Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Nov. 10, 1979, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, 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
Page 4 Thy Chronicle, Saturday, November 10, 1979 viewoc w,rl Ernest H. Pitt Member North Carollna Yvette McCuIlo? Black Publisher's Ansodatioo City Editor Musical It is a truism that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are distined to see them again. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a certain sense of deja ju regarding the latest round of changes among top city officials. Human services director Nellie Jones left, to be ?ant?n^ u.. :- J ? -?? w ivpia^u fjy ccuiiuiuic ucvciupmeni airecior ryauer Farabee, whose position is in limbo at the moment. Think back to when deputy city manager Jack Bond left for Miami, Fla. Personnel director A1 Beaty was made assistant city manager 4n addition to holding his old post--a situation that continues to this time. One is quite inclined to believe that there is an unspoken quota system for top black officials in city government, and the magic number just seems to keep declining. It almost seems as thought there's a grandfather clause to the effect that the only top black city officials will be those who served before a certain date. To meet those apparent rules, the talents of the Baby And E From Washington comes the .news that the federal Small Business Administration has completed a long-awaited review of its 8 (a) program which provides onvprnmont '' : - u- ? ... 0? vviiuavis i?uciaiiy ana economically disadvantaged." Audited we^ 1,505 minority construction firms holding such contracts. As many as 323 of the companies are possibly headed by persons not involved in the day-to-day operations of the firms. A further review of those cases is being undertaken by the SBA's Minority Small Business Capitol Ownership Development Office to determine if those owners are masquerading as being disadvantaged. Such rip-offs need to be dealt with firmly. There have been numerous reports of cases in which whites might designate a janitor or laborer as president of a company in order to qualify for the 8 (a) program. In an important step, two Baltimore men were recently non-minority firm. The trial judge said the defendants were "prostituting programs" designed to foster economic development in underprivileged communities. As a result of the SB A audit,-the SBA's inspector general is offering recommendations to clarify the terminology "economically and socially disadvantaged." Such steps are needed. We recall the case of the wealthy television announcer who qualified under the current criteria for the new program to give loan guarantees to minority broadcasters. In the attempt to deracialize the set-aside programs to meet expected constitutional ? -..v.gvj, HIV UUUIS have been opened unnecessarily wide. All the problems mentioned above threaten the future of set-aside programs such as 8(a), which allows How Doe Feel Abou With gas prices spiraling just as fast as oil Bw/hm company profits, are more ( people turning to mass p| Hjj transit? Chronicle Camerhj BU a went to the Hampton D. H I Haith Transit Center _to l| H ask Winston-Salem TransH BP it Authority bus drivers if rl MB public attitudes are chan11 Bj ging towards mass trans W John Fulton -- "There H if because of the gas, and h i w r J [flK] mm the riding is really pickJJ; EBP ing up. They park their ifl Xli IB! car and ride downtown." fl ]? *' ' :J|Mflwlil ift I Benjamin HLackweil ^Kj J RH situation, more people work. I know some of them have cars. Really, more whites are beginning to ride than blacks. Most are stopping at the shopping centers and getting the bus there." >ints? rtno-Si/ga Ghromdc I PoawM 1974 Ndubfe! Ggemonye 1 President John W. Templeton 1 Executive Editor igh Robert Eller Elaine L. Pitt Sports Editor Office Manager I Chairs remaining officials are stretched to the limit, juggling the responsibilities of various iobs. Yet, there is still another little rule in effect, now. No black administrator can work in City Hall. With the move of Farabee to the Human Services Department offices in the NCNB Plaza, no top-ranking blacks have offices in the center of government, including Beaty. One fears that the old boy network in City Hall is engaged in some behind the scenes posturingsin advance of the selection of the new city manager to insure that their views will be most readily accessible. It is unfortunate that this kind of behavior would take the place of true affirmative action, in which promising potential administrators would be prepared for higher roles. Right now, one of the city's brightest professionals in _ engaged in Jegal action because of the barriers to his progress. The aldermen need to deal with these shenanagans or hire a city manager who will. lath Water government procurement officers to place certain contracts in a dooI for comoetition amono certified firm? The enemies of the underlying goal of bringing economic parity to minority America are all too quick to seize upon mistakes and rip-offs as grounds to terminate the entire program. That's why such steps as the recent friend of the court brief filed by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. in the Fullilove vs. Kreps challenge to governmnet set-aside programs are urgently needed, in addition to the continuing review to weed out waste and corruption. , Otherwise, minorities risk being confronted with a situation in which the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. A Fallen Friend One of the least known, yet most important figures in black communication has been soft-spoken, yet determined Sherman Briscoe, executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, who died last weekj For more than a decade, Briscoe, a former newspaper^ editor in Louisiana and government information officer, _ provided a .highly professional leadership to the trade association for America's more than 200 black newspapers. When he assumed the job in the late 1960s, many were questioning the relevance of the black press, branding it a relic of by-gone days. Briscoe served as an effective counter spokesman and also, sought to enhance the future development of the uuuu^ii training at annual conventions and regional workshops. thing. There are quite a ^ few brand new riders CHIier I that once were opposed ^11 to the bus but now -1 see depend- I RnaaeD Day - T PI think: so. the same peo- ^ I pie are riding who traditionally did. These jun- mp ky buses have a lot to do with people not riding.'* ^^^^1 Str Page 13 Shipp (~Sk IMHl Evans Day " - ' 0 7 V Congress' last-minute scramble to provide some nAociiM nf Mliaf frnm cVl/.hloh Vl#?ntint7 ffWitS f&C6(l bV thi? pnnr U n belated move that will not averta major cirisis this winter. Everyone knew as early as last spring that something would have to be done to provide a mechanism to get heating aid to the poor. But the issue was allowed to get caught up in energy politics. So this winter poor people will pay--some with their lives?for Congressional inaction. The problem is not the availability of heating oil, it is the availability of fuels at a price the poor can afford. As heating priced- move up, poor people's ability to heat their homes goes down. They are effectively denied access to a basic human necessity. Last winter caused serious hardships for the poor. Nearly two million poor households spent over a qj^rter of'their incomes to heat their homes. That meant cutting corners in other basic areas-food, health and clothing. There were instances of elderly people who died because they couldn't pay their bills and had their gas and electricitv cut off. In the last several winters the government made limited amounts of funds available to help the poor pay their heating bills. But the funds were too little the low allocations and poor administration on the state level left many without aid. I ?xu j' , . Many prominent faculty at black colleges moved to white schools becausc of higher salaries, benefits and academic status. With rising tuition costs, many blacks discovered that white institutions could provide more financial aid, newer facilities and greater lebrary resources. Ironically, as black higher education prospered, traditional black colleges were being rapidly destroyed. As a gieatci piopoiiion of lowci-income M.k/ student were admitted an rami yc?ns, black college began !? assume a steadily incicasing shaie of total co>ts. At most schools, ovci 90 pciwnt of all-sUHlenV*-rK*vwieeeivt^finaneial aid, aiul only about 5 percent am able tu pa> their totaLtuition. The lack -of a philanthropic tradition -amntrg Wart alumni at most sehoos meant that black adininishatois had to appeal to Washington ft?i fiscal help. Preoccupied with school desegregation ; n?l t? ?. fc <1 mattcis, at least until recently. H.KW. .-.ml othi . dcpaiinients usually ignoun the ^luwin^ dcsjM >.?i< financial situation at these institutions. There are now.many indications that the civil rights movement's ideological commitment t<> integration at-all -costs, especially in highci education, h.is not signihC?\tly reduced the continuing burden of white racism and discrimination against black students About half of all blacks who graduated f??i college s this Guest Ei A Sickenin By T. Dianne Bellamy-Small Mrs. Small is a columnist for the Greenboro Peacemaker and State Youth Advisor to the NAACP. I had planned to write my column this week about the NAACP and what a great help the organization had been in bring us along in our bid for civil and. human rights. I had planned to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the civil rights movement being more than just to eradicate racial injustice, but that it had expanded the concept of brotherhood. I had planned to quote Justice Thurgood Marshall as saying we could combat prjudice if we approach it intellegentl But after witnessing the barbaric acts of Nov. 3rd in Morningside against people who had the right to express themselves, my planned column seemed frivolous. When I heard about the black man in Birmingham, Ala. being elected the first black mayor in that town's history, I thought of a Bible passage that says "... weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." I was feeling that perhaps we, black folks, could expect to go forward even more and that there are A ? 9 1 juot a icw uicnaius umi are Keeping up the racial ruckus. But if a group; black, white, interracial or otherwise, cannot freely express itsself with full protection of the law, have we been deluded. The Constitution of the United States has set forth in the First Amendment that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or -TP*"; X |, Heating I Crisis I But this year, the crunch is really on. Heating oil costs are expected to be almost double what they were last yearT" The poor in northern states* where cold weather starts earlier and lasts longer, will be especially hard hit, especially if there are periods of severe cold snaps. For many poor people, the choice will be between heating and eating. And the elderly poor may face literal life and death situations. Some may become victims of hypothermia, a cause of death related to sudden drops in body temperature due to cold in an unheated house. The elderly are most prone to hypothermia, and it threatens to be a killer this winter. The administration pushed for heating aid for the poor, but it tied the aid to the windfall profits tax, which was to provide the funds. But Congress has bottled up that tax plan, and isn't likely to take action on it until we're well into the winter. Belatedly, Congress realized it had to do something and predictably, that something will be too little too late. ~ It's a fair enough guess to sav that whatever money B eventually is distributed won't be enough to cover the enormous rise in heating costs. And tying the aid to existing support programs-welfare or even food stamps-means that the significant numbers of poor people who do not participate in those programs will get no hearting aid. spring were atbkvek-st4HK>ls. Over sevcntv 11 \ c percent of all black vctcrnarians, dentists and medical doctors graduated from black institutions. ? r Over 50 percent of all undergraduates from black colleges obtain a second graduate degree within five years after their B.A. degrees, a higher percentage than for blacks at white schools. On the other side of the color -linc^black drop-out rates aUwhiU-univcisitievcx*ccd-60 percent. cloudy. It sccnis likely that blacks will find it increasingly difficult to obtain admission to "white graduate and medical schools, depending of course on the interpretation of the 1978 Supreme Court bakkci ul ~ ing- ... Affirmative action programs have been watered down at some institutions; a number of prominent and politically active black facuky at white institutions have been denied tenure over recent years. The 1977-78 census statistics indicate a decline in black college enrollment for the first time in many years. Some larger black universities, like Tuskcgcc Institute. Atlanta University and Howard University, will continue to attract philanthropic and federal aid. But there is the real danger that the majority of traditionally black, Southern colleges will close their doors permanently by the 1990s. ditoral g T ragedy | prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." That is fine and dandy, but who will protect the well-being of the protestors? It has been generally assumed that local police would act as the agency to protect the rights of citizens and act in the best interests of all concerned. But in Greensboro this week the question is asked louder than ever, why are five people dead and others wounded. It strongly and sadly appears that whether racially motivated or not, the rights of one group of people to express themselves was not adequately protected. Whether we agree or understand the WV 0 objectives they deserve the same protection as the President of the United States. Nothing can be done to change November 3, but much can be done to prevent it from happening again, as I write this I don't know what will haDDen J *1 aurmg tne next week in Greensboro, but I hope that instead of resorting to blind rage we should remain clam and be more determined than ever to reach goals and objectives that are productive for our race and the world. If we lose our heads for more than a second we will only get people hurt. It is not impossible for us to recieve justice, but we must work diligently for it. Though disappointed a the short comings and tragedy of last Saturday we must not give up hope. See Page 8
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 10, 1979, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75