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EDITORIAL AND OPINION/lEit CtailotU $at
Thursday, August 18, 2005
tClje Cljarlottc ^0£!t
The Voice of the Black Community
1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson ceo/publisher
Robert L Johnson co-publisher/general manager
Herbert L. White editor in chief
OUR VIEW
Republicans put
Democrats on
notice for votes
The Repiiblican Party, smelling blood in the water as it relates
to black voters’ disconnect with Democrats, are going for the
gusto.
The GOP, led by national party Chairman Ken Mehlman, is
touring the country to convince African Americans that the
Party of Lincoln is their party, too, if theyTl just give it a chance.
That approach isn’t likely to touch off a mass migration to the
Republican ledger, but that’s not the plan.
Figuring the Democrats are on the edge of collapsing at the
national level, Mehlman and party are banking that just a sliv
er of extra black support in key battleground states will put the
Republicans in the political driver’s seat. It worked in Ohio,
where president Bush got ftn Election Day 2004 bounce of 5 per
cent among African Americans, enough to deliver the state, and
re-election.
Mehlraan, who has spoken to black groups across the country
since Bush’s re-election, is touting the Republicans as the party
most likely to get government off Am^cans’ backs when it
comes to tax relief, business regulation and homeownership,
amor^ other issues. Democrats, of course, counter that the GOP
historically has tried to hold black aspirations down, whether
through campaigns to dismantle welfare or snuflBng voting
rights. Thc^e things may have been true, but there is now a crit
ical mass of middle- and upper-class blacks who are more inter
ested in their checking account than history And young people?
Don’t even go there, primarily because they're more likely to buy
into the Republican agenda, than their elders, according to the
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington,
D.C., think tank.
the GOP campaign work? It’s too early to t^. Perhaps as
an alternative, we should also look to the young, who are also
more likely to declare themselves independent of eith^ party
That, ultimately could be the hammer black voters need to
wield political clout on both sides of the ideological aisle.
Testing V5'. busing:
Neither a panacea
Work on immigration
as well as enforcement
U.S. Rep. Sue Myriclfs announcement Monday that di*unk
driving should be made a deportable offense is a curious pro
nouncement. We understand why Rep. Myrick is frustrated, but
whether the end justifies the means is debatable.
Scott Gardner of Moimt Holly was killed last month when his
car was struck by a truck driven by Ramiro Gallegos, an undoc
umented immigrant frum Mexico. Mr. Gallegos was driving
dnmk. Rep. Myrick said she plans to introduce l^islation that
would enter every defendant’s legal status, failure to appear for
trial and DWI into a national crime database. In addition, she
proposes to put ei^t immigration and deporta
tion officers in North Carolina, up frum the cur
rent one. There are an estimated 300,000 illegal
I immigrants in the state.
I Without the people necessary to effectively reg-
; ulate legal immigration to the U.S., millions of
illegals will continue to cross the borders. Wfith
only one immigration officer covering the entire
state, overwhelmed doesn’t do North Carolina’s
pli^t mudi justice. Then again, economic reali
ties suggest that as long as Ammcan businesses
and individuals can benefit fium cheap labor, they will continue
to do so, regardless of what the law says.
Also, it’s hard to predict how federal, state and local officers
will mesh in terms of carrying out federal law. As it is, the three
sides aren’t communicating, which led to Mr. Gallegos’ staying
in the U.S. despite five previousDWI arrests.
So, it b incumbent upon us to come up with sensible solutions
that rect^nize that reality If the law calb for illegab to be
processed and if necessary deported, so be it. But most of the
imdocumented foreigners aren’t here to mfliTn or kill — they’re
here for eomomic survival.
We don’t believe getting into America should be neariy impos
sible for individuab looking to access the dream most of us take
for granted. Should it be better managed and enforced?
Absolutely
Myrick
MATTERS OF OPINION
Putting John Johnson in perspective
George E.
Curry
Judge Howard Manning b right when he shot down the idea
of busing as a cure for Charlotte-Mecklenbuig’s struggling high
schoob.
Neither will testing students imtil we’re all blue in the face.
In the past, busing allowed CMS to essentially hide its failure
to educate low-income kids on suburban campuses under the
guise of diversity But CMS b abo failing now when it comes to
No Child Left Behind criteria that inner-dty schoob aren’t mea
suring up to. The only way to fix what’s wrong with inner-city
schoob b to make substantial investm«its in people. That
means putting more experienced teachers in classrooms, brin
ing facilities and materials up to date, and ensure discipline on
those campuses.
Everybody talks about education equity but very few are will
ing to discuss the sacrifices required to get it. For inner dty par
ents, that means working with CMS as stakeholders, not as a
baby-sitting service until students are freed in the afternoon.
For suburban parents, it means recognizing that thdr goal of
attendance zones close to home will likely carry a price if
Manning forces the state to pump more money into failing
schoob. For taxpayers, well, we already know what that means.
But in the end, a poorly-educated populace means a much-poor
er state for all North Carolinians.
When someone dies, espe
cially if they are well known,
there b a tendency to exag
gerate hb or her contribu
tions. Such was the case with
John H. Johnson, the' late
publisher of Ebony and Jet
magazines.
^thout a doubt, Johnson’s
contributions to joumalbm
and improving the lives of
African-Americans are excep
tional and need no embdlbh-
ment. There b no question
that when Johnson launched
Ebony in 1945, he altered the
face of the magazine industry
for good. ^ years later, he
built on that foundation by
starting Jet. Perhaps more
than anyone ebe, Johnson
forced mqjor colorations to
advertise with black publica
tions and insbted that they
use black modeb and adver
tising agencies. As lawyers
like to say, TU stipulate the
foregoing.
Where I part company with
the revisionists b when they
proclaim — incorrectly — that
Ebony magazine was the first
publication to reflect black
America in its full complexity
That’s simply untrue. That
honor belongs to black news
papers. The first one,
Freedom’s Journal, was
started in 1827—more than a
century before the first bsue
of Ebony was publbhed.
Like the NAACP, black
newspapers bravely conduct
ed anti-lynching campaigns.
The office of - Ida B. Wdb
Barnett — was toix^hed in
Memphb, forcing her to leave
town. The famous W.E.B.
DuBois-Booker T.
Washington debate had its
seeds in the black press.
Contrary to population
impressions, DuBob did not
object to industrial education;
he objected when it was advo
cated to the exclusion of blade
economic, political and sodal
ri^ts. In fact, Washington
offered DuBob a job at what
b now Tliskegee University
in Alabama, but DuBob had
already accepted a teaching
position at ^filberforce
University in Ohio.
William Monroe TVotter,
editor of the Boston
Guardian, was far more criti
cal of Washington than
DuBob. In fact, upon learn
ing that Booker T. would be
speaking in Boston, he plant
ed a stink bomb in the
church. When lYotter was
roundly excoriated by blacks,
DuBob sprung to hb defense.
As noted above, black news
papers were aggressively
defending the rights of
African-Americans before
John H. Johnson was bom.
black newspapers chronicled
the modem Civil Rights
Movement, which began in
1955 with the slaying of 14-
year-old Emmett Till for
allegedly whistling at a
White woman. Jet publbhed
that unfoigettable photo of
Till’s mutilated body. But
black newspapers covered hb
accusers’ trial and conducted
their own investigation into
the murder.
Thb b no attempt to deni
grate John H. Johnson.
Rather, it’s an attempt to set
the record straight.
African-Americans have a
bad habit of spending more
time looking at life through
the rear view mirror than the
windshield of the future.
Instead of only celebrating
Johnson’s accomplbhments,
let’s see if there are lessons
we can leam from hb life.
One of the things I admired
about John H. Johnson was
hb refusal to sell to the hip
est bidder and, in the process,
claim he was acting as any
businessperson would. That
can’t be said of the sellouts of
today Whether in publbhing
or broadcasting, we see
example after example of
black entrepreneurs asking
to be carried on certain cable
systems or given certain ads
because African-American
consumers deserve to be
treated vrith respect.
However, once large sums of
money are waved in fient of
them, they sell out the com
munity usually saying it’s
not about black or white - it’s
about green. They neglect to
acknowledge that the green
they’re amassing b a direct
result of their having pimped
our blackness.
We’ve already witnessed
the sale of Motown, Johnson
hair care products, BET,
Essence, BlackVoices.com
and Africana.com to whites.
The New York limes plans to
start a Idadf newspaper in
Gainesville, Fla. Given the
recent population shifts, you
can expect thb trend to ccai-
tinue.
My bsue b not wheth^ we
should help swell the ranks of
black millionaires. My real
concern b the decrease in the
number of Intimate sources
of news-and information for
and by people of color. There
are more than 18,821 maga
zines in the U. S., according to
the Magazine Publishers
Association. Yet, we can
name the number of substan
tive national black maga
zines on one hand and still
have a finger or two left over.
Considering today’s Right-
wing assault on human
rights, we need strong black
publications more than ever.
We need to preserve and
®q)and what we have, lii the
end, it won’t matter if we cre
ate profitable black business
es if all we do b sellout and
leave our community devoid
of outlets.
John H. Johnson proved
that one can be a millionaire
and have integrity at the
same time.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chief ofthe NNPA News Service
and BlackPressUSA.com. He
appears on National Public Radio
as part of “News and Notes with
Ed Gordon.”
Southern Strategy isn’t easy to quit
“The chairman of the
Republican Party (Ken
Mehlman) wants to renounce
the GOP’s racially polarizing
‘Southern strategy of the late
1960s, imder which Richard
M. Nixon used such bsues as
des^r^ation and forced bus
ing of school-
Val
Atkinson
children to
woo white
southern vot
ers and win
the presiden
cy” This
statement b
not totally
accurate;
Nixon did use
the busing bsue and other
racially spiked bsues to woo
white voters and win the
presidency, but the Southmi
Strat^y didn’t start in the
‘60s. Actually there have
been nine Southern
Strat^jes and the first one
b^an in 1619.
The first Southmn Strategy
was slavery, where white
men enslaved whole black
families. Thb, the granddad-
dy of Southern Strategies,
was entered into for profit.
The degradation of the
entirety of the black race
came later.
The second Southern
Strat^y occurred when the
close presidential race of
1876 between Hlden and
Hayes gave Hayes a 1-vote
advantage in the Electoral
College (185-184). The com
promise was that TQden
would stand down and not
further protest the election
and allow Hayes to ascend to
the presidency Hayes in
return agreed to remove aU of
the Federal troops from the
South. Thb gave rise to Jim
Crow, the Klan and the Black
Codes.
The third occurred in 1898
when southern whites were '
openly ^couraged to vote the
white supremacy ticket.
Blacks all over the South
were voted out of office (and it
wasn’t all l^al).
The fourth happened in
1948 when a yoxmg Strom
Thurmond ran for president
as a states’ ri^ts Democrat.
And evai though he only got
5.3 percent of the vote he car
ried the states of Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama and
South Carolina. Thb was the
beginning of the modem
south’s battle cry of “States
Rights”. What states ri^ts
really meant, and still means,
b: allow states to do as they
please; even if their actiops
and laws contradict the
Constitution of the United
States. Advocates of States
Rights felt that if a state
wanted to deny suffrage to
women, and people of color,
that’s just fine. Even that
“peculiar institution” would
have been tolerable.
The fifth happened in 1956
when North Carolina U.S.
Sen. Sam Ervin lead a group
of southern senators Jfrom
South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama,
Mbsbsippi and Loubiana to
form a movement called the
“Southern Manifesto,” a seg
regationist movemOTit creat
ed to counter Brown v. Board
of Education.
The sixth southern strategy
was the first organized GOP
SouthoTi Strat^y Prior to
1964 the cries of states rights
came fixm the D^nocratic
camp. In 1964 when
Goldwater ran for the presi
dency he embraced a States
Rights platform and vowed to
fight against the implemen
tation of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act. The GOP knew
that the *64 and ‘65 Acts
wouldn’t play weU among *
white southerners and they
went all out to let the south
know that they had a new
fiiend in the GOP.
In 1968 Richard Nixon,
with the help of Lee Atwat^,
seized upon an already ripe
situation started by Barry
Goldwater and completed the
job by infusing the lexicon of
“code words” into the south
ern political discourse.
Nixon’s message in subtle
non verbal languages was
hi^ily effective. His implicit
position on States Ri^ts and
race relations was ... “we’re
for States Rights and against
street riots, welfare cheats,
busing, forced integration,
and practically everything in
the Civil Rights Act and the
Voting Rights Act”.
The eighth and most prolif
ic of all the Southern
Strategy happened in 1980.
One of Ronald Reagan’s first
campaign stops was in
Philadelphia, Mbs., (the site
of the murder of three civil
ri^ts workers. Trent Lott
escorted Ronald Reagan to
speak before the WCC (White
Citizens Council). At thb
meeting Reagan told the
crowd that he supported
states rights and would fight
to end school busing and
affirmative action.
The ninth was the Florida
debacle in 2000 when tens of
thousaneb of African
Americans were denied the
right to have their votes
counted. The strategy was set
long before Election Day
Bush and Karl Rove ev^ had
a strat^y to go to the courts
if they won the popular vote
and A1 Gore won the
Electoral CoU^ vote. Of
course it came out just the
opposite, but you can’t say
they didn’t have a plan
I wonder if those who coh-
cocted the refrain “The South
Shall Rise Again” ever imag
ined the south rising again as
the Republican base.
VAL ATKINSON is a syndicated
cofumnist in Durham.