .budget. . ' It was emphasized that extraordinary legislation is re quired of congress to get the youth employment job done. As a youth job prescription, the suggestion was made that a campaign be launched in congress and in , every state and local community to give all businesses incentives to help with youth jobs tax credits. The poor education that the schools are giving must be' strongly changed. These schools were characterized as : an education mockery, disgrace and tax ripoff. Schools 1 must give children the communicative, number skills and personal work verities that will enable them to get and hold jobs. This training must begin with elementary schools and these special programs for disadvantaged children must continue through junior and senior high schools. Failure of the President, congress and local eovernments to aive vouth unemployment equal or even ; greater priority than-is given other conerns will create a problem far more serious than any foreign crisis. Turning these minority youths from criminals into profitable citizens, will prove to be a contributing factor toward beating inflation, since it costs $35,000 to keep a youth in prison and only $13,000 to train him in a job corps jrogram. . ...I "The committee "witnesses ffiongly emphasized that both the-executive and legislative branches! govern ment must implement the mandates of Humphrey- Hawkins for youth employment and strengthening our1 economy. ... Minority youth must not be sacrificed for anti-' inflation policies and budget balancing. Congress and the President should go beyond the stop-gap measure of CETA. The failure of our leaders to act now five years from now there will be six million out-of-school, unemployed youth; and ten years from now ten million out-of-school unemployed youth will create chaos across America, paralyzing the nation. Eleven NCSU Freshmen Awarded Scholarships Ulifl RALEIGH Eleven engineering freshmen at North Carolina State University have been awarded scholarships from the National Fund for Minority Engineering Students(NFMES). The scholarships are awarded annually to minority students who have demonstrated academic ability for sue-' cess in engineering. The winners are: Ms. Felicia Diane Stevenson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H.L. Stevenson, 1319 Rotherwood St., Greensboro; Micheal Lee Burge, son of Mr. and Mrs. G.L. Burge,, Greensboro. Ms. Octavia Gail Mat thews, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.K. Matthews, 1119 Danbury Dr., Fayet teville; Ms. Cheryl Lee Reid, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Reid, 5827 Weatherford Rd., Fayet-' Alford, son of Mr. and Mrs', A. Alford, Rt. I, Fayetteville. George Donald Alston, son of Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Alston, Rt. 2, Pittsboro. ', James L. Covington, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Covington. Rt. 1 Denver. Anthony Miller, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Miller, Pinkwood Dr., Ruther-' fordton. Benjamin Harold Lanier, son of Mrs. Isabel! Lanier, Rt. 2, Snow Hill. Deith Felton, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. Felton, 410 Massachusetts St., Elizabeth City. Averell Mattocks, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lonell Mattocks, Maysville. , NFMES, whose aim is to increse the nation's sup ply of minority engineers, makes grants available to engineering schools that increase their enrollment and graduation of minori ty students. Dr. John F. Ely, assis tant dean of engineering at NCSU, reported the school's minority enroll ment now stands at 400. Of these, 2S8 are black students. . "In 1973, less then fifty black students were enroll ed in the school," said Ely. "this increase of over eighty per cent is largely due to the enginerrlng school's special efforts to inform minority students in North Carolina of the career opportunities ra to them in the engin "4 prpfession." ' Voter Regisfrafi Are You a Registered Voter? Have you moved to a new address and failed to update your voter record? Are you registered as an "Unaffiliated" voter and wish to select a party affliction in order to vote in the upcoming May 6th primary? All of these things may be accomplished Saturday, March 29th 10:00 AM 4:00 PR! If you ire a citizen of the U.S., a permanent resident of Durham Co., at least 18 years dd by the data of the next General Election and have good identification with a current Durham address, tfcsv you qualify to register to vote. REMEMBER: Sat., March 29th 10:00-4:00, At Following Locations: Parkwood Library Oak Grove School Northern High School Hillandala School Rivervisw Library Bragtown School Brogden Junior High School Lakewood School Main Library Northgate Shopping Center Board of Elections Office (2nd Fl, Judicial Bldg.) Holloway Street School Hotton Junior High Schccl Forest Hills Library Stanford Warren Library Burton School Hillside High School Friends Nesting House . South Square Shopping Center Also: Mon-Frl 8:30-5 p.m. Durham County Board of Elections (Judicial Bldg.) and All Public Libraries (During Regular Library Hours) Registration Books Close for Primary - April 8th Your vets may ta challangad if your voter record has isst bsaa epds&d with current address precinct. i ..
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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March 29, 1980, edition 1
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