Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / April 29, 1972, edition 1 / Page 2
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2A —THE CAROLINA TIMES SATURDAY, APRIL 2#, 1873 (k(flSibSliio EDITORIALS AMERICA CtTI SOLVE PROBLEMS HUD Secretary George Romney warned that there is a paralysis of the Nation's decision-making proc ess which could lead to an Ameri can Crisis—the inability to solve so cial problems. He has called attention to the need for restructuring of the gov ernment problem-solving mechan ism. "We have always had prob lems," he said. "But now we are also facing a crisis of confidence— a crisis of confidence in the prob lem-solving capability of our so ciety." As members of the nation's larg est minority, we could not agree more with Mr. Romney that a crisis of confidence exists, and so right fully where black people of this country are concerned. We further agree that perhaps the govern ment decision-making structure is in need of re-structuring. But we question whether priori ties should be placed on the struc ture of the system or the decision maker's state of mind—their atti tudes, and their real concern for solving the problems that are be fore us and have been for the last 400 years where blacks are con cerned. We question whether it is the structure of the decision-making body or the attitudes of a majority of policy-makers responsible for the distorted busing issue—one JAMES (JAY) RODGERS ACCLAIMED NATIONAL TEACHER OF 1972 The worldwide and national ac claim, as well as the many honors won by James (Jay) Rogers should certainly give all Durhamites and North Carolinians a special feeling of pride. For to be selected as the recipient symbolizing the finest in the teaching profession was no easy task. Rogers was selected as the Na tional Teacher of the Year by a panel of eminent educators for his superior ability to inspire a love for learning and intellectual curios ity in students of varying back grounds and skills. His Black studies course was of particular interest since it was discovered to be as exciting and as important to white students as well as his black students. In accepting the award national ly for the teaching profession, Rogers stated, "I think the primary motivation of any teacher teaching today has to be a sincere and very real respect for the individual stu dent. Not students as a group, and not black or white, but just the student." "If the teacher can communicate this respect he has a chance of getting something done. If not, no amount of expertise or even work will make any difference." DECLINE IN SCHOOL BOND ISSUE FUND RISING It is important to note that sta tistics of HEW show that the per centage of school bond issues ap proved by the nation's voters dur ing Fiscal year 1971 reached a rec ord low of 46.7' A. Of more than 1,086 elections seeking to raise $3.3 billion for public elementary and secondary construction, only 507 or less than half were approved for a total of $1.4 billion. This represents a 21.6 per cent decline from Fiscal year 1970 when 647 approved issues raised $1.6 billion. Education Commissioner S. P. Marland, Jr., suggests that at a time when systems of school fi nancing is under sharp attack and property tax has been virtually wrung dry, it may be that the de feat of school bond issues repre sents not a rejection of our school systems, but of the taxing systems. China Gains Power— Itare can b« no doubt now that President Nixon's recent trip to China has paid dividend* for the Republic of China. . In addition to being guaranteed the recovery of Formosa, recent appoint ments at the United Nations indicate that China is foinf to hare more pow er within the World Organization than fsnaartr* ■ /•*# * * f- A Chinese delegate has been ap libinted Under Secretary General for which has loomed before us camou flaging the real issue of the denial of quality education for black children. And too, we wonder what is really responsible for the near doubled rate of unemployment of blacks as compared to whites. We wonder about the inattentiveness to Sickle Cell Anemia, the disease found predominately among black people; about the sub-standard housing, and about the many, many other "problems" faced by black people. It seems reasonable that, how de cisions are made is of far less con sequence than "what is being de cided." We would like to say to Mr. Romney, and to the world, for that matter, that the American society, with all its benefits, ideals, high standards of living and the many other positive elements—has a warped attitude of fairness, equal ity and the inherent Godliness of all men, blacks included. And so long as this attitude prevails no method of decision-making can solve the problems of society. It is apparent to us that the seed of this country's ills is the attitude of self-centered, power-hungry men, seemingly stripped of the ca pacity to think and act beyond their immediate gains, at the ex pense of our social unit as a whole. And one does not get raisins from a fig tree. Rogers' philosophy of life is posted in his classroom—"First we must develop trust. Then there will come understanding—and as we understand, we come to have peace. And once peace is accom plished, there will be time to love." His philosophy of education is expressed as being the great equal izer ... to deny man education is to deny him life . .•. to me, educa tion transcends the formal class room. Perhaps this young gifted black man of high achievement and in spiration will encourage teachers everywhere to excell and continue in their profession and to interest other gifted and dedicated young men and women to pursue the teaching career. Perhaps his en thusiasm and other techniques can be observed and put in practice so that human understandings and peace can come to all in these peril ous times. Again, we too, salute and offer our congratulations to James (Jay) Rogers, Durham High School Teacher of Social Studies and Black History for bringing this great honor to Durham, North Carolina and across the country and the world at large. The general cry of tax unfairness has been raised many times. The report also found that at $1.4 billion, the par value of bond issues approved for Fiscal year 1971 was down 47.9 per cent from the record $2.7 billion approved in Fiscal year 1966. when 74.5 per cent of all school bond issues were passed. The school bond issue appears to be fighting a losing battle for funds. However, we must remember that good schools cost money and all must do his or her share in seeking sources of funds. Perhaps our priorities can be changed so that all children can get the best possible education as well as insuring the additional funds so better and improved fa cilities can be provided. Political Affairs and Decolonization. This is a top rank position, placing the Chinese official on equal footing with three other Under Secretaries—United States, Argentina, and the Soviet Union. Communist nations now hold three of the United Nations' most powerful positions. What the United States has received from the much publicised vis it of its President remains to be seen. "HE KEPT THE FAITH" ADAM aA) TON PO&EL / Lincoln U. Acquires Big Microfilm Collection of232Newspapers JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.— A vast microfilm collection of 232 black newspapers of the 19th century has been ac quired by the Lincoln uni versity Inman E. Page li brary through the universi ty's journalism department. The collection of 192 micro film reels represents about 95 per cent of all microfilmed black newspapers available in the United States, the entire collection of black newspa pers on file in the Library of Congress. "With this addition last month, Lincoln university, I believe, has the largest and richest collection of black newspapers of any university west of the Mississippi," Dr. Armistead S. Pride, head of Lincoln university's journal ism department paid. "Kan sas State Historical society at Topeka has one of the larg est collections of black news papers in this area but Ijw collection is not available' to the public." The Lincoln university mic rofilm is available in the li brary periodical room not on ly to students and faculty of the university but also to the general public and research ers in black history and cul ture. An incomparable record of Negro life and thought in 1800's, the newspapers carry articles ranging from informa tion to southern blacks on the best place in Kansas in which to settle, editorials denounc ing the disfranchising of blacks and a wire story from London discussing the perils of black domination to fic tional short stories, an article on the virtues of breakfast and a public confession of adultery. A Year's Research The collection is a result of a year's research in 1947 by Dr. Pride sponsored by the Committee on Negro Stud ies of the American Council of Learned Societies. Pride's assignment was to locate and microfilm as many black newspapers published before the turn of the century as were available. Previous microfilming of black news papers, which was very lim ited, was not duplicated and therefore the Lincoln universi ty collection does not include the first black newspaper in the United States, "Free dom's Journal," published in 1827 in New York City. A questionnaire seeking in formation was sent to more than 300 libraries and histori cal societies. Community, state and national newspaper histories and bibliographies were consulted including Win ifred Gregory's "American Newspapers, 1821-1936, a Un ion List of Files Available in the United States and Can ada" which listed 257 black newspaper titles. Warren Brown, a graduate student at Hunter college (N. Y.), for his doctoral disserta tion had made a check list of black newspapers in the United States from 1827 to 1946 in which he listed 467 newspapers and had located files on 148 of them. During Dr. Pride's year of research he microfilmed those 148 and extended the micro film files to include 232 news papers. A single issue or a few scattered issues, in some cases, are the only evidence that the newspaper ever exist ed. Treasure In Attic Pride's search often took him to attics, trunks and ash cans. From a Brookline, Mass., trash receptacle, Mrs. Mary Moore of Boston re trieved several cartons of old Negro periodicals including the few extant copies of the Boston "Courant" (1890-1902) for the collection. A two-year bound file of the Trenton "Sentinel" pub lished in 1880-1882 by M. Hen ri Herbert was found in the attic of the old Herbert home in Trenton, N. J., by Caesar Arena, a local contractor en gaged to raze the building. Dr. Pride's call on Charles Hall, retired Census Bureau official who had once edited the Illinois Record at Spring field in the late 1890's, sal vaged a two-year file of that paper which Hall had been toying with the idea of throw ing away. Twenty reels of the collec tion each valued at S2OO were donated to five black uni versity centers; at the , tjippj research was completed in 1947. The universities receiv ing microfilm were Atlanta (Ga.) university; Dillard uni By Vernon E. Jordkn Jr. Executive Director- National Urban League A GIANT PASSES ON NEW YORK. lts hard to imagine a political scene with out the presence of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who died last week after a long illness. Adam Was bigger than life; he strode across the country's political and civil rights scene like a colossus, dwarfing many who tried to keep up with him. I think it is fair to say that we shall not see the likes of Adam again. He was unique. His faults, like his virtues, were large, but too much at tention has been paid them. It pained me to read in his obituaries, the old familiar stories about the playboy con gressman, the junkets, the legal battles, and the final re treat to Bimini. That was only a part of the Adam Powell story, and a small part at that. It is the good that men do that should live on after them, and Adam did enough good for several lifetimes. He was an authentic pioneer. Decades before slogans like "black is beautiful" became popular, Adam was preaching a doc trine of pride and black pow er. And he did more than preach it - he was the em bodiment of black political power as one of the most important Congressmen in Washington. Started !■ Depression He first became widely known as one of the leaders of the crusade for Jobs in Harlem during the depression. In the early '3o's Harlem was a world-famous center of black - population, but black people could not work in the bustling stores and offices of 125 th street. Still in his early 20's, Adam became one of the leaders of a "don't buy where you can't work" boycott, manning the' picket lines and speaking In the streets until the stores relented and started hiring versity in New Orleans, La.; Fisk university in Nashville, : Tenn.; Howard university, Washington, D. C.; and Lin coln university in Jefferson City. Reels included in the Lin- A coin university gift were a 40-year file of the Washing ton, D. C. "Bee" and one reel of miscellaneous newspapers. 'MO Purchase More Reels The journalism department was able to purchase 162 reels to complete the set last month through a SI,OOO grant from General Electric and $425 from the Lincoln Clarion, campus newspaper, advertis ing fund. "We had for a long time needed to complete the collec tion so that we would be able to use it as supplementary material for Lincoln universi y ty \Qourses in the Mack press . '' ana history of American Tftiir nalism," Dr. Pride said. The total set is valued at $1,600. black people. Then he went -into politics and became the first black member of New York's City Council and later the first black Congressman from the East. And all the wjiile, this brilliant man who was label ed "lazy" by his criUcs, was presiding over the fortunes of Harlem's largest church. Adam wasn't Just a con gressman, he was a black Congressman. That meant a lot in a Southern-dominated Congress in the forties and fifties. It meant, for example, that he was excluded from the "Club" that informally runs the Congress. It meant taking a back seat on an important committee run by an avowed white supremacist -• never getting the recognition or sub committee chairmanship his seniority entitled him to. And it meant that white Congress men, who were known for fancy European junkets on tax dollars and some indiscreet activities of their own, tried to hold him to standards they themselves ignored. What others did covertly Adam did openly, with a Joy and zest for life that con fused his pinched critics and colleagues. And the louder they condemned him for being sassy and uppity, the more black people loved this bold, proud man. Seniority system Works When his big chance came, he took it. The seniority sys tem, long a mechanism for keeping power in Southern Congressmen's hands, Anally worked for black people, and Adam took over the powerful House Education and Labor committee. Under his chair manship, the Committee churned out bill after bill, many of them constituting sweeping reforms aiding equal opportunity. Adam proved a brilliant chairman, getting these bills through the corn- Watts Hospital Building Development Plan distributed to the county commissioners and the hospital board of trus tees in 1966 listed as part of its expected expenditures for the proposed new Watts Hospi tal, on page 5 of the planning program, "48 beds to replace those in Lincoln Hospital." On page 6 it again stated, as part of the expenses, "48 beds to replace those in Lin coln Hospital." On page 7 as part of the space and cost planning, "one floor to accommodate Lincoln Hospi tal." These references in the de feated . plans for a new Watts Hospital would certainly lead oiiei to believe that Lincoln Hospital was about to merge with Watts. However, accord- ing to John Whieeler okl the Lincoln board of trustees, the staff or its trustees knew nothing of the plans until they saw them in the program. Wheeler and several other interested citizens have been - carrying on the fight to save Lincoln Hospital since 1965. is convinced that Lin coln is doomed unless the fight Continues. He points to a tax factor to support his reasons. The countywide 3 tai ra& £6 $0 JSS is distributed between six sections of the Oic&wmiinily./'i&teirest, one of which is hospital operation. The letty for hospitals, which is divided between Watts and Lincoln 60%-40% is $309,416.29. If Lincoln Hospital should suddenly be closed the entire levy would go to Watts Hospital and in the future to the new County General. This fact in itself would appear to be sufficient N.A.A.C.P. In Action For 1972 By Jeremiah Cameron It is unfortunate and bodes ill for the peace of this com munity that recent statements by those participating in one way or another in police lead ership in Kansas City indicate an entrenched, almost pig headed commitment to police brutality. The cry of the peo ple, both white and Black, a gainst a variety of police mal practice seems to have stif fened the leadership into a support of "out police officers right or wrong." The continuance of crime in mittee and the House. A vindictive House tried to unseat Adam, but the courts upheld him and his consti tuents stood by him. But time was passing, Adam was iU, and the times that had favored his flamboyant personal style were ending. As the black movement for equality moves 'into the phase of consolidation and unity, there become few er places for lone charismatic leaders like Adam. He was unique enough in his day, but the comftig years are unlike ly to produce anyone else like him. So his passing is more than the passing of a supremely effective black political voice or of a beloved spokesman of the masses, it marks the end of an era and the close of that period where brief flashes of power and defiance were all black people could point to in their struggle for political equity. Now, with In creased voting, political parti cipation, and black representa tion in Congress, we can build on the rich heritage Adam has left us. K) ' Editor-Publisher. 1927-1971 Km I Published every Saturday at Durham, N. C "| S§ by United Publishers. Inc. Mns VIVIAN AUSTIN EDMONDS. Publisher ■ CLARENCE BONNETTE u iiS ■ J. ELWOOD CARTER Second Class Postage Paid at Durham. N. C. 27702 )■ .. SUBSCRIPTION RATES H Un »ed States and Canada , Vm .. u M i ■ Un 'te« State, and Canada i " ■ Foreign Countries .. ■ ,® ingip •»m -«. 11"!; i. ££ m jH ' Principal Of/ice Located at 438 East Pettigrew Street, Slj !■ Durham, North Carolina 27702 By JOHN MYERS evidence that a merger or a closing of one of the hospitals would be an interesting pro position. In addition to the tax rate, funds from OEO and from other federal sources were attempted to be stopped in 1968. Without federal funds at that time. Lincoln would have had no choice but to close. In the present controversy the statement continues to arise that Lincoln Hospital and Treatment Center will both continue to operate "if funds are available and if they con tinue to serve a useful pur pose." This leads one to be lieve that there is a question ■ of the continuation of funds. Why? Another recurring state ment is that "Lincoln is not as yet under our control. We feel this will be forthcoming." The county hospital board has stated that Lincoln is holding out on becoming part of the hospital corporation. Why? Wheeler says the main reason for Lincoln's reluctance to come into the corporation is that he and the other mem bers of the Lincoln board have not been given a guarantee, that if they sign into the corporation, Lincoln will not be closed. These are points of the hospital controversy which should require careful attention by all of Durham's citizens. They could mean the success or failure of the new County General, for with out the continued operating clinic facilities of Lincoln and Watts Hospitals, the new county hospital could not possibly hope to accommodate all of Durham's medical needs. the community, and at all levels, involving rich and poor, would indicate that police mal practice is not the way to se cure the peaceful welfare of the community. Were it not so tragic, we would be tempted to laugh to scorn the futile, frustrating efforts of an inef | fectual chief and his officers, who believe that the quality of life in the community can be measured out by degrees of repressiveness. A citizenry expects more of a police chief, of a head of the Office of Citizens' Com plaints, of presidents of na tional and local white police officer associations, and cer tainly of the president of the governor-appointed board of police commissioners than the business as usual approach that they have taken to com plaints from a citizenry that can hardly be written off as captious, carping, rabble rousers: 'l'he Rev. John W. Williams, of the St.. Stephen Baptist church, is no rabble rouser. Representatives Har old L. Holliday Sr., and Her man Johnson are no police baiters. But of course, they are black. The people beseech in the nam? of human de cency; the Police department remains defiant. | We are not unaware of the pressures under which the chief of police, may have to work, the fact that he has to be concerned about police' mo rale and, right now, sees a growing policeman's associ ation within his rank. But we In the NAACP submit that it constitutes a sorry state of affairs when police morale has prime consideration over Justice and the rights of the people.
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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April 29, 1972, edition 1
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