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The Joan Little Trial
a whole lot of people are watching
with considerable interest To see the
outcome of the trial of Miss Joan
Little that is now taking place in our
capital city of Raleigh.
. <
The Little trial has generated
remarkable interest among differ
ent groups of people all over the
world. First, perhaps because Miss
Little is black and charged with a
crime against a white. Second, there
is interest because she is a female
charged with a capital crime against
a male member of the so-called
Establishment. Third, there is inter
est in the case because it smacks of
ruminations of the old evils mani
fested in the movie - Mandingo -
which aroused racial feelings among
the black population who viewed it
recently
In addition to the above men
tioned reasons, perhaps the most
significant one is that many persons,
be objective in analyzing the matter
be objective in analyzing the matte
of Miss Little’s innocence or guilt in
the matter. Her plea is one of
self-defense.
But Joan Little’s case is anything
but an open-and-shut one. This is
primarily because of the lingering
doubts about her basic character.
Everyone expects the black press
to line up on the side of black persons
accused of wrong doing by the white
officers of the law enforcement es
tablishment, everyone will begin to
negate the notion because it looks so
bad in print.
The Carolina Peacemaker is in
terested in seeing that justice is done
- blind justice weighing the issues
and the evidence impartially with
out fear or favor.
The fact that Joan Little has an
extensive criminal record has no
thing to do with the present case in
fact. But any prospective juror or
judge would be inclined to look at
that record despite instructions to
the contrary.
It is a foregone conclusion that
Miss Little killed Oscar Alligood, the
Beaufort County jailer; she admits
to stabbing him a number of times
after he allegedly raped her and,
according to some reports, forced
her to commit sodomy.
Those are incendiary charged in
deed, and ones which most black
people would be inclined to believe
given the past history of abuses
heaped upon black womerfin jails by
white men, particularly in small
rural towns of the South.
And so the Joan Little case has
become a cause celebre in our re
gion. Everyone is calling'for Miss
Little to be set free, almost without a
trial, forgetting the possibility that
such counter charges totally false.
(No physical examination of the
victim was made reasonably spon
after the alleged offense.)
One thing is certain, Oscar-Alli
good is'dead, killed admittedly by a
prisoner in his jail. ~ 1—
Is it possible that true justice can
be discerned and dispensed? We
fear that the waters may be mud
died by secondary issues such as: 1)
Is the judge capable of dispensing
justice without bias? He has given
preliminary indications that he'
wants to avoid any semblance of
prejudice by agreeing to a change of
venue from Beaufort County to
Raleigh, the capital city.
However, he may show himself
incapable of dispassion for tradi
tional mores of the Old South - the
principle that there is no harm in
convening a jury composed of eleven
whites and one black, or for that
matter, an all-white jury to try a
black accused of an offense aeainst
a white person.
One tmng appears to be certain,
Miss Little’s attorney, Jerry Paul,
seems to be destined to run headlong
against any legal barricades erected
by Judge Hamilton Hobgood.
The result will be a mistrial and
Mr. Paul’s citation'for contempt - a
charge which must be answered
only in Judge Hobgood’s courtroom.
And Mr. Paul should be aware of
this fact.
It seems to us, here at the Carolina
Peacemaker, that Attorney Jerry
Paul must act to protect the vital
interests of Miss Little, the most
rudimentary of which is that she be
tried by a jury of her peers. Any
thing less than this is totally unac
ceptable by her attorneys and by the
black citizens of North Carolina and
of this nation.
Guest Editorial
By Dr. John Marshall Kilimanjaro
Let Us Hear From You
For the last 6 weeks the editorial
page has consisted of articles which
are contrary to the belief of some,
agreeable with others, and erron
eous to others. The editorial staff
welcomes this patronage and we are
extending an invitation to all to “Let
Us Hear From You.” We welcome
the chance to print your opinion.
1 * f _ 11 _ . A mm a “ a
"c, me aiau, are only airing Our
opinions on particular situations and
we don’t expect complete compli
ance. We only ask that comments,
corrections, and - or criticisms be
forwarded with the name and ad
dress. When your letter is received it
will appear in the next edition of the
Post. Letters need not pertain to
articles of the Post. Any opinion on
any meaningful topic will be printed.
Just mail your letter to:
The Charlotte Post
P.O. Box 97
Charlotte, N. C. 28230
Liiicra Ciaiiof
Jefferson Is Great Teacher
Dear Sir,
He is Black People’s greatest
teacher. Shermon Hemsley of “The
Jefferson’s” program on WBT is a
blessing to Black people that he
plays the part of a “Big Nigger” who
has accumulated a little money ff om
his dry cleaning business and now
has forgotten the lesson of a point
that “if you want to gather honey,
don’t fight the bees, for they are the
ones who make it.”
Now Black people-about one out of
every five hundred- owns a little
grocery store or dry cleaning ser
vice, or is a doctor or lawyer. These
few begin immediately to abandon
the thought that they are Black and
would rather look on the other’s as
“outcasts” or not good enough to
associate with them. On the other
hand his action causes the unfortu
nate to despise him.
JUS I a iew weeks ago, some White
people who were protesting the
building of public housing in a cer
tain part of town where they lived
were invited to meet with the city
council to explain their grievances
and believe it or not, to my surprise,
a Black man who had managed to
buy a home somewhere near this
neighborhood was about he second
or third person to appear before the
T.V. camera and lend his support to
this matter. Now, how does this
Black person earn his living? He is a
funeral director who sits and hopes
for some Black person to die so he
can get the job of burying him. You
can be sure that if a thousand White
people in that neighborhood died in
one day, he would not get a chance to
bury even one.
So you can understand that all the
gripes against Whites by Blacks that
they discriminate against them is
not true. But, that the blessing of a
Black person usually turns out a
“Big Nigger” as we call it. Even
though this man who owns a funeral
service, his blessing remains as one
good thing that the television station
he appeared on is just one that not
many Black people owe blessing to.
He could have just gone home and
closed his funeral home that night
for he would not get another body to
bury.
Rev. F. M. Cunningham Sr.
Minister Supports Moten
ueai ejuuui .
The workers of the Neighborhood
Youth Corp and Minister at Geth
semane A.M.E. Zion Church are
writing this letter to show our sup
port for W. T. Moten. Although we
recognize that the program has had
a few problems we would like to
express our sincere appreciation to
Mr. Moten for giving us the oppor
tunity to work this summer.
We feel that it was not Mr. Moten’s
intention to overhire, but recogniz
' ing the economic situation of the
community, he wanted to provide
jobs for college bound students as
well as those of low income. We also
feel that he should not be condemned
for trying to provide jobs for that
segment of society that so despar
ately needed work. These jobs could
have possibly eliminated unforeseen
problems that arise when youth are
jobless and as a result roam the
streets. George E. Battle Jr.
TO
BE
EQUAL
VERNON F. JORDAN JR
The Rise Of “The New Ethnicity**
A major development in our society has been
the relatively recent rise of what has been called
“the new ethnicity.”
The old melting pot concept of America - that
all citizens, whatever their ethnic origins, be
made into some sort of homogenized “Ameri
can” modeled on the Anglo-Saxon founders of
this country - is effectively dead.
In place of the melting pot, there is a
pluralistic recognition of our diverse origins,
cultures and backgrounds, with the added reali
zation that no one has to apologize for his
torebearers, his race or his accent because they,
don t match the false ideal of the society.
Suddenly, we see people who used to change
their names and smooth their manners adopting
their tradition with gusto, enthusiastically put
ting the hyphen back into “American.” Polish
Americans, Irish-Americans, Italian-Ameri
cans, Jewish-Americans, and many dozens of
other groups are reaffirming that this is a nation
of immigrants and that while we are all citizens
of one land, each of us brings to it a special,
specific culture and background.
America is a combination of all of those
different cultures and its strength lies in a
healthy, diverse pluralism that respects all and
bellittles none.
In part, this new ethnicity stems from the civil
rights movement of late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
The black rejection of the white Anglo-Saxon
model of supposed superiority and the revival of
pride in our own ethnic background helped
influence other groups.
borne people see renewed confidence by other
ethnic groups as being somehow “bad for
blacks” since the “ethnics” are commonly
perceived by the media and-Others to be more
liable to racism than others.
But a report of studies made over the past
several years indicates just the opposite is true.
Writing in a new research publication, The
Urban League Review, Dr. Robert B. Hill
concludes that:
“Generally, we have found that white Protes
tants throughout the nation are more likely to
hold unfavorable racial attitudes than white
ethnics in similar size communities and regions.
“These findings strongly suggest that ethnics,
who comprise only a small fraction of the
population in most parts of the nation, have
apparently been ‘scapegoats’ for many antiblack
activities spearheaded by white Protestants.
Thus, special caution should be exercised in the
future before snap judgements are made about
the ‘racism’ of white ethnics and the ‘liberalism”
of white Protestants.”
Lest anyone think that such conclusions are
tilted by the predominance of white Protestants
in the south, where there are relatively few
ethnics, Hill states that:
“In regions outside the south, white ethnics are
still less likely than white Protestants to favor
school segregation.”
Some inter-group friction is almost inevitable
in the early stages of ethnic self-discovery, but
never as much as the media make it appear, and
even such biases tend to melt away.
In this regard, blacks consistently come off as
the most tolerant of all ethnic groups, evidencing
less anti-Semitism, and less anti-other group
feelings than others.
FINANCIALLY SPEAKING “
Second In A Series On Black Financial Institutions
By Robert Johnson
And John Douglas
Life insurance, according to a 1973
Lou Harris poll, was ranked by
Americans as one of the safest and
best investments available today. As
early as 1893, when the oldest opera
ting black life insurance company,
the Southern Aid Life Insurance
Company of Richmond, Va., began
operations, black people have real
ized that not only is life insurance a
sound investment, it is also a good
business to be in.
s
Today’s thirty-nine black life in
surance companies have assets in
excess of $534 million. Not only have
these assets been used to pay claims
but they have also provided invest
ment money for black businesses.
Although the last few years have
■ been tough economically, black life
Robert Johnson
insurance companies have out-per
formed white insurance companies.
Specially, over the past four years,
the amount of insurance in force at
white companies has grown only 42
percent, while the growth for black
insurance companies has been in
excess of 250 percent.
Though sales growth has been
spectacular in the last 20 years, the
number of black life insurance com
panies has declined from 60 to 39.
This trend is a direct result of
several factors.
First, many black insurance com
panies have been unable to attract
the high level marketing manage
ment talent necessary to design a
variety of life insurance policies to
meet the expanding needs of black
families. The same holds true for
sophisticated financial management
talent that is needed to survive in
m'
today’s extremely competitive in
surance environment.
Second, black insurance compan
ies are losing trained black insur
ance agents to white insurance com
panies as these companies integrate
their sales forces. Third, large ad
vertising budget of the white insur
ance companies makes it easier, for
them to recruit new sales people as
well as sell insurance. Finally, a
number of black life insurance com
panies have been sold to white com
panies.
Economically, the best hope fpr
the small black life insurance com
panies may lie in either merging
with large black life insurance com
panies or pooling and consolidating
the financial resources and talent
they possess.
Nevertheless, black life insurance
com panies are expected to survive
and prosper in the future. This is
important for the black life insur
ance policy holder; and it may be
even more important for black busi
nesses, since black life insurance
companies have invested consider
able money in black businesses.
' «
THE CHARLOTTE POST '
, ' “THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER”
Established 1918
By A.M. Houston •
Published Every Thursday
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9
Is This What
The Black Society’s
Coming Too?
Is The Ending Of Our Dream,
The Beginning Of A Nightmare?