PAGE A5
Winston Salem Chronicle
JANUARY 26, 1989
'Mississippi Burning' distorts history
NEW YORK - The firm
"Mississippi Burning" is currently
receiving national media atten
tion. The movie, about the murder
of Chaney, Schwerner and Good
man^ three civil rights workers-in ?
Mississippi in 1964, recently cap
tured the cover of Time magazine.
It has also been reviewed exten
sively in every major daily news
paper wherever the film has
opened.
Many film reviewers are
acclaiming the film. These
reviewers conveniently miss the
movie's major fault. "Mississippi
Burning" elevates the FBI to hero
ic proportions when, in truth, that
agency was more a part of the
problem than a part of the solu
tion.
At the same time, the film
totally ignores the very people
who were heroic ? the civil rights
activists wlio bunrFmovem^lir
Mississippi.) In the movie, Afro
Americans are simply back
ground, and the movement is non
existent.
A recent edition of CBS-TV's
"Nightwatch" program aired a dis
cussion by three civil rights work
ers from the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee who
worked in Mississippi in 1964.
Their comments showed clearly
how grossly the role of the FBI
was distorted in the film.
June Johnson, whose family
was long a bulwark of the move
ment in Greenwood* Miss., spoke
of the FBI's collusion with the
local Mississippi-police. She
organizers, he asked in panic,
"Why are you all here? You'll get
us all killed.**
Judy Richardson, veteran
SNCC organizer and associate
producer of thg second
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
By BENJAMIN CHAVIS JR.
recalled that when she was only
14 years old she was brutally
beaten in Winona, mVss.? along
with civil rights activists Fannie
Lou Hamer, Lawrence Buyot and
Annelle Ponder. Local law
enforcement officers were respon
sible for .the beating, yet the FBI
suggested to the activists, their
faces swollen and bruised, thai
they had actually attacked each
other.
told of accompanying Rita Schw
emer, wife of one of tije slain civil
rights workers, to the site of the
disappearance, where they were
chased by a white mob to a local
motel, where investigating g&L
agents were staying!"*^1
^ ? -When the FBI agent opened
the door and recognized the two
"Eyes on the Prize/' stressed the
indomitable courage of the local
Afro-American community in
Mississippi; who housed civil
rights workers investigating the
disappearance of their three miss
ing colleagues.
It is up to all of us to correct
~ the record. We must make sure
that wherever the film is shown,
the media is encouraged to report
the true story of Mississippi in
1964 and today.
We must not allow the real
history of Mississippi and the civil
rights movement to be "burned"
bythimnovte. *
J&flHain RChavlg jr. is exec
Conrnils^
-sion for Racial Justice of the
United Church of Christ.
The battle of a two-pound baby
WASHINGTON - The scene
is the Children's Hospital Neona
tal Intensive Care Ward.
In-an incubator in a large,
bright room filled with nurses and
equipment, tiny "Jason" is fight
ing for his life.
Six weeks after he was born,
Jason weighs two pounds* six
ounces. He has come a very long
way. At birth -- three months
before he was due -- Jason
^weighed just over one pound.
-Jason lives because tubes
*tonnecThis lungs and every avail
able vein to the many machines
that are needed to feed him and
keep him warm and enable him to
take his next breath.
It is quiet in Jason's corner. A
baby can be heard crying across
the room, but because a breathing
tube runs down his throat, little
Jason cannot cry. When his heart
rate slows, a monitor beeps to
j alert the nurse.
"Minimal handling," says the
sign on Jason's incubator. He is
too fragile to be touched very
much. He has been through
OHILPWATOH
By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
\
surgery to enable doctors to insert
an intravenous feeding needle. He
has a heart problem. And he has
already suffered seizures because
of damage to his nervous system
caused by bleeding into his head.
Jason will perhaps live his life
with mental handicaps because of
the bleeding, the nurse says.
Jason waves his tiny arms and
legs. His thin hands clasp and
unclasp the warmed air inside the'
box that has been his only home.
"He's a Cute little kid," the nurse
remarks.
Prematurity such as Jason's
can result from a number of com
plex medical and social problems
that affect a mother's health and
her pregnancy. What exactly led
to Jason's premature birth will
never be known. We do know,
however, that unless a mother
receives early and ongoing prena
tal care, conditions that can lead
to prematurity cannot be detected
or treated.
^Fhe real tragedy of Jason the
two-pound fighter is that his
mother was close to five months
pregnant witn him before she
received any prenatal care.
A growing number of black
babies today face a risk of repeat
ing Jason's tragedy because our
nation is slipping backwards on
providing their mothers with time
ly, adequate prenatal care.
_ According to the latest health
statistics, more than one out of
every 10 black births in 1986
involved a mother who got prena
tal care late in her pregnancy or
got no prenatal care at all.
The number of black births
that occurred under these risky
circumstances has gone up 20 per
cent since 1980. It has been the
longest upturn in this negative
trend since the government started
keeping track of these numbers
decades ago.
Please see page A8
We may become AIDS suckers, victims
NEW YORK - This week in
Daytona Beach, Fla., black publish
ers and editors will be briefed by
officials from the Centers for Dis
ease Control on AIDS and the black
community.
They will be introduced to the
CDC's new media campaign,
designed to change the behavior of
blacks and Hispanics in order to
stop the spread of AIDS. The CDC
wants the Afro-American press to
tell its readers that Afro- Americans
account for 12 percent of the popiu
lation, but 26 percent of the AIDS
eases. Hispanics are 8 percent and
1 5 percent, respectively.
That leaves 58 percent of the
cases for whites, who are 80 percent
of the U.S. population. While
blacks and Hispanics are being tar
geted and warned that drug usage
and sex should be avoided and reg
ulated, some whites are using those
same statistics to prove the CDC's
theory that AIDs in America came
from Africans. Therefore, some
thing should be done about blacks
in America.
"AIDS is taking on a black
face," declared editorial writer Bill
Johnson in The Detroit News, a
white daily. Johnson called on
blacks to support mandatory AIDS
tcsth<g*and said the alternative may
be a backlash of increased bigotry
aimed at blacks.
If Afro- Americans allow them
selves to be identified as the AIDS
problem, they will be both misedu
catcd and eliminated, in one form or
another, from American society.
This "black" number of 26 per
increase the risk for AIDs and is no
more reason for mandatory testing
that being white ? unless you are
white and in a high-risk group,
therefore more likely to carry the
virus.
TONY BROWN
Syndicated Columnist
cent of the AIDS cases includes
Haitian and CentraL African immi
grants. Both of these areas received
the World Heahh Organization's
smallpox vaccine, which the Lon
don Times said triggered the AIDS
epidemic in Central Africa and
Haiti.
There is no doubt that any
member of any group that is seeded
with the AIDS virus is more likely
to develop the disease. However,
Americans of African descent have
not been inoculated with the Virus
and are not at risk - unless they are
homosexual (57 percent of AIDS
cases), bisexual (18.5 percent), drug
users (18 percent), have sex with
members of a high-risk group or are
a homosexual/bisexual/drug user
(6.5 percent). , .
So being black does not
If mandatory testing
*w<Loa> statistical inference,
males ? black, white, green and
polka dot - who have an exposure
rate 13 times higher than females,
should be singled out. Ditto for
hemophiliacs, young people and
people living in San Francisco and
in New York (the AIDS capital of
thevtorld).
*CFor that reason, New York
should be "destroyed for the benefit
of the whole nation,** wrote a man
from Edmonton, Canada, in a letter
to me. "Panic and fear" is not too
far off, and black people, whom he
holds responsible for AIDS, will get
their "heads blown off or incinerat
ed." This man is a product of the
current AIDS information pro
p/ease see page AS
Thursday, January 26, 1989 Pag? A5
A a
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MCDONALD'S CUTE
CUPID CONTEST
For Children Ages
9 mos. to 4 yrs.
Akron Drive
Kernersville
M.L. King Jr. Drive
Bring your child's entry picture to one of the above locations. You may
only enter at ONE of these locations. Entry deadline is February 6th.
Photo must have been made win the past 6 months, may not be larger
than an 8x10 and does not have to be in color.
*?
The Contest will be judged on
February 14th atO 6:00 p.m.
Winners will be contacted by phone.
x
Prizes At Each Location
The Winner of the "Cut Cupid" Contest will receive:
? A Trophy Commemorating the contest win.
? A Ronald McDonald Doll
? $25.00 McDonald's Gift Certificates.
First Runner-Up and
Second Runner-Up will receive:
? A Trophy
? A Ronald McDonald Doll
s
All other contestants will receive:
? A Certificate of Participation
? A Special Treat
? A "Be Our Guest" Card for a free order of
McDonald's Prench Pries
There will be a reception for all contests and and their family
on February 14th from 6:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the
McDonald's that your child's picture was entered.
Prizes and Pictures may be picked up at the reception.
For more information call:
Karen Easter at 727-0606
McDonald's will not be responsible for Children's Pictures.