Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Feb. 26, 1976, edition 1 / Page 2
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amis ccoiro Blacks Should Extricate Themselves In order to become a viable com munity - extricating ourselves from the beggar and welfare class - it seems to me we as black folks will have to becin to exhibit more of the kind of disciplined determination that characterized the A.P. Giannini family in California. In my address to the National Newspaper Publishers Association Mid-Winter WorkshoD in St. Thom as, recently, I alluded to this Italian immigrant family who founded a bank of its own after the dominant culture refused to lend money with which to operate their grape farms. This bank has become the largest in the world, The Bank of America. Certainly, a set of favorable cir cumstances had to be operative in order for that bank to have succeed ed so phenomenally — California banking laws which permits the establishment of several branch banks (taking the banks to the people); other grape growers and fanners throwing their support to this bank which seemed concerned with their needs while most estab lished banks did not, etc. But the most important element here, I believe, was the family’s disciplined determination to make the bank a success. This kind of determined discipline is not foreign to the black community. Blacks have established some towering fin ancial empires such as the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Durham; Supreme Life in Chi cago; Atlanta Life in Atlanta; and Golden State in California, Univer sal Life in Memphis, to name a few. And other huge fortunes have been and are being made in publishing, newpapers and magazines; and in cosmetics, etc. But it is a shame as Dr. Berkeley Burrell, inestimable president of the National Business League, tells us, that if we combined the total assets of our leading busi nesses, it is doubtful that this com bined but hybrid entity could make the bottom rung of Fortune Maga zine’s top 500 U.S. business list. Hurting Economically We are truly hurting, economical ly. The economic situation in Amer ica is not good; for Black America it is disastrous. Whites fleeing our large cities have left behind the poorest citizens, the majority of which is black. And with their flight ftas gone mucn ot the economic tax base that goes a long way toward making a city financially viable. Yet, as one observer says, as cities become black and black administra 1 tions take over the financially de caying municipalities, this is no indication that black political stew ardship is faulty. More likely it means that blacks are taking over moribund cities resulting from more than 100 years of white mismanage ment. In February issue of Ebony, Chi cago millionaire realtor Dempsey Travis tells how to get rich in real estate and is optimistic about decay ing innei: cities. He sincerely believ ed that new and exciting ways of renovating buildings and utilizing real estate will be the wave of the future, and that black businessmen can and will be at the helm of this future change. I love this kind of optimism. For it depresses me to visit city after city and find there is not one black bank with capital assets of $100 million. I am even more depressed to discover that the small businesses blacks used to own seem to be disappearing and the goods and services black folks used o find in their communi ties must be sought outside their areas or in the white suburbs. Washington, D.C., with a popula tion of more than 700,000 that is 71 percent black, has one of the highest literacy rates in the world among blacks, yet it is a depressing exam ple in respect to blacks not utilizing their enormous majority to effect economic change. UI course, we are just a little more than 100 years removed from chattel slavery; certainly white racism is a cruel and oppressive albatross aro und our necks. But there is also the matter of free will. I remember hearing this story when I was growing up in Memphis, Tenn. A mother dressed her young son in a fancy new brown suit and sent him to play with a warning “don’t fall in the mud.” A short time later she looked out the window and saw that not only had he fallen in a mud puddle but he was flopping around in it. She brought him into the house and whaled the daylights out of him declaring: ‘ ‘This whippin ’ ain’t for falling in the mud, but for wallowing in it.” We black should take a cue: no body in our community is to blame for our past misery; but it is no body’s fault but our own if we allow this past to shackle efforts to im prove our lives. (NNPA) Poor People's Pensions Fortunately, these high finances will have little to do with the every day life of little people. The largest liquid savings of any working per son is likely to be in a comDanv pension. These funds are protectedt by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. PBGG is a federal agency created by Congress to insure private pen sion plans up to $750 per month for - each individual covered by the plan. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will protect all of us for bank deposits of up to $40,000. We will be paying for the problem in the near future if Myron Du Bain has his way. He is calling for higher prices for his product and services. Rate increases are the first answer for the insurance industry, says the Firemen’s Fund President. (NNPA) GET IN THE/ pus ; CAP/ STOP j 'PAPE HAS BECOME A BLACK CRIME"' A BLACK DETROIT POLICEMAN RECENTLY STATED. HE SAID IN ONE 24 \ HOUR PERIOD EIGHT ' PAPES WERE | REPORTED. ALL VICTIMS WERE BLACK, i SO WERE THE RAPISTS. LAW ABIDING BLACKS MUST SPEAK OUT. icto lot editor , NWCAA Acc Dear Mr. Johnson: The NORTHWEST COM MUNITY ACTION ASSOC IATION wants to call atten tion to some of the accomp lishments of the NWCAA in recent months. The follow ing are only a few of the things we have accomplish ed, and are the most visible. Many of you have seen the sidewalks which have been or are being built on Nofris Ave., Grimes St., Hateras Ave., Cummings Ave., Hilde brand St., LaSalle St. and Newland Rd. These side walks are being built because the NWCAA told the City Council they were needed and worked hard to convince the City to build them. Also, the City has placed options on about half the property for the new park to be built behind Northwest Junior High School. The Westside Improvement Asso ciation and University Park Improvement Association, member groups of the NWC AA, worked hard this past summer to convince the City to build this park, Do you remember the picnics we had at parks on the south and east sides of the City on Sunday afternoons during the summer? The University Park Impr ovement Association and the NWCAA convinced the City rezone property next to University Park and Biddle ville to protect these comm unities from industry being built next to residential area. The NWCAA supported the Pitts Drive Residents Organ ization in the struggle to get omplishments the Housing Authority to re pair their apartments. The Housing Authority is repair ing those apartments now, only because we ALL worked together. We want the readers of the Charlotte Post to know this we do and some of the things we have accomplished. We want the readers to know this so they will understand why ,we are fighting to keep the community organizer who has worked with us for the last three years. The Char lotte Area Fund provided this organizer and other forms of assistance for a long time, then in November they re moved all support from the NWCAA. A community organization must have someone to work with it for it to be effective. A skilled organizer has the time and know-how to help people accomplish their goals and solve their prob lems. We are determined to keep on working for the good of our community. We want you, the readers of the Char lotte Post, to work with us. Sincerely, L.C. Coleman, President Disagrees With “As I See It” Dear Bill: I just wanted to let you know that I thought the February 19, 1976 issue of The Charlotte Post was excellent both from a standpoint of content and the sharpness of copy. As always, 1 was particular ly interested in Gerry’s col umn, and I was particularly glad that the layout of his column was good since the content is always excellent. I would disagree with Gerry about his statement that Har vey Gantt is the only qualified black to have served in any governmental position in North Carolina, past or pres ent. One specific exception to that comment is Professor C.D. Rippy of Johnson C. Smi th University with whom I served on the Civil Service Board. He certainly rendered excellent service as Vice Chairman of that Board. He has just resigned and the com munity will really miss him. The importance of his resig nation and of his service to the community is one which sho uld be reported to the com munity. Sincerely, David G. Martin, Jr. Thanks For Post I received your paper this past Saturday and found it verv informative, as always. Special thanks for the Dawn Magazine. I appreciated it very much. Thus far it has taken me out of the darkness for I have been without means of knowing what has been happening beyond these con fines. I hope I shall continue to receive them. I felt that your second page on “Editorials . and Comments” coverage was qualitatively and quantitative ly of a high standard. Johnnie Frazier Central Prison i . . TO BE EQUAL YKHXON K. JORDAN JR. Affirmative Action Long under attack for their supposed liberal ism, many colleges and universities are loudly protesting the need to initiate affirmative action programs to employ more women and more blacks and other minorities. Large corporations have instituted affirmative action programs and some of the most rigid unions are showing some flexibility, but while some universities have given in, others are still screaming about the terrible things that will happen to them if they have to hire more blacks and more women. From the way some of them carry on, one would think that Washington has placed the FBI man in every college administrator’s office to force him to hire minorities. Actully though, the * proportion of blacks and women faculty has barely changed over the last five years - it’s still less than three percent blacks and 20 percent for women. A major segment of the college community recently spent a lot of time and effort to try to get the government to ease affirmative action stand ards as they relate to higher education. They failed, but their statements of good intentions would be more believable if that same time and energy were spent in trying to recruit minorities for academic and administrative jobs on campus. , Colleges and universities are not exempt from legal requirements for fair hiring applicable to other major government contractors. They get billions in federal grants and contracts and there’s just no excuse for the failure to show progress in minority employment after all these years. Universities often argue that there aren’t enough “qualified” blacks and that affirmative action programs mean weakening the so-called merit system. cme wuuiu expect stronger arguments trom intellectuals. As Stephen Horn, President of California State University has recently stated, “Universities cannot simply plead that the supply of qualified minorities and women is not available when they have a major responsiblity to provide that supply.” And he points out that while one out of every doctorates is held by a woman only one of every fifty full professorships is held by a woman. The so-called merit system is a scarecrow designed to frighten off serious attempts to correct discriminatory practices. Hiring is still done through the old-boy network of recommen dations by high ranking professors, and while many schools say the minority poll is limited because of fewer PhDs, some forty percent of all faculty members don’t have a PhD. When fair employment laws first were passed we heard the same story, the merit system would be weakened. Civil servants wouldn’t be as capable, and factory workers wouldn’t be as efficient. After at least ten years’ experience with fair employment laws we’ve found those excuses to be a myth, but some college adfninis trators still cling to them. The ugly ghost of “quotas” is also raised, implying that every American will be categor ized by his ethnic background when applying for a job. That too is false. Affirmative action encompasses numerical goals as a benchmark with which to measure an employer’s good faith ft effort to correct past discriminatory hiring practices. THE CHARLOTTE POST “THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 2606B West Blvd.-Charlotte, N.C. 28208 Telephones (704) 392-1306,392-1307 Circulation 11,000 57 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE Bill Johnson .Editor-Publisher Gerald O. Johnson .Business Manager Rex Hovey .Circulation Manager Second Class Postage Paid at Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878 Member National Newpaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association National Advertising Representative ► Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. 45 W. 5th, Suite 1403 2400 S. Michigan Ave New York, N.Y. 10036 Chicago, 111. 60616 (212) 489-1220 Calumet 5-0200 Black Organizations Need New Methods By Gerald Johnson This week I would like to expound on an article I found in ■NOTEBOOK" March issue of Ebony. The article by Simeon Booker complained about black civil rights organ izations not routing its lead ership. As Mr. Booker put it once a black civil rights or ganization chooses an officer he is in office until death. This point is a very good reason why the so called black movement as been shifted in neutral for the time being. Any organization that builds itself around a leader instead of around a principle is destin ed for trouble. Such is the case with the Southern Christian Leadership Council which flourished under the leader ship of Martin Luther King but now is completely counter productive. Martin Luther King’s Death shouldn't have killed the organization How ever, since the organization was built around Rev. King it died when he did. Another problem with keep ing leaders in office to long is the leader with age becomes counter productive. Mr. Roy Wilkins of the N.A.A.C.P. is an excellent example of this. Organizations with a young fiery leader initiates a move ment Once the movement is on the way ?nd the leader begins to get some recognition the movement has reached its first step to declining. The reason for this is that once a leader gets recognition he be gins to get financial gratifi cation. Once the movement has put him in a comfortable financial position he has to change his altitude. He can't be as fiery as before because now he has something to loose. Hence, he won't rock the boat as hard as he did when he didn't have anything to loose Consequently, as his attitude I By Gerald O. Johnson changes from liberalism to conservatism so does the or ganization’s Thus the major ity of blacks are left out and the organization become counter productive. Still another problem with leaders in office to long stems f’om what Mr Booker refer red to as a scooping up of qualified blacks by other Bureaucrats. While black civil rights organizations are hold ing on to the aging leaders, the government and other groups are recruiting the younger qualified blacks. Once the aging leader resigns or dies (whichever come first) there are no qualified leaders left to replace him. Mr. Booker contends and I concur that black organiza tions need to set up a rotation al method for choosing leaders. The leadership should shift periodically to keep from having leaders in office to long. By doing this the organi zation will be forced to set up sound procedures that should regulate the organization re gardless of whom the leader is. This would also give the organization a chance to stay fresh with new ideas. No one person could become secure in the position therefore his liberal ideas can become conservative. There is no per sonal gains to be made. The black civil rights organiza tions would then be centered around procedures rather than Individuals. This way conspiracies against black leaders would have no effect. Thus the rotational method of choosing a leader seems sound. There is one problem though As I See It. The method for choosing a leader has to be precise. Most rotational methods in operation today fall short of the Intent. The reason for this is because those of us incapable of lead ing are the ones who seek to be leaders. Therefore if the method leaves room for bar gaining of any kind, politics will surely enter the picture. The "get me elected and I will do you a favor" type thing enters into the picture. Hence, nominating and voting proce dures have to be eliminated. Furthermore, nominating and voting ia more of a "most popular" election rather than a “most qualified" election. Unfortunately, I know of no method for choosing a leader that will work. This short coming leaves a lot to be desired, but it is not insur mountable. In fact I person ally feel that the benefits from a rotating method far sur passes the current conven tional methods. Even the risk involved in the rotational method still make it a better system than the conventional method. Children off in college? Keep your out of town friends informed on what's happening in Charlotte by sending them a copy of the Charlotte Post each week.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Feb. 26, 1976, edition 1
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