TVSW
- S&adowboxis at White House
; TAll week a young black man, in overcoat at 80 degrees
here, has been shadowboxing vigorously up and down
Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, As I
observed him one day, my first reaction was that he pro-
bably had a mental problem and should be institu
tionalized. ,.'.-v. -. i
But on second thought, it occurred' to roe that
shawdowboxing may have been this young man's way
of fighting the invisible foe of blacks and the poor. He
may . have, been iighting unseen forces that are
emanating from, the White House in the removal of oil
price controls, sending the gasoline pumps toward SI a
gallon. He may be aware of a? barrage from American
oil companies that own vast interests in Middle East oil,
but who hide behind the sheiks and OPEC" ;
The young , man . could hve been fighting a con
gressinal force that is holding back on giving HUD en
forcement power m its administration of Fair Housing
or probably he was boxing banks and buildings and loan
companies that practice redlining, preventing him and
; others from obtaining funds to buy homes of their own.
; Perhaps he was also fighting' AFL-CIO and its racist
policy of keeping black? out of skilled trades. And one
blow may have been aimed at the Small Business Ad-
BY SHERMAN BRISCOE
NNPA
President Carter stated , when he signed the New
Judgeship Act it provides an opportunity to redress a
disturbing feature of the federal judiciary; the almost
complete aosence 01 eiacKS, nispamts auu wumc. m
the time this statement was made of 526 judges, 29 were
black and Hispanic and nine were women, He stated
that his goal is to have black land Hispanic judges
throughout the country. 1 fc
This 1978 Act created 152 new Federal judgeships
. 1 17 new district judges and 35 Circuit Court Judges in
addition to the already 491 existing judge seats. When
the Art was. Signed, out of 526 Federal Judges, incluidng .
Justice Thurgood Marshall,, two judges on the U.S.
Customs Court, one on the U.S. Military Appeals
Court, four Circuit Judges and 19 District judges made
a total of 27 Black Federal Judges. President Carter, in
May of 1978 appointed Robert Collins of Louisiana as
the first Black Federal Judge in entire Southern "United
States. The picture at the present rate of appointment of
Black Federal Judges is anything but encouraging. The
present figure on the progress of judicial selection now
under ways shows that blacks are far from even ap
proaching a fair representation in the judicial system.
The Administration, in an effort, to have a fairer
representation on the Federal Judiciary bench, asked
- ministration and its shabbing way of financing black
frontmen for white business firms. ' : , "
He may have known that all these and many other
forces were fighting him; he probably felt their savage
blows, even the overcoat didn't help much. But they
were shadowy and this may have seemed to him to be
the only way of fighting back.
Then 4 thought, "Hell, this may be the sanest man in
town." Perhaps if you and I and thousands more would
join in his shadowboxing in front of the White House,
we might catch Carter's eye and effect improvements
for black and the poor. What do you think?
Where There's Smoke
As they say, "Where there's smoke there's fire."
Well, a lot of smoke is seeping out of the Merit Systems
Protection Board. This is one of the three units into
which the Civil Service Commission was divided recent
ly in the reorganization, and is in effect the supreme
court of the merit system. , j
It seems that the smoke was first seen by Peggy Grif
fiths, a $47,500-a-year chief of the agency's Appeal
Review. This brilliant government career woman has
been a torn in a number of sides, because she will not
take discrimination lying down.;
Ms. Griffiths vented her dissatisfaction with MSPB
recently by resigning from the agency and joining the
staff of Sen. Adlai Stevenson, UPof Illinois where she
has been assigned to keep a close eye on the merit
system.
But before she left, she is said to have had words with
able Ersa Post on, vice chairman of MSPB, and also
witht he black special counsel, H. Patrick Swygert. In
short, Ms. Griffiths is said to be hinting loudly that the
supreme court of the merit system isn't going to proyiJs j
very much protection or opportunities for promotions
for blacks, because there is too much racial dlscrimina- -;
tion in the court itself f '
Judge Parker May Move Up
Although Federal District Judge Barrington Parker
"has ruled unconstitutional President Carter's anti
inflation wage and prOe guidelines, he could soon be
elevated to the. Circuit Court of Appeals. Parker, a
Republican, was appointed to the bench in 1979. He has
demonstrated his brilliance during his nine years there,
handling a number of important cases such as the claim
of international conspiracy by Chileans and Cubans
against Latalief who was killed by a time-bomb placed
in his car. 1 '
Parker is not only well-trained, having graduated
from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and the ,
University of Chicago law schooCbui he comes out of a
legal tradition. His father. Barrington, Sr., was for
many years dean of the Terrell School of Law shkb
trained a large" percentage of the black lawyers in
Washington. Parker would be an excellent choice for
the Circuit Court,
FBOQ TO
e mm
If AlrFUIA I. fUUSON
the senators in each state to set up a selection panel,
send the names to the senator who in turn sends the list
to the Administration for appointments. These will have
to be sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee for confir
mation. Illinois with four new seats, Kentucky with
three, Louisiana with six, Missouri with three, North
Carolina with three and Virginia with four are among
that number.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which includes the
states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas,
Texas and Florida has twenty-six Circuit Court Judges;
one black, one Hispanic, one white female and twenty
three white males.
Congressman John Conyers terms the Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals as political warfare. Of the three
black candidates with excellent qualifications whose
names have been sent in for consideration Julius
Chambers of North Carolina has been blocked, Judge
Hargrove of Maryland has been passed over and
Franklin Cleckley of West Virginia is in contention with
three white men and one white women.
In checking with the Senate Judiciary Committee, I
learned that 73 names have been submitted to the com
mittee for confirmation for both Federal District and
Circuit Judges. Out of that number three black males,
two black females and two Hispanics have been
presented for Federal District Judges, with 46 whites.
Out of the 20 Circuit Court Judges' names presented,
there are two black women, one Hispanic and 17 whites.
Only one black Federal Judge has been confirmed and
that is David Nelson of Massachusetts.
It certainly seems that the Justice Department and
Judiciary Committee have failed in some instances to do
a thorough research job or else they are ignoring racial
instances which certainly should disqualify a Federal
Judge. A candidate from Texas called blacks "niggers"
the day before his swearing-in and is said to have given
false statements on his questionnaire. A Senator Sten
nis sponsored candidate is alleged to have been involv
ed in 1946 in the shooting of a black man. The Justice
Department is saying that he was not involved in the
shooting, hut that he was just near-by. This just goes to
prove that even at this late date in American life,
minorities still can't receive justice from the government
of our country.
Monday, representatives, John Conyers, Don Ed
wards, Robert Garcia, and George Leland will meet
with Attorney-General, Griffin Bell with the hope of
getting the Justice Department to improve these Federal
judgeship selections so they will be more representative
of minorities and that shady characters will be rejected.
. ' ChttdrM Having Babies
Whether we like it or not, children today are more
sexually active than in years past. It is estimated that
four million females and seven million male teenagers
are sexually active, this is approximately ten per cent of
all adolescents. Over one million pregnancies occur in
girls 15-19. It is suspected that one in four teenage girls
who have premarital intercourse will become pregnant.
; lh 1916, 3 out of 10 women under 20 had been pregnant
al least once. ' ' 1
; this day and age of extended adolescence, very few
neople under 18 are capable of dealing with the pro
blems, and responsibilities of parenthood. It is time for
parents to take their heads out of the sand and deal with
their teenagers sexuality, A teenage pregnancy or
pergnancy out-of-wedlock can occur in any family and
many of these are occurring because we have not dealt
with our sexually aware children. During this year
alone, 300,000 pregancies will occur in girls under 15
and that should be a cause for some alarm in all of us.
l4u) important fcparemiand vyoungwomen4o,
realize that pregnancy in a teenage female care -be -detrimental
to her health, both physically and
psychologically; The death rate from complications of a -pregnancy
increases for women 15-19 years of age and
more than triples for those less than 14 as compared to
women in their 20's. The young teenage mother will
more likely develop toxemia (swelling of legs, with high
blood pressure, and a decrease in kidney function), suf
fer fron nutritional deficiencies which may hinder pro
per fetal development (sodas and chips make poor
brains for mothers and babies), need ceasarian sections
.ftCTACLE
A Closer Look
ly AIA n. FISHER
l More than 2 million blacks weren't counted in the
1970 census, about 7.7 per cent of the total black
population. , . ...
Because the census is more than a national head
count, and because the data gleaned from the census has
impact politically and fiscally in a lot of areas, black
people can't afford to be seriously undercounted.
Let's just look for a moment at the seirousness of the
1970 census undercount. The overall figures don't tell
the whole story. Overall, the census missed about 5.3
million persons, or about 2.5 per cent of the total
population of more than 200 million people. That's not
a bad average. l a . .
But the undercount among black Americans and
other ethnic groups averaged more than three times the
overall undercount. That, too, wouldn't be so bad if the
undercount was. random and scattered equally around
the country. But such isn't the case.
For example, when you break the undercount down
by age group, it shows that for all ages, the census
takers missed 2.5 per cent of the white males, 1.4 per
cent of the white females. They missed 9.9 per cent of
the black males and 5.5. per cent of the nation's black
females. ,", .
But when you break this down, the problem is even
more serious. For the ages 20-24, the census undercount
ranged from 2.5 per cent and 1.1. per cent for white
males and females respectively, to 12.1 per cent, and 5.2
per cent for black males and females, The ratio is even
worse in the 25 to 34 year-old bracket. Here the cenus
missed 4.3 white males; and 2.4 per cent of the white
(USPS 091-380)
, 1827 1171
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due to their own inadequate pelvic (hip bone) develop
ment, etc. Babies of the teenage mothers are more likely
to die in the first year of life, will probably have more
complications at birth, and have a higher incidence of
being victims of child abuse.
wToday.cbildsen.aje bombarded with sexual innuendo .,
on tv; 39 magazines, and in their daily life; heneermany
feel that sexual intercourse is the answer, to their prof
blems. Depsite our emphasis on youth in this society,
many people are afraid of their children and will not .
deal with their needs; therefore discipline and self con
trol are being exercised less by parents and children. For
those adults who have or have had a satisfying "sex
life", the immeasurable pleasure generated has too
often been denied. This may result in closed com
munications with youngsters who enjoy what they are
doing but are made to feel bad about their sexual feeling
and need some constructive guidance in dealing with
their own sexual expression.
In talking with adolesants, many know names like
penis and vagina; but most do not know how to deal
with feelings and most have a lot of misinformation
Vici they :liav Jltaincl.fTOm , tlieiljpeersltisuJt ijr i
common-for some age old . misconceptions to be.
voiced "I won't get pregnant the first time or if I
. don't orgasm" or "she can't get pregnant if I don't
come inside of her!" Oh how many times I've heard, "I
can't be pregnant, I only did it once." Sex Education is
a must. Society and the children involved can no longer
bear the cost of unplanned unwanted pregnancies.
Parents should be willing to talk to their children about
sexual matters but I strongly feel schools should include
a well planned sex education curriculum from elemen
tary to high school. One big problem we must admit is
that no matter how liberal our philosophies and swing
ing our life style, it is still difficult for many parents to
honestly deal with their children's budding sexuality.
Also, though many of us are reluctant to admit it, we do
not know enough about our own bodies to adequately
teach these children. Contrary to the religious beliefs of
many and the moral scrupples of some, these courses do
not plant ideas in childrens heads; the ideas are already
there and the children are acting out their fantasies with
a resultant increase in the number of teenage pregnan
cies. Sex Education is an ideal whose time has come.
Children should be taught about their own develop
ment. They should learn how to interact with the op
posite sex. They should know that any male or female
past puberty can make a baby, but being able to take
care of them is what responsibility and adulthood is
partly about. They should be given explicit information
on birth control and encouraged to use some type of it if
they are going to have intercourse and do not want to
k become parents.- They must learn about self discipline
"and the need to accept responsibility for ones actions.
Most importantly both males and females should be
shown that each has a joint responsibility for the
pregnancy they conceive. It takes two to make a baby
and young boys and men need to understand that they
too have a responsibility for the babies they make. No
matter how statistics are twisted, we as black people do
have a disproportionately high number of teenage
pregnancies. It is time that we started dealing with this
problem of our community and our adolescents.
Ada M. Fisher
THE
HACK
ly tMTOI JC3MA
females while among black males in the age group, the
undercount was about 18.4 per cent of the black males
and 6.7 per cent females.
Here's what the picture looks like when you break the
undercount down geographically according to housing
units, we find that the South bore the brunt of the 1970
undercount. In the South about 3.5 per cent of all hous
ing units were missed and about 2.6 per cent of all oc
cupied units.
Since the majority of the country's black population
lives in the South, it appears reasonable to conclude that
a great many of those missed housing units were where
blacks lived.
But what does the undercount mean? What difference
does it make if we don't get counted well as a people?
It means a lot. The impact of the undercount is
significant and farreaching.
For example:
Constitutionally, the purpose of the census is to pro
vide for equal apportionment among the states of seats
in the House of Representatives. Therefore, the under
count could have serious impact upon blacks getting our
share of the elected pie.
The total population and per capita income statistics
for 39,000 local governments help the Treasury Depart
ment Office of Revenue Sharing distribute funds under
the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act. The kind of
undercount that occurred in 1970 causes a great many
people for whom the revenue sharing program was
designed to miss its benefits because there's no way of
knowing they're there.
The number of people, 18 and older, who have less
than five years of schooling, determines the amount of
money alloted for each state under the Adult Education
Act. The figures quoted above show that the 1970 cen
sus missed about 30.6 per cent of all blacks between the
ages of 20 and 34, and about 1 1 .9 per cent of the black
females in that age grouping.
But 1970 is water under the dam. The question we
must face today is what has the census bureau done, or
what is it doing to decrease the undercount in 1980?
Census officials say they're planning a lot of things to
help them do a better job next April.
The bureau has launched a special publicity program '
to better acquaint more people with the census, its pur
pose, the strength of its confidentiality law, and the
benefits of having accurate and complete data. Special
publicity efforts center around extensive use of mass
media, and as much as possible direct contact through
organizations and community groups.
The bureau has also put together a minority statistics
program in an attempt to raise the level of the census
coverage of minority populations to at least equal those
of other segments of the population. According to the
bureau officials, the main thrust of this program is to
better educate minority groups on the data available
through the census, and the usefulness of this data when
it is complete and accurate. Officals also say this pro
gram is geared to make it easy for representatives of
ethnic groups to give the bureau recommendations on
how to improve census coverage and the quality of the
data collected. V
This program has three components:
The Advisory Committee Program
The National Services Program
The Community Services Program
Next week I will discuss each of these programs, and
how they are designed to work. Coming soon will be my
opinion on how many of our black leaders hurt us in our
drive for economic party in this country, see you men.
COIIG'L BLACK CAUCUS DEPORTS TO THE PEOPLE
By Rep. Shirley Chisholm
With the passage of the
1949 National Housing
Act, the . federal govern
ment articulated its first
national housing goal
to provide for "a decent
home and suitable living
environment for every
American family," Thirty
years later it is apparent
that this goal has never
been properly addressed.
An estimated 14 million
American families live in
standard housing or in
homes costing excessive
amounts relative to their
incomes.
Eleven years after the
passage of Title VIII of
the Civil Rights Act of
1968 which sought to en
sure that all Americans
have an equal opportunity
to obtain decent housing
and reside in the com--munities
of their choice,
discrimination in the,
housing market on the
basis of race continues to
run rampart in this coun
try. Although there have
been some improvements
in the . area of housing
discrimination through
the Fair Housing Law, Ti
tle VIII has , remained a
statement of goals, rather
than an active force
against discrimination. y
It is important to begin
to assess in human terms
the real impact of the
legacy of generations of
discriminatory treatment
against certain groups of
the housing market. As a .
professional educator, I
know j only too well that
discrimination and
segregation in our public
school system is closely in
tertwined with the evils of
bias in real estate ac
tivities. Housing discrimination
lies at the root of our
segregated educational
system. When we survey
the patterns of segregated
housing in this country, it
is no wonder that much of
the nation's public school
system continues to suffer
from the ills of racial
segregation, 25 years after
is unconstitutionality was
declared.
Housing discrimination
continues to be an all per
vading factor, against the
evolution of an equal and
integrated society. All
Americans suffer from the
current situation, which
denies us the opportunity
to break down prevailing
racial barriers and impacts
upon the educational and
employment opportunities
of the victims of
discrimination.'
The Fair Housing Act
Amendments of 1979, cur
rently being debated in the
House Judiciary Commit
tee, is the most important
See 'Local section page 3
QosolotioD
WHEREAS, the members of the Board of Education of the
City of Durham have been duly elected through the
democratic process by the people of the City of Durham, and
WHEREAS, the City Board of Education is vested with the
legal authority to administer the City School System of the
City of Durham,
BE IT NOW THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Durham '
Committee on the Affairs of Black People go on record as .
supporting the right of the Durham City Board of Education
to make decisions affecting the administration of the Durham
City School System, and we take this opportunity tourge alt
citizens of good will in our city to continue working together
in bringing about a unified progressive city v
f
j. J. Henderson, Chaiftnan
Durham Com'mittee on
' The Affairs of Black People