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Page A4-The Chronicle, Thursday, August 30, 1984
- Winston-Salem Chronicle
Founded 1974
ERNEST H. PITT,
NOUBISI EOEMONYE ALLEN JOHNSON
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ELAINE L. PITT MICHAEL PITT
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Six million more poor
I
At the risk of throwing a wet blanket over the on
timistically revised economic forecast President Reagan
issued just before the Republican National Convention, we
think a Census Bureau report to Congress earlier this
month bears closer scrutiny.
While the President now says the economy is growing at a
faster clip than expected and predicts that by 1989 the
:-:?fedeial delicit will be SICK) billion fesathan mnct u/ati
analysts foresee, the Census Bureau reports that the national
poverty rate reached an all-time high last year, rising
to 15.2 percent.
Based on interviews with 62,000 households, the bureau
found the ranks of the poor grew by 868,000 from 1982 to
J , 4
- 1983, rising from 34.4 million to 35.3 million.
A family of four was considered to live in poverty last
year if its income was less than $10,178.
At a Congressional hearing last November, David
Stockman, director of the Office of Management and
Budget, said, U1 am absolutely confident that the poverty
rate is going to decline dramatically in 1983."
But Stockman said he was too busy to appear at this
month's Congressional hearing, where the Census Bureau
described the poverty figures as "unexpectedly high."
It found the numbers of the poor have increased by six
million since 1980, rising in each of the last five years.
Not surprisingly, the poverty rate for blacks was considerably
higher than for whites, at 35.7 percent compared
to 12.1 percent in 1983.
- And while 17.3 percent of white children under the age of
six were poor last year, 46.7 percent of black children in
that age group lived in poverty conditions.
What is surprising, however, is that the rate of poverty
should increase at the same time family income rose by 1.6
percent, mainly because of an improving economy. Poverty
normally declines when family income goes up, but that
didn't happen last year, another brick in a mounting wall cff
evidence that the benefits of recovery are being unequally
distributed. In other words, as the President's 19St tax cuts
indicated, the rich are getting richer and the noor are oet
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ting poorer.
Political swords - and slogans - cut both ways and
blacks would do well to ask themselves one of the President's
favorite questions: are you better off today than you
were four years ago?
We think we already know the answer.
Cross winds
The role of the church
From The Carolina Times.
Today, the black church, long a mainstay institution in
At tit ? - '
me DiacK community, finds itself torn between two roles.
One role is to deal with what some churchmen call "the
total person."
That is to say, the church should contir ue attempting to
deal with black America's economic, social and political
problems, as well as its religious and moral health.
The other role is to let other institutions ? some existing,
some others yet to be developed -- handle most of those
problems and leave the church free to address spiritual and
moral matters in the black community.
It ic a vitallv/ imnrvrtont Hilommo f
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addressed and handled quickly.
It will not be an easy matter.
Black Americans continue to face profound economic,
affect the power of these citizens to master their destinies.
But we suggest that other institutions and organizations
should begin addressing those matters, specializing in one
area or the other, if necessary. This approach does not suggest
that the black church should not also continue its efforts,
but rather that it needs support and help.
We believe the black church must accelerate now addressing
a number of more fundamental questions.
Some examples include:
If God has a plan, what is it?
What is mankind's destiny?
What is the true gospel oflesirs-Gfirist?
These questions, purely theological in nature, lead almost
naturally into other fundamental and practical questions,
the answers to which should set a new tone of life for black
Americans.
For example:
What is the human family? Why does it exist? What is its
role in helping humans achieve their destiny?
What is the actual and productive role of man in the
family, woman and children?
How do we teach each other an understanding of our
transcendental purpose so that all our energies are devoted
to achieving that purpose?
This is not an easy task and the black church should not
Please see page A5
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'Up Soutl
CLIFTON E. GRAVES JR.
Chronicle Columnist
To be honest, for the Black
man in America there is no
difference between /4 Down
South" and "Up North. " Indeed,
everything south of the
Canadian border is "Down
South" for us .j^ So, realty,
there is only "Up South" and
"Down South" ...
Malik El-Shabazz
(Malcolm X)
Up until, perhaps, 20 to 30
years ago, African-Americans
- in the main - had been
brainwashed to believe that
the northern, eastern and
western sections of the country
offered far more opportunity
for economic development 4
and social advancement than
the "land of cotton, tobacco
and rice."
To be sure, there was (and
to some extent still is) a
legitimate basis for our
families and friends to literally
flee from "Down South."
Klan terrorism, slave labor,
lvnchines. and Jim Crow in
justice created and sustained
an environment so oppressive
that it is analogous only to the
suffering presently endured by
our brethren in apartheid
South Africa ^ an environEpperson,
By VERNON L. ROBINSON
Guest Columnist
Recently, Congressman
Jack Kemp (R-NY) flew into
Winston-Salem to campaign
for Stuart Epperson, who
faces incumbent Steven Neal
in this year's Fifth District
congressional race. Epperson
hopes that Kemp's symbolism
is not lost on the black community.
Kcm& the most, vocai iwk
Uowol ftapMb&WMiB
ing to regain a foot hole among
black voters." He points out
that black Americans switched
loyalty to the Democratic Party
during the '30s, '40s, '50s
and '60s because that party offered
jobs, food and hope,
while the Republican party of
the same period offered little
or nothing.
Kemn believes that the
tables have turned and that
now the Republican Party has
the most credible vision for
economic justice and opportunity
for all Americans, but
especially for black
a :
A\rncr leans.
Based on the assumption
that social progress is best
Powvj wrtH/ Down WHH ,
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Clifton Graves
ment so oppresive that it made
the. Jewish Holocaust in Nazi
Germany seem like a Sunday
school picnic!
. So, who could blame our
brothers, aunts and cousins
from picking up their roots in
North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi,
Tennessee and Alabama
and relocating to the large and
not-so-large centers of New
York, Washington,
Philadelphia, Baltimore,
Chicago, Boston, Newark,
Camden, Hartford,
Bridgeport and, yes, New
Haven!
Who could fault our daddies,
mamas and uncles for
leaving their daddies, mamas
must have J
facilitated by an expanding
economy, Kemp's initiatives
seek to enhance the recovery
and bring that recovery to
depressed communities. His
proposals include the KempKasten
FAST tax reform plan
that would allow lowerincome
families to keep more
income (anyone earning
$14,375 or less would pay no
' 'Indeed* hi& fmkuce* to inU
of his campaign staff hat
municate effectively with ti
tax); the Urban Homesteading
Act that would allow public
housing tenants to buy their
dwellings at 25 percent of
market value and to finance
mortgages at low rates; and
the Kemp-Garcia Enterprise
Zone, Employment and
Develpment Act that would
provide tax incentives for
businesses to expand into
economically depressed areas.
The enterprise zone bill,
called the most important
piece of urban legislation in
this century by Congressional
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Am.??dme?t [(j-yOef(.
m South'
and uncles in the attempt to
fashion a "better life" for
themselves and their children?
The North wasn't heaven, but
it damn sure was better than
the hell-hole of the pr&1960
South!
W/^l 1 or U/v# U ?1
Ttbii, as uuui nisiuj y ctiiu
experience have taught us, the
North -- the place of "jobs,
dignity and opportunity" ~
was not the "Aand of milk and
honey" that it was cracked up
to be. While each city has its
own history of racist intolerance
and injustice,
generally speaking, the experience
of the AfricanAmerican
in the North could
be characterized as one of
crushed hopes and deferred
dreams, a characterization
based on the fact that the jobs
were not as plentiful, nor the
opportunity as great as our
folk had been led to believe.
The tremendous influx of
thousands of European immigrants
(i.e. Irish, Italian,
Poles, Germans, etc.), competing
for the same jobs and
opportunity as black brethren,
coupled with the subtle yet
pervasive racism already existing
above the Mason-Dixon
line, resulted in the unsettling
and unexpected transformaPleasB
see page A5
black votes
Black Caucus leader Rep. Bill
Gray (D-Pa.), has over 260 cosponsors
in the House oT
Representatives, has Reagan
Administration support and
has been passed in the Senate
. twice.
Twenty-six states have
enacted their own version of
enterprise zones. Even though
states can offer a mere fracMfffks
kntfh
$ hurt his ability to comhe
black community."
tion of the federal incentives,
the result of these efforts have
been so promising that the
liberal Sabre Foundation has
given the Kemp-Garcia bill
their enthusiastic support.
Kemp's efforts with this bill
and other legislation of concern
to black Americans has
earned him recognition as the
Legislator of the Year by the
black-led, national job train
. _ /"v
ing organization, opportunities
Industrialization
Please see page A11
/ IfcT'S THIS MOTION To 1
' >NUM IT ONCfc STOOD fOfc
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letters ?
All walks of I
life featured I
To The Editor:
Let me add my congratulations
to the many others who
wrote celebrating your being
named the best black
newspaper in the United
States.
You're carrying on a great
tradition in North Carolina in
the notable tracks of the late
Louis E. Austin of The
Carolina Times in Durham
and the Wilmington Journal,
^edited hv Mr. XXL.Jer.Yay itu?.. ,
~myhomc?toiwfc^? t--You're
not only in the
forefront of awareness in the H
struggle for the rights of black
people. In a time in which H
we're told, all of us, that we
don't count if we're not rich H
and famous by the time we're
25, the Chronicle in widely
ranging articles, nurtures all
kinds of human beings, telling
us we are all worthy, that we
all belong to the human race
and to each other.
You not only keep us up to
date on those who make it in
the sports and entertainment
world, you also encourage I
young actors and artists and
musicians, you let youths
know it is all right for them to I
become dancers and young
musicians know they have as
great a right as anvone to
make classical music.
You show respect for differ.
ing spiritual choices - in the I
Muslim and Christian faiths.
In the shadow of R.J.
Reynolds, you make an open
space for outspoken radical
voices, and still you give honor
to black women and men who
make it in the business and
political worlds. You exercise
courageous conscience
without being either narrow or
exclusive. f
You give life on every page
to the real makings of a living
democracy. In a Lazarus age,
you keep breaking away stones
and saying to young and old
alike, "Rise! Awaken! Don't
lose heart! You're worthy!
Come to life! Believe in
yourself and in each other!"
i i: i tiM?-? ?- -
i nvcu in w insionoaiem
from late 1948 until 1956 (1
made my pen name legal in
1973 on moving to Arizona;
when 1 lived in Winston, I was
Bill McGirt). 1 was taught
firsthand how to fight racism
in my then-young, white,
male, Southern mind by black
i i ?i ? " -
icaucrs ana memoers oi Local
22. God, how patient and loving
those people were with this
stubborn, know-it-all white
boy. I
I read your paper not with
just nostalgia for those days,
but with respect and hope and
joy. You make a healing
leaven in the bread of
Winston-Salem. I'm grateful
to be reading your paper 'way
out here in Arizona.
_ rgTOMttm:-:
Arizona
An excellent job
To The Editor:
I am writing to commend
Audrey L. Williams on her
well-written articles on
Winston-Salem State University's
Project Upward Bound,
which appeared in a recent edition
of_ the Winston-Salem
Chronicle.
She Hid an evrellent ir*h wifh
Please see page A5
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