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January 15, 1987
% Page A5 IT
fi
On pinning t
^""Beniamin F r.hauie i?
w . WMUf 10 til 19
/the executive director of the
s United Church of Christ's
Commission for Racial
Justice.
... NEW YORK--North Carolina
i
is at it again.
Back in 1968 the state sentenced
16-year-old Marie Hill to the
;,gas chamber. Then in 1974 the
state charged Joanne Little., for
r the murder of the jailer who tried
iXO rape her.
Now North Carolina is attempting
to victimize yet another
.black woman. Her name is Jacqueline
Barbee-Bullock, and she
the mother of five children. She
js also serving a 15-year prison
sentence for alleged arson.
Here are the facts of the case:
v., On Friday, Nov. 9, 1984, a
-rrintrartnr the roof
>of Mrs. Barbee-Bullock's home,
under orders from the Housing
; Authority. Her landlord was then
a lieutenant in the Public Safety
> Department, the combined police
and fire department in Durham.
. ' Winston-Sal
An independent, locc
*
r
NEWSROOM: Robin Bark
editor; Angella Tow, typis
* . . Truhon, copy editor; Ctiei
SPORTS: David Bulla, sp(
Raymond.
PHOTOORAPHY: James I
i i Blue, Joe Daniels.
ADVIRTISINO: Julie Peri
< ? Art Blue, Wenna Yvette J
OFFICE STAFF: Brenda N
PRODUCTION: Vinson D<
manager; Tim Butner, Ke
; BiQhsel Trufton^uu.':
Iwikwulaiiun: lyrone H
, Angela Ross, Richard Wi
S . *
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Payne
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allow his client, Cedric San'
diford, to testify until Blum is in
dieted as a willing participant in
the lynch mob.
In his stubbornness on this
point, Maddox appears to be
needlessly overreaching the facts.
* He should back away from his
client's judgement and, perhaps,
' his own early instincts, and press
the case for faulty police judg'
ment and Blum's indictment bas#?H
nn hi? artinnc at rl#?ath
w ? WII ?-? V4 1 I I IV V4 VUlll
scene.
Sandiford's refusal to testify
has led to second-degree murder
charges being thrown out against,
three white teen-agers arrested
' for their role in the mob beating.
' The firmer ground under the
refusal is Maddox's insistence
that District Attorney John J.
7 Santucci should have followed
'the normal procedure of presenting
eyewitnesses -- already
' harassed with death threats - to a
grand jury instead of a public
preliminary hearing.
; As this violent and complex
case unfolds, like the Goetz case,
> it is marked by a chilling public
- pursuit not of the true villains but
of the victims and their attorneys.
: >At the core of this flimflam is the
-quixotic Mayor Ed Koch, who
T last year was revealed as
presiding over a kleptocracy.
Eager to ride another media
issue to renewed popularity,
Koch, with pre-emptive rhetoric,
early, on called the incident a
\ ?
77/ like somebody to met
Luther King Jr. tried to givi
like for somebody to say tl
King Jr. tried to love someb
/V/i it tit/-it / ifisirt t*\ 1% si # /i
uuj irim i fffcri# ir/ f/i' rigm a
want you to say that /
^ humanity. "
? D
speaking shortly before
4 ' /
4
W FORUIV
he rap on bl
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURN
By BENJAMIN CHAVIS
.
He owns a number ot properties
in the area.
The next day, Saturday, it rained
and the water from tn^still-tobe-repaired
roof began to leak
onto the electrical wiring. Mrs.
Barbee^BuIlock, frightened for
the safety of her children, called
the fire department. Fire department
inspectors issued a citation
and ordered her to vacate because
of the imminent danger. She and
her family then went to a local
hotel.
r\? VI~.. tI rvo A?
v/ii iviuiiuaj, i^iuv, ix, l^oh, ai
11:15 in the morning, Mrs.
Barbee-Bullock's house, along
with other adjoining homes,
burned to the ground. One hour
later - even before any evidence
was gathered in the case - MrsT
Barbee-Bullock was arrested for
arson.
On May 30, 1985, she was convicted
and sentenced to 15 years
in prison. She was convicted by a
em Chronicle 1
illy owned newspaper
sdale, community news
st; Yvonne H. Bichsel
ryl Williams.
jrts editor; Kenneth
Parker, photo editor; Art *
y, advertising manager;
ames.
esbitt, Verisia West.
swuerry, production
ith Holland, Yvonne H.
ilton, Blandella McMoore,
Ikins.
miimiiiiiiiHiiiiiitiiiimimiiiiiiiiiimiimtMiiiiiuiHii
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A4
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"lynching." He offended some
Southern politicians by declaring:/
4Td expect this type of thing to
happen in the Deep South."
Xhere-are few politicians more
adept than the cunning Koch at
sprinting like a drum major to the
front of the parade and heading it
off in another direction.
In the Goetz case, Koch first
attacked the subway shooting
but, sensing the prevailing winds,
defended the gunman. With the
corruption scandal, Hizzoner
dashed to the bedside of chief
thief Donald Manes, only to turn
like a piranha on his good friend
"Donny."
In the Griffith lynching case,
i/ . i * 1 '
is.ocn, wiin an. eye on Diack
voters, first denounced the act.
More recently, with an eye on a
broader base, he incredibly ^denounced
Sandiford's refusal to
testify as "worse than the lynching."
Clearly, here remains a
demagogue, without principle or
sense, whose singular preoccupation
seems to be to stay on the
stage.
While manipulating ? few
misguided. so-called black
leaders, Koch's exploitation of
the Griffith "lynching" has?becn
that of a man who yells, "Fire!"
in a crowded theater because he
intends to steal ihe popcorn.
Les Payne is an assistant
managing editor at Newsday.
ition that day that Martin
? his life serving others. I'd
lat day that Martin Luther
ody. / want you to sayjhat
fndyfttJi'(rtt< with them. ... /
tried to love and serve
]r. Martin Luther King Jr.,
his death on April 4, 1968 .s
I More opinions,
columns and features.
ack people
IAL
(
jury of 11 whites and one black.
THiis irt a city whi?hJ>\:lo<e*to being
50-pereent b+3ck.
More than ZO people sa\s her
downtown the morning ot' the
fire, but only two of these
witnesses were called to the stand
by her' court-appointed lawyer.
Also, her lawyer never made a
point of the fact that the house
had been cited for violations just
two days before the fire.
The6se are the primary facts of
the case. But there are a couple of
other things you should know .
First, Mrs. Barbee-Bullock's
landlord received the insurance
i r
muiicy irum me lire. Me nas now
rebuilt the house and other adjoining
houses which were also
destroyed^in llie ftrc. He thus
conformed to the housing regula- ]
tions without" spending any of his |
own money.
And one last thing: Mrs. |
Barbee-Bullock is an accomplish- ;
V
New York C
? 1 . ft
Rick Hafripson writes for i
The Associated Press.
NEW YORK -- The original
melting pot is also a city where
race is an obsession, where black
progress as well as black failure
seems to increase racial tension,
where racial violence periodically
rends the social fabric and sullies
the civic image.
"New York is one of the most
sophisticated and international of
cities, but it is peopled from
enclaves that are more tribal than
many small towns," says Jacqueline
W'exler, president of the
National Conference of Christians
and Jews.
The enclaves are white and
black, and despite the presence of
dozens of other racial and ethnic
groups, "racism" in New Yorkr
still suggests one overriding prejudice:
that of whites against
blacks.
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Marable / f.
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vative white middle class won't
support the Democratic Party in
presidential elections."
Jackson remains1 the most
popular leader of black i
Americans -- and one of the few
politicians who has the potential
to unite millions of minorities,
feminists, working people and <
the poor under an umbrella of
progressive social policies. <
However, Jackson has not been <
able to transfer his personal
popularity to several local candidates
who agree with his basic <
program of social justice. <
Last year in North Carolina, I
for example, Jackson endorsed i
black candidate Theodore Kinney i
; _ * i r\ - - -
in ine uemocranc primary tor tne t
U.S. Senate. Despite Jackson's j
25-percent total in the 1984 North I
Carolina Democratic primary
vote, Kinney got less than 5 per- \
cent. - c
"In "Georgia, in?Savannah's <,
mayoral election, Jackson's candidal
was former city Alderman 1
Roy Jackson. Although blacks <,
comprise almost half of the city's i
\oting-age population, incum- t
bent Mayor John Rousakis 1
defeated Roy Jackson by a two- r
to-onc margin. s
One of the most highly
publicized political defeatx for j
the Rainbow last year occurred in
New Jersey's 10th Congressional 1
District. Jackson had received 70
percent of the district's vote in t
the" 1984 presidential primary, j
Although the district w ay .
represented in Congress /~Hy I
nr '? m I f U /? ? n I O <-??.% > l> .1. ? .
?viv.i an iiuticji rtai inuujih), j
many constituents felt that rhJ
time had arrived tor a black i
liberal to replace him. Announc- '
JSSHfim
mml: if
ed artist. Not only her household
possessions, but all her artwork
as well, went up in flames that
morning. Vet, rather than
holding the landlord aecountable
tor the fire, they have tried to use
Mrs. Barbee-Bullock as the
scapegoat.
?A^tt^has histor4caUy^donfcv__
North Carolina is again blaming
the victim for the victimization.
And the state is again assuming
that because she is black =- and
also poor - she is guilty until proity:
Racism ,
GUEST COLUMN ~
By RICK HAMPSON
The underside of the nation's
pluralist showcase was manifest
last rrtgnth when three blacks
\\jf% r*? n now" "f i.U!?
? vi v uuuviwvi u gang VJ I w lino
as they walked through the largely
white Queens neighborhood of
Howard Beach.
But there is no evidence that
New York is more reacist than
any other large American city, or
more racist than It Was last year
or 20 years ago. And recently
there again were signs that New
York, which stayed relatively
cool when other cities burned in
the 1960s, still knows how to
cope with racial tension.
Asked what is unique about *
racism in New York, Eleanor
Holmes Norton, former director
of the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission,^
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ing his candidacy just before the
1986 primary, Donald Payne, a
two-term Newark City Council
member and a former president
of the national YMCA,
represented a black liberal alternative.
The local and national media
deliberately distorted this campaign
as a black-versus-w hite
contest and used Jackson's endorsement
of Payne as evidence
in its "Jesse-bashing" campaign.
The \ew York Times
editorialized: "Mr. Jackson felt
^ompe4k-d?to?take?ou<- after
[Rodino), using Mr. Payne as a
-acial prop ... Mr. Jackson seems
ncapable of looking at anything
iVr'^rM ricrt ' ' OtUar ?
IUVV. V / I ? > | JU |)tr s
ium ped on the Tl Jesse-bash i n g
bandwagon."
Although Payne was defeated
:>\ Rodino, this cannot be blamed
Jackson's participation in this
;ampaign,? Payne
entered the primary late,
ess than one month before the
Meetion. He spent only $25,(XX),
vs opposed to SI75,(XX) spent by
he incumbent. Moreover,
<odino also had the support ot
nany members ot the C ongres.ional
Black Caucus.
But the net outcome was the
Perception that Jackson was a
'racist" -- and'that the Rainbow
iad lost Us influence.
On the positive side, the Rainio\\
Coalition continues to grow
it the grassroots level, and
lackson lias icmfirined at the
forefront ot progressive struggles.
As ot last November, the National
Rainbow Coalition had
note than 20.0(H) paid-up
:,r?
gTfl ! H|
ven innocent.
This is not just a local problem,
though. The railroading of
black women into jail is a national
disgrace. Black wbmen
represent less than 12 percent of
the adult female population of
.u ~ i i_?i r.-.-- *' - -
111c uiiucu oiaies. tei mey make
up more than 50 percent of the
women in prison.
There is, however, one striking
difference in the case of Mrs.
Barbee-Bullock: She has decided
to fight back. Though black and
in America's
responds; "Scale."
New York has more whites and
blacks than any other city, an3~an
environment more vulnerable to,
~yfc*t more likely to ex^cer^ater
their mutual suspicions.
According to the 1980 census,
about 52 percent of New York's
population of 7 million was
white, with 24 percent black and
20 percent Hispanic.
Since then, some
demographers say, the *white
population probably has slipped
below 50 percent for the first time
in the city's history.
If there is anything special
about race in New York, it is the
size of one part of the black
population -- the black
. underclass, whose plight is both
cause of and product of white
racism.
Underclass New Yorkers, says
Virc \I/-\rtrvr? "oro
? !<<? tun, aiv pi uuauiy 111c
most desperately poor black peoNIINIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINIIHIINIMII
members, and chapters now exist
in 40 states. Jackson has traveled
to South Carolina to help promote
the struggle against racist
harassment and discrimination at
The Citadel. ^
Last fall, when Japanese Prime
Min ister Yasuhiro Nakasone
publicly criticized the "low level"
of intelligence of blacks and
Hispanics, most politicians tried
to skirt this issue. Instead,
Jackson flew to Japan and
challenged the ""Japanese companies
for their -'total insensitivity?to?the?legitimate
-business
nilPtlc" rtT rv-> i n it . n. ^ ? ,J
V| U V 7 I J W I I I il I I V. J I I I I t > d I I U
women.
Unlike many black politicians,
uhj? have said little about the
Iran - Com ra arms scandal,
Jackson has repeatedly attacked
Reagan and his administration's
actions as "illegal" and "immoral."
- Jackson's- Operation PUSH
has also continued to make headway
on the economic front. In
mid-December, PUSH signed a
S\ billion extended agreement
with Burger King Corp. which
vn ill create thousands of black
and working-class jobs. By 1992,
Burger King is to increase its
black franchise owners from 70
to 550.
The deal provides tor mone\ to
black-owned food distributors,
advertising agencies and latulscapers.
It even calls tor the conv
pany to send many qt its
employees to black physicians tor
then_regular physicals.
Despite the ot>vious limitations
of these types of "corporate
covenants," they illustrate that
the economic ;i nd political
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poor and with all the cards stacked
against her, she continues to
resist. As she has said,* "They .
can't make me submit to this in- ?
justice. I'm fighting for more
than myself: I'm fighting for my
kids, too."
Mrs. Barbee-Bullock should
not have (t> fight alone. All those
who ^seek justice should stand
behind her and the many others
who are now in prison not
because they're guilty, but
. because they're black.
. -
; melting pot
N
pie in the United States."
Unemployed, unedu^ted,
unorganized and unruly, mfcst
are clustered in ghettos in
-v Martfiattan, the Bronx and
Brkjfryn.
Pathetic yet threatening, the~
black underclass is the catalyst of much
white racism, according to
Andrew Hacker, a Queens College
political scientist and author
of "The New Yorkers." But
socioeconomics does not explain
? why whites and Puerto-Rican
New Yorkers, with lower employ- ^
Cient and education levels than
lacks, seem to get along better.
"It's just that blacks are different,"
Hacker suggest. "They
are black, they came here from
Africa, and they didn't' come
voluntarily."
Much of New York's white
racism seems to spring from the
midclle- and lower-middle-class
Please see page A9
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pressure tactics espoused and implemented
by Jackson can yield
real . benefits. Conversely, the
- "Jesse-bashing" rhetoric of Bar.
bara Jordan and Co. leads the
black community to a political
dead end.
Jackson correctly senses that
political cowardice, in this era of
conservatism, will never provide
the way forward.
So far the Rainbow Coalition
has tried to push the Democratic
Party back to liberalism and
away from its dangerous flirtation
wHh Reagantsfrv. Sooner or
later, the coalition must begin to
address-the question, 'Ms it too
late to move the Democratic Party
back to the left?"
The Democratic Leadership
Council makes it perfectly clear
that it sees no future for the type
of progressivism Jackson personifies.
If a Sam Nunn, or Chuck
Rnhh nr f'.arv u art t V-v o
Wf w VJV4 I I V4 I I n Ull II I V
Democratic nomination, what
ktnd of policy concessions would
we receive for our electoral support,
if any? 1/ there is no real
difference /between the
Democrat \y and Republican
presidential candidates on policy
issues, would our energies be better
used in local electoral, and
social protest activities?
These are the hard issues which
Jackson and his supporters must
v address in the coming months.
Dr. Manning Marable is a professor
Qf political science and
sociology at Purdue University.
. *