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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1997
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LIFESTYLES
Black
men lag
behind
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By Leon Staffofd
THE LEXINGTON HERALD
LEADER
mg.
A true likeness
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Had
Martin Luther King Jr. lived, he
probably would be saddened by
the grim statistics about the
quaUty of life for black males in
America today.
Overall, the numbers show
that the dream King worked so
hard for has never been realized.
For many, it is a nightmare.
In Kentucky, the general trend
holds true: Black men are more
likely to be in prison, less likely
to graduate from high school or
college, and less likely to enjoy
good health.
This is a far cry from the world
that seemed possible for black
men during King’s fight for
equality.
After decades of legal discrimi
nation kept blacks out of the
mainstream, the doors to the
American dream began to open
in the 1950s and 60s.
In the years that followed,
Andrew Young became ambas
sador to the United Nations,
Alex Haley’s “Roots” was a
national best-seller. Bill Cosby
created the No. 1 television
show, and Michael Jordan.
Today, we have Colin Powell,
who was sought as the
Republican presidential nomi
nee, and Douglas Wilder, the
grandson of slaves, who was gov
ernor of Virginia, the heart of
the old Confederacy.
So why, in 1997, among aU citi
zens, do black men have the
highest rate of unemployment,
in the United States (10.6 per
cent)?
Why are black males ages 15
to 34 dying of firearm-related
injuries more than any other
group? Why do black men make
up one-third of the inmates in
U.S. prisons when the total
black male population is a little
more than 5 percent in the
United States?
Nashid Fahkrid-Deen wishes
there was a simple answer.
“The numbers function as an
alarm clock,” said Fabkiid-Deen,
director of minority affairs for
the University of Kentucky com-
mimity colleges.
There was a time in the black
community when expectations
were great for men who were
gifted, Fahkrid-Deen said.
“If you went to college, when
you went home to chiuuh, they
wanted to know ... ‘How you
doing in school? How are your
grades?’ ” Fahkrid-Deen said.
“You knew you had to face the
whole community because a lot
was expected of you.”
But times have changed. More
than half of black children grow
up in single-parent homes head
ed by women.
George Rowan, director of the
David Walker Research
Institute at Michigan State
University, said the statistics
reflect black men’s reactions to
an unequal and unfair environ
ment. Institutionalized racism
has made black men the epito
me of aU that is wrong, he said.
“You see an individual who is
suppressed and who is suppress
ing himself,” he said.
High unemployment con
tributes to a higher rate of black
men being absent from the
home.
The solutions are as varied as
the men and boys who will bene
fit from them. They include
schools specifically designed to
educate black boys, self-esteem
programs, rites of passage cere
monies and traditional mentor-
Whatever the answer is, black
men will be responsible for mak
ing it work.
Fahkrid-Deen would like to see
the black community get back
what it had before integration,
when children were the respon
sibility of everyone in the com
munity.
Roberts captured the joy and the sorrows of black Columbia. During his 16 year career, he created the first black church
directory, as weil as promotional pamphlets for local black colleges. Below, daughter Wilheimina Roberts Wynn, 1919.
By Jeri Young
THE CHARLOTTE POST
For 15 years, Richard S.
Roberts ran his photography
studio from a small shop on
Washington Street in
Columbia, S.C.
His props were hand-made:
there could be photographed in
a field of flowers or before a
stained glass window.
From its opening in 1922,
until Roberts’ death in 1936,
his studio was the center of
black Columbia.
“You see the pictures of
African Americans in there,”
Roberts’ daughter Wilheimina
in “True Likeness,” (Bruccoli
Clark Layman, Writers and
Readers Publishing, 1986) a
collection of some of his best
and most haunting works.
An exhibit of Robert’s craft
hits Charlotte Friday at the
Museum of the New South.
The negatives, more than
8,000, were found in the ‘70s in
basement of Roberts’ home. In
excellent cbiylition, the glass
negatives were developed by
University of South Carolina
professors Thomas Johnson
and Philip Dunn. Thomas and
Dunn enlisted the aid of sever
al South Carolinians to identi
fy as many photographs as
possible.
The images, dignified and
unsmiling, capture the essence
of the community and of her
father, Wynn said.
The hook and exhibit show
case the life’s work of a simple
man who never knew his sig
nificance.
“He was important,” Wynn
said. “But no one, not even us,
knew how special he was.”
Columbia in the ‘20s
A fur stole that transformed a
simple dress into a ball gown.
A large artificial lighting cabi
net. He designed a posing
chair - a throne really - with
ornate removable arms and
back. His backdrop was a large
gothic montage, romantic, yet
serviceable. Black Columbians
who had their pictures made
Wynn said. “The black lawyers
and doctors. We knew they
were important and they were
the best. But they didn’t get
respect in the white commxmi-
ty. My father showed them
their worth.”
More than 10,000 of Roberts’
pictures survive, 175 captured
Columbia in the ‘20s was a
southern Mecca for African
Americans.
A booming town, with USC
at its center, it was a city of
contradictions.
Its population had swollen to
more than 37,000, but
Colmnbia ranked near of the
bottom of almost every catego
ry of social and economic well
ness.
But Columbia was one of the
few southern cities where
blacks were allowed any mea
sure of autonomy.
Benedict College and Allen
University thrived there, edu
cating generations of black
teachers and doctors. Blacks
also built sizable homes and
businesses. The Manigaults,
among those captured by
Roberts, built a successful
funeral home. African
Americans were almost 40 per
cent of the population in 1920.
But Jim Crow was entrenched
in Columbia’s psyche.
Now 81 and a retired educa
tor, Wynn looks back on
Columbia with pride and trepi
dation.
Blacks corrld not attend USC,
nor walk in certain areas.
And there were lynchings.
Less than five years since the
“Red Summer” of 1919, when
whites rioted to keep black sol
diers returning from World
War I in check, lynchings were
at an all-time high. Five were
recorded in Colmnbia in 1920.
Many more probably hap
pened, Wynn said.
“Everything in the South
was segregated back then,” she
said. “It was horrible. But we
still had orrr community.
“We lived 18 blocks fiom our
school. To get there we had to
pass USC. We were so fright
ened, we didn’t even walk on
that side of the street. I didn’t
touch anything on that cam
pus until 1986, when I was
invited there to eat lunch in
the faculty dining room.”
Wynn and her five siblings -
Gerald, 87, Beverly, 85,
Cornelius, 83 and Willy, 81
and Miriam who died in 1985
— experienced Jim Crow first
hand.
Wynn, who is light-skinned,
was asked to give up her seat
on a crowded bus.
“A neighbor got on and
tipped his hat to me,” she said.
“The white man sitting next to
me told the driver, who told me
to get up. I got up - we didn’t
know anything about Rosa
Parks back then.”
Perfect pictures.
Outside Roberts Studio was
See ROBERTS on page 10A
Profile of a
gossip:
do you fit?
By Christina Ferchalk
THE ALTOONA MIRROR
ALTOONA, Pa. - I was loading
gnK»ries into my car when I saw
a man approach. I knew him
only slightly, for which I am
extremely grateful. He is, with
out a doubt, one of the biggest
gossip-mongers I have ever
known.
He never has a good word to
say about anyone, casting stones
at his fellow man with the inten
sity of an automatic pitching
machine in a batting cage. I did
not care for this man.
He immediately started in.
“Did you hear about so and so?
blah, blah, blah ... and so now
she doesn’t even know who the
father is.”
I let him go on for a while
before interrupting. Then I told
him he looked well and seemed
to be recovering nicely from that
nasty httle social disease he had
contracted. He wanted to know
who had told me such a terrible
thing about him. I gave him the
impression that everyone and
his brother was discussing his
unfortunate health problem.
TTie man was furious, insisting
there was absolutely no truth to
the rumor.
I said, “Oh, I believe you.”
Wink, wink.
Actually I did believe him. I
knew he was being truthful
because I had made up the
rumor about him right there on
the spot. 1 lied to the man, delib
erately and with malice. I will
probably bum for that particular
sin, but I’ll take my punishment.
Over the years this man’s
vicious tongue has caused need
less pain for so many people, so I
took it upon myself to let him
know how it feels to be the vic
tim of malicious gossip.
Tve been on a rant and a roll
lately. Tve had aU I can stand of
the stone-casters and gossip-
mongers. These lowlifes circu
late among us, spreading their
filth like disease-ridden rats.
Gossipers are usually depicted
as being women, middle-aged or
older, swapping lies over the
backyard fence.
This isn’t necessarily the case.
Those who take pleasure in
maligning their neighbors are
not restricted by age or gender.
From what I’ve been able to
ascertain, and I’ve done my
research, the most notorious gos
sips are found among the
barflies.
It is from the mouths of those
who warm the vinyl seats of a
watering hole on a daily and/or
nightly basis that hes are propa
gated and reputations
destroyed. These people deem it
their right and privilege to say
anything they chose about any
one they please. If they don't
have any good dirt on an individ
ual, they 11 make something up.
No one is beyond the reach of
their spitefulness, not even the
yoimgest of our children.
And they get away with it I
For years I took pride in the
fact that I paid no mind to these
people. I avoided them whenever
possible and didn’t repeat their
ugly stories.
I realize this is not enough.
Married most likely to refuse drink, drugs
By John Hughes
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT - A study released
today confirms the old adage
that people settle down after
marriage.
People reporting marijuana
use and heavy drinking dropped
by one-third during a two-year
period when they went from sin
gle to married, according to a
University of Michigan study of
33,000 young adults from 1976
to 1994.
“If you feel a responsibility to
and for another person, then
you are more apt to control your
own behavior and play a role in
controlling the partner's behav
ior,” said Jerald Bachman, one
of the study's five authors at
the Ann Arbor-based universi
ty’s Institute for Social
Research.
Couples who lived together
but were not engaged or mar
ried showed no such drop in
drug use. Bachman said such
couples apparently had less
commitment to one another,
which meant fewer changes in
their drug habits.
Those who stayed single con
tinued to be a high proportion of
drug and alcohol users, the
study showed. Drug use also
increased for people when they
divorce, only to decline once
again if they remarry.
The data is based on a ques
tionnaire given to graduating
high school seniors across the
country. The participants were
questioned every two years,
tracing their use of alcohol,
tobacco and drugs up to 14
years beyond graduation.
Bachman said he was hardly
surprised by many of the
results, such as young, unmar
ried adults usually increasing
their alcohol, marijuana and
cocaine use when they left
home, often to attend college.
The results are published in
book released today titled
“Smoking, Drinking, and Drug
Use in Young Adulthood.”
Bachman added that the
“marriage effect” so helpful for
reducing drug and alcohol use
brought only a sUght reduction
in cigarette smoking habits.
Typical young adult smokers
were regular users before they
left high school. Of those who
smoked a half-pack or more
when they were high school
seniors, three-quarters contin
ued smoking at age 22 and two-
thirds at 30.