Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / May 19, 1979, edition 1 / Page 1
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
■ IL S 1.1.: l_ j Cah- CK.h iky 'Ll’ •■ilLL f-OLLtCTIufj Ui'JC-Ci- 27514 NATIONAL TAVERN MONTH |yTHETkUTH~LfeiWiaEDj) (USPS 091-380) Words of Wisdom that he^bSas^tn*! confesses alive •“ ® 'amily that is batter dead than VOLUME 57 - NUMBER 20 22 PAGES OURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA —SATURDAY, MAY 19 1979 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 20 CENTS 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF Supreme Court Outlawing THE NAACP LEGAL TEAM THAT WON IN BROWN VERSUS BOARD OF EDUCATION CASE" RULING RACIAL SEGREGATION IN THE NATION'S SCHOOLS UNCONSTITUTIONAL Dr. Brooks: Success Or Failure? This is the second in a eries of articles which we 'ope will shed some light p the public school situa- hn in Durham and evoke bme serious dialogue mong those concerned t out the education of all r children.) After one leaves Dr. len T. Brooks’ Right to lead Program, it becomes lore difficult taking ngle events which could ave contributed fo the lurham City School loard’s decision not to aiew the superinten- ent’s contract. But Uher, examined in toto, lese circumstances and thers too numerous to St here show that Dr. irpoks bucked the board ievery possible point. So Dncerned was one board lember that he often barged other board lembers with attempting ) administer the schools - which was the iperintendent’s job. Precisely, Brooks, faced ith problems of children ping unable to read, isruptive in school, and thers, proposed solutions lat the board could not omach. A review of several sputes and/or sagreements between urham City School oard members and iperintendent Brooks low a progression of ;ents that are indicative ineffective communica- Jn and lack of iderstanding. Besides confrontations itween Brooks and the Jard over Dr. Weaver’s le, Brooks succeeded in ffling many community athers as intent was lestioned with the police the schools program, lother proposal to tablish a system-wide bool for “disruptive idents’’ aroused suspi- >ns as to intent. That IS rejected by the Board. Many of the problems isting within the school itern are a result of sscriptions being written a doctor who doesn’t derstand the patients ments. Some of the sscriptions proposed by perintendent Brooks re analogous to aspirin ng prescribed for >cer — they don’t do a 3d job of relieving the n, and certainly do hing toward curing the ease. They were geared ^ard treating symptoms ber than toward ninating the causes. Perhaps lack of understanding and com munication contributed to the stalemate which developed before the end of Brooks’ first term as superintendent between him and Dr. Frank Weaver. Brooks recom mended to the board that Assistant Superintendent Weaver not be rehired — a recommendation overrid den by the board. That refusal of the board to rubber stamp Brooks’ decision left deep seated problems between board members. Brooks and Weaver — a handicap that was never totally over come. Following the Board’s decision, two memos sur faced that hinted of per sonal problems between the two administrators. First, Brooks wrote to Board members, “we have reached some basic agreements about our respective roles and the framework for an effec tive professional relation ship.’’ Secondly, another memo was dispatched to principals clarifying the duties for superintendent, assistant superintendent, and principals, which overrode verbal directives Brooks had given the prin cipals the day he had ask ed the board to terminate Weaver. Indications are in this memo that Weaver had been isolated from communications between principals before the Board action. Relationships deteriorated to the point that simple communica tions originating from Brooks to Weaver were reduced to memoranda. So cold were relations that this year, some local ministers, made aware of the problem, asked for a conference with Dr. Brooks to help deal with the problems between him and Weaver. A minister who participated in the meeting said the group was disappointed with Brooks’ responses and felt that little was accomplish ed to change the situation. Malawi Gives $1 Million To Wilberforce, No Strings Seldom do alumni, foundations or any sources for that matter give $1 million in unrestricted funds, no str ings attached, to a predominantly black col lege. Such a gift was an nounced last week by Dr. Charles Taylor of Wilber- force University in Ohio. The donor was the African nation of Malawi, whose President, Dr. Hasting K. Benda, was a 1928 graduate of Wilber- force Academy (a preparatory school at that time associated with the college). “1 can’t tell you how unusual it is for anyone to give you any money, even $10, without giving you all kinds of advice about how to spend it,’’ said Dr. Taylor, pointing out that the gift was unrestricted. Last week, Wilber- force’s trustees voted to spend $700,000 of the funds for the 79-80 operating budget, in dicating that the school, like other black schools, is financially strapped. Larger universities which have large endowments and alumni contributions are not so worried about operating expenses as they are sustaining their en dowments. Three hundred thou sand dolltus of the grant will be used to start an en dowment for the universi ty, the trustees reported. The college began an agressive $30 million building fund drive this year and so far $785,0(X) has been collected from three foundations. St. Augustine College professor Dr. J. Archie Hargraves, former presi dent of Shaw University, said this week that the [Continued On Page 11 ] Defense Fund, popularly known as LDF, commemorates the 25th an niversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ruling racial segregation in the nation’s public school un constitutional. The 25th Anniver sary Program held in conjunction with Howard University School of Law and Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights will concentrate public atten tion on specific areas of American life where racial discrimination still continues and will examine the ef fect America’s racial experience has had in other countries. LDF is bring together hundreds of the nation’s foremost attorneys, legal scholars, educators, and civil rights leaders as well as black and white representatives from the Sudan, Tanzania and India for a four-day program being held in New York and Washington, D.C., begin ning May 14. A day-long meeting at the Colum bia University Law School in New York on May 14 will examine the status of human rights in South Africa, India, and East and West African nations. Among the speakers will be Bayard Rustin, Judge William S. Thompson of the District of Columbia Superior Court, Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg of the Legal Defense Fund, and Soli Sorabjee of the High Court of India. Three days of conference at Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. on May 15, 16 and 17 will deal with education and ’Tiployment discrimination and with the special problems of black women. Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Dorothy Height, Andrew Brimmer, and Dr. Kenneth Clark are among the dozens of noted speakers. A highlight of the Washington session will be two special events on Tuesday, May 15 honoring lawyers and plaintiffs who participated in cases that culminated in the May 17 1954 Supreme Court decision. Despite the gains that the Legal Defense Fund’s lawyers have won in thousands of lawsuits for establishing rights to equal treat ment in education, employment voting, and access to public ac- comondations, many areas of in justice persist. Backlash against earlier victories is seen in new cases being brought to court that claim “reverse discrimination’’ against whites. The 1978 Bakke decision, in which a 5 to 4 Supreme Court threw out the University of California at Davis’s preferential quotas for minority students, attracted wide public attention. Other, less publicized cases challenge affir mative action programs that affect hiring and promotion practices. As job markets tighten, court challenges against companies and unions seeking to overcome the longstanding penalties suffered by minority workers have increased. The 1977 Supreme Court decision in International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. States threatens to lock an entire older generation of black employees into an inferior, poorly paid underclass. Its main point was that established seniority systems may have kept black workers few and low on the lists, but they did not intend to do so! Proof of delibeate attempt is dif ficult. The suit of Brian Weber — now pending decision, after argument before the Supreme Court — against Kaiser Alumninum, the United Steelworkers, and the federal Equal Employment Oppor tunity Commission will stifle those affirmative action programs that corporations and unions begin voluntarily. If the Teamsters deci sion is allowed to stand without modification, any company or union that is required to admit to previous racial discrimination opens Job discrimination in public locd levels is a major Legal Defense Fund concern today. The Fund has won a series of fundamental court decisions coitipelling the Civil Ser- ice Commission to permit class ac- of minority of long entrenched discrimination in the federal employment service. Twenty such suits now seek redress for past discrimination. These affect tens of thousands of black, Hispanic, and other mmonty workers. thousands of midd e-level civil service jobs hinge on the discriminatory PACE (Professional and Administrative career Examination) tests. Disclosure of experience in a case tne Fund is working on showed that on the West Coast, while 15% of white applicants pass the tests, only one per cent of blacks and no Hispanics received passing grades. In the state and municipal civil services, LDF is pressing 27 suits that attack job bias. The survival of affirmative action in Detroit police department hiring and promotion is at stake in two suits in which LDF is representing Mayor Coleman Young and the City of Detroit in ef forts to preserve fair hiring policies. Education, in spite of hundreds of court decisions won since Brown, continued to be segregated in nothern cities and in southern public colleges. In the elementary and secondary schools, remaining trou ble spots include “tracking” pro grams that result in segregating black children, arbitrary suspension [Continued On Page 19] A. PHILLIP RANDOLPH Founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, died Wednesday night in New York at the age of 90. Alliance Against Racism Holds Annual Confab NEW YORK — Angela Davis said week in Harlem, believes the nation Ms. last she may soon experience the birth of a new movement. She added that for a militant new movement to exist, it has to be organized. She called for mass support of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression. Some evidence of a new movement being ripe and in the picking was evidenc ed by the more than three thousand that packed the aisles, choir loft, and side rooms of the Covenant Baptist Church in Harlem, on a Friday evening, to hear what direction the Alliance is being charted. The Friday evening ses sion was the opening of a three day conference, the fifth annual for the Alliance. During five years, the organization has been most noted for its militant struggles to free political prisoners and resist a growing police state. The case of the Wilmington Ten has been and still is on the Alliance’s front burner, said Executive Secretary Charlene Mit chell who indicated that other cases would be more vigorously pursued. The cases of George Merrit of Plainfield, N.J. condemned to life in prison for a death which occurred during a 1968 in surrection and Imani Johnny Harris, an Alabama man condemned to die for allegedly killing a prison guard, are other cases that Ms. Mitchell says will be pursued. Us ing the leaverage of the Wimington Ten case, these cases and others would be brought to public focus. Many of the delegates who assembled around the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada were present at the founding conference in Chicago five years ago. But one North Carolina delegate-founder Rev. Ben Chavis was sitting this conference out in the Orange County Prison Unit in Hillsborough, N.C. But, Ms. Davis played a taped recording bringing a message from the civil rights leader encouraging the delegates to build the Alliance on the local level. While the Alliance has aggressively attempted to build local chapters in North Carolina to support [Continued On Page 19] NBL Launches Presidential Poll Seeks to Determine Best Candidate For Minority s' ^s PRESIDENT MEETS BLACK LEADERS Pr^ident Carter speaks to black community and civic leaders from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana in a special all-day briefing session at the White House. The attendees, totaiing about 150, earlier participated in question-and-answer sessions with various Carter Ad ministration officiais, including Patricia Harris, ^cretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and senior aid Jack Watson. (White House Photograph) The National Business League has announced that the 79-year old organization will conduct a national poll of the minority private sector to determine its preference of candidates for the 1980 presidential elections. In undertaking this un precedented effort, NBL President Dr. Berkely G. Burrell said: “The League believes this poll is impor tant because rarely has the minority private sector had the opportunity to raise the issues of concern to its constituents in na tional political debate. Usually the issues are rais ed on our behalf; and others have determined the framework in which they are discussed.” Underscoring the non partisan nature of this venture, Burrell explained that the poll represents a framework in which minorities can ascertain which presidential can didate could best advance the cause of minority economic development in the 1980’s. He added: “For once, the minority private sector will identify the economic issues of greatest concern to its well being. The poll will raise the question: which poten tial presidential candidate is most committed to en suring that the minority private sector receives it fair share of the economic resources of this coun try.” It is believed that no previous national opinion poll has addressed itself to this specific issue. The Minority Private Sector (MPS) Presidential Preference Poll is design ed in part to help eliminate the vagueness which can didates have often use to avoid a specific commit ment to promote minority economic development. According to the NBL, it is unlikely th: Dther na tional opinic polls will cover the conomic aspects of the minority private sector. NBL is undertaking the MPS Presidential Preference Poll to fill that void. In conducting the poll, the League will rely heavi ly on its national network, including constituents, the National Council for Policy Review (and its organizational consti tuents), the National Stu dent Business League and other affiliated groups within the minority private sector. As with other polls, the release of NBL’s findings in no way constitutes an endorse ment of any potential can didate. In launching its Presidential Preference Poll, NBL expects to be able to announce the results of its findings at the League’s 80th Annual Convention in September, 1980, in time for all presidential candidates to respond. Noting the ob vious social implications of economic development, Burrell emphasized that this poll could be used to formulate an economic perspective oh national issues. Moreover, such an undertaking is clearly con sistent with the purpose and function of business and trade associations. According to Burrell: “The economic interests of the minority private sector are critically impor tant, and must be included in the national debate of issues for the 1980’s. yet, if we do not raise the issue, if may never sur face. By pursuing the MPS Preference Poll now, we help insure that our economic concerns will become part of the debate surrounding the 1980 elec tions.”
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 19, 1979, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75