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EDITORIALS/ (0^ Ctaristte ^iMt
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Charlotte $os(t
The Voice of the Black Community
A Consolidated Media Group publication
1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson
CEO/PUBLISHER
Robert L. Johnson
PUBLISHER/GENERAL
MANAGER
Herbert L. White
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Ice Cube
“Babershop 2: Back In Business” highlights the trials of
black-owned businesses located in the inner city.
The tearful
business
lessons of
‘Barbershop’
By Denise Rolark Barnes
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION ■
If you heard someone sniffling in the theatre during
“Barbershop 2: Back in Business” last weekend, it was me. I
did the same thing when I saw “Barbershop” I when it opened
in the faU of 2002. Both films were produced by and starred
rapper Ice Cube, who plays the role of Calvin Palmer, the third
generation owner of a barbershop that has become a corner
stone of a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. His co-stars
include Cedric the Entertainer, Eve and newly featured Kenan
Thompson and Queen Latifah.
I won’t delve into the entire story line here, but suffice it to
say, this is a “must see” film. It is entertaining, but more impor
tantly, it strives to tell a story of community pride that is actu
ally more real than those who have abandoned the inner city
or those who are so deeply entrenched in it might believe. And
in between the slapstick comedy and continuous jonin’ on
politicians, entertainers and athletes, there is a serious story of
the struggle and survival of small Black-owned business own
ers.
In “Barbershop,” Calvin came close to seUing
his family owned-business simply because of
his inability to turn it into a thriving enter
prise. The local banks had refused to give him
a loan to make much needed improvements,
and he was concerned over the prospects that
he would not be able to adequately support his
growing family. On top of this, there were his
personal desires to explore other opportunities
that just might, in the long term, mean more
for him and his family.
In “Barbershop 2”, Calvin, once again, is offered a chance to
sell his family business to big business interests that have set
their sights on the South Side community that lost its gloiy
during the riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. With the expansion of economic development
into the “ghetto,” the neighborhood has the chance to see a
major revitahzation with new businesses, including Starbucks,
Blockbuster and a full-service barber salon located directly
across the street from Calvin’s barbershop.
While audiences across the country laughed at the jokes or
criticized the film for some of its offensive rhetoric, I saw it as
a real story of the plight of black-owned business and my per
sonal experience of becoming a second-generation publisher of
a black-owned newspaper in Washington, D.C. In business for
more than 40 years, the Informer has never received a bank
loan, or any loan for that matter. We operate in the Tiood, and
we love it because of the flavor personalities in barbershop
grace our tiny office in Southeast. We have faced and welcomed
competition by other newspapers that believe they can serve
our community better, and the economic and political climate
has not been favorable to us, but we have survived.
These films represent the first that I have ever seen that
address the story of the dedication, commitment, sacrifice, and
never-ending challenges families face that struggle to survive
in the world of businesses. James Herbert, professor of
Entrepreneurship and Management at Kennesaw State
University in Atlanta, notes that African-Americans represent
12 percent of the population. In 1987, we represented only 3.1
percent of the nation’s businesses; and by 1992, the numbers
increased to 3.6 percent. In addition, less than one-third of all
businesses, black or white, survive a generational transition,
and only 10 percent of those make it to the third generation.
How this has transpired within the African-American commu
nity will be the subject of Dr. Herbert’s future work.
With these statistics, the story of Barbershop I and II is not
only a story of survival, but it shows how Calvin continues to
beat the odds. I become teary each time sit through the film
because it is a reminder to me of what my father, Calvin W.
Rolark, envisioned for his newspaper that he left to his family
10 years ago. The message to me is very clear: vrith your con
tinued support, I, too, can beat the odds and The Washington
Informer will be with us for generations to come.
See you at Barbershop HI, and please, bring me a tissue!
DENISE ROIARK-BARNES is publisher of the Washington (D.C.)
Informer and second vice chairman of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association.
Formula for deciding news coverage
Post 101
Herbert L.
White
So, you have questions
about how The Post goes
about its business of provid
ing news and information.
Here’s a sampling of
inquiries we’ve fielded and
our reasoning behind what
ultimately shows up in print.
• You want Post readers to
know about an event your
group is sponsoring. What
are the chances we’ll cover it
as well?
Community events, rang
ing from concerts and art
exhibitions to banquets, are
highlighted in the
Happenings section weekly.
We usually publish informa
tion as much as a month
ahead of the event’s date
depending on the volume of
announcements and keep
them there for the duration.
As for more extensive cover
age, we follow a basic rule of
what’s most compelling and
informative to the reader.
• So how do we decide on
what gets in?
Advance notice of an event
gives us an opportunity to
weigh the possibftities of get
ting your story into The Post.
The same goes for ideas
related to profiles of people
or trends that affect our com
munities. No publication
way — daily newspaper or
national magazine or black
weekly newspaper - can
report on every story that
comes its way. So be patient,
and be prepared to explain
what makes your story idea
a winner.
• There’s a perception that
black folks are liberals, and
by extension, so are publica
tions aimed at African
Americans. But those points
of view aren’t the only ones
welcome at The Post.
We include a variety of edi
torial voices from people
from different social and
political opinions.
Conservatives from the John
Locke Foundation in
Raleigh, for instance, have
appeared regularly in The
Post, and we’ve recruited
locals such as former City
Council member Don Reid to
offer their take on political
and social issues. We’re also
looking for more local
women and young people to
offer their voices to the mix.
We wouldn’t be very good
stewards of the public trust
if we didn’t endeavor to pro
vide debate and dialogue
that benefit our readers. We
know people won’t always
agree with what they read,
but there should always be
room for the free exchange of
ideas and viewpoints.
• Perhaps you’ve read arti
cles that paint an unflatter
ing picture of an individual
or institution. Some readers
have taken us to task, argu
ing that black people - and
media - are supposed to stick
together in a public forum
and offer only positive news.
We always enjoy reporting
uplifting stories, but the
world is more complex than
that. Newspapers, perhaps
more than other forms of
media, should hold them
selves to a higher standard
of leadership in the commu
nity. Because written words
have the power to transform
ideas, journalists have a
duty to provide balance, to
teU both — or more — sides of
an issue, even if it makes for
some discomfort. Look at it
this way: accuracy and bal
ance don’t need a crutch.
They’ll stand just fine on
their own.
HERBERT L WHITE is editor
of The Post.
Freedom Summer revisited: Pain and
awakening in the South and America
George E.
Curry
During the height of the
Civil Rights Movement in
the 1960s, protest leaders
Uked to teU the joke about a
Chicago seminary student
who was suddenly awak
ened at 3 A.M. by a voice
imploriing him: Go to
Mississippi! Go to
Mississippi!! Go to
Mississippi!!! The student
said, “Lord, you said that you
will be with me always, even
until the end of the earth. If
I go to Mississippi, will you
go with me?” The heavenly
voice replied, “I’ll go as far as
Memphis.”
The idea, of course, was
that if God was afi-aid to go
to Mississippi, mortals had
no chance of surviving.
Without a doubt, virulent
Mississippi racists were the
most brutal in the nation.
Bob Moses and his comrades
at the Student Non-violent
Coordinating Committee
decided to laimch a cam
paign against fear in vio
lence by organizing Freedom
Summer in 1964, a project
designed to create a show
down between IVIississippi
authorities intent on main
taining segregation and a
federal government obligat
ed — at least on paper — to
protect the rights of African-
Americans, who were denied
their right to vote and live as
full citizens.
Moses favored what he
called an “annealing
process.” He explained,
“Only when metal has been
brought to white heat, can it
be shaped and molded. This
is what we intend to do in
the South and the country,
bring them to white heat
and then remold them.”
Key to remolding the
South was arranging for
white college students from
around the nation to descend
on Mississippi.
Claybome Carson, in his
book, “In Struggle: SNCC
and the Black Awakening of
the 1960s,” said that Moses
and Allard Lowenstein, a
white activist who had par
ticipated in Southern
protests, came up with the
idea of Freedom Summer.
“They assumed that
Mississippi officials could
not crush such a massive
force of civil rights workers
and that national sentiment
would not tolerate assaults
against white students,
especially those from leading
colleges and prominent fam
ilies,” Carson wrote.
It became clear very early
that there wouldn’t just be .
assaults on visiting activists
- somb would be killed.
On June 21, 1964, SNCC
workers learned that three
civil rights workers - James
Chaney, a black
Mississippian, and two
whites, Michael Schwemer
and Andrew Goodman — did
not return from a trip to
Meridian, Miss, to investi
gate the burning of a Black
church. The three had been
arrested in Philadelphia,
Miss, and released at night
without being permitted to
place a telephone call.
Responding to the mount
ing public outcry. President
Lyndon Johnson authorized
200 Navy servicemen to help
in the search for the missing
workers and assigned 150
FBI agents to the case.
On August 4, the bodies of
the three civil rights workers
were foimd in an earthen
dam near Philadelphia,
Miss. Seven white men were
eventually convicted and
sent to prison.
Freedom Summer played
an important part in the pas
sage of the 1964 Civil Rights
Act, the 1965 Voting Rights
Act and other groundbreak
ing federal legislation.
Because of that early work,
Mississippi now has more
Black elected officials than
any other state.
Last weekend, many of the
veterans of Freedom
Summer were brought
together for a conference at
the University of Tfennessee
organized by Professor
Cynthia Griggs Fleming.
They included Chuck
McDew, who succeeded
Marion Barry chairman
of SNCC; Rev. James Bevel,
a key SNCC and SCLC orga
nizer; Bob Zellner, the son of
a white Alabama Methodist
minister who became a
SNCC field secretary and
Freedom Rider; 'Timothy
Jenkins who joined the
movement as the National
Student Association’s repre
sentative to SNCC; Avon
Rollins, a former SNCC field
secretary; Lawrence Guyot,
a SNCC field secretary and
later head of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party;
Unita Blackwell, the first
Black female mayor of a
Mississippi town
(MayersviUe), Charles
Jones, a SNCC veteran and
leader of the Charlotte, N.C.
sit-in movement as well as
many others.
I was asked to serve as a
dinner speaker at the event
and was struck by the
courage and commitment of
those assembled in
Knoxville. Many of the
Whites in the room were
Southerners who had joined
the Civil Rights Movement
because it was the right
thing to do. One of them,
Constance Curry, who
served with EUa Baker as
adult advisers to the young
activists in SNCC, observed
that whites are not as active
in the Civil Rights
Movement today as they
were in the 1960s.
“They think the movement
is over,” she explained.
“They think it ended with
the 1964 Civil Rights Act
and the Voting Rights Act.
Young blacks think it’s over,
too. It was hard to ignore
when people weren’t served
at lunch counters — that hit
you in the face - but they
don’t see the less subtle
things like the prison
pipeline. We must educate
them.”
Any education about the
Civil Rights Movement must
include Freedom Summer.
Without Freedom Summer,
we might not have some of
the freedoms we’re now
enjoying.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chief of the NNPA News
Service and
BlackPressUSA.com. His most
recent book is “The Best of
Emerge Magazine," an antholo
gy published by Ballantine
Books. He can be reached
through his Web site, georgecur-
rv.com.