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7A NEWS / The Charlotte Post Thursday, December 4,1997 Young lived for good fight By A. J. Dickerson THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT - He was tough. He was honest. He broke color bar riers. He once took on Congress. Friends and colleagues of for mer Mayor Coleman Young mourned his death Saturday, remembering him as one of a kind. “There won’t be another Coleman Young,” said U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit. Young, a civil rights and labor leader and World War II soldier, was among the nation’s first big-city black mayors when he won the first of his five terms in 1973. “Coleman Young was a legend in his own time - a leader, a fighter, a pioneer in the battle for equal rights and against racial discrimination. His hmnor, gusto and passion for life will never be duphcated,” said Gov. John Engler. President Jimmy Carter, who returned Young’s support in the 1976 presidential election with hvmdreds of millions of dollars in federal aid for the city, called Young “one of the greatest may ors our country has known.” “With compassion and vision, he provided the leadership that lifted Detroit fi-om a chmate of unprecedented violence to one of hope and greater prosperity,” Carter said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family dur ing this difficult time.” President Clinton called Yqung “not only a great mayor of Detroit but an inspiration to samany city leaders throughout the nation.” “IMayor Young was truly an outstanding public servant who will be missed,” Clinton said. Conyers was a teen-ager when he met Young, who was active in politics in Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood, as was Conyers’ father. While Young was well known for his salty language, he could also be the consummate charmer, the con gressman said. “He has a magnetic presence, a splendid orator. He was a happy-go-lucky guy, but he had a mind like a steel trap. If you’re laughing with Coleman for too long, you’re going to lose your pants,” Conyers said. Young was “charming, enter taining, humorous, thought ful,” said former U.S. Sen. Donald Riegle Jr. “I think Coleman, in my mind, is the Jackie Robinson of American electoral politics,” Riegle said. “He really broke the color line, by being elected mayor and going on to a num ber of further re-elections. “He was a brilliant thinker. He had his own way of express ing himself. He could be blunt, especially if he thought some one was pushing him,” he said. “But under all that, was an exceptional intellect.” Mayor Dennis Archer, who succeeded Young, said the city has lost “a great warrior.” “Mayor Young was not one ever to bite his tongue,” he said. “His compassion, his intellect, his courage, his wit and even his occasionally sharp tongue were the essential ingredients of a man who tried to lead us to a world as it should be, rather than accept ing a world of the past.” The battles Young fought included one before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee. His labor organiz ing earned him a subpoena. Asked if he was a member of the Communist Party, Young refused to answer. He told the panel he considered its activi ties to be un-American, he said in his autobiography, “Hard Stuff.” San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said Young was a pio neer and role model for blacks. “He had to be the hero of black Americans while at the same time he had to carry the mantle of organized labor,” Brown said. “While at the same time, he literally had to be a staunch middle of the road Democrat in order to be suc cessful at all.” Cardinal Adam Maida, arch bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit, said history will judge Young as the “linch pin in the renaissance of Detroit.” “As we approach the millenni um, Mayor Young’s personality and accomplishments will loom large,” he said. “I think most of us who lived in Detroit — whether we agreed with him or not - really feel that this man was the only per son for us at the time he came in,” said Gil Hill, the newly elected Detroit city council president. Even as death clearly neared. Young fought to stay alive, said his cousin. Dr. Claud Young. As the hospitalization dragged into weeks, then months. Young let his family know he was “miffed” at not being allowed to go home, in language that was not always pristine. Young said. “The adjectives were interest ing,” he said. Detroiters mourned him as a good man and a good mayor. “He did a lot for Detroit,” said Malika Taylor. “He was strong.” Historian’s home falling apart THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HUNTING'rON, WVa. - The I Washington, D.C., home of j renowned black bistorian Carter [Woodson is covered vrith boards [and graffiti, despite promises to {renovate it. 'The former Himtington resi- • dent started the tradition of tBlack History Month in 1926 and iis credited with legitimizing the {Study of black history. : His three-story townhouse, des ignated a National Historic ^Landmark in 1976, is ovmed by {the Washington-based ^Association for the Study of Afro- lAmerican Life and History, {which Woodson founded. { 'The National Park Service list- ;|ed Woodson’s home as “threat- Jened” in 1991 because it had Jbeen vandalized. But it was then 4aken off the list because the jPark Service was told the build- ong had been renovated. Irena Webster, executive direc tor of the association, said plans are underway to restore the home but that they are pending approval by the association’s board. Newatha Perry, president of the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Foundation Inc. in Huntington, was distraught about the house’s dilapidated condition. “I just get sick in the pit of my stomach to hear this,” Peny said. “There’s so much money and so many historians in the Washington area and nobody has noticed this?” The foundation’s vice president, Alan Gould, said, “We will do everything in our power to help. I think one big (fimd-raising) din ner in D.C. would do it.” The foundation has estabhshed scholarships in Woodson’s name at Marshall University. Russell Adams, chairman of the Afro-American studies depart ment at Howard University, called the home’s condition “an embarrassment to scholarship.” Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has asked the Interior Department to consider restorations for the home, spokeswoman Ann Adler said. Rep. Nick RahaU, D-W.Va., also is looking into ways to support renovations. The Park Service is investigat ing the home’s condition to see if it should be rehsted as threat ened or endangered, said coordi nator Susan Escherich. Woodson was the second black American to earn a doctorate degree from Harvard University, in 1912. Schools across the nation bear Woodson’s name. jAfrican culture drives rebirth ;By Olu Sarr i^AN-AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY J DAKAR, Senegal - Think of ■culture and immediately images of dance and song {spring to mind, but intellectu als studying this aspect of life feay it is much more. I; Culture, they say, is the Untried force for the economic development of Africa. « “The increasing value of cul tural products such as literacy ^orks, art, music, dance and drama, traditional festivals, rituals and ceremonies — as Economically saleable com modities and as a foreign Exchange earners - has become quite evident,” says George Hagan, director of the Institute 4f African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. j Hagan said the rising tide of qultural tourism, accessibility to world markets of cultural (festivals and visual arts by the Electronic media has “added ^lue to traditional cultural goods.” J Belief that culture is the Basis for development stems mom the conviction that devel opment must center on mass participation. 1 Otherwise, Hagan says, the target population will just ^and and watch outside sfeents try to implement their plan. That is why so many development projects have failed in Africa. The executive secretary of Nigeria’s National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Victoria Agodo, says African values must be taken into considera tion for people to feel part of any developmental process. “Be it in health, architecture, housing, education it is very important that African culture is integrated so that there will be committed participation,” she said. “The Chinese and Japanese have shown that a culture is our civilization and that no cul ture, no civilization is inferior to any and that development should be built based on cul ture,” she added. So, efforts are being made in’ Nigeria to reorient the coun try’s cultural distortion. After visiting China in 1994 and see ing culture on display there, her department introduced a national workshop series on culture to Nigerians. “We have achieved remark able progress in sensitizing people on the need for cultural orientation,” Agoda said. The thrust, she stressed, was differ ent 20 years ago. At that time, the cultural drive from Africa was “black is beautiful. Culture HUMit mMIlif ttlV.JRD Harris Teeter Your Neighborhood Pood Market Sale starts Wednesd^, Dec 3rd Frozen at Sea Urr Antarctic Bay Scallops Florida ^ Tangerines or v TSi Florida FHnk ^rapefnait \/2 Gallon Breyers Ice Cream 14-1^ Oz. I^ffles F^otato Chips SPECIAL Regular, Cheddar Sour C is now being applied as a sci ence: Cultural strategies, cul tural approaches that's what makes the difference,” she said. Hagan said that since inde pendence in the 1960s not j many African governments have consciously manifested the conviction that a people’s culture could promote economic and political development. He said the first generation of leaders concentrated on creat- / ing images designed to return ' self confidence to the African. Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, in particular, emphasized the importance of the African genius, the African personality. “That was the best agenda at that stage of Africa’s modem development,” he said. “The moment economic depressions began setting in there was destabilisation, soldiers took up guns, overthrew more knowl edgeable people” and put them selves in power. “Many of these soldiers have very poor education and have absolutely no imderstanding of African culture,” he added. “In fact, they don’t care a hoot about African culture because they have been indoctrinated. They were fashioned to carry out orders. They were fash ioned to see things in a certain way, in a European way.” P^spsior MtDew WHh VIC Card 61/2 Inch F’loinsettias F^ces Effective Thiough December 9,1997 Prices In This Ad Effective V^fednesdayDec. 3, Through Dec 9.1997 In Our Charieston Area Stores Only. V\fe Reserve The Right TV; Limit Quantities. None Sold lo Dealers. Y/e Gladly Accef^ Federal Food Stance.
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Dec. 4, 1997, edition 1
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