Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / March 22, 1979, edition 1 / Page 2
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.awis t commons | Black-On-Black Crime truest Editorial From the Philadel phia Tribune We talk about it behind closed doors. We call it a shame. We demand action to stop it. However, we as a community-at-large do little to contain it-Black-on-Black cri mes. The time has arrived for the total community to declare an all-out war against criminals who make it un safe for women to walk the streets, to leave our homes to go to work or to shop, or for our children to play in schoolyards or playgrounds. Crimes waged against Blacks by Blacks cause negative effects. 1) Harm to some unsuspecting victim of a robbery, break-in, assault and or murder. 2) The affect on the entire community in re-inf ore ing the over-used “...nigger ain’t s—” the ory. Police departments across the nation, as well as the FBI report violent crimes are on the unswing, out, the most trequent enma «*e robberies and break-ins. It is heart breaking for victims to return home to discover most of their valuables have been stolen. Losing valuables one has worked and saved for is a shock. But the greatest shock and hurt come from the suspicion that the crime was committed by “some one I know, someone who has been in my house.” There is also the thought that neighbors saw the crime being committed and failed to call the police or identify the culprits. The total disregard for Black life and property perpetrates violent crimes. Assaults and murders over petty disagreements in our com munities are caused by the basic feeling of the worthlessness of Black life that is reflected in courts where a Black-on-Black murder receives much less notice and concern as does Black on white murder. All men are created by God and one life is of no greater value than another. The Tribune views the challenge to defeat crime in the Black com munity as one each and everyone of us must meet head-on. We can not pass the buck to the police or put the blame for crime on discrimination. We know who the break-in-artists are. We know who can strip cars in minutes We know who sells drugs to our children. The time has arrived for us to consider alternatives. Community groups can be formed to house watch, patrol playgrounds and school yards. To be blunt-we must police our neighborhoods, be respon sible for stopping Black-On-Black crimes that have become the cancer , of the Black community. Were McArthur Residents Misled? By Hoyle Martin sr. Post Editorial Writer ' 'i The recent controversy and < onfusion over state plans to make improvements on McArthur Ave^ nue has occurred because of the alleged conflict between state Sen. Fred D. Alexander’s opposition in 1977 to the LaSalle Street system as a part of a thoroughfare plan, and his support a few months later of a petition by area residents, to im i prove McArthucA venue which is the core of the LaSalle Street system. - Furthermore, confusion arises from the state’s apparent failure to advise the city of Charlotte of plans to include the project in the state plan and, most significantly, the difference between what is called for in the residents’ petition and the “scope of work” for the project. While there are other areas of controversy and confusion, such as a possible conflict of interest arising from the gains the McArthur Avenue Improvements might offer Alex ander's employer C.D. Spangler, the Crucial issue is what will be the over impact of the improvements on the •neighborhood? These circumstances have caused L. £. Coleman, president of the North West Action Association to question and investigate the project. A copy of the McArthur area residents’ petiti< ' supplied by Coleman says in part “to upgrade...McArthur Street...by im proving (it) length: Installing side walks on both sides of McArthur l1 ■ ■.. Street, and installing curb and gut ters on both sides.... However, while the description of the project con tains the same wording as the petition, it has the added statemtnt which reads, “to widen present two-lanes to four lanes....” The additional lanes were not what the 50 signers of the petition asked for nor what they want, according to Cojetaan. Further more the additional lanes would appear to confirm the concerns erf some city council members that a through street carrying industrial traffic could impair the residential character of the neightborhood. Since the wording in the petition prepared by Sen. Alexander and signed by the residents includes.no reference to widening McArthur Street to four lanes, the residents of the area have a legitimate com plaint and have a right to expect the city council to investigate and cla rify the issue for the benefit of the neighborhood. We feel this is an ' appropriate course of action and illustrates one of the purposes and the role of goverament-that is, to be a servant to the people. Therefore, we applaud the announced intentions of some coun in cil members to reopen the entire issue of the McArthur Street exten sion and improvement project. This is the American way of government by tne people and for the people!' ! BLACK AMERICA ROLL UP VOUR SLEEVES 'BUfCK POLKS TH£PS9£AKKOWO TP HAS/£ TOMOKK OUT ^t«f^^TW0/?£WV pwm.eM, wrfAPpf liEAV/NO ituptv rm CbvERNMHT ACCHCtBS AND P*00*A>& Blacks’ Destiny In Own Hands It’s Heart-Breaking I o » Learn That People Can’t Read It is heart-breaking to read in the papers, hear over the radio, and see on TV about people who can’t read. They didn’t deem it necessary to learn. Education is at the fingertip of every one who wants it. There is evening school, night school and one to one tutoring. Yet so many people refuse to help them selves by learning to be gble to attend to their own business. All of us need help some times, but there are times when we have a discreet situation that we need to at tend to ourselves. f In raiding the cpprtship if Miles Standish and John Smith, one would think the girl is treating her beau wrong when she chooses the writer of [the letters rather than the senders. These things happen today; then the loser gets angry with the winner of the girl, piece of property or even your insurance when it getr. behind. Just a few days ago I had to tell a person to pay their in surance by the month. Her book had so many ru bouts where the back date was rubbed off and the new one put there to make the person work hard to to catch the policy up. I knew then this person could not read very well or they would have noticed. If you or anyone is in terested and do not want anyone to know, call the Mecklenburg Chapter of' the Literacy Council and they will furnish a tutor free. All you have to pay is for your materials which is not but a small amount. It is sad to Dr. Nicholson think of the thousands of jpik writing. Yet they com plain about the cheater. I do not condone cheating but I just wish each person would begin to think of self. There are many tutors waiting to help give free service. I think it is great that our governor Hunt is making, provision to help the high school students that may fail. They are an em barrassment to the state. Already I have been told that persons are'being picked to make the program look good which will leave those who need it most still lacking. But I still feel that we need to start with the kindergarten and place them in a learning at mosphere in their nearest school. Maybe the drivers won’t get too tired; maybe it will cut down on child ac cidents. Yes, help the seniors but start with the little ones also. They are what our country will be tomorrow. I would hate for history to record this as a lost generation. But u we give them the right start there njight be another Crispus At tucks, Abraham Lincoln, Joe Lewis, L.B. Johnson, Marian Anderson, Kennedy Brothers, or Jimmy Carter. Why not give each one a chance? There are hundreds of others that you know. In the book of Proverbs it gives us these words, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he Is old, he will not depart from It-*' (Proverbs lt:t). 32 Schools i Compete In Drill Meet ROTC Approximately 1000 students from 28 high schools and four ninth-grade preparatory schools in North aad South Carolina and Virginia will compete March 24 at the Fifth Annual Camp bell College Junior ROTC Drill Meet sponsored by the Senior Program Cadets and Military Science Department. Representing Charlotte will be Harding High School. Fourteen events to test the cadets’ skills in military drill will include regulation, fancy exhibition and color guard competition. Individual awards will be given for first, second and third place in each event; and three overall awards will go to schools for drill with arms, drills without arms and the President’s award —■■ By Vernon E Jordan, Jr^—« TO BE EQUAL Black Cancer Rate Rises At long last, public attention is finally being focused on the escalating cancer rates among black people. A Senate sub committee chaired by Senator Kennedy plans hearings on the impact of cancer on minorities. And I recently took part in a national conference, "Meeting the Challenge of Cancer Among Black Americans,” sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The Society has not been identified with special concern . about cancer’s impact on the black community. So this con-i£r ference is important because it marks a new involvement of a major national institution with black people. In part that new concern is due to the efforts of the Society's new president, Dr. LaSalle Leffall. He is a distinguished r rate is double or more than thaLIPT whites. The survival a man deeply concerned with the sharply higher black cancer rates. Those higher black rates are another Indication that national problems can’t be solved unless they are sharply targeted. True, cancer is something that affects all people. But when one group — blacks, in this instance — experiences sharply higher cancer rates, then it is obvious special efforts have to be targeted at the affected community. That’s the principle behind special efforts in employment, housing and other sectors where blacks lag behind whites. And in cancer, that black-white gap means higher death rates for black people. Few people are aware of the inroads cancer has made in the black community. Cancer accounts for one out of every six black deaths. The American Cancer Society estimates that some six and a half million black people now living will eventually have cancer. That’s one out of every four black people! Four black people will die of cancer in the time it takes you to read this newspaper. Every day 121 die of cancer — and the number is going up, not down. For some cancers, the black rate is double or more than that for whites. The survival ratse among blacks with cancer is lower than for whites. Far more whites than blacks have had cancer diagnosed at the early stages of the disease, when prospecta for curp are beat. Yet, years ago blacks had lower cancer rates In the past 2S years black cancer rates have increased, and they are still on the rise. Part of the reason comes from living in a polluted, discriminatory, urban environment. Blacks, subjected to greater stress, suffer disproportionately from a van 1 - ted diseases. Experts suggest tall stress',., and ita r f lower immunity, to disease,: ; Another factor is the lack of equal access to health care. Affluent citizens routinely have medical checkups and often catch cancers and pre-cancerous conditions in the bud. Blacky people don't share that access to regular health care. * So cancer’s inroads on the black community derive both from its greater exposure to cancer-causing substances along with weakened resistance to them, and to the lesser incidence of prevention campaigns among blacks. Thus it is crucially important to educate the black com munity to deal with the cancer threat. An elementary first step is for people to familiarize themselves with the seven warning signs of cancer. Local church groups and other community organizations can help spread the word to their members with materials available from the American Cancer Society. % Regular medical checkups are important too. Women should have annual PAP tests — a painlssa, quick test that takes 20 seconds but can save lives. Free exams and informational programs should be made available in low income neigh borhoods. The high cost of medical care is a barrir not only to cancer prevention, but to care and cure of other killers. Establish ment of a comprehensive, universal, consumer-oriented health-care system is long overdue. Such a system, guaran teeing each individual equal access to quality health care, is a necessity. Meanwhile, prevention programs targeted to communities most in need of services should be mounted by community organizations with the involvement of the American Cancer Society. THE CHARLOTTE POST "THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER" Established 1918 Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Blvd.-Charlotte. N.C. 28208 Telephones (704) 376-0496-376-0497 B Circulation, 9,915 60 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE BILL JOHNSON...Editor Publisher BERNARD REEVES...General Manager I SHIRLEY HARVEY...Advertising Director J Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid At Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3.1878 Member National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association I Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p m. | Monday. All photos and copy submitted becomes „. the property of the POST, and will not be returned ' National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publish ?rs, Inc. 45 W. 5th Suite 1403 2400 S. Michigan Ave. New York, N Y. 10030 Chicago. Ill 60616 (212 ) 489-1220 Calumet 5-0200 Black Equality Has Shifted To Economic Questions vj murrain run Executive Director A. Philip Randolph Institute For quite a few years now I have repeatedly argued that the real struggle for black equality has shifted from the sphere of clear-cut racial Issues to the far more im portant area of economic questions. Whereas in the early, pioneering days of the civil rights movement we confronted legally-sanctioned segregation and blatant racism, today we must con tend with a kind of mentality which says that people who work for llving-whether Macs or white - should have no say about their jobs, wages and work for a living-whether black or white-should have no say about their Jobe, wages and working conditions. Work ers, according to those who support this line of reasoning, should be treated with con tempt and brutality as if they had no rights whatsoever As a vivid illustration of this approach, I point to the current strike at the Newport News shipyards in Virginia For nearly two months now, several thousand workers, a majority of them hlack, have confronted a giant * ’ ft Bayard Ruatin multinational corporation with a simple demand that management recognise and negotiate with their union, Local MM of the United Steelworkers Tenneco, the massive conBlomarit* winch owns the Newport News facility, has responded to the workers demand with lines of armed security guards, and police dogs. To further tilt the balance toward Tenneco, Governor John Dalton of Virginia has mobilised units of the National Guard to actively assist the company in Its ef forts to destroy the union and keep Tenneco workers In their place. Governor Dalton’s generous issistance to the. company is somewhat ironic •ince it is Tenneco-not the striking workers-which has broken the law. According to Business Week, Tenneco “Purposely violated an NLRB order to bargain with its workers despite the fact hat a clear majority of em jloyees voted for union epresentatlon over a year igo. The company contends hat the election was somehow unfair, but an extensive in vestigation fjy the NLRB found that the alleged irregularities had no bearing on the final results of the vote As Business Week further pointed out, Tenneco used the same kind of illegal stalling tactics in an attempt to destroy a smaller union of designers who voted for union representation over two years ago "It is apparent,” Business Week concluded, "that the company has made a special effort to avoid dealing with the USW. And it has done this even when it involves flagrant violations of the law But the company has now moved heyond violations of the law, it has launched a campaign to intimidate its workers by stripping them of their livelihoods; by replacing union members with new full time workers imported from across Virginia and even the Carolines. Such a tactic is reminiscent at the 1930’s when employers had no legal restraints in dealing with their workers. Today, such a practice must be regarded as an assault on the very idea of a fair, rational and civilized society. Yet, Tenneco has no qualms as it violates the rules of fair play. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal quoted one labor relations expert in Newport News as saying. “The com pany is going all out to break that strike, and it seems to have a good leg up on It.” Tenneco, of course, is not alone in its battle against collective bargaining. Large and small corporations across the South, as well as non-union employers throughout the country, fully realize that a union victory at Newport News might encourage other workers to organize. Con versely. they understand that a defeat for the shipbuilders union at Tenneco will help demoralize Southern workers, and further reinforce a kind of economic segregation bet ween the non-union South and the more heavily unionized, North. In light of this, organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers-a group which opposed virtually every piece of civil rights legislation- look upon the Newport News strike as a unique opportunity to teach workers a lesson, a lesson that tells workers to stay put, to work for low wages, and to accept their status as economic Inferiors. Black people throughout the South have an enormous stake in the Newport News strike. If Tenneco succeeds in destroying the union, and in escaping penaltiea for Its rather bold contempt at the law, blacks will once again be deprived of one of their most basic rights, the right to free collective bargaining. Marathon Run To Test Endurance Charlotte runners will have another opportunity to test their endurance in a Half Marathon Run April 14 spon sored by the General Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In addition to the Half Mara thon, there will be a 10,000 meters race and a two-mile fun run. Registration for the events will take place at • a.m. in the UNCC parking lot near the Kvmnasium. The race will begin at 10 a.m. A 94 entry fee will be charg ed and will include T shirts, *ommemorative patches, tro phies and shower facilities. Susnn Pisi'itrlli, director of alumni affair* atUNCC. mid that procmd* will go tho A lumni Association to support University activities. Registration forum for tho the fur lb.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 22, 1979, edition 1
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