cdiioriM tcomwu.
Who Is Being Hurt?
Sojourner Truth’s story as por
-traced on Am»rii-.n SinU.y
night, depicted what one can do who
_ is motivated by the desire to help
troubled people. A recent story told
of how Frederick Douglas came of
age and decided in his heart that he
would do something about the wro
ngs perpetrated upon an enslaved
people. This brings us around to the
Jo Anne Little squabble.
.. One must ponder these things in
his heart and ascertain who is being
helped in the squabble and who is
being hurt? Will the actions result in
Miss Little receiving justice when
her case is tried? Wfecan understand
why she had to furnish such outlan
dish bonds. We can also understand
the feverishness that attended the
raising of the money. What we
cannot understand is why so much
more monev is needed to insure the
proper presentation of the case.
.. The first unanswered question is
what will become of the bond money
after Miss Little presents herself for
trial? It is our understanding that a
bond is a guarantee that is put up to
indemnify the state if the indicted
person does not show up for trial. We
also understand that once the person
is tried, in a court, the bond, whether
cash or personal responsibility, is no
longer needed and reverts to the
surety. We do not know what the
form of the bond is, but we do know
that appeals were made for cash. We
understood that $115,000 was repor
ted as having been raised and bona
fide officers of the law are said to
have been satisfied to the extent that
JoAnne was released.
.. The next question that is not clear
is whether the money put up as bond
money will be returned to those who
furnished it.
..We happen to know that many
dollars were collected in sma)l su
ms, some as low as $1.00. It is going
—tn he a problem tn send many of the
persons Who gave lit response to the
appeal, their money back. The next
question is why does it cost so much
to try murder case? No state nor
defense witness is known to have
witnessed the murder. The defend
ant has said that she was quilty.
That being true, the burning quest
ion is how will the jury accept her
testimony and what the judge will
say after it makes its report?
..Another non-understandable que
stion is why any person would enter
into an agreement as to how monies
given for the defense of the young
woman would be distributed? News
paper reports allege that there was
an agreement between certain inte
rested parties that the monies would
hp HictrihntoH in liiffarAnt wove ft ic
hard for this newspaper to bring
itself around to believing that per
sons sworn to uphold the ethics of
jurisprudence would enter into coll
usion with anyone, where the life of
an individual is at stake.
. .We know that immorality is the
vogue in many places, but we cannot
understand how anyone would be
come so immoral until he or she
would stoop so low as- to commer
cialize on one’s potential death for
personal gain. We know the lawyers
should be paid. We do not under
stand why there should be a need for
money to propogandize the case. We
hasten to say that any person or
persons who form a combine to
profit off the misfortune of another
is perhaps more guilty in the eyes of
public opinion than the person who
finds himself or herself the victim of
misfortune.
..We will wait to see where the
fllS.fM will end up and who was
hurt oMielped.
Ouest editorial from the Carolinian
If the welfare client is female, we
draw a horror picture of repeated
illegitimate births for the sole pur
pose of increasing her welfare bene
fit. She’s a loafer, too.
.. What are the facts? People wind
up on welfare not because they are
cheats, loafers or malingerers, but
because they are poor. They are not
just poor in money, but in every
thing. They’ve had poor education,
poor health care, pom* chances at
decent employment, and poor pros
pects for anything better.
..We are advised that welfare pro
vides such opulent living its clients
would be crasy to give it all up and
go to work. We hear repeatedly thp(
welfare clients are cheats and wel
fare programs are rampant with
fraud.
What are the facts? But even most
of the poor are not on welfare. Some
15 million Americans receive some
form of welfare benefits. There are
more than 25 million officially below
the poverty level of 94,000 a year for
a family of four. Another 30-to-50
million are just barely above it. And
94,000 a year, as everyone knows,
does not afford extravagance.
. .Of the IS million receiving wel
The Welfare Program
... Everyt;: :ly’s Whipping Boy
.'fare, about eight million are
children under 16 years of age.
Anyone for “work-fare” for children
more than half a century after child
labor laws were enacted?
..Less than one percent-about
150,660 - of welfare recipients are
able-bodied employable males.
Many of these arc in their late
middle years. Most are uneducated.
All are required by law to sign up for
work or work training. A govern
ment study shows more than 80
percent want to work, rather than
draw welfare, and among the
fathers in this group, one in three is
enrolled in work training.
. Welfare mothers are not churning
out illegitimate children. Nearly 70
percent of all children in welfare
families are legitimate, according to
the Social and Rehabilitation Ser
vice of HEW. Thirty percent of
welfare families with any children
have only one child; 25 percent have
two; 18 percent have three. The
remainder have four or more.
Economically, anyway, the myth
is nonsense, since the average pay
ment per additional child nationally
is only $35 a month, hardly an
incentive toward mass production.
THE LEVEL OF
FEAR IS /
SHOCKING!
!■ i
\.r k
To The Elderly, The Street Has Become A Jungle!
Lciicu co cticeditoc
Black Caucus Responds To Two Editorials
.'•area ji, 1175
Editors, The Charlotte Post,
Dear 8ir:
I should like to respond to
the two editorials which ap
peared in the Thursday, Ma
rch 27, 1175 issue of the Char
lotte Post entitled: "The Fic
titious Assumption of Black
Leadership” and “Black Poli
tical Caucus - As I See It” by
Gerald Johnson.
..First, I would like to say
that persons who share lea
dership responsibility in the
Black Political Caucus are in
good company for I see you
are also very critical of Rev
erend Jesse Jackson, Notional
President of Operation PUSH
in his efforts to get the Natio
nal Invitational Basketball
Tournament Committee to ex
tend invitations to predomP-'
nately Black Colleges in the
..I also note with great con
cern the tremendous amount
of space given to Republican,
9th District Congressman Jim
Martin who is ultra-conserva
tive and in my view, callous in
his views and efforts toward
the plight of the black and the
poor in our nation; and finally,
I applaud your newspaper as
being the first to get one
concrete fact on the upcoming
Bond Referendum A real pic
ture of the "Map of the Pro
posed Bikeway System."
..The Republican Party has
certainly found a friend in the
Charlotte Post because two
headlines on your front page
give credence to the big lie
that "Black Jobless" rates are
unchanged and that the “Nat
ion's Welfare Rolls Remain
Fairly Stable". All of as know
including you that the “last
hired Is the first fired" and
there Is eventually no other
place for the unemployed but
the welfare roll; if unemp
loyment continues over a long
period of time. _
..Forgive me, I have strayed
from my intent. Now for the
business at hand. In your le
ading paragraph you stated
that _
“It should be an elementary
observation that, in our black
neighborhoods, there is an
alarming need for a black
leader who could command
the majority support of blacks
in the Charlotte Community.”
.. Black people are not mono
lithic. Why one leader?
..I ask you "does Charlotte’s
white neighborhoods have one
leader who can do all these
things? The day has long since
past for anyone to speak for
everybody. We know from
past experiences that the one
leader gets “assassinated as
did Dr. Martin Luther King on
April 4. 1968. Only lesser
known leaders get unemplo
yed and-or financially killed”.
.. Members of the Caucus are
Representatives of our vari
ous Democratic Precincts. We
were elected to those posit
ions. So contrary to your al
legations, the communities
did have an opportunity to
elect us. We are not pawns of
the Democratic Party, though
our leadership eminates from
that nariv
W --If
..More importantly the aver
age representative in leader
ship responsibilities In the
Black Political Caucus was
born and reared In Charlotte.
North Carolina over 45 years
ago. We are not transplants.
We have grown but our neigh
borhoods have not. I was born
in First Ward In the last house
by the railroad at M4-A North
Alexander Street. A commu
nity still yet without sidew
alks. parks or anything else
that would make It a desirable'
place to raise children. The
last vestage of pride, the Al
exander Street School, died
several years before Its prin
cipal, Mrs. Jsyne B. Wallace
Hemphill, a staunch educator
who taught thousands of black
boys and girls we could be
somebody Inspite of circum
stances.
.. Reverend Howard Campbell
of the Northwest Community
Action Association Is a pro
duct of “Newton’’. Jim Rich
ardson came from Third
Ward. I would go on.
..Contrary to young Gerald
OVIUMVH a Via Mil, WOU IB UlUlC
entitled to speak? Our thou
ghts. feelings, and actions are
based on a committment each
of us made in our own ways
while we endured the depriva
tion, discrimination and hard
ships as young black men in a
totally segregated society. I
vowed as a teen-ager that I
would have a voice in “my
city" one of these days. I have
not forgotten where I came
from and the debt I owe to
other blacks and poor people
of this city.
Young Gerald attacks the
organisation structure of the
Black Political Caucus. I ask
him to go to the file of your
own newspaper, if you have
one, and checkout a story that
your paper did on the Black
Political Caucus. The date is:
Thursday, October 3, 1*74.
Also check the record of the
last two elections. We know
we were responsible for get
ting out the vote of 2,NS or
more people during the last
election. Ask the candidates
who won seaU after seeking
our endorsements. Ask County
Commissioners Lis Hair, and
R Alarm Mnllmw mmlr r.^l AI..
ander, Herman Moore and
Robert Morgan.
..The Black Political Caucus
feels that It Is time to call to a
screeching halt the “rubber
stamping of bond referendum
that are put before us with
high sounding promises.”
As a responsible newspaper
when are you going to ques
tion?
. Have you stopped to think
that Charlotte passed a 130
million dollar bond In 1M0
which Included the Civic Cen
ter (a white elephant), fire
stations, sidewalks, parks,
and streets.
..In 1073 Charlotte passed a
923 million transportation
package. Why then two years
and 923 million dollars later
have bus fares gone out of
sight?
Would not 9SS million dollars
go a long way In Improving
human services la our city?
Robert L. Davis, Jr.
March 31,1979
VERNON E. JORDAN JR.
. ' /
The Black Economic Depression
Statisticians have discovered a remarkable
way to move people in and out of the labor force.
They call it “seasonal adjustment." And one way
to make the unemployment figures lower is not
to count people as unemployed if they’ve given
up looking for work in a job market where no
employment opportunities exist.
..The Labor' Department’s February unem
ployment figures showed a rate of 8.2 percent, or
about 7.5 million people out of work. Those are
seasonally adjusted figures, theoretical cons
tructs to account for shifts in work patterns that
occur from month to month.
. .But when real people are counted-bodies, not
theoretical constructs-the picture changes so
mewhat. Than we have an unemployment rate of
9.1 percent and 8.3 million workers-real people
with bills to pay and families to feed-out of work.
. .And even these figures are grossly misleading.
In February, some 580,000 workers gave up
looking for jobs. So long as they registered each
week that they were actively looking for work,
they were counted unemployed. In February, '
after weeks of fruitless job-hunting and no leads
or interview possibilities they gave up the
search. They thus became, In the official statis
tics, non-persons, no longer part of the labor
force and no longer counted as unemployed.
. .Seen from the vantage point of a person who
wants to work in a society that has no work for
him, these statistical exercises become a sort of
shell-game deceiving the public, legislators and
the Administration about the seriousness of the
Depression.
I’m not calling it a recession any more,
because we are currently living through an
economic Depression. For black people, there
isn’t the faintest doubt about this.
. One of the biggest barriers to getting the kind
of federal action to end this Depression is the
public’s 1 ce of- the * seriousness of the
as*.
economic report on the black worker, and, along
with up-dating to cover the last month or so, it
presents a devasting picture of the black econo
mic Depression.
It estimates true black unemployment includ
ing those out of work, working part-time when
they want full-time work, and those who have
given up trying to find jobs, at about 25 percent,
one out of every four black workers!
. For black teenagers, the official rate is over 40
percent. In some urban ghettos, up to half the
people are without full-time jobs they want.
And that’s not ail. There are as many blacks
out of work today as in the darkest days of the
Great Depression. About a quarter of the black
unemployed have been out of work for at least
four months. About 700,000 of the black unem
ployed are not eligible for unemployment com
pensation benefits, because their unemployment
did not result from direct job lay-offs, a require
ment for such benefits.
And one striking finding is that blacks, who
comprise 12 percent of local government emplo
yees, make up almost half of all local govern
ment workers who were unemployed, offering
striking testimony to the disproportionate lay
offs of blacks by local governments, demonstra
ting lessened commitment to affirmative action.
Some people, noticing the concentration of
black workers in the laggard auto industry, think
that alone accounts for high black Jobless rates.
Not true.
THE CHARLOTTE PUhT
‘THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER”
Established 1918
By A.M. Houston
Published Every Thursday
By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc.
9139 Trinity Road - Charlotte, N.C. 38216
Telephones (704 ) 392-1306 - 392-1307
Circulation 11,000
Bill Johnson.Editor - Publisher
Gerald O. Johnson.Business Manager
Robert L. Johnson.Circulation Manager
Second Class Postage Paid at
Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878
Member National Newspaoer Publishers
Association
National Advertising Representative
Amalgamated Publishers, Inc.
45 W 5th, Suite 1403 2400 S. Michigan Ave
New York, N.Y. 10036 Chicago, 111. 00616
489-1220 Calumet 5-0300
ayiycc i c
The New Slave Trade
As black people oppression Is no
thing new to us. Though some people
don’t know It, black people being
oppressed by black people is nothing
new. It was Africans who sold us into
bondage. Then, of course, came the
nights of the masters down in the
slave huts and all shades of
NEGROES were born. Well, I guess
you know the rest.
.. Today slave trade has taken a new
form. Self acclaimed black leaders
are selling our votes for the al
mighty dollar. Nationally well
known leaders are no exceptions to
the “Hustle”. Take heed to the
following situations taken from the
“New Times Magazine:’’
..During the 1972 Florida primary,
the head of one black ministerial
association informed the Lindsay
campaign that he could organize and
turn out the blacks of a major city in
Florida for the tidy sum of $175,000
cash money. The Lindsay campaign
counter-offered with 30.000. The
minister did not buy it and was later
seen at a press conference endorsing
Hubert Humphrey.
..Rev. Jesse Jackson toured the
country for nine days on behalf of
George McGovern for a cool 130,000.
..The late Adam Clayton Powell
used a rate structure. For Guber
natorial Elections $40,000, senate
seats $20,000 mayoral elections
$15,000.
The cases go on and on. and get
much more Involved. Julian Bond
and Ron Dellums were the only two
well known black leaders that were
spared of the hustling Insinuation.
What is happening, my friends, is
that black people are approaching
campaigning camps promising to
deliver votes to the respective cand
idate. Of course to do this will cost
the candidate so much money. The ’
candidate pays the black entrepre
neur the sum of money.
It is generally understood that
votes can’t and won’t be gotten from
this pay off but the candidate pays it
as hush money. By this I mean the
candidate can’t afford to have nega
tive impressions rumored about
him.
Again, few if any organizers have
ever been able to make an impact on
voter turn out. Few if any even try.
Moreover, the money is never fully
accounted for.
. The point is this, the very people
pushing for your vote In elections
have been paid to do so. The person
or issue that is endorsed depends
strictly on the highest bidder. The
organizers and the organizations
don't even have you. the voter, in
mind.
All this is to warn you against
following any self acclaimed piper to
your doom. Find out the issues and
the candidates for yourself and vote
only on your analization of the situ
ation.
It is time we stop letting nenni»
ih*i> buck .„d whiu. SK;
cause Instead, I think, the cause
should get some of the money.