FORUM
Charles Kuralt: Requiem for a Heavyweight Connector
Alex Haley once remarked, "Charles Kuralt is somebody I'm really
proud to call my friend. He's a sweet man who seems to love everybody
and he goes out of his way connecting us to common people, showing
how amazingly uncommon they are." He added, with his eyes looking
up, "that's what 1 tried to do in Roots."
Charles Kuralt understood hqw to reveal America at its true roots.
He was so good at what he did that he almost caused me ? if not for
my wife ? to make our kids miss a lot of Sunday School. CBS News
Sunday Morning, with Charles Kuralt was an incomparable show.
What with his almost perfect Southern baritone, superimposed with
jazz, classical, blues, gospel, country or sometimes a waterfall and bird
chirping music, Kuralt's reporting had a celestially inspired calming
effect. "Let's watch this and make it to church."
Charles Kuralt ? like Alex Haley and millions of Southerners ?
was first a storyteller. There was a saying among those in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains of my
youth: "Southern people might
can't read and write, but they
sure can tell stories." ^Charles
Kuralt was a master at the use
of imagery and indirection and
the straight talk that is so com
mon in the South.
Even in death, Charles
Kuralt has few peers. With all
; respect to Jane Pauley and
Stone Phillips, who entertain
us with Dateline NBC, it was
Kuralt, starting way back in
1972, who hosted Dateline
America on CBS radio. NBC
might cover the nation, but
Kuralt knew it.
His mastery of the language
? almost poet-like ? made
one "see," on radio, a toothless
t_ ... i t . a /~> _ cr if!..
snarecropper in nor soiree, rviiss. wun oui a lew worus, ivuraii couiu
make the man infinitely more interesting than the Queen of England or
a bejeweled Hollywood starlet.
Maybe I am a bit biased ? being from a bit off the beaten path
myself; but, what 1 liked best about Kuralt was his travels and reporting
throughout rural America. "On the Road" was popular at a time when
being "from the sticks" was not too popular.
He had this homespun, familiar, and informal style. Unlike today's
"talking heads on the tube" surrounded by gimmicks, Kuralt sat open in
a van (or on a stool in the studio). It was like he was out on your front
porch, having some iced tea. .
What we saw in Charles Kuralt was what we got and we probably
heard more than we probably understood. His genius was underestimat
ed because he was such a humble man. But, we liked it, for Kuralt was
awarded the Emmy in 1969, 1978, and 1981.
Charles Kuralt digested the pre-WWII traits of Wilmington, N.C.,
bom there in 1934. His brand of "Southern Comfort television and
radio commentary" was brewed at UNC's distinguished school of jour
nalism. Fitting his character, he asked to be buried on the UNC campus,
but a sweet whisper from where he learned his craft.
The Cream of the Crop has found his "Final Rest Area," but, because
he passed our way, we will always be "On the Road, with Charles
Kuralt."
May you rest in peace.
(Bill Turner is a freelance columnist for The Chronicle. He was
recently selected to join the Trotter Group, a network of African
American columnists. DeWayne Wickham of USA Today is President of
the Trotter Group.)
Lift
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Bill Turnmr
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We Have to Get Our Young People Before the Courts Do
Amid the public hysteria about "risipg" juvenile crime rates and politi
cians' pleas for harsher penalties against young law-breakers. New York
Supreme Court Justice Gloria Dabiri is starting to hear a different
response to crime.
"I think more and more police officers and prosecutors are under
standing that it will take more than punishment to address youth crime,"
says Judge Dabiri, a member of the Black Community Crusade for
Children's (BCCC) Juvenile and Family Court Judges' Leadership
Council. "I spoke at a National Prosecutors Association recently, and the
title of the meeting was 'Combating Juvenile Crime Through
Prevention.'" It's nice to see the district attorneys of major cities and oth
ers beginning to understand that it's part of the job to address this issue
before our children end up in court."
Still, the government's response to juvenile crime tends to be "too puni
tive," Judge Dabiri notes, reflecting on much of the legislation floating
around Congress. "We know the kinds of things that place kids at risk, but
we aren't addressing them. We know children need adult supervision, and
that we need to address truancy, abuse, and neglect. We know that we need
more after-school programs that build relationships between kids and
^dults."
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JUUgC LStllJll 1 IS Uglll. IW uiauj puimviaiu iwua vu tuv uiuuvwiuiv
political reward for "getting tough" with young offenders They ignore the
long-term societal benefits from investing in ways to keep young people
out of trouble, and turn them back into productive citizens when they do
enter the court system.
Now, Congress is under pressure to pass another "tough on crime" bill
targeting young people. One piece of that bill has already passed in the
House, the Juvenile Crime Control Act, which provides $500 million a year
for states to punish young offenders, provides for trying more children in
adult courts and devotes not a penny to prevention. Also awaiting passage
is a second House bill that threatens to undermine the Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, which is the primary grant the fed
eral government allocates to states to run juvenile courts, with such exist
ing conditions as states must protect truants and runaways from
unjustified incarceration, and juvenile delinquents from incarceration with
adults. On the Senate side, yet another bill includes certain harmful provi
sions similar to the two House bills. All three pieces of legislation fail to
invest adequately in prevention and emphasize trying children as adults
and imprisoning children with adults. A comprehensive bill, based to some
degree on all three measures, is expected by midsummer
Something is wrong with the values of a
nation that would rather spend $30,000 to
lock our children up after they get into trou
ble and won't spend 3,000 to give them a
Head Start. And something is wrong with us
if we do not fight the criminalization of our
youths and their need for positive alternatives
to the streets: jobs, after-school programs, and
recreation.
? ? ? t .? a ! ? i ?_ .
violence is a real inreai in touays society
and we should be concerned about it. Children are among the most likely
of all age groups to be the victims of violence. And one out of every two
children murdered in America is a black child, even though black children
make up only 15 percent of the juvenile population.
But we need to make sure that our concern over crime doesn't force us
to forget that these are still our children. They arc 10 times more likely to
be victims of violent crime than to be arrested for a violent crime. Also,
while violent crime by youths is still too high, it dropped 2.9 percent
between 1994 and 1995, the first decline in a decade.4lomicide by youths
fell 15.2 percent between 1994 and 1995.
It wastes more energy, and more money, to come up with stricter pun
ishments that it does to join forces on the measures we know reduce crime
and broaden opportunities for young people. We know that most juvenile
crime is committed between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., which highlights the impor
tance of having more adult mentors and after-school safe havens. We
know that better educated youths are less likely to commit violent crimes,
which stresses the need for better schools and more talented teachers. We
know that even troubled youths will seek out role models, which empha
sizes the importance of keeping them out of prisons and away from hard
ened adult criminals, and instead keeping them in schools and
rehabilitation programs where they can learn framedults worth emulating.
. And we Know that the
increase in violent juvenile
crime has been driven by
the easy availability of
guns, which stresses the
importance of urging our
political leaders to pass
legislation to make hand
_ guns less accessible to our
f ' I j
cnuuren.
These are the kinds of thing we have to do if we are serious about
reducing crime. We must add our voices to the list of individuals who are
calling for real solutions and reject the claims of those who think the
answer lies in building more prisons and sentencing children and youths to
longer terms
(Marian Wriglu Edelman is president of the Children's Defense Fund,
which coordinates the Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC).
whose mission is to leave no child behind and to ensure every child a
healthy, head. fair. safe, and moral start in life. For more information about
the BCCC. call 202-628-8787.)
Child Watch
Marian Wright Idalman
African-American History Comes Alive
Too often in the past, the history of African Americans has been lost
or hidden. Too often our history has been told by others. Too little of our
history is known by others, resulting in the mistaken conclusion that
African Americans have made few contributions to the life of this nation.
As you plan your summer vacations, one place you might want to
include on your itinerary is the Detroit Museum of African American
History. The $39 million museum is the largest of its kind in the nation and
is a great place for children ? and adults ? to learn about inventions and
discoveries by black Americans and civil rights struggles over the centuries,
as well as about African-American soldiers and business owners.
A powerful part of the museum is the simulated slave ship which shows
the wretched conditions of the Middle Passage which brought our ances
tors to these shores and which millions did not survive. Detroit teens posed
for the plaster casts. The names of the 2,000 slave ships which carried some
20 million men and women are imprinted on the beams over your head.
The Museum is organized around eight areas of African American life:
the African Memory, The Crime (Slave Trading), Survival of the spirit.
The Imperfect Union, Freedom and Betrayal; Urban Struggle, Urban
Splendor, The Struggle for Empowerment and Becoming the Future.
Sometimes it uses clothing to tell the story. For instance, the uniform of
Pullman porters, one of the first black unions, is exhibited as is the dress
of a member of the Little Rock Nine, the group of students who integrat
ed schools in that city in 1957, The gear of Dr. Mae Jemison. the first
African-American woman astronaut, is there.
Sometimes the museum uses videos to tell the story. Speeches from
well-known African-American leaders can be seen and heard, as can
recent footage from the Million Man March. Another video shows the
poet Maya Angelou reading her inaugural poem for President Clinton
While the federal government has spent a decade or so talking about
building a national museum on African-American history, Detroit actual
ly built one. The museum grew out of the collection of Detroit physician.
Dr. Charles Wright, who began displaying African and African-American
artifacts in his home in the 1960s. Black scholars and collectors from
across the country were asked to contribute to the new museum after the
city of Detroit committed itself to building the 120,000-square-foot muse
um.
Go see the Museum of African American History in Detroit. And then
tell your friends and neighbors what you learned. It's a part of all of our
history. It prepares us for the future.
< Bernice Powell Jackson is the executive director of the United Church
of Christ Commission for Racial Justice )
Civil Rights Journal
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