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•north CAROLINA COLLECTION
ClLBON LIBRARY UNC-CH
SaSl°HILL NC 27599-3730
USPS 091-380
71 - NUMBER 37
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1993 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913
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Third Force’ Threat
ro SA Elections
•ICVELAND, OHIO — A "Third Force" may be
^ing on the South African scene, but not as a
political party competing for power in the
jirv’s first multiracial elections next year,
i. "Third Force," many South Africans believe, is
oalition of white extremists and African tribal
licians who want to abort South Africa's
locratic transition to majority rule,
his was what a delegation of 16 women from the
iied Church of Christ learned when they visited
strife-town country August 11-24. The women
(from diverse ethnic backgrounds and ranged in
Ttom 14 to 80.
k delegates visited 17 ciUes and towns. At almost
stop, they said, religious and political leaders
j them’ that the "Third Force" was largely
ponsiblc for the escalation of violence across the
le first and second forces in South Africa are the
ican National Congress, led by Nelson Mandela,
the South African government of President F.W.
UCIK.
15 "Third Force," the United Church women
irtcd, is an'alliance of white supremacists —
uding neo-Nazis and their sympathizers in the
Ih African security forces — who bitterly oppose
acrk’s reversal of apar.theid, and officials of the
lean tribal homelands created by the apartheid
;em. The tribal leaders stand to lose power if a
«g multi-racial government is elected next year,
werywhere there is a sen& of foreboding, and
ecialion of new violence," said delegate Mary Sue
it, executive director of the United Church’s
ir'dinating Center for Women in Church and
iciy.
ixly-cight people were killed in Soweto m oiur
week in South Africa," Ms. Cast said. "Five to
people were killed every day in Natal province,
iwhelmingly, those who fire on trains and buses
nio public gatherings are widely believed to be
dby the "Third Force.’"
leRev. Yvonne Beasley, associate minister of the
ted Church’s regional Southern Conference, said
group witnessed devastation throughout the
ntry. According to Rev. Beasley, one settlement
near Durban, founded before World War I by
Mahatma Gandhi as a cooperative multiracial
community, had been nearly destroyed by firebomb
attacks. Nine homes had burned to the ground the
night before the delegation arrived.
“We visited the homeless women and children,"
said Rev. Beasley, who lives in Durham, N.C. "As
evening fell, they were gathering their few
belongings, trying to decide where they could find a
safe place to spend the night. The area was not safe. I
met one woman who had lost most of her family. I’ve
never seen before the terror I saw in this young
woman’s eyes. She had seen, things that are
unimaginable."
But the delegates also said there was hope for South
.Africa’s future. Interracial women’s organizations —^
such as the YWCA, Christian Women’s Movement
and Black Sash — are "right on the edge," Rev.
Beasley said. She added that the women’s movement
is now busy with voter education, especially for black
South' Africans who have never had an opportunity to
vote in an election. Churches, which have resisted
apartheid for years, are now beginning the face the
challenge of desegregating their bwn congregations.
"We were humbled by the women we met in South
Africa," said Ms. Gast. "We met women who had
grown old and never voted, but were training younger
women in the mechanics of voting. We met women
who have been overlooked all their lives by a system
that exploited their manual labor, but still had the
strength to educate themselves, and then to teach,
nurture and organize others.”
In meetings with the South African Council of
Churches, one of the groups that led the fight against
apartheid when the African National Congress was
still banned by the government, the United Church
delegates were told that despite progress toward free
elections, sanctions should not be hfted until a
multiracial transitional executive council is installed.
The 1.6-million-member United Church of Christ,
with national offices in Cleveland, is a 1957 union of
the Congregational Christian Churches and the
Evangelical and Reformed Church.
Ms. Dollie Burwell of Warrenton was the other
North Carolinian on the trip.
HAYTI THIRD ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION. See story and pictures on page 11. (Photo by Trent)
More Blacks Getting Degrees,
But Whites Still Get Higher Pay
CHANCELLOR CHAMBERS. MRS. SPAULDING, CHAIRMAN MEDLIN
See Endowment story and pictures on page 2. (Photo by Trent)
By Sonya Ross
WASHINGTON (AP) - More
black Americans got college
degrees in the 1980s, but they still
receive lower pay than white
graduates for many jobs, the
Census Bureau reported today.
Census figures show the number
of black men 25 and over with at
least a bachelor’s degree rose from
7.7 percent in 1980 to 11.9 percent
in 1992. Among black women, the
rate rose from 8.1 percent to 12
percent.
Education translated into earnings
power for both blacks and whites,
but whites'were paid more.
The. annual median salary for
black college graduates was
$30,910, compared to $18,620 for
black high school graduates 25 and
older - a 66 percent differential.
The median salary for white
college graduates was $37,490,
compared to $22,370 for white high
school graduates 25 and older - a
68 percent differential.
"When education is taken into
consideration, black males with a
college education attained earnings
parity with comparably educated
white males in several
occupations," census researchers
said.
But pay is unequal in several
other areas, including executive,
administrative and managerial jobs,
sales, precision production and the
repair and craft fields.
A larger proportion of white men
than black men were employed in
executive, administrative and
managerial jobs, 32 percent to 26
percent. Black male college
graduates in these fields were paid
about 77 percent of the amount
earned by white male college grads.
"Black men with a high school
education employed as executives,
administrators, and managers
earned about $60 for every $100
earned by comparable white men,"
the report added.
The census report was released in
conjunction with the Congressional
Black Caucus’ annual legislative
meeting opening today. Black
lawmakers, academicians and
activists are gathering to debate the
impact of racism on gains made by
blacks over the past 20 years.
The census figures were
underscored by a Wall Street
Journal analysis of federal labor
records, which found that black
workers were the only group to
experience a net loss of jobs during"
the recession of 1990-1991.
Black workers lost 59-,479 jobs
from July 1990 through March
1991, after three years of gains, the
newspaper said. Black employment
fell in six of nine major industry
groups.
Meanwhile, Asians gained 55,104
jobs during this same period, and
Hispanics gained 60,040 jobs.
Whites gained 71,144 jobs,
although they outnumber blacks
nearly eight to one at the 35,242
companies surveyed.
"The fact that outer minority
groups gained jobs at those
companies while African
Americans lost jobs suggests that
some corporate ‘diversity’
programs are being run as black
removal programs," said John E.
Jacob, president and CEO of the
National Urban League, an
advocacy" group that seeks to
improve working and living
conditions of urban blacks.
Klan Gives NAACP Office
Equipment In Settlement
By Estes Thompson
RALEIGH (AP) - Much of the
loot obtained by the NAACP here
from the Ku Klux Klan as part of a
court settlement was purely
symbolic - Klan earrings, lapel pins
and "White only" bumper stickefsl
Other stuff was useful, like a
ncarly-ncw copying machine and
an old computer, a printer, two air
conditioners, boxes of office
(Continued On Page 4), ■ :
Black Caucus Faults Clinton On Civil Rights
By Sonya Ross
WASHINGTON (AP) - Black members of Congress accused President
ton Wednesday of failing to combat rising American racism and said
e lacks a civil rights policy.
The politicians and other prominent blacks attending the Congressional
Hack Caucus’ annual meeting also pointed to bittersweet census figures
bl told of solid educational progress among blacks, but dimmer
aspects for a better life overall.
The caucus said Clinton’s positions on foreign policy, housing, crime
I'd fife North American Free Trade Agreement all pose problems for
ilacks.
begs the question: Where are we as a people? And what flag of
tgistry does this ship of state fly?" asked Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md.,
bcaucus chaimian. "We are, at this moment, a nation in grave distress."
He White House defended its record, citing its appointment of blacks to
b administration and the passage of the earned income tax credit, the
tonal Service Act and business "empowerment zones" for inner cities.
The administration also noted that it created a capital financing
•ogram for historically black colleges, which provides federal backing
«loans used for repairing or building black college facilities,
to, it cited Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros’ plan to oust county
®ing authority officials in Vidor, Texas, for maintaining segregated
®ing projects there.
Timed for the caucus’ gathering, the Census Bureau reported
Wednesday that more black Americans got college degrees in the 1980s,
Wihey still receive lower pay than white graduates for many jobs.
Census figures show the number of black men 25 and over with at least
"bachelor’s degree rose from 7.7 percent in 1980 to 11.9 percent in
'992. Among black women, the rate rose from 8.1 percent to 12 percent
■But the annual median salary for black college graduates was $30,910,
toe the median salary for white college graduates was $37,490.
^ larger proportion of vrtiite men than black men were employed in
executive, -administrative and managerial jobs, 32 percent to 26 percent.
Black male college graduates in these fields were paid about 77 percent
of the amount earned by white male college grads.
Also, 30 percent of black families were poor, with unemployment rates
for blacks running more than twice that of whites, 14 percent to 6
percent.
"Our condition has always been two-fold: loo much poverty, not
enough self-love," said Cornel West, professor of black and religious
studies at Princeton University. "We’ve been between a rock and a hard
place since we’ve been here." That’s why Clinton needs to lake an
immediate, firm stance on civil rights enforcement, said Lani Guinier, the
former NAACP litigator whose nomination to head the Justice
Department’s civil rights division was abandoned by Clinton.
Clinton has to find another nominee for the Justice slot. He also must
fill vacancies at the head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
But before he does that, Clinton should state unequivocally what his
civil rights intentions are, Guinier said.
"We're looking for moral leadership. We’re looking for a president
who’s not afraid to talk about race in a pubUc forum," Guinier said. "The
entire country is running from this problem." The complaints about
Clinton’s lack of civil rights action came as civil rights activists met at
the White House with the president to discuss the administration’s crime
bill, NAFTA and the possible loss of jobs under the trade pact.
"We made it very clear that, by and large, we do not suppart N,^A,"
said Jesse Jackson, president of the National Rainbow Coalition. We ^e
for free trade. We are for expanded trade. We are not for losing textile
workers’ jobs, and auto workers’ jobs.” Jackson said they "put for the
case for a social charter" to address environmental and workers’ rights
issues affected by NAFTA.
"He said he would consider it It was a major step in the right
direction." Mfume said the black caucus does not plan right now to
support NAFTA, and will offer its own crime bill, saying Clinton’s
unfairly expands the number of death penalty crimes.
'We continue to negotiate with this White House on a number of issues
... not because we seek confrontation with the administration, but because
wc seek to do things in a different way," Mfume said. "This is not a
spectator sport. We do not desire box seats. We desire a spot on the
playing field."
Bells, Prayers Mark 30th
Anniversary of 16th Street
Bombing In Alabama
By Jay Reeves
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A
brick church wai! blown apart by a
Ku Klux Klan bomb has long since
been repaired, the congregation is
smaller and the political
atmosphere has changed markedly.
But the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church on Wednesday continued
its 50-year sfruggle to heal the
emotional wounds from the Sept.
15, 1963, bombing which Mled
four black girls.
A prayer breakfast, bell ringing
and worship service marked the
anniversary of their deaths.
"It’s been 30 years, but it’s like it
was yesterday," said James Dunn,
63, as he pointed to the spot where
the bomb went off outside the
church. "It’s not talked about every
day, but it’s talked about a loL"
"It’s a sad time," said Melvin
Johnson, 72. He quietly stood
under a tree outside the church as
bells rang to mark the time of the
blast -10:22 a.m.
Sunday school was in session at
the time of the bombing, which
followed weeks of civil rights
protests and racial violence. Across
the street a few months earlier.
(Continued On Page 4)