2A
—THE CAROLINA TIMES SATURDAY, DEC. 2, 1967
Non-Commercial
We have had four weeks now to
view, assess, and react to the Public
Broadcasting Laboratory (PBL), our
country's first national non-commer
cial television program. People are
still "discovering" this program
which comes to Durham via WUNC
TV (Channel 4) Sunday evening at
8:30.
As its name implies, PBL is an ex
periment. It is an attempt to demon
strate what non-commercial televi
sion can do as an alternative to com
mercial programing. Most important
ly, it attempts to provide the tele
vision audience with quality pro
grams and objective analyses of public
issues, unencumbered by the dictates
of government or commercial spon
sors. It has the opportunity to ex
plore the fullest potentials of tele
vision as a medium of expression and
communication.
In both England and Canada, non
commercial television is government
subsidized One of the major prob
lems the BBC and CBC have had is
maintaining independence of govern
ment control, influence and censor
ship, while depending upon govern
ment funds to operate. PBL, pw
ever, is a completely independent en
terprise, and is free to develop and
blossom in its own way, responsive
only to the comments, suggestions,
and criticisms of its audience. This
was made possible by a grant from
the Ford Foundation. A critical part of
the total experiment will be to see
if PBL can sustain itself.
Slaughter on Our Highways
Statistics are usually cold and dry
and very uninteresting, and a good
figurer can use them to prove just
about any point he'd like to make.
Let us pass these statistics by you
one time: During 1966—1709 in North
Carolina, 53,000 in the nation Friends
take another look. These are not just
cold and dry statistics; they are the
mangled and crushed bodies of peo
ple People, run aground and killed
on the streets and highways of this
state and nation.
Be thankful you are not listed
among these statistics. Be especially
thankful, during the 1967 period of
the nation-wide observance of Thanks
givirig, for highway accidents are not
respecters of race, religion, creed or
economic levels. It takes you where it
finds you and has been doing so with
ever-increasing rapidity during re
cent years.
Highway accidents and deaths are a
plaque on our times, and no one has
as yet found the cure for what ails
us. The experts say highway safety
is divided generally into three parts;
engineering, education and enforce
ment.
McNamara's Resignation
The Secretary of Defense, Robert
S McNamara has resigned. We not
only regret this, we are frightened
by it. With McNamara gone, there
is almost certainly to be a change in
the Administration's policy of "re
straint" in fighting the war in Viet
nam. It will shift in the direction of
a no-holds-barred esculation of the
war.
It is common knowledge that the
Secretary of Defense started out as a
"hawk", and in the course of time
became a "dove". As a man of tre
mendous strength, he controlled the
Department of Defense as no other
Secretary has done. He was able to
curb the tendencies of the military
to esculate the Vietnam war to the
point of all-out war. Whatever the
Five Million Lost Americans
npHE POPULATION of the United
* States officially reached 200
million at 11 a. m. Monday, Nov 20,
according to the census "clock* in
the Commerce Department build
ing. PRESIDENT JOHNSON was on
v.nri for the ceremony. But even
the government census experts ad
mit that the clock may be a little
•low.
Fact Is, pie 200-million mark
probably was reached over two
years ago, according to the Popula
tion Reference Bureau. The reason
the population clock is behind time
is because the 1960 census complete
ly overlooked 5.7 million Americans,
most of them Negroes. Complicated
census forms are blamed for the
goof by people-counters who re
ported that there were some 20 mil-
TV Programs
Several assessments of PBL have
been published recently. Most of them
appear to criticize PBL for offering
nothing better than the excellent
documentaries, news coverage, and
public affairs programs offered by
commercial networks. We feel, how
ever, that should PBL only succeed
in matching an excellence already to
be found elsewhere, we prefer its
coming from a source known to be
independent of government or spon
sor control.
CBS, for example, has an excellent
record for programs, yet it
was when CBS President Fred W.
Friendly resigned to become televi
sion adviser to the Ford Foundation
that the public learned of the com
mercial pressures that influenced the
network's programs.
PBL has some of the most talent
ed and experienced men in the busi
ness most of them flocked from
CBC, NBC, CBC, Edccation TV, The
New York Times, and Newsweek—
who have pooled their resources to
make this experiment a success, and
they have a mandate to experiment.
It is still much too early really to as
sess a two-year venture, but our ini
tial impressions are most favorable
All of us have a unique opportunity
here, to taflce part in this effort as
an interested and critical audience.
We encourage people to watch PBL
on Sunday evenings, and to write their
comments on programs to Edward B
Morgan, Editor, PBL, 342 Madison
Avenue, New York City.
Improving all three will certainly
decrease the possibility of highway
accidents; however, that's spinning
generalities about generalities. »
In recent weeks, Motor Vehicles
Commissioner Ralph L. Howland has
kicked off a get-tough enforcement
policy aimed at the chronic traffic
law offenders, and the State Highway
Patrol has been given an instrument
called "VASCAR"—a new speed-tim
ing device —and additional breathaly
zers
Okay! that seems to be moving in
the right direction, but there's still
a missing factor—YOU
You are the key to saving lives
on the highways. Your actions and
your deeds on the streets and the
highways, not only over the weekend,
but for 365 days each year is what
it will take to make the highways a
safe place to travel again.
Enforcement can do part of the
job as can engineering and education
However, only an aroused public de
termined not to commit suicide with
a speedometer in one hand and a jug
in the other can put the pleasure back
in driving
reasons for McNamara's resignation,
the fact remains that his leaving re
moves a barrier to the rampant ten
dencies of the gung-ho militarists
that populate the Pentagon.
To maike free with a little of
Shakespeare:
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
shall cumber all the parts of Vietnam
Blood and destruction shall be so in
use that motftfers shall but smile
when they behold their infants quar
tered by the hands of war. All pity
choked with custom of foul deeds,
America shall, within these confines
with a monarch's voice cry '^iavoc!"—
and let slip the dogs of war. And this
foul deed shall smell above the earth
with carrion men groaning for burial
lion citizens of color in America In
1960. It now turns out that the fig
ure is closer to 25 million.
Rxr. JACKSON E. BEITS, R-Ohio,
who has been championing the
cause of simple, short census forms,
thinks the census bureau computer
is going to come up with an even
bigger error in 1970 if present plans
are followed. The 1970 forms are
even longer and more complicated
than the ones used to count people
a decade before.
There are 17 million Americans
over the age of 25 who lack the
eighth grade education required to
complete the proposed 1970 census
form. REP. BETTS contends it would
take even a literate person more
than a half hour to answer the list
of 120 questions.
JOURNAL AND GUIOC
Elimination By Starvation...?
SSPg? • THE PHYSICIAN, DR . DONALD GATCH OF BEAUFORT COUNTX SAJD W
—HE KNEW OF EIGHT NEGQO CHILDREN, INCLUDING THREE IN A SINGLE
fjj FAMILY WHO CUED FROM WORMS AND OTHER PARASITES IN MIS
if AREA BEFORE HE STOPPED COUNTING FIVE YEARS AGO.
*A F IF EIGHT WHITE CHILDREN IN BEAUFORT COUNTY HAD DIED OF
PARASITES SOMETHING WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE LONG AGO,
DR. CATCH SAID A TREATMENT PROGRAM IS BEGINNING UNDCJf THE
SPONSORSHIP OF THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, HE SAID.
' , A
Integrated housing must come be
fore any further progress can be
achieved in civil rights, said Donald
S. Frey, Chairman of the United
Citizens Committee for Freedom of
Residence, as he addressed the 7th
Annual Urban Housing Conference
here Wednesday evening.
There four "grim realities," Frey
said, that Americans must face: (1)
out society in this day and age
demands total integration, (2) we
must redesign our living space-rebuild
and expand, (3) all civil rights de
pend upon the achievement of hou
sing integration and (4) until housing
integration is achieved, American
moral effectiveness in any area will
be undermined.
"These are grim but challenging
realities," he said, "but we must
meet the challenge. Perhaps the most
heartening development is an increa
sing awareness of these facts of life
on the part of Americans, and this
gives hope that we shall overcome."
He added that "the days of the racial
bigot are numbered."
When turning to the problem of
how to achieve integrated housing in
North Carolina, Frey admitted that
none anywhere has really achieved
it He suggested steps that might be
taken in the direction of reaching
our goal.
In an interview later, Frey was
asked to assess the alternative public
housing plans that are emerging in
Durham; The construction of multi
family public housing projects, the
construction of single family units
concentrated in a given area, and the
construction of single family units
dispersed throughout the city. He
said that he favored the scattered
site plan for tingle family units that
could be rented or sold to the people
who need them. He went on to sug
gest that citizens draft a brief to the
CSty Government, urging the scat
tered-site plan.
"You know," he said, "I am for
economic integration as well as ra
cial integration. After all, this so
called nee problem is really a social
class problem. In the kind of society
I think necessary today, we must
have class integration."
Mr. Frey is quite correct when he
stresaes the importance of "living
space" and how people are distri
buted in it, as the key to social
change in our nation. When people
live together, they interact with each
other; when they interact, they get
to know each other as people, fellow
human beings who, In spite of their
differences, have basic similarities;
and as they get to know each other,
attitudes toward groups of people
(eg. prejudices regarding minority
groups) tend to give way to attitudes
about people individually. Thus, the
integration of housing is crucial. It
could begin the democratizing pro
cess that this country needs des
perately.
Oun is a heteregenkms society,
and this presents a problem of achie
ving national unity and harmony in
our diversity. We can no longer allow
people to group themselves in volun
tary or involuntary ghettos (the in
tellectual-academic ghetto of Hope
Valley, and the Negro ghetto of
southeast Durham). It is necessary to
devise ways in which people who are
spaciaQy, socially, economically, cul
turally, and intellectually separated.
-ALL II LIKE IT IS—
By KENT AUTOR
C
can mix together and blend.
This appears to be the basis of
Frey's notion of "economic integra
tion." He seems to have grasped both
the ultimate goal, and the immediate
one. The integration of housing is the
first step.
Yet we can devise other plans for
the democratization of America, the
achievement of "total social integra
tion." One was suggested by Dr. Jack
Preiss of Durham in a public address
last year. He was speaking about
selective service. He felt that the
American citizen has an obligation to
serve his country for a specified
period of time, but that there should
be a system of draft for more than
just military service. In presenting
ideas, Dr. Preiss stressed the contri
There Was A R
And He Came
BAKI, ITALY
There really was a Sa nt a
Qaus.
But he did not have a big
white beard and he did not
even wear a red suit.
SANTA CLABS was St.
Nicholas and he rests under
a aolid silver altar in the
Bari Cathedral.
He was born in Asia Minor
In the year 270 and his body
was brought to this southern
Italian port city in 1087 when
JTan 9bpics^«»
•HUWK^^NESS
HAVE TO GO THROUGH WHAT I JUST tttVE/
QgCagfcil—
Published every Saturday at Durham, N. C.
by United Publisher*, Inc.
L. E. AUSTIN, Publisher
SAMUEL L. BRICCS Monogtng Editor
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Second Class Postage Paid at Durham, N. C. 27702
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Foreign, $7.50 per year, Single copy 20c.
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bution that self-'ive service could
make in bringing people of very dif
ferent backgrounds together so they
might discover individual worth that
transcends individual difference.
Many of us who served in the mili
tary, especially in war time, under
stand what he was driving at. When I
was in the army, I met and came to
like and admire many men that I
would not normally have gotten to
know or to work with. In this re
spect, the experience was an en-
riching one.
It is quite apparent that many
people are seeing more clearly what
is needed to make this nation a
healthy industrial urban society, and
some of them, like Donald Frey, are
doing something about it
SAILORS and travel era
took back with them to
northern Europe tales of
"Sanctus Nicolaus" his
name in Latni— and he be
came Santa Claus. . j
the Saracens overran As 1 a
Minor.
PAINTINGS that have
come down to us show St.
Nicholas as a clean-shaven
figure with bishop s miter
and staff.
In his day he won reknown
for his kindness to children.
THE WAY
I SEE IT
By DAVID W. STITH
THE BOND ISSUE
The coming school bond election
is of buic significance for the Negro
citizens of Durham. A> pointed out
in last week's article, there are several
questions left open which need to be
answered.
It can be clearly seen that this
bond election is racially motivated.
Now that it appears that HEW and
the courts will no longer allow the
ineffective "freedoro-of-choice"
school desegregation plans to con
tinue, th« Durham city and county
school boards are making plans to
place schools in such geographic lo
cations that they will continue to be
segregated under any procedure short
of busing.
The new R. N. Harris Elementary
School is a monument to this pur
pose. So certain was the Durham
city school Board that the Bacon
Street Project would be established,
they went ahead and started con
struction of the ichool. Now it sits
alone out there facing about half a
dozen empty houses and no children.
Another question also arises out
of the city-county distribution of
funds. Not once, since 1960, has
there been such a wide difference
among amounts allotted to city and
county systems. This proposal shows
a $4,750,000 difference when pre
viously the difference has never even
reached $1,000,000. Why this big
need in the county all of a sudden?
The only answer we can find is that
it is intended to preserve segregation.
It appears to us that $5,000,000
is quite a lot to spend for segregation
when we need money for education
so badly. White citizens of Durham
city and county need to know that
they are going to be losers just as the
Negroes will. Once again, as pre
viously, (and really up.to the present
day) money sorely needed for quali
ty education is being spent to esta
blish and maintain a "separate-but
equal" system. The new funds under
the bond proposal will not produce
quality education but quantity edu
cation. Spread thin in erecting a
multitude of unnecessary buildings
and wasted in maintaining them, the
To Be Equal
By WHITNEY M. YOUNG JR.
Community Control
THE BRUTAL MISEDUCATION of Negro children is at the root
of the drive to decentralize some big city school systems in
order to bring them closer to the communities they serve.
New York is now debating a far-reaching decentralization plan.
It was proposed by a special committee headed by McGeorge Bundy,
president of the Ford Foundation.
The plan calls for splitting the city's school system into 30 or
more districts, each with its own board, the majority of which would
be chosen by the parents. Each of these local
school boards would have the power to hire
teachers and administrators, select books, and
determine policy. The present central school board
would have sharply reduced powers.
Other cities are watching New York's actions
very closely. This is because they have similar
problems. Poor schools are among the biggest
reasons for the movement of middle-class whites
to the suburbs.
Negroes, locked in by housing segregation and
poverty, don't have that option. And they realize
that unless their children are given a first-class
MR. YOUNG
education, they too, will be trapped in lower-paying jobs. As hopes
for school integration dim, they are demanding that their children
get the same educational benefits white children enjoy.
Local Control Is One Way
Local control might be one way of achieving this. Urban schools
have become captives of a centralized educational bureaucracy which
has not been responsive to the needs of the ghetto. Self-survival and
resistance to change seems to have become their main concern.
Involving parents in the running of the schools could end many
of the present abuses. Parents already have influence over the schools
in many areas, but in the ghetto they are ignored. Parents ought to
be heard, but that doesn't mean that extremists should be allowed to
take over.
It would be a mistake to make the race of a teacher more im
portant than skill. And there is no such thing as "black mathematics.
Since the aim of any change is to make the schools more effective m
teaching children the skills they will need, a well designed plan
should keep extremists and racists (white and black), out of the
schools. ' »
Teacher's attitudes are important, and some people say that
white teachers won't work for ghetto school systems. But the chal
lenge of teaching underpriviledged children under the leadership of
sympathetic administrators and with the support of a concerned com
munity will appeal to many of the best teachers. It is an insult to their
profession to assume otherwise.
Flexibility Of Local Boards
The flexibility of the local boards ia important to assure excel
lence. One year, for example, the community might decide to pass
up a paint job for the schools and put the money into new texts.
Or it might choose to contract for special outside experts, or affiliate
with a university.
They would be able to choose their own direction, and I would
hope that they would choose to become models of excellence, acting
as magnets to draw the middle classes back into the city so that
real integration could take place.
I'd like to see ghetto schools become as important as teaching
hospitals are in medicine. The best hospitals are considered to be
those with university affiliation. Interns are drawn to them becau**
of the presence of the best doctors.
Why can't schools in the ghetto take that road? Muster teacher*
working with the most advanced educational tools could be joined by
enthusiastic young teaching interns—the very brightest new graduate*
—to turn these neglected schools into show places of excellence.
This may not happen with local control, but it surely isn't going
to happen under the present system.
bond funds will never reach the
needs of the students.
HOSPITAL SCENE-MORE
COMES TO LIGHT
The recent revelation of the sad
state of affairs of Watts Hospital
brings to light more of the reasons
Lincoln Hospital has been given
trouble about its debt. Watt's pro
blem, like that at Lincoln, is" not!
something that happened over night
and about which the hospital offi
cials have known for some time. It
points out the serious need to do
something about our hospitals and
shows even more clearly that the
thing to do is not consolidation.
Why consolidate these two insti
tutions, both of which are running
into the red financially, and one of
which has about half of its beds in
inadequate buildings? Any consolida
tion will inherit the debts and poor
buildings and will waste much of any
new investment simply in correcting
and improving these situations. That
is an impossible burden with which
to saddle any new enterprise such as
consolidation.
One of Watts' problems, that of
having 24 patients in the halls, could
be easily remedied by transfering
these 24 patients to Lincoln Hospi
tal. While Watts will be losing some
revenue, they will be complying with
the liscensing standards and will be
contributing to making better use of
the county's hospital facilities. It will
also show the good faith of the Watts
Trustees in being willing to have
truly inteigrated facilities if such a
thing as consolidation Were to be
come a possibility.
Another lesson to be learned
from this entire chain of events is
that the pendulum swings both ways.
Last week it was Lincoln in the red
and going down for the count, this
week it is Watts. Now about that
blackmail. . .Maybe now, with the
guns pointed at both their heads,
both Lincoln and Watts Trustees can
put aside personal interests and work
towards a solution of the problems
of medical care for the county.