2A THE CAROLINA TIMES SAT, JUNE 8, 1974
r.luclillQs Ocen Undone
F .1 -
EDUTOBIAIS-'AND.
i COMMENTS
GOOD SCH001S ARE POSSIBLE
WITH PUIIIIIII6
Many viewpoints have come up
recently regarding what one may or
may not consider as good schools.
As we see it. a good school is one
that is racially balanced in terms of
student body, staff and
administration. There is no place for
only power, if all students, faculty
and administrators are to be able to
render th most efficient teaching
tasks to enable all children to develop
into their best potential or capabilities
without inferior feelings.
Black and white, rich and poor one
that enables students to master the 3
R's and gives them a chance to live
and study with all ethnic groups that
make up this great democracy must be
given the proper perspective, if any
school would consider its self as a
good school.
Separation of races leads to
unwarranted fears, ignorance,
prejudice and racism at its worse.
Students prevented from experiencing
inter-racial exposures cannot devleop
skills in race relations nor ever fully
understand positive human relation's.
Good human relations can only come
from yiable interchange arid
. intergrco-M reactions among the many
ethnics and races that make up this
great country of ours.
, Student who have an inaccurate
view of society will be unprepared to
participate in a multi-ethnic society
and therefore will be systematically
excluded from viable involvement
therein.
All public schools have a moral
obligation to deal directly with the
issues and problems of race and ethnic
differences.
The continuing frustrations of
many , students have to a greater
degree ' been caused by the , non
implementation of real plans to
eliminate the evils inherent in a
society that have had a long history of
denying to blacks and other minorities
the opportunities to develop into their
greatest potential. The highest burden
must not, and should not be placed on
those great institutions that have
historically carried on the task of
educating and developing great leaders
among both black and other minority
peoples.
The planning stages are at hand
now and as such the above
management phases may and can be
placed into real operation as we look
to the continued growth of public
education in our country.
It is also not to late to develop
good situations that have ample, well
equipped facilities, one that is
staffed with personnel who really
want to be in the settings.
The atmosphere of mutual respect
and trust among the faculty and
school community and one where
students are achieving the needed
skills to participate effectively in
multi-ethnic society can be done if
good management in the interest of
developing the greatest potential in all
children are given prior management,
and all efforts are geared towards that
end.
Good schools can be had and
developed if they are indeed racially ;
balanced in terms of student body,
staff and Administration.
You must have all three to ,
effectively develop all children in this
'great democracy of ours.
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Wilkins Column: '
Executive Secretary of NAACP
looking Behind Shows
7bo Nation's Futuro
try-
It was a long time ago that the
U.S. Supreme Court handed down
the opinion in Brown vs. the Board
of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It
has been only 20 years, a mere
minute as history goes, but in
terms of what nasi been done it
? has, indeed, been a long 20 years.
SUBVElME LISTS rjmmSSS
i;
The decision by the Administration
to abolisli the U.S. Attorney General's
formal list of subversive organizations,
built up in the 1950's as a scourge, of
liberals and civil libertarians is good
news. ' '
Persons who belonged to such
organizations on the list often Tost
their jobs or were otherwise
blacklisted, humiliated and many
times such degrading practices carried
on through their lifetime.
Symbolically, it could well have
been the forerunner of the present
Government's "enemy lists" which
came to light during the Watergate-hearing.
More important is the fact that a
well known lawyer, now fighting his
alleged complicity in the Watergate
hearings was one of the legal experts
during the Subversive hearings of
Senator Joseph McCarthy.
It is certainly the hope of most
Americans that our Government must
and should risei above the keeping of
petty and picayunish enemy lists of
so-called enemies that often included
law abiding and decent Americans
from all walks of life.
The abolishment of the lists
certainly is well overdue and should
be thrown out with much haste. -
races of people is the real prize at
stake. It is worth much more than
a sackful of the heartaches and
injustices mentioned above.
White people of this country
have as much to lose as the blacks.
What kind of white Americans will
go through the schools now with
all the advantages and inequities
of skitt color, with
Vx
TO BE EQUAL
by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
the task is formidable, indeed. It is
more than counting the integrated
" schools It is more than counting
the so-called resegregated
schools. It is more than the busing
of school children. It is more than
counting the black teachers who
have lost their jobs to inexperienc
ed white teachers or to black
teachers who, say, have the "right
attitude
It is more than counting the
suspensions and expulsions of
black students and the going free
of white students. It is more than a
tabulation of private academies
which are all-white. It is more than
counting the v stubborn r school
boards in northern and western
cities which refuse at the same
time to approve buying and to '
improve the so-called black school.
It is more than the stand-pat-ism
on, neighborhood schools.
It is more because the destiny of
education in white neighborhood
schools, with private academies,
with biased textbooks and with
their elders in nearly every seat of
influence, and power, ready to use
the machinery of control for the
benefit of their offspring? ,
Who will rise up 20 years hence
and denounce affirmative action as
preferential treatment designed
mistakenly to correct inequities in
the long ago by grandfathers and
great-grandfathers?
We "will be the grandfathers
then. ;;We will know what we did
because we had the power (or the
chicanery) to ignore the law. The
blacks and other minorities in
America also have a piece of the
action. Black Americans will be a
different and a weaker people if
they curl up and die before the
admittedly hard choices and
harder tasks before them.
By DR. GIARIA E. A. TOOT!
KNOW THE SYSTEM
" WASHINGTON, D.C.-Know . what' you want and the
' appropriate means of securing responsiveness from government.
This simple principal sounds so obviously easy that minority
America simply discounts it. -
Not only is this principal easy to understand, but is also a
major tool for accomplishment
The ten regional seminars sponsored by the Office of Fair
Housing and Equal Opportunity of the Department of Housing
and Urban Development will helpfully identify to minority
America, and the poor, the various means of making their
concerns and needs known to government.
'The five seminars thus far held have proven the obvious:
minority Americans feel that the system is not interested in their
progress. Unfortunately, minority Americans for the most part,
do not know how to have impact on government programs and
policy. " ' t
. The frustration too frequently jdenfied as the ineptness of
1 government to quickly response to the needs of the people is
priority to myself and staff. I have imposed, however, strict
adherence to a coordinated j inter-office,' inter-government
relationship. While this by its very nature is time consuming, it is
ever so rewarding in assuring total government responsiveness
rather than limited restricted programming.
The Block Federal cash grant to local government, and Federal
Revenue Sharing, is on the upsurge in America.
The Federal government has accepted the argument of the
people that their life style and community needs can be met
better by local government than the government in Washington.
Minority America must learn now how to relate, and secure
redress, from local government across the nation. If we fail
acquire the tools and means to do so now, we will allow a void to
occur in the transition of. funding control that could negate many
past civil rights accomplishments.
My office, recognizes that the seminars we hold can not
possibly give all the answers. They are offered to create an
awareness of a new need of minority America through person to
"person Input. ' ' T
To those unable to participate in our seminars, the following
Information may be helpful in dealing with government.
The first rule for a successful advocate is to know what
government agency has the responsibility for their area of
concern. Always be able to identify the policy office in the
agency and the responsible official.
Research thoroughly the legal bases, mandate and or funding
source of the office. This Information should indicate the existing
programs, . usually . . numerous, you may use singularly or
collectively for redress. ?t
.Always reduce your inquiry to a brief written letter or
statement,, addressed to the appropriate office head. This will
assure a response by someone with knowledge in your area of
concern.
When possible, be specific: Identify the legal basis and scope of
. your complaint, whether the problem relates to an individual or
many people, and always request a response.
. . It is also to your advantage to request that your inquiry, if
addressed to the wrong office, be forwarded to the appropriate
one and that you be advised of the referral.
Those with the reannnsihilltv for. renreicentinD the iipmU nt
, r r ' i - --
the ' better: minority Araeica, have the task of adapting existing programs and
laws angularly and collectively to meet tne needs or the day,
areas of future concern, and of bringing inadequacies of law to
the attention of elected officals for speedy, remedial, legislative
relief. '
The legislative process is, in all instances, slow and tedious. We
can ill afford, in haste to request anything short of total remedial
legislative responsiveness.
In a future column, I shall discuss two exciting programs in my
office that will In the future provide various techniques to involve
the poor in the local government planning and program process.
This column is offered as a public service by your newspaper.
Tilings You Should Know
HOWARD
Freedom
Journals
JOURNAL AND QU1D
LI alio Voting Easior
By tloforming Systom
Out of the slime of Watergate '
has come a new concern for
increasing citizen participation in
the democratic process.
The widespread corruption,
cover-ups, and influence-peddling ,
aided and abetted by the financial
wheeling and dealing that
accompanies American political
campaigns make it all the more
important to reform the system by
"which we elect our. representa
tives, -
.. Campaign finance reforms are
. important in this, but; just as
important is the drive to replace,
the horse and buggy registration
system with something not only,
more efficient, but that also
' encourages greater voter partici
pation and increased public
. interest in exercising the rights of
citizenship.' - ;T .
That . the heed" ' is ' great is
obvious. President Nixon often
talks about the "mandate he got '
from the voters in 1972, but his 47;
million votes amounted to only a :
third of the voting age population.
Over 62 million people did not vote
in 1972.
And this is no passing wave of
no-shows at the voting booth. It is
part of a persistent pattern of
lowered voter participation. Back
J? Pfwent.of voting
age citizens cast their votes. Then
registration was introduced and by
I960, it was down to 64 percent.
And by 1972, the rate plummentt
ed to only, 55 percent.
How about other democracies?
In France's recent election, 87 per
cent of the eligible voters went to
the polls. The same holds true for
other countries.
. What makes America the grand
exception? I can't . believe
Americans are less interested in
government than other peoples.
Nor is there any reason to believe ,
that factors such as literacy,
economic conditions, and . others
have any more impact here than in
other countries.
IT-,IS NOT A matter of small
interest ; that the Black Press is
observing its 147th anniversary at a
time when freedom of the press, a First
Amendment guarantee, is being
challenged.
Back in 1787 when the founding
fathers of this republic were
hammering out the First Amendment
freedoms, striking the) shackles from
what bad been the colonial press, the
black' man continued to stand in
chains, three-fifths of a man,
But freedom is Indivisible, and 40
years later, the fe first a black
newspaper Freedom1 Journal
raised its own masthead to fight
against slavery in the South and
discrimination and oppression in the
North. Soon it was joined by William
Lloyd Garrison and bis Liberator and
Elijah P. Lovejoy and his Observer.
There was no stopping ; this small
segment ; of - the press (even the ;
lynching . of Lovejoy) , until human
freedom was also achieved. '
, BUT THE freedom of blacks was
short-lived. And the struggle begun by
John B. Russwurm and the Rev,
Samuel E. Cornish- and their
Freedom's Journal and continued by
Willis Hodges and Frederick Douglass
and others was renewed. In the new .
effort, Calvin Chase Christopher
Perry, T. Thomas Fortune, Ida B.
Wells Barnett, and John Murphy took
the "lead These were followed by.,.,
Monroe Trotter, Robert S. Abbott, ,
W3. DuBois, P.B. Young Sr., and
Robert L. Vann.
Today, the National Newspaper
Publishers Association, representing a
membership of 129 black newspapers,
including all the ma jor ones, is helping
to focus the continued fight being
carried on by its members. : The
publishers of these newspapers are
. among the most astute and articulate
black leaders in America. Assurance
that the fight will continue is the
growing number of .young dedicated
publishers.;
THEIR FIGHT for freedom is
devoted in large measure to improving
the economic ' opportunities of 26 '
million black Americans who are not
benefiting as fully as they should from
their annual expenditure of nearly $50
billion.
The Black Press is an informer and
a sounding board, a crusader and a
protestor, a fighter and a healer. It is a
force that can stimulate further growth
of the American economy and help
heal the cancer of racism that
painfully divides the American people.
But again the freedom of the press
is challenged, because human freedom
continues to be threatened, especially
: the freedom of black Americans. The :
Black Press can help achieve freedom
of the press for all media, if all media .
will join hands in a fight for total
freedom. The message of Black. Press
Week was a reminder that freedom is
indivisible.-HBW
1830-1909
Bonn m leeds,maine a oraouate
of aepwotw COLLEGE, 190, and west point,
ias4 hi rouoMT suavely in the union
AMY At HEAD Or THE fWCtOMENll lUWCAU
MOM IISS TO U74 HC 010 MUCH rw THE WEL
CANE OPNEOftOES ME WAS. THE POUNDER
9' HOWARD UNIVERSITY- IN II 17 AND
SERVE0 AS THEIR PRESIDENT
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Editor-Publisher 1027-1971
L. E. AUSTIN
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