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llX-THkCJUwUKA TIMES SAT., SEPTEKSER 12,1581 United Nations - , MBmCrOMQ T0IT ANPLBT BLACK COh- hUHirm cnmm arcuwus? grass ROOTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS, mnmoEjopomA vniudwont AsmsTcmnz,NMcoricTAmcKm BLIGHT AND BISCAY, The Reagan Crowd Creates A Dilemma For Blacks Part II By Curtis T.Perkins; Editorial It Is About Time New students entering the Atlanta University System in fall, 1981 even those pursuing the master's degree are required to take tests in reading, English grammar and composition. Any stu dent found to be seriously deficient in any one of these areas will be placed in developmental courses to overcome that deficiency. In addition, undergraduates will find, upon reporting to their ! dormitories for the fall semester, 1981, that middle-aged housemothers are back and so are the rules and regulations. There are no more open dormitory visitations. We applaud these new developments at the predominantly black institutions, and we hope that there are many other institu tions that have decided to "return to basics." Since the mid-sixties, predominantly black institutions have at tempted t& attract students by relaxing their rules, and by allow ing the individual student to choose what courses are necessary to become educated before graduating from college. Consequently, many black students have developed very poor discipline, resulting in failure of many of them to achieve andor allowing many to graduate from college unable to read and write ade quately the standard dialect of English. The so-called freedom, beginning in the mid-sixties,. -i.e., the lack of behavioral restraints; the personal choice to avoid English and reading classes, except to satisfy the minimal requirements; varying lifestyles lacking in old-fashioned morals; sexually in' tegrated dormitories, and no class attendance policy have proved to be detrimental to black college students. In a competitive society where discriminationn against blacks ' has become more subtle and very highly effective in excluding blacks from high-paying, high-ranking positions, it is incumbent upon our black institutions to reasses the type of preparation that is being given to our black students, and it is also necessary to teach discipline as well as give some moral direction for these students' future. Thus, the first step involves cutting out the nonsense and retur ning to a realistic standard for education that many of our foremothers and fathers who made outstanding contributions to themselves and their society had to adhere to. To the Atlanta University System and other systems which have revised their educational standards, we salute your efforts. It is time that we black folk return to our fundamental realities. there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who propose to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean's majestic waves without the awful roar of its waters. 1 ' , . ' Frederick Douglass mm Yea Skitfd Kco;7 - mama S. B. FULLER IN OUTfTANDlNfc 81J5INE8MAN ' AWHO OPENED THE DOOR FOR THOUSAND OF BLACK PEOPLE ' FOR (ELF-UELP WITH HIS DOOR TO DOOR DIRECT ELUNS.B6rN ON A LOUISIANA FARM NEAR MOD ROEIMW05.HH4iOOIMWAS . LIMITEDOMiy THE 51XTH 6RADE. HE WENT TO WORK. ORPHANED AT 17, HE WAS THE (OLE SUPPORT OF 7-V0UN6ER BROTHERS AMD ftSTERl IN .HITCH-HIKED FtOMMEMPHK i TO CHICAGO. WORKED IN A COALYARD, IW..AGENT.LATER AMAN6ER. IN KW HE REALIZED THE POTENTIAL IN BLACK BMNEff IN THE COSMETICS FIELD. WITH 25"HE MU6HT $0ME JOAP AND WENT DOOR TO DOOR SELLING AND NEVER STOPPED.HE FOUNDED THE FULLER PRODUCTS CO. DURING THE IMOs AMD WW FULLER BECAME A NATIONAL PHENOMENON. -WITH $-f UBflDlAfilE. A MULTI-M1LU0N 6R0SS INCOME AND BRANCH OFFICES IN EVESV MAJOR CITY IN THE U S. A TREMENDOUS INSPIRATION AND BUSINESS PIONEER.' HH.NUUTHCMMTM TUCM m MCTMOM TO WHO NEVER Mf FOR BLACKS A CRISIS .. There have always been blacks who dften put perform whites in ostracizing, demeaning and not properly helping to , advance blacks. I was saddened when 1 Vernon i Jordan suggested on national ; television that he had no particular need to visit ghettos and, hob nob with us that his place to get more for us blacks was to consort with whites, I venture most of the time, I also regret that our pitifully small: number of black Republicans never ton fronted Mr. Reagan, really on letting him know forthrightly black demands. In an ; -earlier column in this regard, I noted that only one black served on the Republican ; Platform Committee at the Republican National Convention. Results of this . lonely black O. Benjamin Hooks, ex ecutive director of the NAACP, as a sop, was allowed to address the convention. Although Mr. Hooks put on a spirited tirade the platform was already adopted! None of his demands for blacks got to first base. , It would have been additionally courageous if Mrs. Margaret Bush j Wilson, chairman of the NAACP, has repeated. Mr. Hook's demands before in troducing President Reagan before he spoke at the last NAACP convention in Denver last June. Appointments of blacks to the Reagan . Administration have been sparse not near the number named by former Presidents Nixon and Ford. The few ap pointed, in my opinion, are just as conser vative as their white colleagues. Having these limited numbers of blacks near the seat of power with the attitude of the President and his advisers hanging over them wilt prefigurate black doom. - I feel blacks must accept their fate by fighting back to survive, I know we must challenge these ultra rightists at every ' turn. We must work within and outside the system to overcome the economic chaos the President and his chief economic high . executioner;" David Stockman, are about. We must organize politically, perhaps our own party in every state with signifi-, cant numbers of blacks.. We must offer our votes to those who understand our aspirations and needs. Our black members of the U.S. Con gress have been a good investment. We 1 need more to push our programs. ' With Mr. Reagan and Mr. Stockman 1 cutting back on student grants and loans we musf 1 Sacrifice 1 more" and send these youngsters on to our black colleges in par- -ticular -1 our of our meager resources. " We must again pool our quarters. and pennies to help create goods and services . and thereby jobs. ' We have to face up to the demise of, federal aid and tackle the governors and legislatures of the various states to get our; share of the "block grants" Mr. Reagan brags about. . . . It. is sad to see Social Security com ; mitments not being respected in President , Reagan's zeal to reduce the taxes of the rich. . V" -r - Taking away food stamps, medical privileges, diminishing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Economic , Development Administration (EDA) spell bad news for all blacks. Above all, we blacks must find some more aggressive movements to lead us and fight our battles. I am very much impressed with the rebirth of the Southern Christian Leader ship Council, led by the Rev. Joseph ' Lowery and the Black United Front, ably ; chaired by the Rev. Herbert Daughtery.' There's a message here. The born again pastoral leader and his church must assume their role for black survival as never before. John Procope, the energetic publisher of the New York Amsterdam News is now the president of otjhf National Newspaper , Publishers' Association. Already Mr. Procope and his fellow black publishers and editors are determined to bring blacks . together everywhere. We writers and readers take Mr. Procope and his! organization seriously. We applaud them ' for having taken on this task of black , ' economic persistence at their last meeting in New Orleans in July. - The cause of blacks in America is inter related to the causes of blacks in Africa and the Caribbean. There is no African policy by the Reagan forces as of now. There is no black with the rank of Am ' bassador on the staff of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. the first time in years. U.S. contributions to U.N. agencies and the, World Bank are being slashed. Blacks must view the United Nations as a forum of last resort if their rights, economic and civil, are violated by those who, now lead our nation. MR. REAGAN'S MANDATE I am the first to admit that waste, fraud and ineptness must be eliminated if the. government of our country is to be effec tive for all of our citizens. The private sec tor, although with enlightened corporate leaders and managers, cannot take up the slack of the Reagan Administration's throwing needed human programs to the ' wind. Already educational and charitable institutions are beseiging the corp&rafibns"' ' for aid. They in turn; have warned thr "" government they cannot meet the aching challenge before them. The fairest way to meet the needs of the American people is through the income tax system. Here abuses by many of the'jj : well-to-do through tax shelters and . various other gimmicks are dodging their, .responsibilities in making the American' system work. People in ja democracy such as ours must share their largesse in order, to keep the fabric' of a federal republic' stitched together. Equitable taxes is an important ingredient, ' Deferring to the states' federal prerogatives and obligations seldom works. States have been weak in voter rights and the care and upkeep of the less " r a. ' lonunaic. Fifty years of social legislation has been hammered out by our Congresses, Presidents and the Courts mostly of the U.S. Supreme Court. Republicans, too, share in the glory of this achieve ment. Mr. Reagan did win the Presidency by an overwhelming electoral vote. His ' popular vote was less than five million J (Outgoing President Jimmy tarter naa tne vote of millions. Then there were millions, who Hid not exercise their franchise. So J Mr. Reagan governs by only one-third on the overall population. Therefore, Mr. Reagan, Mr. Stockman, a scared Con gress and their rightwing monitors have no mandate to dismantle thermograms. Under our form of government, our President, now Mr. Reagan, has the awesome responsibility of not only setting the moral tone of an equalitarian society but ministering compassionately and ob jectively and without favoritism to all: elements in the United States. On the other hand, President Reagan does have the mandate to discipline his charges on every level. This includes wages, interest rates, profits and the cost of medical care, consumer goods and services and the cost ; of national defense.'lt is possible for Mr. i Reagan to bring all of these abuses into line. . ? I However, I believe that "voluntarism" ' will not work in the United States. The j President must have courage and the ' tenacity to demand of Congress the , necessary laws to apply mandatory rules t at will. I feel application of these pro cedures across the board will further equalize the participation of all elements . of the economy. It was Republican President Herbert i Hoover who conceived the Reconstruc tion Finance Corporation (RFC). If private industry is to retool and be com petitive, we need a similar agency which with the cooperation of our banks can get this., donevi Carrying every corporate Chrysler incidents before the Congress is a time consuming and an unnecessary .debate. We need the jobs inherent in any revitalization of industry with govern- (Continued On Page 16) A View From Capitol Hill: Savage Leaves Delegation In South Africa as Protest By Cus Savage Member of Congress I am reporting from Kenya m the East coast of Africa. , V This scenic Texas-sized nation of six teen million people sits astride the equator. Hence, its temperature varies lit tle y ear-around. In its modern; bustling capital city of' Nairobi, with a population of about one million, the temperature is always mild because of its 5,000 foot altitude and that's where I am, in the fairly new and well-serviced Hotel Hilton. v Now, Kenya is bounded on'the north by ( Sudan and Ethiopia, on the west by Ugan da, on the south by Tanzania, and on the east by the Indian Ocean and Somalia. It is struggling to become a capitalist democracy, under Daniel Arap Moi, who became president upon the death of the leader of independence, Jomo Kenyatta, August,. 1978. Of course, Kenyatta, 'The Flaming Spear," is known for his ten-year im - prisonment as leader of the Mau Mau rebels during the 1950's. , However, he apparently succumbed to: neo-colonial interests during the 60's and 70'sL Moi continues this seeming subser vience to foreign capital, despite the fact that his poor country is mainly agricultural. It imports coffee beans and tea leaves while importing food products at a price higher than it could produce food on the land reserved for export products. Yet ' reportedly, only the ten to twenty per cent of its total land is really arable. Perhaps, that is why soon I will pro bably have to maneuver my way through a horde of prostitutes in the lobby to meet the American Ambassador's wife and son, who are to drive me through the wildlife preserves on the outskirts of the city. The prostitutes from Uganda and . Somalia, in addition to Kenya, are per- j mitted to loiter apparently tp boost this ' country's effort to promote tourism from Europe, in order to overcome its balannce of trade deficit. V A prostitute was brutally murdered by an American sailor in the port city of ' Mombasa last September. A mass upris ing Qf Kenyans was threatened when a white Kenyan judge let the 'sailor go scot free. However, wisely, President Moi im mediately dismissed the judge. Tomorrow, I expect to beet Africa's greatest writer, Ngugi wa Thiong'o. This former chairman of the Department of Literature at Nairobi University, taught African Literature for one year in the United States at Northwestern University, just outside Chicago. He has written four novels, one volume of short stories, two collections of essays, and three plays. The best known of his novels, Petals 1 of Blood, has been, reprinted in English in the U.S. His best known play is "Ngaahika, . Ndeenda," a perceptive criticism of the Kenyan government's preference for I European., culture. For this, he was dismissed from his post at Nairobi University and "detained" and degraded in a maximum security prison during all of 1978. "Detained, means imprisonment , without formal charges or trial or sentenc ing by a court. Incidentally, "Detained" is the title of his most recent work, a diary of this horror, now available in English. I urge you to read it, It is published in paperback by Heinemann Educational . Books Ltd.,. Kijabe Street, P.O. Box 45314, Nairobi, Kenya. 1 But more about Ngugi and the status of ' civil liberties and nso-colonialism in Kenya next time. v For now, let me explain why I am, reporting from here rather 4tnan from Cape Twon, South Africa, as I promised in my last report. To better prepare to fulfill my respon sibilities as a Member of Congress, I especially wanted : to learn first-hand about South Africa's racist, anti Christian system of fascist state capitalism. I even hoped that during my. visit I could in some snail way help the struggle for democracy, racial equality, and self-determination for blacks there. , Well, in my first evening there in Johannesburg, I learned first-hand enough about my impotence and our , government's support of the South African government and economy. I learned enough to separate myself in disgust from the congressional delegation's four-day stay. . After listening to the heroic black na tionalist leaders, Bishop Tuto and Dr. Motlaua, I left alone the next day and took a commercial flight to Nairobi, Meanwhile, I boycotted all meetings of the delegation with South African business and government officials. World War II taught me that you cannot talk a fascist into justice, even though I was treated as an "honorary" white in South Africa and housed in the Carlton, that na tion's finest hotel. The other two black members of the delegation, Shirley Chisholm (New York) and George Crockett (Detroit), remained on this visit to fascism despite reported objections of most South African black leaders to our presence. ! Indeed, I was shocked upon our arrival in South Africa when Congressman Crockett declared in an airport press con ference that he had come with "an open mind and judicial countenance" regar ding this shame on humanity. At least, Congresswoman Chisholm joined me there in expressing objections to fascism in advance. (To be continued next week) ",sr L.E. AUSTIN Editor-Publisher 1927-1971 USPS 091-380 Published every Thursday (dated Satur day) at Durham, M.C., by United Publishers, Incorporated. Mailing address: P.O. Box ; 3825, , Durham, N.C. 27702-3825. Office located at 923 Old Fayetteville Street Durham, N.C. 27701. Second Class Postage paid at Durham, North Carolina 27702. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ' THE CAROLINA TIMES, P.O. Box 3825, Durham, N.C. 27702. ' v SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year, $12.00 (plus 48( sales tax for North Carolina residents). Single copy 30 1. Postal regulations REQUIRE advance pay ment on subscriptions. Address all com munications and make all checks payable to: THE CAROLINA TIMES. Si f NATIONAL ADVERTISING ' REPRESEN TATIVE: Amalgamated Publishers, Inc., 45 West 45th Street, New York, New York 10036. Member: United Press International Photo Service, National . Newspaper Publishers Association, North Carolina Black Publishers Association. 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The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Sept. 12, 1981, edition 1
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