Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Jan. 13, 1979, edition 1 / Page 4
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4-THE CARQLIMA TIMES 1 . I1 SAT., JANUARY 13. 1979 Blacks Destiny In Own Hands . . . to Dimum i V ' .- I I .J. ijJSM W'lM MORE ENCOURAGED TODAY THAN IHAVE BEEN IN ALONG VS2W HAMILTON SAID HIS YfiSSV'WlA ENCOURAGEMENT DID NOT COME TJkViTli FROM THE ENLIGHTMENT OF fe9??1tASu L DTf RMINATtON OF BLACK ftSr FWME0PLfi TO DO FOR THEMSELVES. 'vS' SSlvV OR.CHARLE6 KHAML TON xs 1979-Year of Crisis? By Vernon Jordan EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE i-.Ny.-.V.V.VAV.V.V.V.V.-AW.V.V.V.V.-.V, if- S: ?T979" may : TOlTTWr a ye 'ot crisis for appearea. low income housing, and health programs, and blacks and minorities. inCj Administration is in tneir piace are a iar grimmer sci ui iucs. otner activities essential to tne poor. practicing economic brinksrhanship. One where we were once discussing the impact ot small mascalculation and we could be plunged new steps to combat unemploy into a major recession. - " ment, urban decay " am1 joblessness, we For blacks,, recession is almost assured. The now must WOnder just how bad things will get in "black economy"' is already in a depressed 1979, Forget about new measures and initiatives, state. Anything less than steady economic jt holding on to the present very bad situation growth means fewer , job opportunities avail- is the dominant theme. able for blacks, in other words, recession. jhc fijst clue as to what 1979 will bring will ' And planning for slower growth is, be found in the Administration's budget proposals, trickey. No one has; ever been able to put .. For weeks Washington has been occupied with breaks on the ' economy without having it speculation about how deeply" domestic programs spin., out of corftrol into a full-scale re- will be cut. cession. If that ; happens, black people and instead of dealing, with increased employment jjoor people will be in a true crisis. ' opportunities, officials are trying to decide :x'&$&yfak hard to look ahead to the coming how many pubUc service jobs should be scrapped, year Swith much optimism. It's even harder Those jobs are needed desperately by the poor and 'when I remember last year's issues. Last Jan- long-term unemployed. They should be increas uary i identified, among others, three ed, not cut back. But cuts are in store, major issues that would bear watching. jhe being clamped op the, federal budget They included the effect of passage of the probably won t be impartial in its effects. Urban Humphrey-Hawkins Bill on creaung joos, the the nature of the olanned urban policy, and outlook pr welfare reform. Here we are a year later and: Humphrey-Hawkins won't effect the Administration's planned slowdown, the urban policy has been all but shelved, and wel fare reform, is dead. In a matter of months, last, year's burning isssues have dis- an social programs will take a beating, while de fense and other sectors hold their own or even gain. That could be too. Cutbacks in people offer politicians rewards. They cart pose as miiaiion-iigniers, noiauiK ,auwn ioacs wiuic slashing away at job anf framing proarams. a signal to states and. cities programs that benen poor One maior issue in 1979 will be whether the private sector renews its commitment to affirma tive action: The New Negativism gripping the nation has made affirmative action one- of its major targets, and the Bakke decision encouraged some to think the pressure is. off on broadening minority opportunites. ? , pie most enlightened elements in the private sector are working hard to include blacks and other minorities, but others may try to take ad vantage of the national ambiguity and evade their responsibilities. And affirmative action becornes harder to achieve in recession conditions when opportunites shrink for all races. 1979 has some hidden issues too, the kind of concerns that don't make headlines but often have the greatest - long-term impact. One such issue is black voter education and registra tion; A broad national efffort to involve min orities in the democratic process is essential. A second hidden issue is the 1980 census, which will be framed and set in place in the coming year. Without a foolproof means of avoiding the traditional undercount of blacks, minority communities will once again be shortchanged in important federal and local programs. ;ll 51 EDITORIALS A Dangerous Pattern Who Ordered the Torch? This newspaper had carried stories in recent weeks describing incidents at area K-Mart stores which smack of racketeer ing and hooliganism in the name of store security. We dare not claim that our stories were complete reports. There may have been more to the incidents than we were told. But it is apparent that K-Mart employees are instructed to respond like a vigilante mob to code signals broadcast over the store's public address system. The smell of racketeering comes from the similarity of the K-Mart re sponse to scenes from old movies, when tha- 4ockworkers swarm jpver ,thp too-, -Curious . WSitoratfthe ivorder of "-can leaders. The behavior is also similar to the "Hey Rube" battle cry of the old-time' carnival and circus gangs. In days not too long past, carnies and circus folk avoided all contact with law enforcement officers. Any disturbance brought the cry "Hey Rube" and the roustabouts swarmed to beat the intruder. All too often, that re sponse was to a complaint by a visitor who had been cheated at a gambling booth. There is no evidence that the code call at K-Mart has anything to do with a racket. The only crime the K-Mart employees seem to be committing is assault and battery. That is enough. None of the iejjorts we've heard have had any thing to do with the physical danger to K-Mart employees. The customers have been charged, or suspected of, nonviolent crimes, perhaps - shoplifting, or passing bad checks. What K-Mart is accused of doing, how ever, is identical to collecting debts with a baseball bat. The employees are com mitting, a more seirous crime than, their customers are charged with. We ask responsible officials of K-Mart to order the discontinuance of the code call procedure, or to limit it to a call to a trained security officer, and not to young, inexperienced male employees - stock clerks and trainees who are very On Sunday, January 7, two of the remaining three businesses located in the Hayti Urban Renewal Project were destroyed by fire and a third damaged by smoke and water. Fire is a hazard all property own ers are aware of and take precau tions to prevent it. Arson, however, is a different story. Arson not only involves the fire itself, but a motive behind the set ting of it. When arson occurs, one party is seeking to destroy the live lihood of another,, and the reasons for this destruction i.must be con sidered ; . 4 In the case of E.N. Toole & Sons Electrical ComtjanyServjce Print- After almost eleven years, the redevelopment program, given extended life to finish the task of relocating us, has had its task almost accomplished. While we do not implicate the Redevelop ment, the fire does solve their problem. Next, there is the reputation of THE CAROLINA TIMES, now in its 57th year. The paper has long worked to provide information for and about . black people and to expose those injustices oppressed people have suffered for years. Is it because we have tried to expose these things and fight for the under dog since Louis E. Austin launched be re expect found? itie Comnanv atvd!,s?i!he. Carolina, , .likely to lise thepBrnity tobre,akth(8 TutiMihHfW fflarinTulati 1 long run a crimnal act. And we urge the police officers of our community to conduct full iivesti gations of these incidents. They have apparently responded by finding a charge against the customer (a charge that often does not stick). If a store customer charges that he has been beaten by employees, with countercharges from the store, everyone involved should be de tained until the incident is cleared up. Other customers witnessed the incidents we have reported, and were willing to join the injured customer's complaint. Under those circumstances, the em- Eloyee-mob and the mob-leader should ave been arrested. We are not supposed to be living in a lawless society yet. Continuing Education . . A Better Life On Saturday, January 13, North Caro lina Central University's Office of Con tinuing Education will offer the first class of a course in Nutrition for the Elderly. The course is a home economics course, offering three semester hours of credit, designed to help employees of the many agencies serving the senior citizen do better jobs for tneir clientele . During the spring semester, the Office of Continuing Education will offfer other courses, ranging from a survey of art to calligraphy to introductory Arabic. The thread that ties these courses to gether is that each course is designed to meet a specific need of the student enrolled. The art course will be offered to students who want to be able to look at and enjoy works of art, and to be able to understand them. The arable course is for those people who are interested in the religion and culture of Islam, who will be able to read at least parts of the Koran after taking the course, as well as other Arabic literature. The course incalli grpahy (the word means "beautiful handwriting") may meet vocational needs of some students, who may be involved in the graphic arts, and will provide an in troduction to a rewarding hobby for others. The development Education program Central University of the Coninuing at North Carolina is based on the assumption that the people of Durham and the Durham area are interested in education, in learning, for its own sake or 'for self-improvement. The Continuing Ed ucation courses being deVleoped by Dr. Waltz Maynor and Ms. Claudia DiBona of the Office of Continuing Education will not be oriented toward degrees. The courses will be those specific courses the people of Durham say they want to take on a university campus. For that reason, it is important that you express you interest in these courses, or any other course you want to take. If you have suggestions for courses related to your job or to your hobby, write Ms. Claudia . DiBona, Office of Continuing Education, North Carolina Central Uni versity, Durham, N.C. 27707. North Carolina Central University is offering, through its Continuing Educa tion program, an opportunity to make your life just a little more rewarding. The rewards may come through increased pay, greater job satisfaction, or the fullfillment of an interest. They won't come unless you express an interest. These three businesses are the last of a once thriving Hayti dis trict where some 1 06 black owned and operated businesses held forth. Since 1968, we have waited to be relocated from this redevelopment area. Until Sunday, we were still waiting and hoping that negotia tions were doming to a satisfac tory settlement. Because we have sought to retain our square footage, we have had to negotiate, bargain, and meet endlessly on the issue, without gaining satisfaction. To give up and yield to an unjust settlement would be extremely detrimental to our businesses. As all have seen, "redevelopment" in the Hayti project has meant black removal. If you don't believe it, count the number hf businesses still operating now that operated in 1965. There are known instances of some businesses in the redevelop ment area surviving the relocation process and actually thriving after that. It happens, you might note, that those businesses1 were mostly white-owned. Now, let us impress upon you that we have no quarrel with anyone who receives fair and just settlement or better than fair and just settlement,' but if one receives it, then all should have an , equal opportunity to receive it. And this opportunity has not been afforded to us. i Ji; . the paper that an attempt was made TO-Durnus out 01 ousiness" ana,.; mj. lVVUUJV Is it truth we ve tried to expose the that this attempt was made? Further, some distressing infor mation and statements have come to light. During the fire, a fireman was heard to say, "Well, I guess the cops downtown are happy now since The Carolina Times is out of business." We must wonder if there are not certain factions within the police department that would be happy to see us destroy ed. As our readers know, we have published reports of police bru tality, beatings and mistreatment recently. In all cases, we did not MAKE the news, we only reported it - and we are going to continue to do just that so long as God gives strength to do so and our readers demand to know. We know that all policemen are not beating prisoners and mistreating people. In fact, we know many who are doing a commendable job under very trying circumstances. But a number of others make the good look bad. Many of our readers do not know of the numerous break-ins in, the Pettigrew Street area and that in at least four years, none of the culprits have been prosecuted or property recovered even in one instance when juveniles were caught , in the building and taken to the police station only to be released minutes later with no charges brought. If typewriters cannot covered, why should we that the arsonist will be In a corresponding story this week, we know that the latest equipment has not been used in the investigation of the fire (up to our press time). Durham's arson squad is only , one year old and we do not expect it to be top-notch with so little experi ence, but experts with the SBI could have been called in for help. This, we're told, they have decided not to do. Why is there such reluctance ;Nflfl))e part of, thearprji. wiuad,. them if they really intend to do their job well? Is it because we published stories of police injustices that they have not worked as hard on this case as opposed to someone more friendly to them? Next, there are the statements by Mr. Nathaniel B. White and Mr. E. N. Toole relating that for. a period of time, only one hose was used Oil the fire, described by the head fireman in charge as having flames "fifty to a hundred feet high". When asked by Mr. White why not douse the flames on buildings occupied by E. N. Toole and Sons and The Caro lina Times instead of those unoccupied ones, the reply was that "they've got to go anyway". If this brings questions to your mind, it probably brought some of the same to ours. If this is the treatment we get for exposing injustices, then so be it. In the words and spirit of our founder, the late Louis Earnest Austin, "We here at THE CARO LINA TIMES have one solemn Continued On Page 12 nunittK Tilings You Siioufd Know Thomas Bethune 1848-1908 BORN IN SLAVERY, HE WAS SAID BY SOME, TO BE THE GREATEST UNTAUGHT MUSICAL GENIUS OF ALL TIME ! ILLITER ATE ANO BLIND, HE HAD PERFECT PITCH AND PLAYED SOME 5000 CLASSICAL SE'. JECTIONS FROM MEMORY ! HE COULD PERFORM. ANY PIECE PERFECTLY AFTER HEARING IT PLAYED ONCE! TOURING THE WORLD, HE EARNED $ 100000 FOR MASTER IN A SINGLE YEAR ! r' in m NORTH CAROLINA BLACK PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Cara arc L. E. AUSTIN Editor-Publisher, 1927 1971 Published every Thursday (dated Saturday) at Durham N.C, by United Publishers, Incorporated. Mailirwi Address: P. 0. Box 3825, Durham, North Carolina 27 702. Office located at 436 East Pettigrew Street, Durham, North Carolina 27701, Second Class . Postal Paid at Durham, North Carolina 27702. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One Year, $8.50 Iplus SO 34 sdles tax for North Carolina residents). Single copy, $0.20. Postal regulations REQUIRE advanced payment on subscriptions. Addiess all communica tions and inaku all checks and money orders payable to THE CAROLINA TIMES. National Advertising Representative: Amalga mated Publishers, Inc., 45 Wus! 45th Street, New York, New York 10036. ' Member United Piess International Photo Ser vice, National Newspaper Publishers Association, Norh C.irnlina Bliick Publishers Association, Carolina Comnmnitv News Service. Opinions expressed' by columnists in this news paper do not necessarily represent the policy of this m-wspatier. This newspaper will not be responsible f6r the return of unsolicited pictures.
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Jan. 13, 1979, edition 1
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