10-THE CAROLINA T1ME&
SAT. JANUARY S, 1979
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AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION
COOROINAT1NO
CENTER
Debt Slavery"
By Gerald C. Home, Esq.
The ravages of slavery
in itself are sufficient basis
for affirmative action.
Forced, unpaid labor,
preventing Blacks from
reading and obtaining
education, coercive viola
tion of Black women, etc.
present not only an argu
ment for affirmative ac
tion but beyond that it
argues for massive repara
tionsat least along the
: j :
Jewish communities after
World War II.
And, of course, no one
need not debate that pre
sent day discrimination
itself cries out for the cor
rective of affirmative ac
tion with quotas.
But between the Scylla
of slavery and the
Charybydis of present day
discrimination, there is
another monster equally
horrendous, equally
destructive, equally a bar
rier to Black progress.
That monster is peonage
or debt slavery as it was
sometimes called.
Though the youngsters
might not be familiar with
it, the old-timers can easi
ly remember this scourge
that blighted and to
some extent continues to
blight the Black com
munity. Today there are
few of us in urban centers
e.g. New York, Miami,
Norfolk, Portland, Min
neapolis, etc. who don't
have relatives unfamiliar
with this phenomenon.
What was peonage? In
many ways, it did not dif
fer from the system of
sharecropping still in ex
istence in the rural South.
Though there are many
variations of this system,
for purposes here the
system worked something
like this: At the beginning
of the planting season the
rural Black would make
an arrangement with the
white landowner. The lat
ter might provide the
Black with some seeds,
perhaps r plow and a
mule, maybe a shack and
some victuals. The Black
in turn would raise crops.
At the end of the season,
an accounting would be
made. Say, the crops
grown were worth in value
$300; while the seeds,
shack, etc. were valued at
$400. This would mean
that a minimum the Black
owned the landowner
$100. When the lan
downer forbade the Black
to leave the plantation
because of debt, share
cropping became peonage
or debt slavery. For one
can easily imagine that
every year the Black
would face a "deficit,"
and every year he would
be forced to work ihe land
for free. This was nothing
more than a crudely
disguised form of slavery.
The variations on this
cacophonous theme were
many. Frequently, when
weighing and valuing the
crops raised, the lan
downer would understate
their value by various
fradulent means. Why
didn't f the Black com
plain? Cpmplain to who?
Sometimes the landowner
and the sheriff were the
same person Or old cronies
or relatives. In hd case'
according to the creed of
the Old South, would a
white sheriff accept a
Black cropper's word
against a white lan
downer. In any event,
complaining "uppity"
Blacks were likely to
receive a house call
courtesy of the Ku Klux
Klan and the courts, per
usual, supported the
status quo. For if the
Black tried to run away,
he could be jailed for
"larceny by trick" or
"fraud" and, like the
fugitive slave laws of old,
could be returned from his
or her sanctuary
"up-North" to face trial
"down-South."
But if he did run away
and got caught, the result
was even more unplea
sant. The landowner
might pay his "$2000
fine" and thus, the Black
cropper would have to
spend the rest of his life
repaying this "debt." Or,
the jailed Black cropper
could get caught up in the
notorious "convict lease
system, " which made
peonage seem as cushy
and comfortable as a Wall
Street executive's post.
Convicts would be
"leased" by the state to
work on the plantation of
a big landowner who had
made a sizeable contribu
tion to the Democratice
Party or was otherwise
4,in" with the "in
crowd." Needless to say,
whenever there was an in
sufficient number of con
victs to lease, the sheriff
would randomly arrest
any Black on the streets or
sitting on the porch for
'vagrancy" or some other
trumped-up charge and
then send him to what the
late Sam Cooke lamen
tably described as the
"chain gang."
It was not unusual for
an entire Black family to
be "peons" or "debt
slaves." The landowner
construed the debt as not
being personally owned by
the Black male or female
head of the family but by
the entire family. Thus
legal penalties would at
tach if any tried to escape.
Hence, mere children
could not go to
school assuming there
were schools present but
forced to work from
"tun-up to sun-down."
The resultant illiteracy
was the price they paid
and the scorn of many
whites and some Blacks
who, as a consequence,
regarded and treated them
as "ignorant." One is
reminded of the wise
words of the late
playwright George Ber
nard Shaw, who com
mented that those who
rule this country force
?iack!,1t6,becoimfr
oot blacks and then point
to this status as proof of
their inferiority.
How extensive was this
system of "debt slavery?"
Let us recall that over half
of the Black population
still resides in the South
and that we did not
become an urban people
until World War II when
the factories of the North
and West needed factory
laborers. Let us recall also
that the Georgia Baptist
Convention in 1939
declared "there are more
Negroes held by these debt
slavers than were actually
owned as slaves before the
War between the States."
Let us recall as well that in
1954, the same year that
Brown v. Board of Educa
tion was decided, the New
York Times reported a
case of a 'white', lan
downer's paying the fines
of jailed Blacks and then
"forcing them to work
them out in the fields."
One of the Blacks who
had been bailed out had
later been beaten to death
when he had attempted to
flee.
Frankly, measuring the
extensiveness of this
system was not an easy
task, since rural Blacks
talking to reporters or
researchers was not exact
ly smiled upon. But the
leading academic study on
debt slavery, Pete Daniel's
The Shadow of Slavery:
Peonage in the South
(which, by the way, would
make a better Christmas
present than all the ties
and stockings in Saks
Fifth Avenue)
acknowledges that even
today this latter-day form
of the "Black Death" has
tfot been extinuished
though its victims now in
clude not only United
States Blacks but Puerto
Ricans, Chicanos, Native
Americans, and Carib
bean Blacks.
Nonetheless, some
might ask, "why discuss
something that existed in
its flourishing form years
ago?" Well, it is discuss
ed because some of the
same Black laborers who
are demanding affirmative
action in the steel plants of
Louisiana, the shipyards
of Virginia and the auto
plants of Michigan were
"Jield back" and had their
dyelopment retarded by a
stystcm like debt slavery.
But for this system, they
might not be toiling in
To Be Equal
Tale Of Two feca&s
By VERNON E. JORDAN, JR.
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The 1970s arc over and the 1980s have
begun. I suspect the new decade will be as
different from its predecessor as the 1970s
were from the 1960s.
The sixities ended with the nation enmesh
ed in a war in Vietnam, and exhibiting moral
exhaustion derived from a decade of rapid
social change. The domestic and interna
tional problems it tried to resolve proved
more difficult than it imagined, and so the
nation opted out of the struggle.
In doing so, it left those problems to hang
over its head for ten long years, while
economic and social changes during the
decade worsened them.
The primary unresolved domestic issue
was race. Racial disadvantage was attacked
head-on in the sixties, with some
phenomenal results. The system of legal
segregation was dismantled, while blacks
made great breakthroughs in almost all
phases of life. But the engine of change stall
ed just when it should have powered an even
greater thrust ahead.
The seventies were marked by a selfish
privatism that placed personal concerns first
and the common good a poor second. That
mood was fed by resentment at minority
gains, a sluggish economy that left a smaller
pie to be divided, and runaway inflation that
eroded purchasing power.
So the net result was that the nation's
racial problems presisted and even
deteriorated. Some blacks continued to pro
gress in the seventies. Those with the re
quisite educational credentials streamed into
jobs formerly closed lo minorities. The Mack
college population rose sharply.
Small wonder that ihe seventies gave rise
to the myth of black progress the
widespread belief thai Hack gains were
steady, even in the absence of a sustained na
tional commitment lo removing the last
vestiges of discrimination.
But the truth about the seventies is thai it
was a decade of black losses.
Black income, over sixty per cent of while
income in 1969, fell lo only 37 per cent by
the end of the decade. Black unemployment
rose to two-and-a-half times the while rale
by the decade's end. And more blacks were
poor at the end of the seventies than at the
beginning of the decade. The black middle
class, painted by "experts" as growing, ac
tually declined from twelve lo nine per cent
of all black families.
Where the sixties showed dramatic jeans in
jobs, income, and other indicators of pro
gress, the seventies showed a few gains
buried in a overall picture of continued hard
ship. What about the 1980s? With ihe country
sliding into recession, with inflation un
checked, and with a continued national
mood of selfishness, will ihcy be more of the
same?
My guess is that the pendclum will swing
once more and that the coming decade will
be characterized by a new thrust of social
change.
Part of my optimism derives from the fact
that serious problems cannot be allowed to
linger indcfintcly. We arc rapidly reaching
the point where the pent-up frustrations of
racial and economic inequity will erupt into
positive change.
A second reason is that without changes
that make better use of the full human
potential of all people, national productivity
and the economy will decline. Thus it is in
the national interest that social change bo
nurtured in the coming decade.
Those changes may also gel impetus from
the external events intolerably high
uncmploymct and inflation, another OIM-C
shock treatment, or a foreign crisis that
spurs more intensive development of greater
equity in America.
Finally, the eighties will be a decade of
enormous changes in the way Americans
work and live, and (hat always results in
social changes. There will be an acceleration
of the trend to a service company, increasing
the demand for educated workers and ser
vices that enhance human resources.
That kind of change must focus new inten
tion on neglected minorities and on urban
centers. The 1980s can be a belter decade,
but minorities must take the lead in fighting
for change.
Just as the gains of the sixties Were won by
progressive alliances led by the civil right's
movement, so too must the 1980s be a period
of revived alliances for change.
Business In The Black
Poor Pay For Expensive Petroleum Imports
Nuclear Needs are Everyone's Needs
By Charles E. Belle
"The central thrust of the NAACP's
policy statment was and is that the National
Government must be made to lead in ensur
ing that the country develops abundant, af
fordable energy supplies that will promote
vigorous economic growth," according to
Mrs. Wilson. Furthermore, she claims the
NAACP "stands firmlybehind the state
ment." x
it is estimated that the U.S. 1979 oil bill
will be $61 billion, about as much as all 25
million black Americans earned in 1976.
,,"The energy crisis is real and will get0
;worse," sMargaret Bush Wilson, current
Chairmait of the NAACP testified before
members of the Atomic Industrial Forum,
Inc. (AIF) in San Francisco at its 1979 con
ference held at the St. Francis Hotel last
month.
Making a major clarification of the con
troversial energy statement that was adopted
in January 1978, by the NAACP, about any
national energy policy that would restrict
vigorous economic growth and thus reduce
job opportunities for minorities, Mrs.
Wilson provided a cogent comment.
Still it seems an almost silly position,
unless one understands il is imperative thai
there be an integration of interna) fuel
resources to build a stronger and more stable
U.S. energy resource. Coal and nuclear need
to share 50-50 in providing energy for the
future according to the AIF official.
No doubt, based on the country's abun
dant natural resource of coal and uranium
from which Nuclear U-235 is produced.
However, open for current debate on iHc
surface at least, is ihe percentage of Nuclear
, vs. petroleum.
Putting left-wing political playmates aside
for the moment and making a hard dollar
determination, doing more nuclear makes
sense if it was not for the long construction
delays of nuclear reactor nlanis
Roger Sherman, chairman of the Board,
Ebasco Services, Incorporated and Chair
man, AIF, just loves to repeal Ihe success
story of the Japanese in gelling nuclear reac
tor power plants on line in record lime. It
will take too many years for Ihe U.S. lo
catch up with its foreign competition in
nuclear reactor construction time under pre
sent prolonged bureaucratic restrictions.
Reminicing about U.S. energy self
sufficiency is superfluous without refining
our out-moded governmental licensing
limitations. Japan just happens to cut two to
four years off our construction time in past
comparisons. Which by the way is currently
in line with every other year big price hike by
OPEC.
The current status of the U.S. commercial
reactors indicate 72 with operating licenses
and 91 with construction permits. Putting it
bluntly, there are more than 125 per cent o
'order -being held up than working to reduce
oil imports gas price hikes and loss of U.S.
jobs.
It's poor people, many blacks in the end
who must pay for the expensive petroleum
imported into this country. Common sense
says nuclear use needs to be safe, even safer
perhaps than in the past, but it is still needed
to stem the tide of ever increasing cost of oil
flowing from foreign soil.
If America spent $61 billion on black
Americans in 1979 there would be no race
relations problems next year.
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A Script For 1990?
w . . , By M. Carl Holman
President, National Urban Coalition
A few days before Christmas, a young and the decaying suburban areas are now Minority citizens, including refWeM from
staff member, whose work takes him into ur
ban communities where elderly, poor and
minority residents are being replaced by
more affluent householders, dropped a
discussion paper on my desk. In it he sket
ches outa version'- of what America's cities
will be inceby.4990. It is not a very pretty
picture. .
His script gives us an East Coast city in the
year 1990, which is eighty per cent white
mainly middle and upper-middle class. The
central business district has been revitalized
and the decaying suburban areas are now
largely inhabited by former inner cily
residents.
The last black mayor was defeated in Ihe
mid-80's. Busing is no longer a significant
public issue.
Delays in dealing with the nation's energy
problems have already contributed to two
recessions. There have been brownouts and
severe fuel shortages, accompanied by riots.
Air and water are considerably dirtier than
in the 70s, but most citizens arc more troubl
ed by predictions of a worldwide depression.
Minority citizens, including refugees from
other nations, are fighting desperately over
the crumbs provided by government which is
much less responsive to their needs than in
earlier years...
A young man's end-of-year nightmare?
Perhaps, But ask yourself. How many of
those running for office and how many of
the rest of us are really coming to grips
with answers that will write a more positive
script for the decade ahead?
Editor's Note: We received this greeting from Robert F. and Mrs. MaM Williams
in Baldwin, Michigan this week. We share its message of hofe and faith with our
readers. We're sure Ihe Williams won't mind.
To Friends:
The old year casts off its cloak of gloom
As soothsayers speak of coming doom,
But we wish you well tho far or near
Dear friends, despite it all, have a good new year!
Civilization falters and kingdoms descend
As humanity advances to where it's been.
But hope is yet a promise, noble and supreme
Dear friends, walk with faith and dare to dream!
There arc rumbljngs here and rumblings there
And words of discontent and bleak despair,
But keep the faith in all good cheer
Dear friends, despite it all, have a good new year!
For years are like people, just transients passing through
Ring out the old, and pay tribute to the new,
Tho the world abounds with chaos, hunber and fear--
Dear friends, despite it all, have a GOOD NEW YEAR!
BLACK PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
(USPS 091-380) .
L.E. AUSTIN
Editor-Publisher 1927-1971
these low-wage, cancer in
ducing positions but
would have ascended
higher. But for this
system their parents would
have money to buy them
books or time to read t
them and, therefore, they
would have gotten off to a
better start in life. But for
this system, their cry for
affirmative action might
hot be as pressing.
Hence, there present
day demand for affir
mative action is no more
than simple justice and
should be supported by all
right thinking people. In
such a way we begin lo re
pay a larger "debt" to our
sisters and brothers who
languished under the
brutal lash of peonage and
whose blood fertilized the
soil making our growth
possible.
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