Page 4-The Chronicle, Thursday, May 5, 1983
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Founded 1974 iflkligN
Ndubtsl Egcmonyc Ernest H. Pitt VW
Co-h oundrr PuO/uHrr
C.C4 Allen Johnson Robert EU?r Eliint L. Pitt
Managing Fctnor Sports Lduof O/fkv Uanagf
Playing Favorites
Although much has been made of drunken driving and
this state's determination of late to get tough with DUI offenders,
the "get-tough" part apparently has an asterisk
with a footnote that reads: "... Unless you're a public of
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nciai, espcciany a aeputy fire cniet."
Deputy Fire Chief Fred E. 44Pete'' Harless was stopped
last week by Winston-Salem Patrolman Richard Carleton
for crossing the center line on Country Club Road twice.
Carleton concluded, after conducting routine sobriety
tests during which Harless could neither touch his nose nor
walk a straight line, that the man was in no shape to drive
and recommended that a sober companion take the wheel.
Carleton also, it seems, recognized who Harless was and
became so intimidated by the situation that he radioed for
assistance.
Which brings us to our first point:
Something clearly is amiss when an officer of the law
becomes frightened to do his job because of who the party he
has encountered is, not what he or she has done.
Second, however much we feel the need to get drunk
drivers off our streets, we identify with a public that is
becoming increasingly annoyed by and weary of the
hypocritical charade to crack down on DUI offenders.
Third, the pat on the wrist which the Board of Aldermen's
Public Safety Committee greeted the incident was not nearly
enough.
In case our police officers, police chief and aldermen
haven't noticed, deputy fire chiefs are just as deadly behind
the wheel as any other citizen.
Finally, and quite ironically, Harless, whose job it is to
save lives, should, of all people, have known better than to
drive intoxicated, particularly when a sober passenger was
available to do the driving instead.
Of course, had Mr. Harless been a black man straddling
Highway 311's center line, we expect the outcome might
have been different.
For All Or Not At All?
In this land of "justice for all," justice often works in
mysterious ways.
Or not at all.
Take the case of the Klan/Nazi shooting four years ago.
Though video tape chronicled the wanton massacre of five
communist demonstrators by Ku Klux Klansmen and Nazis,
an all-white Greensboro jury acquitted five defendants of
murder charges.
Thus, two and one-half years later, it has taken a federal
grand jury to determine that those dead demonstrators' civil
rights. were violated and to bring indictments against nine
1/1 I VI / -
lYiauMucn ana ixazis ior wnat now is known infamously, but
not inappropriately, as "The Greensboro Massacre."- "
We had the displeasure of viewing a Durham newsman's
unedited footage of the carnage in Greensboro's Morningside
Homes housing project, from start to bloody finish.
It is a sickening sight.
What is more sickening, however, is the North Carolina
courts' blatant, revolting ineptitude in handling the case,
despite the magnitude and result of the wrongdoing.
A legal system that does not protect its citizens and, in
fact, looks the other way when there is strong evidence of
police complicity in criminal activity - eventually may lose
their respect.
It already has lost much of its effectiveness.
The McGee Trial
William McGee and Michael Smith, the pair of Winston
black men convicted of conspiring to traffic in cocaine, may
see brighter days.
McGee has won a new trial in Caswell County while
Smith's guilty plea has reduced his sentence to time already
served.
Some implications of the case:
- All public officials face a double standard when judged
by their constituency. Unfortunately, black public officials
are subject to quadruple standards, if you will, and are even
more delectible game for the oowers that he wh*n th#?
arises to discredit or disgrace them.
Witness the FBI's attempts to attack the character of even
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or, closer to home, Carl
Russell's plight when he became too politically powerful for
some folks' taste. Or former Assistant District Attorney
Jean Burkins.
The obvious solution to such tactics is to obey the law,
which not only is part of the responsibility the public entrusts
its elected and appointed officials with, but just plain common
sense.
There may be much more to the drug situation in Winston
- and supposedly upstanding citizens who are involved in
drug traffic -- than may ever be told. According to those
city's highly active rumor mill, that fact is general
knowledge, though everyone appears to be reluctant to talk
. about it.
-Questions raised by police informant and undercover
agent Ann Toms concerning the timing of the investigation
and the choice of McGee and Smith as targets still merit
some straight answers. And nrnhaWu
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The Heyday
By TONY BROWN
Syndicated Columnist
When I started researching blacks
in the film industry, I expected to find
the perpetual exclusion of AfroAmericans
from the silver screen.
Not only was I pleasantly surprised,
but I found that
movie
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HIV until OilU suuy
the nation's black
newspapers. Brown
During the
month of May, my public television
series will focus on the secret history
of the rise and fall of the black movie
industry. Yes, you read correctly -- a
black movie industry.
And did you know that the
backbone of this industry of independent
black producers was the ability
of the black newspaper to excite the
black populationjojso and sec Race _
Movies, as they were called? Some
black press members also booked the
movies in their respective cities to
create the first national movie booking
network that allowed an outlet for
all-black cast movies.
The NAACP, only five years old
when the granddaddy of cinema
racism - "The Birth of A Nation" ?
was bom, put Hollywood on notice
that blacks were not going to passively
be victimized.
"This is a heroic story," Dr.
Thomas Cripps, historian and professor
at Morgan State University,
says on the television program. "In
every city where the film was to open,
the local branch of the NAACP was
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against racial slander and setting
out to censor it when they could by
claiming that it would start riots,
which it, in fact, did in a few places."
At one point, the NAACP even attempted,
along with Universal, to
produce a response to the racism of
To Mom Ft
God couldn't be everywhere, so he
created mothers.
Anonymous
By CLIFTON E. GRA VES JR.
Chronicle Columnist
Though my daughter, Thema, is
1 l/i going on 15, she has not yet
mastered her verbal and writing
skills. Therefore, she requested that
ncr aaaay write this tribute to her
mommy, Sylviar
share with all
to thank you for all Mi
you have done for
me these past 19
months (plus the
nine months you [ mm*~
carried me).
I realize that Orim
since we were born
on the same date (Sept. 20) it was inevitable
that us Virgos would have
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^R'Sy/u
r Of The 'Ra<
"The Birth of A Nation/'
Another expert on this era is Dr.
Henry Sampson, author of "Blacks
In Black And White" (Scarecrow
Press), the best chronology around of
the development of the Race Movie.
He remembers as a young black lad in
Jackson, Miss., going to see all-black
cast movies at the segregated movie
houses - owned during those days by
blacks.
Back then, before AfricanAmericans
were faked out by the promise
of integration in movies, you
could see movies with black cowboys,
gangsters, doctors, concert violinists,
Shakespearean actors, singers and
dancers. Lena Home, Paul Robeson
and Sammy Davis made their screen
debuts in Race Movies.
Dr. Sampson explains, "The
historical significance of these early
black films stems from the fact that,
in many cases, they are the only existing
record of the performances of
many of the top black singers,
dancers, musicians and dramatic per'
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They also offered black actors the
only opportunity to portray the full
range of screen characterizations
from buffoon to doctor, from waiter
to owner, and all variations in betfeen.
For black audiences, black
Ims worked well as a counterritant
to the unflattering,
stereotyped roles popularized in early
Hollywood movies."
These movies came into existence
because of the movie slaves that
Hollywood had created out of black
people: watermelon-eating coons and
submissive rural blacks who knew
their places.
Dr. Sampson, also a nuclear
engineer and co-inventor of the gamma
electrical cell, notes:
"Black people had a choice at that
time. They could say, 'Well, I'm not
going to see any of these shows' and
boycott the movies, putting black
performers out of work. Or black
performers could have said, 'Well,
I'm not going to do any of those
shows. I'm not going to degrade
myself.' Or you could say, 'Let's produce
and let's act and portray
ourselves in a form which is dignified
*om Thema,
conflicts. But I must admit that you
have handled yourself wel! and controlled
your temper ? most of the
time.
Now, I realize that it irks you when
I spray your expensive perfume on
me, intentionally spill my cereal on
the living room floor, or raise a fuss
when you try to comb mv hair. But.
hey, mommy, I am just a little kid.
Besides, Daddy doesn't seem to mind
when I act crazy -- so why should
you?
But really, Mama, I do appreciate
all those mornings you awoke at 3:00
and rocked and sang me back to
sleep. 1 appreciate all those days you
stayed home from your job to take
care of my bad colds and fevers. I appreciate
you taking time to read those
black history, biblical, and fairy tale
stories to me. I appreciate you getting
down on the floor and playing with
me as if you were my age. And I really
appreciate the way you still smile
when you change my dirty diapers.
Now, you are not perfect like
Orandmommy Mayme (Daddy's
f
t& leaks
p you
i ||
ce Movie'
and try to eliminate all the stereotypes
and all the things you see in white
productions.' "
The black community chose the
third approach. And black producers
and companies sprang up in response
to the demand of blacks for an honest
protrayal of their lives. "The Realization
of A Negro's Ambition" became
the first black-produced, nonstereotyped
movie in 1916. Noble
Johnson, an actor at Universal,
foundedthe Lincoln Motion Picture
Co., the producer of the movie, in
Los Angeles, where a burgeoning
middle-class black community had
developed.
Other black producers of Race
Movies followed, of whom the most
notable and enduring was Oscar
Micheaux (mee-shaw). "Between
1910 and 1950, over 150 independent
film companies were organized for
the specific purpose of producing
black-cast films for showing in
segregated theatres of the South and
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North/' Dr. Sampson says. The
rapid growth of this black industry,
he adds, was due to the general acceptance
of race movies ("race" was the
term in those days for "black" and
other 1>Iack racial designations today)
and "the rapid construction of
theaters in those cities of the South
and North which had large black
populations."
The white theaters would not book
these black movies and Hollywood
monopolized the business, as today,
from inception to production. But the
lifeline to a black market, starved for
its own.reality, was the black-owned
theatre, the black newspaper and the
black producers who knew how to tell
a race story.
This system collapsed - along with
strong, positive black images - when
we lost ownership (hence, control) of
what movies are shown in our
neighborhoods.
Today, believe it or not. there are
very few black movie houses, if any.
"Tony Brown's Journal," the
television series, can be seen on public
television Sundays on Channel 26 at
6:30 p.m.
With Love
mother), who buys me everything I
want, and lets me do as I please.
Neither are you as understanding as
your mommy, Grandma Louise, or
my great-grandma ? my namesake Haida.
But, I guess they don't have to put
up with me 24 hours a day like you
do, either.
So, for all the reasons above, I just
want to say, Happy Mother's Day,
Mama!!
I love you, in spite of your shortcomings!
And when I grow up, I pray
tnat uod will bless me with all the
beauty, love, understanding and patience
that befit the African translation
of my name "Queen.M
For, if He does, then I can be just
like you, Mommy.
Happy Mother's Day!!
Love,
Thema Haida Graves
Author's note: Thema (Tay-mah)
is of West African derivation and
means both "queen" and "hope."
r- 1 ~~
Crosswtnds
'Ole Miss'
Symbolism
From Sports Illustrated.
University of Mississippi
Chancellor Porter L. Fortune.
Jr. announced last week that
the Confederate flag will be
dropped as an official school
symbol.
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Miss cheerleaders will no
longer distribute Confederate
flags to fans before football
games. But there will be
nothing to prevent fans from
bringing in flags on their own
because, said Fortune, "the
university does not have the
authority to ban the use and
display of the Rebel flag by individuals."
Fortune's action angered
many white Ole Miss boosters
and students who see the Confederate
flag as part of a tradition
worth preserving at an institution
whose sports teams,
after all, are nicknamed the
Rebels.
But many of the 750 blacks
among Ole Miss's
9,500-member student body
objected that Fortune should
have gone further and also
dropped such other symbols of
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Rebel, the school mascot, the
use of "Dixie" as the unofficial
school song and the Rebel
nickname itself. But Fortune
did none of that and, even in
the case of the Confederate,
flag, seemed reluctant to go
much beyond saying that it had
come to be seen by many as "a
vestige of an earlier and troubled
era." i
It's difficult to understand
exactly what distinction Fortune
was drawing in dropping
the flag but not other trappings
of?the Confederacy^ The
elimination of "Dixie" as a
school song might mean that
the band would no longer play
it after every touchdown, as it
does now, but students could
Please see page 5
Chronicle Letters
"Wl 1
rurmsmng
Inspiration
To Th? Editor:
On behalf of the staff of Forsyth
Court Volunteers and myself, I would
like to extend to you, as well as the
entire staff of the Chronicle, our
sincerest appreciation for the fine article
published on our agency. The
quality of the pictures and article undoubtedly
reflect the quality and
competency of the people responsible
for it.
Residents of Winston-Salem have
witnessed the Chronicle's timely
emergence from a fledgling organization
to the popular and reputable
firm it is now. A black-owned
business that continuously upgrades
it's services, and, at the same time,
endures the many obstacles encountered
in the business world, is
always a pleasure to see! I am
honored personally to have been
briefly associated with your staff.
I trust in earnest that the WinstonSalem
Chronicle will continue to provide
it's excellent and needed services
to the entire community. It is certainly
an inspiration to the black residents
of Forsyth County of which we are
very proud.
I would like to close, Mr. Johnson,
by wishing the Chronicle much continued
success in the future.
James E. Garrett III
Coordinator of Volunteers <
Forsyth Court Volunteers Inc.
Winston-Salem.
Please see page 5