Newspapers / The Charlotte post. / April 5, 1979, edition 1 / Page 2
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zamrn c commcnu " Towards Limited Equality Dy Hoyle H. Martin, Sr. Post Editorial Writer In 1972 Allan Bakke applied for admission to the University of Cali fornia’s Medical School on the Davis campus. On two occasions Bakke was rejected in spite of the fact that his college grades and aptitude test scores ranked him above many of the students who had been admitted. Bakke learned too that among the reasons for his denied admission was that 16 of the 100 student places in the entering medical program had been reserved for minority candi dates selected by a special admis sions committee. These facts led Bakke to file a lawsuit charging that the University had discriminated against Him be cause he was white and thus, in violation of the egual-protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In the final analysis, Bakke’s suit to gain admis sion to the medical school was a significant test of whether-and, if so, how-an educational institution’s admissions policies may give prefe rence to blacks or other minority applicants. Significantly, when the Bakke case readied the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978, eight of the Justices split 4 to 4 on two major issues in the ; 10 Drew me ue on tne two issues and at the same time provide J'^the Court with an overall split decision, Justice Powell—as the swing vote-supported each of the two factions on one of the two key issues: —Declared the University’s quota policy to be illegal and ordered the admission of Bakke. -Upheld the University’s policy and affirmative action programs to promote the enrollment of minority students. Affirmation Action “The Bakke case shows,” wrote Thomas Sowell in The Wall Street Journal, “that it is possible for a L Supreme Court decision to be highly ;' -controversial without really decid ing anything. The 5 to 4 vote, the partial concurrence, and the differ ent individuals forming majorities on different sections of the decision all add to the uncertainty as to what it will mean as the court’s thinking on ‘affirmation action’ unfolds in subsequent cases.” Dr. Sowell, who is black, a native of Gastonia, N.C. and a professor of economics at UCLA, appears to have offered a note of prophecy when considering two recent Sup reme Court decisions and possibly a third. One of these cases involves 12 blacks who won a discrimination suit against their employer Ryder Truck Lines in Charlotte in 1975 for locking them out of higher paying jobs as over-the-road or long-dis tance truck drivers. U.S. District Judge James McMillan had ruled in favor of the black employees and the Appeals Court upheld his decision However, in 1977 the U S. Supreme Court ruled differently in a case-the Teamsters Union. There fore, the 4th Circuit Court ordered the Ryder case back to McMillan for a decision with consideration given to the Teamsters Union ruling. On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Circuit Court’s decision. The effect of all this after four years is that the black employees will have to stay in lower-paying jobs such as loading-dock workers and in-town drivers or give up their seniority in order to become long distance drivers. In the meantime too, their lawyers can renew the legal battle as Judge McMillan re considers the case as ordered. In another ruling on Mnn^y the Supreme Court refused to hear a dispute over alleged racial discri mination by J.P. Stevens and Co. at Roanoke Rapids, N.C. The suit represented all black employees and unsuccessful black applicants for jobs at Stevens’ eight plants in Roanoke Rapids. They charged they were discriminated against in work er promotions, the recalling of laid-off employees and in the hir ing of new employees. vjvU t Laws j The high Court’s action left intact the 4th Circuit of Appeals decision to uphold U.S. District Judge F. T. Dupree, Jr.’s 1975 ruling that J.P. Stevens and Co. had in fact violated the civil rights laws passed in 1868 and 1964. However, Dupree ruled that there was no evidence showing Stevens had engaged in “specific, overt, racially discriminatory prac tices.” In effect, the Supreme Court up held Judge Dupree’s finding on discrimination but reversed the ra cial hiring and promotion quotas he had ordered. ' In a third case yet to be ruled upon by the Supreme Court, Brian Weber, a 31-year old white Kaiser Alumi num and Chemical Corp. worker has filed suit charging a job training program calling for at least 50 percent black and female participa tion is reverse discrimination. The significance of the Weber case is that it will set a precedent for nearly all industrial affirmative action programs and speculation , has it that the Justices are as i equally divided as they were on the 1 Bakke case. Furthermore, there is 1 reason to believe that a ruling , against Kaiser could destroy affir mative action as an industry prac tice. This uncertainty as to how to correct past injustices while protect ing the individual rights of all citizens is leading to more partial decisions and this limited or partial equality for minorities seeking full participation in our democratic society. We think that is not enough and we need a better way. - —— I Reasons Why We Have Tim Calamity ? Dy or. Maggie Nicholson Special to tba Port I shall not comment on each individual that spoke Tuesday night concerning the compe tency test, because each per son was saying the same tMng in his own way as he saw it. Ttoey were saying that they wanted traditional schools. They want children to learn at their own pace, but they fall to say the most Important reason why we have tide calamity or bow to avoid another one. Moreover, all of us know that these students are those who were cross-bussed at the out set, as well as those who were disturbed because we were fighting for what we thought was best at the time. Almost all of the near schools were being closed and even those who meant well had no idea that everyone was going to sit down and try to do nothing else to bring about equal luiuiy ior an its siu dents. They were bent on •table assignments which never will be and closed their minds to any and every one who did not say what they wanted them to say or do. So ilia is a blessing in disguise, rhey didn’t realise that they were saying they were against tross-bussing, quotas, stereo yping and ethnic purity...Sit ing beside someone does not nake both persons geniuses. Slow children have been mown to become geniuses. Many did not get beyond the leventh or even the third trades, but they were persons vho wanted to go places and lo things. Trade schools, unbition and a tenacious spi lt made them press on to the foals that they had set for hemselves It can be done, rou know. These persons are air most productive citizens ometimes. Testing is good rnd more the better to make me receptive to the evils of this competitive mechanics* and electronic age. With the many hypothetical and diagnostic adjustments, one has to read to be aMe to bold the job once be or she gets it. All students are not college material but all can be self sustaining if the right ap proach is made and the right attitude is miintiiiwiH in • pleasant atmosphere. That has to come from both youln^ I believe in changes. If ooe shoe doesn’t fit try «~*h—• one as soon as you realize that a com is coming. Specializa tion is old but new. No one stopped to think how narrow they were with no regard to other students of other races. They could have said the same thing about the speakers. They were what they were accusing others of. Turner, a former prof seem of education at Fayetteville State University and Techni cal Advisor to Columbia Col lege, state* in a local paper, “I could not promote Ignorance nor can I believe I would live long enough to see any one in any race do so.” Paul Copper man, bead of the California based Institute of Reading Development, states, "Bu sing mandated to and racial segregation in schools is driv in 17 a tvnHaa *--*--*■ and their schools.” He also adds that bussing driven the middle class out of the bigdty •choola. He furthar states that there la no evidence to support the idea that busing improves the achievement level of stu dents, and that “court-ordered bussing has combined with other Federal Government actions in the schools to under mine local influence in school policies. These factor* have caused test scores to plum met." Phillis Falcone in bar arti cle, “School’s Policy Hurts Students,’’ states, “Chariotte Macklanburg has been a pace setter in discriminating against the very children it is trying to help.” In flghtii« far anything, it becomes their duty to think both ways to be sure that they ere taking the Sti fight. The crowd is not eye the right way. Ms. Maggie Lamb Nicholson said in her campaigning an(] «hii feels that cross-bussing, quotas, stereotyping and eth nic purity is the downfall of education for all poor peoples regardless of race. One must teach love for themselves as well as love for others as a key to open many doors. Charlotte can and should “shout face” and do as Jean Albuquerque states, “Parents, put your child first.” To bus cfaikben from ooe neighborhood to ano ther neighborhood to be with the same race that predomi nates is ptmleMng the and produces no good, all la the name of desegregation. Over the years there has been a small amount of desegrega tion. The horse (educational) la out of the stable. Is it a racer, pacer, riding horse or e work-horse? Wash Vegetables It's important to wash vege tables thoroughly before cook ing. Use plenty of water for ’ Uafti - •"* ■i — By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. samBmKSSS\ TO BE EQUAL £ a ; ' Cities Still In Trouble - Somehow, the idea it gaining currency that the» urban crisis is over and that the cities are climbing back to economic and fiscal health. It would bo nice if that were true - but it isn’t Sure, some cities are doing well. But they are generally Sunbelt cities in stages of rapid growth and never were considered part of the “urban crisis.” The older, larger cities that constituted die core of the urban problem however, are still in bad shape. To counter the myth of the end of the urban crisis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has Issued a study that proves the 1970’s were devastating for big cities. They lost population, income, and Jobs. The recession knocked them down, and in this recovery period they’ve bean slow to come back. • Tbs gap between central cities and their suburbs is widening. In every region of the country, Job growth in the suburbs is faster than in the central cities. And central cities in the northeast and midwest are losing Jobs. m uw nan « uie oecaoe central city incomes were, on avenge, higher than the national median. Now they lag behind the national averages and the income gap between citiee and their suburbs is widening. Some cities have had enormous job losses. New York lost 14 percent of its jobs in the seventies, Chicago, 18 percent, Philadelphia and St. Louis, 28 percent. Some cities have been forced to cut their municipal work forces - New York and Cleveland both laid off 20 percent of their employees - and that means fewer services. Part of the myth of the urban revival states that private investment is pouring into the citiee. But that cannot be substantiated. Some central cities are experiencing a building boom in their downtown trainees districts, but much of this is limited and represents more intensive develop ment of small sections rather than the broad rebuilding many citiee need. HUD says urban property values are increas ing slower in the distressed cities than else ^^^*ud that tte ^p^^y^te yowing. The ***» umui MKU snare oi me population ana is increasing at a slower rate than in die pre-reces sion period. The study dtes a Treasury report that says of At the 48 largest dties in the country, 10 face "high fiscal strain" and 28 face "moderate fiscal strain." And part of that strain is due to the continued movement of affluent famine out of the dty. HUD suggests dties lost $17 billion in family income from 1975 to 1977 because of this ofthe^fluam. All the while, central dty poverty movement to the suburbs, hUt-Kf are still less than six percent of the suburban pnt>rii*Hon and nearly a fourth of the central dty population. Part of the myth of the urban revival is that the & because die mytfamakers include gll federal grants to all levels ot government and transfer payments to aU people eligible for them, whether diey live in central dties or not. * Jbn is that the federal flow of hmtk to ddas and their dtizens is relatively mrwViat not A. Phillip Randolph: An Appreciation iWJMUn Special to the Post As a young man, 1 spent a considerable amount of time discussing and debating the great political and social quaa tlono of tbs day. Ify Mon* and 1 wore, for the moat pert, radicals of ooa sort or anothar, and we all had glorious visions of things to come. Wedream ed of equality and the end of racism; wa looked toward the day when war would be out lawed; and we envisioned a society free of poverty and economic injustice. But. like so many other Idealistic youngsters, we bed difficulty translating our dreams into solid, workable programs. This inability to link vision with political reality has caus ed the downfall of many ideal istic movements and laadsrs But of the law trua Idealists that survived and flourished, I can think of none more Impor tant or Inspiring then A. Philip Randolph, a man who demone trsted that radical Ideas and values have a place and func tion in the every*y politics of thia sometimes overly cau tious world By fusiag radicalism and realism, Mr Randolph-who. incidentally, will be N on Easter Sunday-provided the civil rights movement with some Indispensable Insights about our society and racism. Drawing upon his careful stu dy of democratic socialist theory, he became the first black leader of any impor tance to emphasise the econo mic aspects of American racism. 'Early in Ids life, be realised that the liberation of black people «>uld jwver be won alone. He recognised that blacks were overwhelm ingly a working people, and that trade unions, even those with long histories of racial exclusion, offered the best hope for securing economic Justice for black workers. All this, of course, was a neat, compact, and highly logical theory. But Mr. Ran dolph, always an eager acti vist, believed that theory had little value except in its appli cation Thus, ha tasted hia Meai In the laboratory of experience, and set out in 1MB to organise black Pullman porters across tbs country. Working against tremendmu odds, and against virtually everyooe’s expectation*, Mr. Randolph snrneadul. and in 1987 the Pullman Company Anally recognised the Bro therhood of Sleeping Car Por ten as the sole representative of its black porters. After that impressive vic tory, Mr Randolph could have justifiably rested an Me ten nis, withdrawing into the day to-day business of the brother hood. Instead, he trnaitenail hia Involvement In the rapidly expanding civil rights more ment. Because of Ms brand •ocial vision, ha understood that the new-found dignity and modest prosperity of the Pull man porters would never be secure in a society where the vast majority of black people •till lived in poverty andfsar So, quite naturally, Mr. Ran dolph and the Brotherhood became stalwarts of the grant civil rights crusades of the teat 10 years Together they fought for an and to discrimi nation in the armed services, for the elimination of "color bars" in trade unions, and for every piece of civil rights legislation brought before Oongreas. And while Mr. Randolph always adopted a pragmatic course, he never oace racoAsd from tough, well reasoned mi litancy. I remember well Ms speech at the IMS March on Washington for Jo*e and Free dom. “All who rmiiiMo —— militancy," Mr. RaSSphdf dared, "who exhort patience in the name of false peace, are 111 fACt «»w>fw<hig aafeaggHma. and exploitation. They would have social peace at the an panoe of social and racial Mttos. Thay an man coo esrad with aasiaf racial tan —far dug racial Just as air. Randolph ao sdmlrablylatnratJt2ndl than, ks aJsThariMntsad Ma <*—P*y radtoal and h—nakUc v«hias with Ms own panonal aiwrnym. I say thia baaad on my loan with Mr. I hara alwayt "St “•““r biaaMac snd prtvi toff- Throughout thoro long W, 1 hero never oooe **. ovea Me most Utter nor here 1 ever once of man, Mr. Readotah^aevwr ye exalted htmetof at the ”P«toe ef aeyene. If them •w *•» a maa who truly “practiced what hepread» JJ^oJLffrtntoljr to Mr. mmm Mra Untoued Aid To Ifarrtv ^ The President haa directed that the federal government continue to give preference to email and minority earned bu einaaaea when it buye euppliee. President Carter reeponded to the concern* of black bust neea owner* and of congrae •ional leaden after hearing that the preference might be ended by tentative agreement* reached between trade negotia tor* of the United 8tatoe and foreign governments. Congressmen Parren Mit chell of Maryland praised the President's decision. "I'm de lighted with the development." he said. "It shows e responsive ness by Mr Strauss and will facilitate passage of the trade wn.” « £"!?"!*» RoWt 8tr*“» PrmkUnt’a negotiator for t**^* »•«•« Mitchell la a member of the Houae Small SuboommittM and ii Mitchell waa on* of thoee Who hod tKpnand crmrem <>*« were Conm^^X Addabbo ZHSU! £ p*}f» ^‘hofNaw York. The federal government buye Air Grib Keep return heeling air grille and wnn« air ducta clean. Duet end lint can keep • room foem receiving auffi dent beet. * - l IIM.V •boot |lg-Ml]ion of .ood. and •^T"®** »«ch y«ar from m inert ty^mnad and amall bu aasriiZw^; * ■' '#'■■' * ' >;• ' > - I bayard Ruatin Dr. Nicbotatit! THE CHARLOTTE POST "THp PEOPLES NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Blvd.-Charlotte, N.C. 28208 i , Telephones (704)376-0496-376-0497 Circulation, 9,918 —^SOYEARSOFCONTINUOUSSERVICE^^^^ BILL JOHNSON...Editor Publisher BERNARD REEVES...General Manager , SHIRLEY HARVEY...Advertising Director Second Class Postage No 965500 Paid AP Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,18T78 Member National Newspaper Publishers I Association . North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m. I Monday. All photos and copy submitted becomes the property of the POST, and will not be returned. 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 JNBMPLOYMENT POINT Of WOKEN HOMES ocrilDM •XPLOITATION K6TUWIH I v*“/ *wu V4U1 OWU tu
April 5, 1979, edition 1
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