Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / April 7, 1979, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
4 THE CAROLINA TIMES SAT APRIL 7, 1979 CSlY YOU CAN STOP ITI X EXPLOITATION x I if J imr 5cn TRUTH IN JEST? The following story is part of the April Fool edition of the Duke University Chronicle, the student newspaper at Duke. It is a joke. Even the author's name is part of the April Food gag. Please do not read this as a serious, factual report. We do not believe, however, that the jest errs too far. There are those at UNC (not necessarily President Friday) who would view the closing of the traditionally black colleges as a triumph of integration. And there is more than one newspaper in this state which would report the events just as this joke story does, without comment from , . the . black community. UNC ENDS SEGREGATION By Whit. E. Powers CHAPEL HILL - In a surprise move Saturday, officials at the consolidated University of North Carolina unveiled a new, compre hensive plan to eliminate vestiges of racial segregation in the 16 cam pus university system. The plan, which gained the approval of HEW officials yester day, calls for the closing down of the state's five predominately black colleges at the beginning of the 1979-1980 academic year "We've been at work on the plan for quite some time now," said UNC President William Friday in a press conference Saturday. "It represents a triumph for the liberal tradition .in North Carolina. At last we have made good on the goals of the civil rights movement, and can have true integration in our state college system." Friday continued that the black colleges were viable institutions only during the time when state law pro hibited blacks from attending white schools. According to one expert on the university's racial history, the black colleges were never meant to be more than temporary establish ments. The state always planned to abolish the schools once the good faith of white leaders led to the possibility for real integration. "Now at last," said Friday, "North Caro lina's black citizens are qualified to assimilate into the white institutions. We no longer need to be separate but equal." Friday commented that the state would have been ready to initiate the plan about ten years ago except or a few microscopes for the science department Next thing you know, they'll want their own ACC basket- NORTH CAROLINA that it would have met with consid erable black resistence. 'There was a lot of talk about black power and black separatism back then, and many people were afraid to give up black colleges because they provided a source of black identity," Friday said. "Now black professors are starting to realize how much money they will make teaching at the better funded white colleges." Sources close to Friday and Gov. Jim Hunt claimed that there are other reasons for the abolition of the black colleges. 'The state was losing so much money trying to keep up the dumps," said one source who preferred . not to be named. 'The legislature1 had to throw away at least a thousand dollars a year per black college. They're always asking for things like library books ball team." Here in Chapel Hill, however, not all have completely accepted the new Elan. Hayden Bently Renwick, a lack dean at UNC-CH, noted that the selective admissions policies at Chapel Hill will prevent most of the students from the black colleges from attending the state's foremost public institution. 'That is of course, unless you're a football player," Renwick added. 'Then you can get in with 300 total on your SAT." Renwick suggested that rather than changing UNC Chapel Hill's admissions policy, it might be easier for most blacks to begin developing their muscles to qualify for the football team. To the Editor: Cities Still In Trouble By Vernon Jordan EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL URIAN LEAGUE ; f t- t I l;tJtr h n si? Somehow, the idea is gaining currency that the urban crisis is over and that the cities are climbing back to economic and fiscal health. It would be nice if that were true - but it isn't. Sure, some cities are doing well. But they are generally Sunbelt cities in stages of rapid growth and never were considered part of the "urban crisisV The older, larger cities that con stituted the core';, of - the urban problem however, are still in bad shape. To counter the myth Of the end of the urban crisis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued a study that proves the 1970's were devastating for big cities. They lost population, income, and jobs. The recession knocked thenx down, and in this recovery period they've been slow to come back. The gap between central cities and their suburbs is widening. In every region of the country, job growth in the surburbs is faster than in the central cities. And central cities in the northeast and midwest are losing jobs. At the start of the decade central city in comes were, on average, higher than the na tional median. Now they lag behind the na tional averages and the income gap between cities and their suburbs is widening. Some, cities have had enormous job loses. New York lost 14 per cent of its jobs in the seventies, Chicago, 18 per cent, Philadelphia and St. Louis, 20 percent. Some cities have been forced to cut their municpal work forces - New York and Cleveland both laid off 20 per cent of their employees - and that means fewer services. Part of the myth of the urban revivial states that private investments is pouring into the cities. But that cannot t be substantiated. Some central cities are expenencingig a building boom in their downtown business districts, but much of this is limited and represents more inten sive development of small sections rather than the broad rebuilding many cities need. HUD says urban property values are increas ing slower in the distressed cities than else where, and the gap may be growing. The value of construction in slow-growing cities is far less than their share of the population and is in creasing at a slower rate than in the pre recession period. The study cites a Treasury report that says of the 48 largest cities in the country, 10 face "high fiscal strain" and 28 face "moder ate fiscal strain." And part of that strain is due to the continued movement of affluent families out of the city. HUD suggests cities lost $17 billion in family income from 1975 to 1977 because of this exodus of the affluent. All the white, central1 city provery rates climbed. Depsite signs of increased black movement ot he suburbs, blacks are still less than six per cent of the suburban population and nearly a fourth of the central city population. Part of the myth of the urban revival is that cities have received huge amounts of federal aid. But the HUD report shows the aid is huge only because the mythmakers include all fed eral grants to all levels of government and transfer payments to all people eligible for them, whether they live in central cities or not. The truth is that the federal flow of funds to cities and their citizensns is relatively modest, not nearly enough to solve the problems they face. The myth of the urban revivial is part and parcel of the national indifference to the cities and to the poor. It offers up doctored figures and absurd optimism as diversions from the grim reality of black and urban poverty, job lessness and central city decline. HUD has performed an important service in marshalling the facts to counter the myth that the urban crisis is over. What is needed now is a national commitment to restore troubled cities black to health. And that means money and programs to create urban jobs in the public and private sectors. They myth contains a kernal of truth - that the cities can be restored to great ness. But it hasn't happened yet. And it won't without a serious, long-term national commit, ment to an urban revival. TEi e Etace AgjainsJ Time BY LAURA PARKS There was trouble in Iran between the Ayatolla Khomeni forces and the Street revolutionaries, who refused to surrender their arms to the authorities of the newly emerging Moselm state. The new appointed Prime Minister Bazargan threatened to resign oif his policies were disobeyed by the thou sands of youth who be; lieve that revolutions should be allowed to go on forever. . Key element in the Iranain situation is the simple fact that the. ruth less regime of the Shah, was brought down by a' combination of forces in cluding the peasantry and the middle classes, who played the decisive roles in topling the- Riza Phlevi dynasty. , Iranian workers and students, while strongly influenced by Marxist thought, were nevertheless weaker than the Khomeni inspired majority, and in "fact were in no position to commend the loyalty of the bulk of the Iranian population. At the moment the more farsighted and practical members of the worker and student forces recognize their obligation to support and preserve the present Bazargan government for the insurance this will provide in preventing the Shahs agents from creating a crisis situation in Muitie militant workeMtudent forces might be incited to riot against t' government and provide pretext for the Shah to , age a come back in the ame of law and order. : Iranian leaders have told me that if this scenario becomes fact then Iran will be well along the road to independent national de velopment. European Old-China hands at the United Nations believe that China's invasion of Vietnam was prompted by the belief of the present Chinese leader ship that it was how or never for Chinese to try to intimidate its neighbors from accepting the ever ex tended hand of the Russians, before China de votes all of its energies and resources to long term in ternal economic develop ment. The. Chinese gamble was reinforced 4?y the newly ejaMished American ties dMpahte tfide pacts. The Chinese leadership believes, though this is muted, that the power of the Western world is rapidly declining and that in its place have come the Rus sian and Chinese versions of Communism. For the Chinese there fore, it was incumbent to thwart the Russian Communists in Asia and in other parts of the world. At present China could not hope to intimidate the Russians anywhere, unless of course it was with the conivance of the U.S. and Japan and some West European nations, in cluding Britian. The Chinese leadership believes that perhaps as early as two to three years from now the Western world will be in terrible economic disarray and in no poisiton to back any Chinese action on the (Asiatic mainland. Thus, fromthe Chinese pdinf of "view ! it ' was ' now'W never to demonstrate to Asia and the world that she was a poor to be feared, even if she had to cry out for the silent support of the paper tigers of the capi talist world. Thus, too, form the Chinese point of view it was now or never to act against the growing pro Soviet communist move ments in Asia and Africa, before buckling down for the next quarter of a LETTERS TO THE EDITOR century to internal econ omic development in an effort to raise the na tions per capita income from $380 a year to $1,000. In the end the irony of the situation may be the fact that the Chinese drive to become an industrial power along socialist lines may draw her closer to her Soviet rival as she suffers the agOny of a forced in dustrial march into the high technology of the 20th cen tury much as did Soviet Russia under the rule of Stalin. Obviously from the point of view of the Western po wers now is the time to sow the seeds of eternal discord between the Chinese Dragon and the Russian Bear before the two giants come to re cognize that after all their idealogical squab bles may be very unim portant compared to the very hard riddles posed by industrial development in former peasant and feu-' dal societies m ULACK PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Yesterday's March 29 election of members of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina reflects an alarming trend and points up two major issues that must be addressed. In 1972, when the Board of Governors was first formed, there were thirty -two members including seven black mem bers. Four of these (two each from N.C.C.U. and N.C. A&T) and three others, (one each from Elizabeth City, Fayetteville State and Winston-Salem) were elected by the trustees of thse five campuses. This represented 22 of the membership and was the same as the percentage of the black population statewide. Unfortunately, the election occurring in the last three sessions of the legislature (1975, 1977 and 1979) have not only reduced the number of black members on the Board from seven to four but, a t the same time, ignored the black leadership. In 1975 two black incumbents were up for re-election and only one was re-elected; in 1979, two black incumbents were up for re-election and only one was relected. Blacks now represent only 12 Vi of the Board membership ..down from 22. In the election yesterday, the two minority members ' elected were not only elected by the majority race, they were also ndminated by the majority race. The nominees of the minority leadership were either defeated or declared ., "unqualified" to be elected. News releases this week indicate that the G.O.P. political minority party does not and will not tolerate the nomina tions of their members by the Democrat majority. It does seem that a political leadership sensitive to the needs of the state and committed to fairness and equity would per mit and accept the nominations of the black leadership as it does the nominations of the Republican leadership. It isjijghly desireable that the destiny of the black pppula lion should be .. . must be in the hands of the elected black leadership just as the destiny of the Republican party must be in the hands of the Republican leadership. My nomination by Senator Fred Alexander, endorsed also by the three minority members in the House, was deleted from tfhe list o nominees in the Senate Committee by only saying that I was "unqualified". I can only say that Senator Alexander's nominee was as qualified as the nominee of Senator Ralph Scott whose name was not deleted. Is the nomination and election of the minority member by the majorityrace the meaning of minority representation in the N.C. Legislature? That question needs an answer. In this era of rapid and racial change, there is a great need for diverse and proportional representation on the Board of Governors of our beloved university system... Thus, it is imperative that the black leadership be recog nized and the representation reflect at least the make-up of the state's population. , While I could say much about the defeat of the bill by the House Committee defining the criteria for member ship on the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina, I will not make extended observations at this time. I do feel, however, that since a substantial number of good persons are affectedby this bill that it should be reconsidered and passed post-haste. . It can now be considered on its merits and not as a bill to help only one person , namely, J.J. Sansom , J r. Respectfully, J.J. Sansom, Jr. President Mechanics and Farmers Bank Durham, N.C. To the editor: Rhodelsan Prime Minister Ian Smith's latest bid for United States support of his rapidly deteriorating "internum settlement" government has created mass confusion in Washignton and in the media. Mr. Smith, who has con sistently hoodwinked large protions of the American public with tales of his endorsement of eventual majority rule, would have us believe that a "irri, free election" scheduled for April 20. will bring majority rule to the country. He has asked the U.S. to particiapte in a team of outside obervers which will monitor the election. If we agree to sanction this fiction with Amerian monitors, Smith will have achieved his finest triumph. Fact: A "fair, free election" is impossible in April because of most of, the public cannot register to vote. Wall over half of the county is under the complete or partial control of the Patriotic Form, which has promised tto boycott the election. The rest of Rhodeisa is operating under martial jaw, which is hardly liable to encourage freedom of choice at the polling booth. Fact: The constituon upon which the election is based was approved by 67,000 of Rhodesia's registered white voter in a January election. The Black majority had no similar change to endorse it-or reject it. Fact: While the constitution seductively suggests a non-racial, just society, the hard truth is that it carefully preserves rntaorty rule for at least another ten years. Every single branch of government. Including the police, civil service judiciary, and army will stay under white con trol. Under the constitution, laws cannot be changed without 78 affirmative votes in the House of Assembly Blacks have Only 72. Fact: Whites will retain control of most of the county's considerable wealth and half of the land. Ian Smith's determination to hold on to power, is so evident in every single article of the constitution, must be countered with equal determination in the U.S. The freedom fighters have struggled for years to achieve self determination for all the people of Zimbabwe. Americans particularly. Black Americans- have an obligation to support their battle. A firm denouncement of the Kho desian election in April is an excellent place to begin. Sincerely, Franklin H. William President Phelps-Stokes Fund It would seem, sir, that the editor of another local news paper has forgotten one basic, but very important fact con cerning the Bond Issue passage and subsequent plans for the infamous East-West Expressway. In the 1950's, pick any year, there was no Black voice in this country, not to mention in this city. And from the slighf-of-hand-doings I have observed with Duke University giving 40 acres but no muffi to keep the asphalt railroad on the Black side of the tracks, First Baptist Church, etc., I'm wondering how much did Duke Power Company and other businesses pay for their re-development land. So much for apathy at the polls. No matter what the vote; take the land, crush a community and bus them, oops sorry, I mean send them to Refugee Camps like Fayetteville St.. Cornwallis, and Hoover Road projects. 1 submit to you, sir, that there is no Black voter or voter voice in this city of the 1970's. Willie D. Burt Durham, N.C. NEA Calls Continued frnm fmn of balanced budgets and limited government." The statement called upon the House Judiciary Committee to "expeditious ly complete hearings" on this issue and report legislation to the floor, and also called upon the Demo cat majority in Congress to "act promptly on this his toric Issue. Continued from front scores to make judgements about human life and aspira tions. "Such tests," notes Herndon, "have been used to stamp one's early child hood education, one s place ment, promotion and classi fication in school, one's choice of career and promo tion." Continued on page 21
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 7, 1979, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75