cmiofiiiij £ common j
The Gospel Of Self Help
Black leaders, national and local,
are preaching the gospel that Blacks
should give attention to. Rev Jesse
Jackson is the most vocal among
those who are preaching the gospel
of self-help and the necessity for the
nation’s Black citizens to set goals,
conserve their strength, and stop
being the laughing stock of the
community as “we ask others to do
for us what we ought to be doing for
ourselves.”
The Post gives its approval to the
statement as it is our belief that until
we adopt that posture we will con
tinue to be the laughing stock of the
total community.
There is nothing new in Rev.
Jackson’s advice. The gospel of
self-help has been preached before.
Nevertheless, the Black community,
especially the so-called Black lea
ders, have shown no signs of accept
ing that advice to a greater extent
than mere tokenism.
Jackson and other far-sighted lea
ders will have to continue to dwell on
the need for self-help until they are
heard throughout the community.
The Charlotte Post has dedicated
itself to echo the gospel of self-help
with the hope that others will join the
movement. It is time for the Black
Community to stop making excuses
for the senseless murders committ
ed by Blacks and for Black crime,
which is committed by Black
against Blacks.
Black leaders need to get on the
bandwagon and devote their time
and talent and energy and direct
their attention to reducing crime in
the Black community.
History has proven that there is no
way to get something worthwhile for
nothing. Blacks must make up their
minds to WORK for what they need.
We repeat that there is nothing
new in this advice. It has been given
many times before. However, com
ing from a national figure, it should
carry more weight than would nor
mally be the case.
The Post urges the citizens of the
Black community to adopt the gos
pel of self-help and to start collect
ively to work for the things that are
needed.
Helping each other is the most
logical answer to solving the many
problems that are presently harras
sing the Black communities.
The Black Businessman
So much has been written about
the Black businessman. Most of the
writers have overlooked the impor
tant fact that the problems of the
Black businessmen are deeply root
ed in the status, or lack of it, of the
Black man in American Society.
These writers fail to report that
the problems that are the common
lot of any businessman are made
more complex and difficult because
of - to put it bluntly - racial
prejudice and discrimination.
The Black businessman’s problem
is that when he wishes to go into
business and needs capital beyond
his own resources, he must turn to
white banks for loans. It is when the
businessman goes to a white bank
that his difficulties begin. If a loan is
granted, it is usually small. If the
lending bank asks for security
against the loan, the Black business
man may provide more than enough
and still receive only a small loan.
But, most often, there is no loan and
the applicant is caught up in a
demeaning vicious circle in which
the loan is neither denied nor grant
ed.
Many banks simply conclude that
all black businessmen are bad risks,
and they never really bother to
make objective loan decisions on a
case by case basis. The same is true
among the personnel of the Small
Business Administration, which is
ostensibly devoted to helping the
small businessman, including the
black businessman.
Widowhood Survival
There are currently ten million
widows in America, and the chances
of widowhood are five times greater
for women than they are for men.
These are not easy statistics, and
they’re certainly no great comfort to
a woman facing the trauma of life
without her marriage partner.
“A widow is plunged into an abyss
through no fault of her own,” writes
Jane Gunther, widow of author John
Gunther, in the June issue of Read
er’s Digest. “How can she climb out
of that abyss and move forward,
rather than standing still in grief?”
Mrs. Gunther says her own first
step was to accept her loss as
permanent. And the loss can extend
to many things beyond your hus
band’s companionship. It may apply
to financial support, psychological
support, position in the community.
For a woman who has spent much
of her life in the reflection of her
husband, withdrawal of these sup
ports can be particularly difficult.
Yet, notes Mrs. Gunther, “Some
suddenly left to their own devices/9
Citing the widow of a publisher who
took over her husband’s position, the
author says the woman found she
could not only cope with his complex
job, she could handle it most suc
cessfully.
“Accomplishment, on any level,
automatically alleviates another of
a widow’s causes of unhappiness
empty days,” she writes. Curtailed
income doesn’t necessarily mean
curtailed activities, since many act
ivities are free or inexpensive.
“Empty days,” the author contends,
“are poor imagination.”
Friends and interests are the kev
to avoiding loneliness. Age has nev
er been a barrier to friendship, the
author writes, but isolation is. “Give
a party,” she says, “even if you
dread the thought.” And if your
circle of friends has gotten smaller,
use the resources of the community
committees, churches and clubs-to
find and make new ones.
THE CHARLOTTE POST
“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. 28216
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
’ N 10036 Chicago, 111 G0616
480 1220 Calumet 5-0200
'BLACKS WHO HAH T
TO FIGHT CRIME BY
BLACKS AGAINST
BLACKS MUST HOT
BE INTIMIDATED"
Not ‘Just Spectators’ To Own Doom
REPORT FROM
Jy^VVash lngton-„
The Emergency Job Veto
By Congressman Jim Martin
9th District, North Carolina
President Ford won an important
victory when the Demoratic liberals
in Congress failed to muster enough
votes to override his veto on the $5.3
billion emergency public employ
ment bill. He had asked Congress
orginally for legislation to deal with
the Nation’s most immediate em
ployment problems.
The President called for an exten
sion of existing public service jobs
and a summer youth employment
program. The Congressional re
sponse went over $3 billion beyond
what he requested and had the
potential for another round of inflat
ion.
Instead of providing just jobs, the
liberals in the Congress tried to
“play politics as usual” and sweeten
the pot with a little gravy from the
old pork barrel. The legislation had
what the President had asked for,
but it would have also funded var
ious government programs and pub
lic works project. Over $440 million
was scheduled to be spent for con
struction and repair of federal build
ings. The bulk of the legislation
would have been spread to areas of
the country with employment pro
blems much less serious than those
in North or South Carolina or Michi
_ gan.
As for the President’s request for
a bill meeting the “most immedi
ate” needs, many of the projects
proposed by the big spenders in
Congress would not have become
operational until 1976 and on into
1977. That would not help the re
covery from recession so much as it
would help put more people on the
public payroll after the recovery.
Some of the supporters of the bill
either did not understand it, or else
they were misleading the public.
I support job programs, but the
ones provided by private enterprise.
Congress has become so extrava
gant with federal spending with
huge resulting debts that will drain
off 80 percent of the money market.
That will not leave much for the
expansion of businesses, or for home
mortgages, for they will be crowded
out of the money. Yet if we could
encourage business expansion, it
would obviously mean more perma
nent, and more useful jobs. Instead,
Congress insists on enlarging the
public trough, providing temporary
jobs the taxpayers may be called on
to continue indefinitely.
WELFARE REFORM-NEGATIVE
INCOME TAX
iff _e
xTxcaujr vi uo ^an dgi cc un one poini
about welfare; the system needs
changing! Legislation I have co
sponsored is working to that end, I
want to eliminate welfare abuses
and use part of the savings to help
the truly needy and part to help the
taxpayers.
The Secretary of Health Educat
ion and Welfare (HEW) is proposing
instead to establish a guaranteed
minimum income. This would
amount to a “negative income tax.”
Superficially, that idea sounded at
tractive when it was first promoted
six years ago. Even some conserva
tive economists pushed the idea.
They thought it would save money
by reducing the administrative bur
eaucracy and by fixing a uniform
limit for federal payments. That
might work.
The problem is that it’s not likely
the bureaucracy would be decreas
ed. Not at all. Somebody would still
have to check individuals claims of
changing income and changing
needs.
TO
BE
EQUAL
VERNON K. JORDAN JR.
Banks And The Housing Crisis
The housing crunch has been one of the most
serious results of this Depression. Housing starts
are at about half the level needed, and the price
of homes has sky-rocketed beyond the reach of
most families.
With interest rates holding steady now, and
new savings flowing into banks and savings
institutions, industry spokesmen are predicting
the housing situation will improve. But not for
low-income families and minorities..
In large part, that’s because of the widespread
practice of redlining, a process by which
lenders refuse to make mortgages and loans in a
neighborhood. There was a time when “redlin
ed” areas were all black and poor, but now the '
practiceiias extended to many center-city neigh
borhoods, even middle class ones.
With mortgage money drying up in the cities,
stable neighborhoods are condemned to fast
decline as homeowners can’t borrow to improve
their buildings and can’t refinance existing
mortgages.
Back in 1973 the National Urban League
documented the practice of redlining and of
savings institutions exporting local savings to
other areas they deemed offering higher and
safer returns on their investment. The League
analyzed a dozen financial institutions in Bronx
County, New York, and found that most were
deeply into a process of disinvestment, channel
ing funds out of the Bronx.
Now, the issue has heated up again and some
reforms may be in the offing. A few recent
developments include:
A study by the Federal Reserve Board reveal
ed that mortgage lenders turn down almost twice
as many home loan applications from minorities
as they do from whites.
A Washington report documents that major
lending institutions put many millions of dollars
into the suburbs and very little into center*oity . ■
mortgages, although the bulk of their funds come - i
from city residents.
New York State, in response to similar
practices and to the banks’ reluctance to finance
a state housing development agency, is consider
ing establishment of a state bank.
New attention is being given to North Dakota’s
experience with running a state-owned bank,
now (he biggest in the state, which has been a
factor in the state’s development.
ocuaie Hearings nave Deen neia on a proposal
that would force lending institutions to disclose
where they get their deposits and where they are
making their mortgage loans. The idea here
would be to break the wall of silence surrounding
banking procedures and make public data that
will either support or disprove banker’s claims
that they use their deposits for the benefit of
their communities.
It would be simplistic to assume that a
disclosure law or even a state-operated bank
would automatically end redlining practicies, or
even replace the private lenders.
Disclosure would go a long way however, to
making public information now hidden by an
iron curtain of silence. Not only are banks not
saying where they get their money from and
where they are lending it, but state and federal
agencies to whom they must report such infor
mation consistently stonewall community
groups trying to get the facts.
No state bank can even begin to replace the
huge private lending institutions which will
always dwarf ity
I
Education System’s Biff Gan
There seems to be a big gap
between the educational system of
our society and the world of reality.
From the first grade through the
higher learning institutions of our
Universities people are taught to
remember things and are not taught
to think. Luckily the aggressive
achiever picks up the tools for think
ing by circumstance and not by
design.
From your first day of school the
educational process drills you with
response from stimuli. You see the
word “Cat” and you hear the word
pronounced several thousand times
until you associate the letters C-A-T
with the word “CAT”. The question
now becomes have you really learn
ed anything. I say NO! Let me
re-phrase that and say you haven’t
learned anything that is really use
ful The same type response educa
^—'
By i
Gerald j
Johnson
tion is quite successful with animals
that are far less intelligent than
man. This shows that the education
al process is counter productive.
The educational system is geared
to teach the masses to communicate
within the structure of our society,
yet it is bounded enough not to allow
«•
•
the masses to influence that society.
Ironically enough I don’t think this is
a master plan but rather a coin
dence.
To emphasize the point further, I
recently asked a college senior to
divide 36 by 6. He quickly responded
with the answer 6. Then I asked him
to repeat the calculation only this
time use another method other than
division. He couldn’t associate sub
traction with division. The nnmhor
of times you can subtract the divisor
from the dividend until your re
mainder is less than the divisor is
the definition of division. The stud
dent had remembered the mechani
cal processes in doing division but
had never learned to think through
the process. This fault is not the
student’s fault, but the educational
process's fault.
The major purpose of an education
in our society is to better prepare
individuals for the better jobs. If this
is true more time should be spent on
actual cases rather than from text
books. Most people can’t relate their
educational experiences with jobs.
Most people feel that the educational
process is a way to a high paying job
rather than a means. Hence, they
proceed to get the degree without
picking up the knowledge that sup
posedly leads to the degree. By
taking an actual business and teach
ing direct applications from that
business a student could learn just
as much or more than he is learning
under the traditional teaching met- i
hods. He would learn English gram
mar and its uses by case studying'
the business letters written by the
business. Basic math would be
learned once the accounting section
was reached. Well, you get the idea
More importantly, though, the stud
ent can relate the process to reality