Forum
_! " ?
Black Man Making ^1 Million
Gets Top Post On Clinton Staff
Black people who think it is virtually
impossible to rise to the' top in Mainstream
America should look immediately at the career
years old and can top off an illustrious career
with four or eight years of top-flight public
service on the international stage of world
of Clifton Regi
nald Wharton,
Deputy Secre
tary of State in
the Clinton
administration.
Wharton i?
second in com
mand in the
MINORITY REPORT
By JAMES E. ALSBROOK, Ph.D.
most prestigious department of the president's
cabinet. He acts as Secretary of State when
Warren Christopher is not available. He today
is a hands-on decision maker as the ship of
state glides among the world's power leaders
with general guidelines he helps to fashion as
they evolve and flow from the White House.
The Deputy Secretary's main assets are
his excellent education, his vast experience,
his diplomacy, his leadership qualities and his
sheer brain power. His honorary degrees from
Harvard and elsewhere cited these qualities
and more. "
Wharton is the first black executive of a
Fortune 500 Company. He is an economist, an
educator and an administrator. Born in 1926 at
Boston, Mass., he graduated in 1947 from
Harvard with honors in history. He took his
master's degree in International Studies at the'
School for Advanced International Studies at
Johns Hopkins and then earned another mas
ter's degree and a doctorate in economics at
the University of Chicago.
Highlights of his career are that he
became first black president of a major univer
sity in America ? Michigan State. He was so
successful there that he was asked to become
chancellor of New York State's vast universi
ties system. Successful there, he advanced
higher, becoming chief executive officer of the
Teachers' Insurance and Annuity Association
College Retirement Equities Fund in New
York City. This fund is listed in the Fortune
500 and is the third largest life insurance com
pany in the United States, with assets of $112
billion.
Wharton's salary last year exceeded $1
million, but his salary fell to about one-eighth
that figure in January when he joined the State
Department. But despite the deep pay cut,
Wharton will be moving up in prestige and
power in a world of national and international
political influence and prestige. Wharton is 66
affairs.
He has received dozens of honorary
degrees in addition to the one from his alma
mater, Harvard. He has been capped and
gowned at Amhurst, Tufts, N6tre Dame,
Howard, Michigan State, NYU, Tuskegee,
Lincoln and many others. He is the board of
directors at the New York*Stock Exchange,
Ford Motors, Phillips Petroleum, Kellogg Co.,
and other large corporations.
Whereas blacks in the sixties boasted of
Dr. Robert Weaver, another Harvard Ph.D.
scholar, and Judge Thurgood Marshall as lead
ing achievers in the national political spotlight,
today we can be proud of new crop of grdund
breakers including Dr. Wharton, Ron Brown,
Gen. Colin Powell and the fresh burst of suc
cessful black candidates now occupying vari
ous political offices.
If black parents could learn and teach
their children about black leaders such as
Wharton and other high-level public servants,
^effective steps will have been taken in the
direction of higher achievement for oncoming
generations. As far as the Black masses are
concerned, Wharton is probably the most
accomplished but most unknowned black man
in America today.
One thing the successes of Wharton, Pow
ell and Brown have taught is that many of the
real "powers that be" in America are more
interested in getting their problems solved than
in discriminating on the basis of race. Ronald
Reagan, who flirted with the Klan and other
bigots in Mississippi and elsewhere, chose
Colin Powell to be chairman of the joint chiefs
of staff because of Powell's demonstrated abil
ity and mastery of the theories, tactics, and
strategies of defensive and offensive warfare.
Dr. Wharton was pulled upward because
his abilities were recognized and neecJecT
You can't keep a good man down forever. *
A Necessary Key To Liberation
Miseducation and racial discrimination
are tools of oppression. For more than two
centuries, people of color in the United States
have always known the long lasting value of
tion on this master will have to be monitored
very closely. The U.S. Department of Justice
under the guidance of the previous administra
tion did not do an effective job of ensuring
acquiring an edu
cation as a neces
sary key in the
ongoing struggle
for liberation
from the twin
evils of racism
and economic
exploitation.
African
American leader
ship must enter
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR.
the current national debate concerning the
future of public education. In particular, the
rising cost of a college education makes it
increasingly difficult for students from
African-American or other communities to
have an access to higher education. In fact, the
notion of "equal opportunity" in education is a
cruel myth for millions of students from com
munities that have been systematically eco
nomically disempowered.
At every level of the educational process
in this society, from pre-school jto elementary,
from secondary to college, graduate and post
graduate, more and more doors have been
closing in the face of students who should be
given a chance of having a productive life
through involvement in the educational
process, but who are denied access to educa
tion bepause gif race and socioeconomic class.
During the 1992 presidential campaign.
President Clinton made a commitment to help
young people in the nation pay for their col
lege education by working off the costs in a
proposed national community service pro
gram.
? Now that Clinton is in the White House,
there are millions of persons who are waiting
for the campaign promises to be fulfilled, there
are indeed very high expectations and on the
issue of the government helping tfc> revive and
redirect our nation's approach to educational
opportunity, there is a critical need to act with
some dispatch.
Disturbingly, recent rulings by courts at
the state and federal levels have not been in
favor of the preservation of historically black
colleges. The Clinton Administration's posi
equal protection of civil rights laws, especially
in the area of education.
We understand the National Service Plan
for Education is still on the drawing boards.
According to a statement in USA Today, Clin
ton advisors are contemplating replicating
model projects like "City Year" in Boston.
This prograrri allows students to work on com
munijty projects receiving a weekly salary of
SI 00 and after a designated period of time, the
students in the program will be* eligible to
receive a $5000 voucher toward college. A1
From, President Clinton's domestic policy
advisor stated, "There is a larger concept here
of restoring the civic ethic to the country and
giving something back."
A1 From is well known for some of his
conservative views and the jury is still out on
whether his approach will actually solve the
problem of decades of racial and economic
discrimination.
One thing is certain and crystal clear: The
CiviTRights Movement must demand equal
opportunity and equal access to both education
and economic empowerment in the context of
moving the struggle for freedom and justice
forward. In other words, whatever policies and
programs are presented, the African American
and other people of color cannot afford to wait
another 12 years or 12 months. We want
action and we want it now.
Education is not a temporary process. It is
rather an ongoing necessity for all persons of
all age categories, and the denial of access to
educatfcih to anyone because of race will ulti
mately "be injurious to the whole society.
IF YOU'RE SOMEONE I HAVENT)
H 5m? FROM IN YEARS, ANP
YOU'RE CALHN6 BECAUSE OF MY
New JOB, THANKS ANP 6000BYE.
[ IF, ON THE OTHER HANP, )ty%Ey
AN F.O.J., PLEASE LEAVE A
MESSAGE ANPl'LL CALL VOU
I RIGHT BACK 1 0YB/ 5 BEEP'S ,
F.O.J.?
FRJENP
OF JOAN /E.
THEY KNOCU
WHO THEY
ARE
SO WHATOiA
WORKING ON
THESE PAYS7
I'M REVISITING
THE KJM BER
LIN CASE . ?
REMEMBER
THE GUY WHO
SAlP HE SOU?
POT TO QUAYIE *
KIMBERLINS BECOME THE
FORGOTTEN MAN, JOANf?
HE'S LONG SINCE PONE H&s.
TIME , BUT THE *
BUSHIES PUT 7h&\ \
F/X/NONH/S
BOTH AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL?
ANP HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
are consjperjn&pesignat
ING HIM A POLITICAL PRISON
ER. YOU GOTTA
TAKE KJMBERLJN
UP WITH BAlRP1
I PONT KNOW, RICK .
I'M NEW AT JUSTICE,
ANP I ALREAPY HAVE
MY OWN CAUSES TO
ADVANCE .
LIKE
WHAT *
WEIL, L!KE,TMTRY1NG
TO GET M/KB M/LKEN
back into jail .
/ .
MAYBE- THE >
OOUUfSMTCH
) PLACES
SO WHAT PO YOU
SAY, BABE? CAN
YOUBRJNGUP
KJMBERLJN
WITH THE \
BOSS ?
I'LL THINK ABOUT IT,
RICK. I HAVE TO START
SLOWLY. I PONT REALLY
KNOW THE ROPES AT
JUSTICE...
also, toe's a UTTLE thfjze
PREOCCVPIEP. THERE'S
BEEN QUTTE A LOT ,
OF FALLOUT FROM
THE NANNY UP
ROAR
1 WANT
SOCIAL
SECURITY.
\
RIGHT WANT
ME TV START
TURNING
POOUN YOUR
BEP, TOO 7
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