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The refusal by the U. S.
Supreme Court to hear the
case of "Wilmington, N. C.
10" was strongly
condemned by the
National Alliance Against
Racist and Political
Repression, one of whose
vice-chairpersons, the Rev.
Benjamin Chavis, is a
defendant in the case. The
defendants face 1 8 1282
years in prison for their
part in an incident growing
out of a 1971 struggle in
Wilmington for equal
education for Black
students.
"The essence of the
case," said the Alliance
statement issued by
executive secretary
Charlene Mitchell, 'is the
persecution of ten young
people" who were
"defending a church in
that city's Black
community from a
four-day armed siege of
bullets and firebombs
launched by the Ku Klux
Klan and other racist
faoatics. The wrong
people, the victims rather
than the perpetrators,
were brought to trial' '
A demand for bail
pending the obtaining of a
writ of habeas corpus is
the. immediate defense
priority, according to the
Alliance. A national and
international campaign to
secure bail will be
launched immediately,
with the aim of building a
movement on the scale of
that which came to the
defense of Angela Davis
four years ago.
The Alliance, whose
officers in addition to the
Reverend Chavis include
Ms. Davis, has given major
leadership to the national
defense effort around the
Wilmington 10, as has tne
United Church of Christ's
Commission for Racial
Justice, for whom Rev.
Chavis is Washington, d. C.
field director.
The Alliance statement
linked the refusal of the
Sea Alliance pgt 3
VOLUME 54 NUMBERS DURHAM,NORTH CAROLINA SATURDAY. JANUARY 31, 1976 PRICE: 20 CENTS
ROBESON
Durham Native Elected
Mayor Of Gastonia
Private Funeral Services
For Paul Robeson
Held Tuesday In Harlem
By Regina Marrow
Times Staff Writer
Private funeral services were
held Tuesday evening at Mother
A. M. E. Zion Church in Harlem
for the world renown basso
profundo-Paiil Bustill Robeson.
All day Tuesday, blacks and
whites filed past the bier, paying
their respects to the former
singer and actor.
Robeson, 77, died Friday,
January 23, in a Philadelphia
hospital. After - suffering a
stroke, he was admitted to
Presbyterian Medical Center on
Dec. 28.
Robeson's outspoken critism
of American racism, his praise of
the Soviet Union, and his
friendships with U. S. Comunist
party members, caused Blacks
and others to shun and ostracize
him in the 40's and 50's. For
more than a decade, he lived in
seclusion at his sister's home in
West Philadelphia, seeing only
family members and a few close
friends.
The actor, singer, athlete,
ignored honors and tributes paid
to him toward the end of his
life. Rutgers University, where
he starred in football, named a
student center in his honor.
Robeson's life was the subject of
an one hour documentary on
national television last year. And
he was nominated for induction
into the football Hall of Fame.
Paul Bustill Robeson was
born the youngest of five
children on April 9, 1898, in
Princeton, N. J. ftis father, the
Rev. William Robeson, escape
from a . North Carolina
plahfatfoii- in "1860. WAliam
Robeson worked his way
through Lincoln Universtiy, and
in 1 876 he married Maria Louisa
Bustill, a school teacher. .
Paul's father had a strong
influence on his life. In an
autobiography written in the
1950's he recalled: "I loved my
father like no one else in all the
world..,As I went out into life
one thing loomed above all else;
I was my father's son, a Negro in
America. That was the
challenge."
Robeson met the challenge as
he gained fame in his role as the
noble Spanish moor, in
"Othello.' The play ran for 296
performances in New York in
1943, an all-time record for a
See Robeson page 3
GASTONIA - Thebaud
Jeffers, a four term city
councilman was recently
elected mayor of Gastonia,
. becoming the first black to
serve in that capacity in the
city's 1 00 year history.
His election came at a
session of the Gastonia City
Council following the death of
Mayor Roland Bradley.
Bradley, 54, died recently
following surgery he had earlier
in the month.
Jeffers attended public
school in Durham and
graduated from Hillside High
School. His undergraduate
work was completed at
Johnson C. Smith University in
Charlotte. His graduate degree
was received from the
University of Southern
California. He it a lecturer at
the College of Human.
Development and Learning at
the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte.
He was a secondary
supervisor with the Gaston
County Schools from 1968
until his retirement last June,
1975. Prior to that time he was
principal of Highland High
School in Gastonia for 28
years.
1
JEFFERS
In accepting the
responsibility of the
mayorship, Jeffers stated ' I
'xet:,the''Menge-vnd HA
challenge all councilmen to
move the city forward."
He also spoke of continuing
the projects of the city in the
areas of-urban renewal of the
Highland area, further
development of the waste
treatment plant, streets and
roads, and more recreation
facilities.
SEN. HENRY JACKSON
Proposes $ Dillion School
Plan to End Busing
James Kemp To Address
NAACP Sat. at Royal Villa
JAMES KEMP
James Kemp of Chicago will
address the second Legislative
Banquet of the NAACP
Saturday, January 31, at 7 p.m.
at the Royal Villa Convention
Center, Raleigh.
Kemp was Resolution
Chairman of the 66th National
Convention of the NAACP in
Washington, D. C. He is on the
National Board of Directors, a
NAACP Life Member and Board
member of the Chicago NAACP.
for 30 years.
Kemp, a very active man in
many social and civic areas, is a
trustee of Talladega College,
Talladega, Alabama, was
appointed Business
Representative of General
Service Employees Union Local
73, AFL-CIO 1940 through
present, elected President of
Local 189 in 1946 and re-elected
for successive terms through
1975, member of the executive
board, Chicago Federation of
Labor since 1959, member of
Executive Board Service Federal
Sayings and Loan Association,
appointed by Governor Otto
Kerner as Commissioner to
Illinois Fair Employment
Practices Commission January
1961, re-appointed for two
4-year terms, reappointed by
Governor Richard Ogilvie in
1969, appointed member of the
Board of Directors of the
Regional Transit Authority, July
1,1975.
The purpose of the banquet is
to launch a special financial
effort to make the budget of the
NAACP Raleigh Bureau
Legislative Program. The price of
the tickets is $25 a piece. For
tickets, send money to
NAACP-Raleigh Bureau, P. O.
Box 1422, Raleigh, N. C. 27602.
THIS PAPER CONTAINS
NATIONAL BLACK RECORD POOL
WASHINGTON, D. C. -CNS
- Sen. Henry M.
Jackson (D-Wash.) became
the first of 13 major
presidential candidates to
issue a definitive statement
on school busing this year
when he called for a
billion dollar voluntary
desegregation program to
replace court ordered
integration. .
Jackson announced at
the beginning of the year
that he will introduce
legislation this month to
extend the Desegregation
Assistance Program,
authorizing $1 billion for
the next two years to help
local communities develop
and implement school
desegration plans.
Jackson's bill will:
Establish special
three-judge courts for
busing cases, denying
individual Judges the
Authority to order or
extend school busing
plans.
- Require the Court to
determine the actual
effects busing would have
on the quality of
education in each school
district and demonstrate
that other desegregation
remedies would not be
effective; and
- Limit busing orders to
.remedying specific
'instances of segregation.
Courts would not be
permitted to extend
busing orders to areas
where the existance of
segregation had not been
shown.
The proposed
legislation was included in
a detailed position paper
on "Educational Quality
and School
Desegregation," released
by Jackson's office last
Tuesday. The Democratic
candidate said his position
will ' end the school
busing controversy and
renew a national focus on
the central concern - the
education of our
children.''
He added: ''We have
moved in busing decrees
from the effort to
dismantly dual school
systems - clearly
compelled by the
Constitution - to a totally
different undertaking: a
form of social engineering
and rigid mathematical
race balancing which the
Constitution does not
contemplate."
Based on the evidence
so far available, Jackson
said, busing in large cities,
has neither improved the
levels of academic
achievement for minority
children nor broken down
artificial social and racial
barriers caused by school
segregation.
SOUTHERN CIVIL RIGHTS FIGURES ISSUE
xumm
ATLANTA, GA. - Southern civil rights leaders
have issued a warning to the Black community and
to civil rights advocates across the country
concerning legislation pending in this session of
Congress which they say could turn the U. S. into a
police state. The legislation is titled Senate Bill I.
Issuing the joint statement were veteran civil
. rights figures Julian Bond, John Lewis, Rev. Ralph
Abernathy and Bernard Lee. Abernathy and Lee
are President and Vice-President, respectively, of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Bond, Lewis, Abernathy and Lee were active
figures in the civil rights movements of the South
in the 1960's. They said that if passed, S. 1 4 would
be a monumental set-back to the civil rights gains
of the last 20 years.' They called it the most
dangerous legislative threat to the rights of all
Americans ever to come before the Congress, and
said it would strike hardest at Blacks and
minorities.
. ; S. I is reworking of the entire U. S. criminal
code that was introuduced in its original form into
Ltjfl. Congress Jby former President Nixon. It is
pending betore the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Its supporters include President Ford, Senate
Democratic leader Mike Mansfield and Republican
leader Hugh Scott.
The civil rights leaders said, "S. I would outlaw
many of the methods of mass, nonviolent protest
of the 1960's. It would encourage government
harassment such as that directed against the late
Dr. Martin Luther King by the FBI. S. I would
silence press exposure of government secrets, and
would turn concepts of criminal justice upside
down." They said Blacks would "face an ominous
series of repressive laws in today's struggles for
justice if S. I is passed.' '
According to the statement, S. I protects
government employees who commit illegal acts,
calls for widespread wiretapping, provides a
mandatory death penalty and harsher prison
sentences with less parole or probation.
The four said S. I, a 753-page bill, "is so filled
with the repressive taint of the Nixon policies that
amendments cannot save it.' They called for
immediate efforts by people concerned with justice
to defeat the measure.
SeeJText of Statement page 1 1
BIS Reports Dlodt Unoiaplaviacat
Rate Unchanged In Fourth
Quarter of WS
WASHINGTON - The
unemployment rates for
both blacks (Negro and
other races) and whites
were unchanged in the
fourth quarter of 1975 at
levels somewhat below
their second quarter peaks,
the U. S. Labor
Department's Bureau of
Labor Statistics has
reported.
In the fourth quarter of
1975, the unemployment
rate for black workers was
13.9 per cent and for
white workers 7.7 per
cent, compared with
black-white second quarter
peaks of 14.3 and 8.2 per
cent, respectively.
B 1 a c k - w h i t e
unemployment rate
differentials clearly
i 1 1 u s t ra t e the
d i s proportionate
distribution of total
joblessness.
On an overall basis, the
ratio of these jobless rates'
was 1 .8 to 1 .
However, the rates
among black adult men
(12.1 per cent) and black
teenagers (35.6 per cent)
were about twice the rates
among their white
counterparts (6.2 and 17.5
per cent, respectively).
The black-white
differential among women
was somewhat less one
and a half times as great
(12.1 per cent versus 7.4
per cent).
Even though blacks
constituted less than 12
per cent of the nation's
labor force, they
accounted for 19 per cent
of the unemployed.
Moreover, they
represented a much greater
percentage - over 30 per
cent - of the number of
discouraged workers.
There are workers who
have given up the job
search because they think
no jobs are available.
Among Vietnam-era
Sm Unemployed pap 0
STO
Cbrk Pres. Vfrlca IIcnJciscnlDIcs
DR. VIVIAN W. HENDERSON, PRESIDENT OF CLARK,
COLLEGE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, DIED WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON AT 2:25 ' AS HE WAS BEING i
PREPARED FOR SURGERY AT ST. ( JOSCPH1 4
INFIRMARY IN ATLANTA. HE HAD BECOME ILL AT
HIS HOME ANO WAS HOSPITALIZED SUNDAY NIGHT.
ARRANGEMENTS WERE INCOMPLETE AT PRESS TIME.
f
r
MRS. ESTELLE COLEMAN
North Carolinian Named
Dank Assistant V. Pres.
NEW YORK - Mrs.
Estelle Coleman, an
Assistant Secretary and
first Black woman
manager of an office for
The New York Bank for
Savings, has been
promoted to Assistant
Vice President, it was
announced by Arthur J.
Quinn, Chairman of the
Board and Chief Executive
Officer.
This makes her the
highest ranking black
woman in the bank which
is the first savings
institution chartered in
New York State, in 1819.
Mrs. Coleman, a mother
of five and a grandmother
of six, became the first
black woman in the bank's
system in New York State
to serve as manager of a
branch office at 600
Madison Avenue (58th
Street). Deposits at this
office are over SI 36
million.
A resident of
Englewood, New Jersey,
Mrs. Coleman has been
employed by The New
York Bank for Savings for
the past 1 1 years. A native
of Raleigh, she was raised
in Boston, Mass.
Mrs. Coleman had no
experience in banking
when she was first hired as
a temporary employee
when the bank opened its
Harlem division at 135th
Street and Lenox Avenue.
Her aptitude to deal with
figures was noticed by her
supervisor.
Asked to become a
permanent staffer, she
accepted and was enrolled
in the American Institute
of Banking to learn the
See COLEMAN, "age 6
Range! Hails Passage
Of King Salute Bill
Congressman Charles B.
Rangel (D-NY) applauded
the House of
Representatives for its
action in approving a plan
to place a bust or statute
of the late Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., in
Statuary Hall in the
Capitol. Rangel, who is
Chairman of the seventeen
member Congressional
Black Caucus, said, "The
overwhelming vote of
approval that the House
gave this resolution is
illustrative of our
commitment to keep alive
the memory of this most
important American."
The New York
Democrat, who represents
Harlem, East Harlem and
the upper Westside
community in Manhattan,
went on to say, "It is
particularly fitting that the
House of Representatives
passed this legislation in
this Bicentennial Year,
when we as a nation
reded icate ourselves to the
principles that guided the
lives of our founding
fathers and Dr. King. The
successful action which
the House took on
Tuesday comes as a result
of the tireless efforts of
those Representatives who
believed that some
permanent tribute to Dr.
King was necessary."
"Although I am happy
to have been a part of this
effort, there is much more
that we can do to
commemorate this great
spiritual and moral leader.
I think that Congress
should resolve itself to
enact as quickly as
possible the bill that
would make Dr. King's
birthday a national
holiday. This would make
our Bicentennial
celebration all the more
rewarding," Rangel said.
NOTICE
THE FEBRUARY 7 ISSUE OF
THE CAROLINA TIMES WILL
BE PRINTED ON TUESDAY.
FEBRUARY S. FOR THAT
ISSUE ONLY. DEADLINE
FOR NEWS WILL BE MONDAY
MORNING AT 10. '