?-TV CPOt A T18 SAT- JANUARY 31. 197?
A Challenge to Black leadership
WhUU me RISING incidence of crime has been a source of
EMBARRASSMENT TO MANY BLACK LEADERS, FAR TOO MANY HAVE REMAINED
AMBIVALENT TOWARD THE PROBLEM. PERHAPS THROUGH FEAR OF PROVIDING COM
PORT TO RACISTS MASQUERADING BEHIND A MASKOFLAWAND ORDER! RECOGNIZE
THESE RISKS. BUT I ALSO RECOGNIZE AN EVEN GREATER RISK. THAT BLACKS
THEMSELVES NAY CONFUSE THE RIGHT OP BLACK PEOPLE TO PROTEST THEIR
UNSATISFACTORY CONDITION IN THE UNITED STATES WITH THE OPPORTUNITY
FOR CRIMINALS TO PREY ON EXPOSED CITIZENS?
DR. AHPKk-UEMWMER
Record Enrollment At Historically
Black Institutions
Enrollment at the historically or
traditionally black public colleges and.
universities reached a record level for the
fall of 1975 according to the newest
Advancement news letter.
These reports cover the thirty-four
historically black public colleges or
universities which enrolled some
136,946 students. The totals included
121,939 as undergraduates with the
remaining 15,007 being classified as
gr students,, , ,,,,. arp
This represents an increase of
approximately 13.5 per cent in
enrollment figures.
It is also important to note that
academic programs at the traditionally
public black colleges were expanded
significantly for the 1975-76 year and
possibly will increase in some offerings
in the future.
Among the range of newer fields of
study offered at some of the institutions
are baccalaureate degrees in
telecommunications and housing
management at Texas Southern
University; Commercial music and
manufacturing technology at Kentucky
State; Mental Hygiene at Fort Valley
State; Transportation and Agribusiness
at N. C. A&T State University and
Lincoln University at Missouri; Criminal
Justice and Public Administration at
North Carolina Central University and
Journalism and Communications at
Norfolk State.
The historically black public colleges
and universities provide a unique
opportunity for the nation to make long
strides in affirmative action to counter
the effects of discrimination against one
minority in our society. Today, enrolling
students of all RACES, they continue to
provide for all an example of the
productivity of investment in affirmative
programs to correct past inequities.
' With limited funds coming' to these
institutions throughout the years from
state appropriations and receipts from
students, the need for money and other
support is more critical than ever to
provide urograms and services not
included" in the regular budget. Average
income of families of the the students
enrolled in these institutions, according
to the data submitted, is $6,400.
If these institutions are to continue to
fulfill their roles or missions and realize
their maximum contributions to the
states and the nation voluntary financial
support from individual business,
industries, and foundations need to be
increased.
We would certainly hope that the
rounding out of our Bicentennial year
will see a tremendous gain in financial
support for these most worthy
institutions who render untold services
to all America.
Hillside School Facility
On Monday an advisory committee
on Occupational Education submitted to
the City School Board a highly critical
report on the vocational education
facilities at UUlside High School.
That Hillside's facilities are
inadequate should come as no great
surprise to any individual or committee.
Hillside is still suffering the aftermath of
"separate but equal" legacy which was
separate but never equal.
One must review carefully the past
history of Durham's city school system
in order to get an honest perspective on
the schools. This is especially important
for the many persons who are new to the
community.
Black parents and other citizens have
sought and asked for more adequate and
better facilities for their children
throughout the years, but with little
success. It is possible that this is the
reason for many of the newer school ,
bond defeats since most funds were;
diverted other ways.
Some five years ago when the schools
became more integrated some attempts
- were made to improve the facilities.
Usually such improvements were most
inadequate for the desired use. In the
meantime, most funds were being
diverted to the county school system to
provide new schools or ' to build
additions and schools in the fringe areas
to at least minimize integration of the
school system. Urban renewal within the
predominantly black communities left
no available and decent housing, was
being built in the outlying areas. So
black families also went to the outlying
areas where more and better homes
would be available, thus decreasing the
usual school population in many areas.
The time is ripe for the city school
board to take a closer look at the
conditions and location of the city high
school. Population patterns, and
available land space for a new school
within the city area should be looked at
carefully.
The life and welfare of school
children should be uppermost in
planning future educational
opportunities for inner city school
education.
Surely greater focus should be placed
on attempts to correct the inadequate
school facilities. Provisions for the best
possible education for children within
the city school system should be made as
well.
State Of The Union Not So Good
For a nation that grew great by thinking
big and being realistic, we now seem to be
entering a phase of thinking small and
indulging in myths. The President's State of
the Union address, like the
pronouncements of many political
candidates, today, reflects this new
cramped, narrow perception of what
America is all about
Thus, instead of the long-awaited
institution of a national health insurance
program that assure everyone, rich or poor,
of high quality, comprehensive health care,
we get a proposal for some kind of major
medical expense coverage for Medicare
recipients and a vague hope that some day
there might be some form of plan to widen
middle, class participation in private
insurance programs.
Now that's just not good enough. It
doesn't deal with the issue at all, which is
how can we as a society construct a health
care system that delivers quality services to
all, regardless of race or income.
Welfare is treated the same way. The
President, says it isn't "the right time for
massive and sweeping changes while we are
still recovering from the recession." But
now is exactly the right time to replace the
welfare system with an income
maintenance program that includes a
universal refundable income tax credit.
Again, the same sort of "thinking small"
comes through on jobs, for the President
says "our kind of government cannot
create that many jobs." Why not? That
sounds more like an argument for changing
our kind of government than it does as a
TO BE EQUA
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Exscrin Cirtctar Kifttai
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reason for accepting intolerable
unemployment rates.
The fact is our government can create
jobs, not only, as the President suggested,
through incentives to the private sector,
but in direct public works projects and in
public service employment jobs.
The new mythology was too much in
evidence as well. He put forth the idea that
"massive national programs" were tried and
that they failed. He lamented the supposed
shift in emphasis from defense to domestic
spending which supposedly unbalanced our
economy.
Anybody here remember VietnamTThat
war cost over $200 billion, shifting money
from the domestic economy to war waste
and inducing the inflation and depression
of the early 70s. That, not the feeble social
programs of the 60s is what turned our
economy sour.
More myths include the one about the
so-called "scandal ridden food stamp
program" which is scandalous only to the
extent that it has been successful in
supplementing incomes of low-income
families.
It's been well documented that the
program is about as free from irregularities
as any other federal program, and attacks
on the food stamp program along with the
proposal to tighten welfare eligibility and
benefits, reflect a meanness of spirit out of
keeping with the meaning of the
Bicentennial, year.
There was something else very
noteworthy about the President's State of
the Union speech, although I doubt if
many people noticed it. There was not one
single reference to black people or other
minorities in the whole speech, not one!
Nothing about the government's role in
enforceing the civil rights laws, nothing
about the disproportionate sufferings black
people have endured in the current
Depression, nothing about mob attempts to
deny blacks their constitutional rights in
desegregated schools.
Nothing about the needs, the hopes, the
aspirations of the largest minority in the
country, the most urbanized people in our
nation of cities, the majority of the
population in the nation's Capital-nothing,
not one word!
That may have been the biggest
disappointment in an address riddled with
disappointments.
The President said: "It is time we quit
downgrading ourselves as a nation.' To
which I say, "amen," but indulging in the
new rhetoric of smallness, propogating
myths, and refusing to recognize our social
and racial problems is in itself a way of
downgrading our country and its potential.
About the only consolation is that,
considering the way this year has started,
there's nowhere to go now but up.
"ONE ISSUE COMMISSIONER?"
One of the most vexing issues I face as I
move about the country addressing this
group or that one, is the often heard
remark: "Now Commissioner Hooks seems
like a nice feljpw, but he is a 'one issue'
Commissioner. He appears to be
pre-occupiel with minority affairs. This
remark is made usually after I have visited a
city or talked to a reporter.
I wouldn't mind being labeled a "one
issue" Commissioner if a reporter had
taken the time to query me on a
wide-ranging number of subjects the
Federal Communications Commission must
deal with in its regulatory work. But the
remark s is .generally made: tagaiiist :r 8
background that is incomplete, to say the
least, rendered so by the reporter's own
inclination to ask me only those questions
that touch on minority affairs.
Now many of these reporters are from
the broadcasting medium and this, it
appears to me, doubles the irony. For if
these reporters are up on the functions of
the FCC, they would know I not only
participate in the myriad issues that come
before the Commission, but often I write
detailed concurring or dissenting
statements setting forth my views in these
matters.
But these reporters sit down and ask me
questions like; ' How many black radio and
television stations are there?What do you
see as the role of minorities and women in
U3enjamin
SL.
Moohs
FCC
Commissioner
television and radio2Are you satisfied with
the employment of minorities in
broadcasting?" And then, after we finish
all of that, time has usually run out on the
show or the interview and it gets reported
that all I was interest in was minority
affairs;...; if,l..r.':
Weil,-aam it, anfa "minority, i have
been all my life. So are my people - family,
friends, etc. Quite obviously I am interest
in them and the gross mistreatment they
are we have received historically in the
media and other social and economic strata
of this country.
I would be less than a human being, if I
didn't keep formost among my thoughts
the place from whence I came. So it is
quite obvious from my record that I have a
deep and abiding interest in minority
affairs and will have until blacks and other
minorities can fashion a better, more
equitable life in our country.
If there hadn't been a growing and vocal
minority interest in communications or
people like Bill Wright (former president of
BEST, a community communications
group) and Ted Ledbetter, also a vocal
leader in the fight to secure blacks a more
equal footing in the communications
media, I would probably have not been
considered for, much less appointed to the
FCC.
So I do not need to apologize, nor do I
apologize for my deep interest in minority
affair s.
What concerns me always is to be made to
appear limited. I do not charge that these
reporters are malicious, or, if you will,
limited in skills. It comes out that way,
sometimes, however, in the manner in
which they pursue their story. Even
those questions before ' the Commission
that seem to 1 bear uniquely on minority
affairs usually have a broader application.
And this can be discerned on closer
examination. Time the simple, but highly
charged issue of equal employment and fair
upgrading. A company (and I have heard
many epxress this) feels better about itself
and the job it is doing (and consequently,
often does a much better job) when it hires
fairly and upgrades fairly regardless of race.
So even equal employment opportunity
issues become less a minority issue that one
that impacts heavily on all Americans,
black, white, yellow and red. And, even in
this narrow context, in waging an
unrelenting battle for EEO, I am thus, less
a minority affairs Commissioner than I am
a federal official who wants tu make our
stated Constitutional principles applicable
to all Americans.
Congressman
Lxs
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Haivluns'
'Column
What Economic Recovery?
As preparation for the show down in the
1976 elections, the administration's guns
are blasting the media waves with economic
recovery dribble. Dribble is the best
descriptive word for the dishonest
administration portrayal of this depression,
as being in the throes of recovery.
Arthur Burns, chief seer for the Federal
Reserve Board, keeps prattling about the
most bizarre factors regarding this
trumped-up recovery. The other day he
looked into his cracked crystal ball and
announced quite seriously that the
recovery had "developed a forward
momentum", all due to a recent upsurge in
the stock market prices, (Any five cent
administration economist could have told
Burns that the speculators were at it again,
and that spurts in stock market prices only
lets one know where the speculators heads
are.)
Burns cites the increase of l.S million
jobs since April 1975, as another recovery
factor; he purposely forgets that the total
labor force has also increased at about that
same level since November 1974! He
further cites the strong showing of retail
sales especially during Christmas; but what
he cleverly forgets to mention is that
Sm Congressman pagt 3 '
In this our bicentennial
year we should look anew
at the man for whom our
State of North Carolina is
named, King Charles I of
England. The memory of
King Charles, the only
person ever formally
canonized by the Church
of England, is especially
dear to Anglicans
throughout the world.
King Charles gave his life
to preserve the Church of
England as a reformed
Catholic Church. He
refused to surrender or
compromise the apostolic
succession - the scriptural
and catholic ministry of
deacons, priests and
bishops. At a time when
kings were expected to be
and accepted as men of
less than perfect moral
behavior, King Charles I
was a devout Christian and
steadfastly faithful to his
wife, Queen Henrietta
Maria. I am proud that our
state is named for this
Royal Martyr and Saint of
the Church.
January 30th is the
Feast Day of King Charles
the Martyr. On this day
the North Carolina
Regional Branch of the
American Church Union
will sponsor a special Mass
in commemoration of
King Charles I at St.
Joseph's Episcopal Church
in Fayetteville. Members
of the Society of King
Charles the Martyr from
throughout the nation are
expected to attend this
Service of
Commemoration at 7:30
p.m.
Father Albert T. J.
Heath, Rector of St.
Joseph's Church, joins me
in cordially inviting all
North Carolinians to join
us in this commemoration.
Robert M Pace
President, N.C Regional Branch
The American Church Union,Ina
lings You Should Knoi?
WIUIAMS
. . .CELEBRATED LAWYER ft HISTORIAN
WHOSE TWO-VOLUME WORK ON NEGRO HISTORY
CAME OUT IN 1882 HIS HISTORY OF THE NEGRO
TROOPS IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION WAS
PUBLISHED IN 1887 ONE FACT HE HELPED UNEARTHiHIMSELF
ACIVILWAR VETERAN IS THE BATTLE OFMtlLIKEN's, BjNftON
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER JUNE CL I863L IN WHICH A NEGRO SOLDIER
TOOK HIS FORMER MASTER PRISONER