Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 24, 1979, edition 1 / Page 2
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cmm tconcnu ^ - — . — *• * Randolph - A 20th Century Giant by Hoyle H. Martin, Sr. Poet Editorial Writer On the eve of the 2Sth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision that outlawed segregation in the nation’s public schools, A. Philip Randolph, a man who laid much of the foundation for that decision, died at the age of 90. Mr. Randolph, the elder statesman of the 20th century civil rights movement and a labor leader, spent over 70 years fighting for the rights of the poor and working classes. At the young age of 28, Randolph attacked the nation’s Jim Crow policies and was jailed for advocat ing that blacks not participate in World War I. This led the U.S. Justice Department to label Ran dolph “the most dangerous Negro in America”. Recognizing that blaek Americans could never achieve social and political freedom without economic opportunities, Randolph organized, in 1925, and then led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in a 12-year struggle to win a collective bargain ing contract agreement with the Pullman Company. This was histor ically the first black union to sign a labor-management contract with a white emnlover. However, it was in 1941 that Mr. Randolph’s national civil rights eminence began to be apparent. In that year, he conceived of the idea of a massive march on the nation’s capital to proteat the exclusion of black workers from jobs in the World War n defense industries. Randolph canceled the proposed march only after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 banning discrimination in defense plants and thus establish ed the nation’s first Fair Employ ment Practice Commission. Tben, in 1947, Mr. Randolph reappeared as the moving force behind President Harry Truman’s rigefaig of Execu tive Order 9881, ending segregation in the armed forces. Mr. Randolph had his third en counter with a national President in the mid-1950's when he was one of four black leaders who met with President Eisenhower to urge more rapid implementation of the Supreme Court’s 1954 school dese gregation ruling. Always seeking new injustices to do battle with, Randolph was instru mental in getting the AFL-CIO to outlaw racial discrimination when the AFL and CIO were merged in 1955. In 1957 Randolph was elected as vice president of the AFL-CIO. Not satisfied with these accom plishments, Randolph was the primary architect behind the famous March on Washington, August 28, 1963. While Martin Luther King’s speech was without question a memorable event, the dignified eloquent aoth century giant, A. Philip Randolph, told the multi tude of over 250,000 people, “We are not a pressure group...We are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom.” as u determined to assure conti nued concern for the less fortunate even after his death, Randolph established in 1966 the A. Philip Randolph Institute with two grads totaling $55,000. The Institute enlists community leaden in a study of conditions that perpetuate poverty. These accomplishments by Mr. Randolph which-span more than 70 years tell us that he was truly the civil rights giant of this century. For this, A. Philip Randolph, we are proud and privileged to salute you far your anMfaaUona to the better meat of maakfasL Bayard Rnalin, a close imorlitri of RanrtnjpiTs, summed up eloquent ly the true greatness of our 90th century giant when he said, “No other living American has An— more to seek justice for all the poor, the working climes and the minori ties in our society and around the world than has A. PhiliD Randolnh ” Legacy Of Uncerte' ty It has been a quarter of a century since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. the Board of Education historic desegregation decision. Yet, as we look back and ask from whence have we come or what have we achieved, if anything, during the [25 years, we are hard pressed to find firm, factual, positive changes. After 25 years the quality of education of black children holds many unanswered questions; busing is deplored by many, both black and white; housing is still largely segre gated; and the federal courts appear to be retreating from their former • positions • witness Bakke, Brian Weber and other attacks upon so called “reverse discrimination” and affirmative action programs. ^ What it all means is that while some progress has been made, while Mme^ninorities^^garticularl^ middle class minorities - have bene fited from the Court’s big decision, the equal opportunity legis lation and voting rights laws, the advancement and opportunities for the masses of blacks and other minorities have not occurred to a substantial degree. This is evident by the continued disproportionate high unemployment rate among blacks, discrimination against women and the abuse in minority business “set-aside” contract programs. White America, you need to real ize that we have - in spite of 25 years - only just begun to bind the wounds of social, economic and political injustices. If our nation is to survive, and be true to its aims, more substantial progress must be made in the next 25 years than in the past 25. _ RELIABLE BOUNCES IMOI' CATE THERE HILL BE HONE THAN 100 RATIONAL BLACK CONVENTIONS THIS YEAR, REPRESENTED BY UPWARDS TO500,000DELEGATES AND MEMBERS. EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT IS THE ESTI MATED AGGREGATE MEMBERSHIP OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS A-— CONSERVATIVE N MILLION! A LATTER FIGURE REPRESENTS MORE THAN 50% OF THE BLACK POPULATION,OR ROUGHLY 00% OF THE BLACK ADULT POPULACE. Hie Flight Of Hack Capital From Hie Black CommnnitieH..By Blacks Inflatrn - Running Out Of Options by Dr. Berkeley G. Burrell President National Business League Special to the Poet Some time ago in this space, we suggested that current inflationary trends were severe enough to warrant im posing mandatory wage and pries cootrob. Whan we first discussed the it tut round of inflation, and ita impact on the the national rats of Inflation was hovering around 7.2 per cent. Today, as mors recent flgsres now confirm, we are confronting double-digit in flation with no Immediate de cline in sight. So In effect, the inflation picture has worsen ed. That spells trouble for the entire steal! lylnena commu nity and particular trouble for minority entreprenem. io understand wny, we Tiimt rrmrmltrr that Nwiiam es generally cope with infla tion by passing on higher costs to consumers. Minority firms don’t have that luxury. In the first place, many of our firms are in marginal market areas, which means that their inven tories are fairly limited. Therefore, their prices are higher, and in mast esses have already reached the satura tion point. Hence, we can’t afford to raise prices any further without pricing our selves out of the market So when the price of doing busi ness increases, our firms have to absorb the increase. As a result, we flirt with bank ruptcy. Several things are happen ing. First, the cost of doing business is increasing. Second, real disposable in come for consumers is shrink ing. So consumers have less money to spend on essentials. Third, the concentration of our firms is another problem. Dr. BnrweD Nearly 75 percent of minority firms are Involved in retail trade and selected services. When disposable incomes are high, consumers may consider our services essential. When dfrpo—ble incomes are low. those services are among the first consumers choose to drop. Finally, while the national rate of unemployment is de clining, the rate of unemploy ment in the inner cities has not benefited from this national reduction. That’s important to remember because most of our firms are located in areas where the rate of unemploy ment remains high - consider ably higher than the national average. So we must contend with both inflation and unem ployment. Placing everyuung in con text, government must take strong actions to stabilize prices. Jaw-boning and volun tary controls continue to fail. There's an old political adage that says: when you nm out of alternatives, you no longer have a problem. With respect to inflation, we are clearly running out of alternatives to mandatory wage and price controls. It is instructive to note that liberal economist Galbraith has called for man datory controls; while the conservative Chairman of the Federal Reserve, William Miller, has called on business and labor to voluntarily im pose wage and price "guide lines”. So there is a feeling from liberals and conserva tives that some form of con trols is desirable. People seem to have more of a problem with the phrase “wage and price controls” than with its impact, i But perhaps of greater im portance is the result of a recently released Gallop poll which shows that a majority of the American people now favor wage and price controls as the only way to curb our inflationary pattern. TheGaV lop survey was taken wo months ago, before double digit inflation was confirmed. lei surprisingly, it reveals that virtually every segment of the population (by race, sex, education, income, region, political and labor union affiliation) supports mandatory controls. While we do not suggest that govern ment should run on the basis of public opinion polls, we are aware that the sentiment of the people cannot long be ignored. Our government in flation fighters MUST GET DOWN to the serious BUSI NESS of asking: have we already run out of options to wage and price controls? JL Wearhouae The Junior League Wear house in Charlotte will feature a Spring and Summer clothing sale May 25-31. All items will be sold for half-price during the tradition al closing for summer sale. School clothes will be dis played when the store reopens on July 17. =~ I?Bt verwow e TO BE EQUAL The U.S. Senate will soon vote oh a proposed constitutional amendment that would change the way we elect our President Instead of the present Electoral College system, in which the candidate with the most votes in a state gets all of that state’s electoral votes, it would mandate a direct election, in which the candidate who gets the most votes nationwide becomes the winner. On the surface, the change seems democratic. But the result would actually be less democratic, in that blacks and other minorities would have their already limited influence diluted. The impact on black voting power would be considerable. The bulk of the black population is concentrated in nine states - California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Those states also have the largest number of Electoral College votes. Taken together, they have 245 electors, just 25 short of the number needed to elect a President. This means m* major presidential candidate can ignore those states. Even if he has strong support elsewhere, he can’t be elected without winning at least some of them. And that means the black vote in those states takes on special importance. The bottom line is that the importance of the black vote in key “swing” states is an effective* barrier to candidates running a blatantly anti black campaign, and it is a positive inducement to them to take vital black interests into account. Now what happens if you end the Electoral College? All votes go into one pot. Black votes, instead of being crucial to winning several states just become ten percent of the national total, easy to ignore. L-anaiaates wouldn't need to pledge action on civil rights enforcement or on Jobe or other issues of basic importance to black voters. They could afford to ignore a small minority of the total vote in their pursuit of winning a majority of white voters nationally. The Electoral College system acts as a brake to extremism. It forces candidates not. only, to ■ L to the widest consensus among rnters ami i Direct election of the President would likely lead to fractured national politics, a decline in the role of the parties, and an erosion of even the limited political influence blacks have gained. No one really knows though, because we’ve never had any other electoral system. But a leap into the unknown requires more justification than supporters of direct election have given us. They claim that a situation could arise in which a president was elected with fewer votes than the loser. But that’s happened only once in our history. And even that instance took place a hundred years ago. So why change? Such clouded presidencies are just as likely in a direct election system. Let’s say a candidate wins because he has a few more votes than his opponent. Can you imagine the difficulties that would cause? Just try conducting a national recount. It’s tough enough on a local basis. In an election involving over 80 million votes a small plurality for the winner would cast doubt on the legitimacy of his electoral mandate. At least the Electoral College, by magnifying the' extent of the victor’s success and by mandating he win a majority, avoids that problem. TOE 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 Circulation, 9,915 , 60 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVILE BILL JOHNSON ..Editor Publisher BERNARD REEVES...General Manager i SHIRLEY HARVEY ..Advertising Director I , * ^__t 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 l 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. 1 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 Background On Why Sears Should Be Supported By Dr. Nathaniel Wright, Jr. • Human Righta Activist Special to the Poet 1 Special note from the i Publisher: This is Part I of a ! three-part series on the sub ject of “Why Black Ameri cans and Others Should Sup port Sears .’* Part II will deal < with the details and merits of the actual Sears suit in rela tion *o black Americans. Part | III will show why Sears'action should be the springboard for our black leadership divorcing itself from the thought of I so-called "white liberals." I These important and enlight | ening articles were research i ed and written by a noted I black Harvard-trained schol | ar Our readers should know I not only is he our nation’s leading advocate of new forms | of equitable empowerment for black Americans ss a benefit | to Americans as a whole, but also is considered by many as America'8 foremost urban thinker. Since there has been so much controversy publicised, pro and con. about the "Sears suit." we felt It imperative that our readers be enabled to see what's in it for us by looking carefully and thought fully "behind the facts" with the aid of this unique perspec tive Dr Wright’s thesis. I based upon what he presents clearly as long-standing prin ciples of Justice and equity, is that Sears definitely should be supported by all right-thinking Americans. A new, historic and ex tremely positive shift In the thinking or "logic” of affirma tive action and for the civil rights movement may have been made possible in January of this year when Sears, Roebuck and Company instituted what is known as a "class action” suit. It was against various agencies and individuals in our federal government. It Is called “class action” because their case was drawn on behalf of the entire category of general merchandising retailers with 15 or more employees. Sears' suit charged the defendants with both actions and policies that restrict the equitable employment of all Americans POSSIBLE BLESSING This can become a blessing for black Americans-particu larly those in the huge lower and "middle-income” masses--for two reasons. First, the "Sears suit” forces the review of a wide range of laws and policies, initiated by the thinking of so-called "white liberals,” that ad versely affect millions of black Americans. Second, this now-mandated review of the logic and procedures of the present affirmative action en deavors may enable our tradi tional-thinking black civil rights leaders to divorce themselves from that present thinking ' about what many others feel is good for us. A precious and crucial third fac tor for the good of the nation as a whole Is that Sears’ action may enable everyone In White America to begin thinking anew about the need for rea sonable black participation in every aspect of American life. This Sears suit, in substantial part, requests that Sears be allowed to proceed with numerical goals for hiring black males and other under represented classes in a de^ served compensatory watf -' This may help all Americans realize that if all black mneri cans are not empowered with skills, and enabled by equit able laws, to produce at least equal to their consumption, it' will be all of us-not simply Corporate America-that will pay heavily in the forms of joblessness, crime and wide spread urban decay that now plague our entire nation here and contributes to eroding the value of the dollar abroad SEARS BACKGROUND Before looking at the speci fic charges and making an assessment of the "Sears suit" overall (which is done In Part II), it is helpful to take a brief look at the historic and present actions of Sears regarding black Americans. Here are some items of interest: From a historical perspec tive, Sears, understandably, Is proud of its social record. Prior to the mid-1930's, as an example, funds for construc tion of approximately one-half of all the “public” schools for black children in America had come from Sears' chief exe cutive. No one in America had ever approached such black empowerment. Sears has spent nearly $100 million in trying to shape the racial and sexual composition of Its work force to comply with statistical standards set by governmental bureaucra cies under the name of what many feel is too casually called "equal employment opportunity.” According to several black federal officials associated with compliance, no major corporation in America has a better overall goal achieve ment record than does Sears, despite the fact that a small number of its spproxlmately 2,900 facilities do have serious problems They cite the fact that during a period of seve ral years whan a fin* company like AT4T baa under a con sent decree to achieve certain goals, Sears vohfitartly by far exceeded tlpse goals. Whan it cpines to aiding minority businesses, these same black federal cite Sears as beb« possibly only behind General Motors, Standard Oil of Indiana and Western Electric in promoting business relations with minor ity suppliers. This is a critical and major area for economic equity for black Americans that is almost completely by passed by most major corpor ations. A careful examination of Sears’ affirmative action plan instituted in early 1974 is credited by other profession als as being one of the strong est in industry. It is entitled the ‘Mandatory Achievement of Goals (MAG) Plan. The Prestigious Committee, for Economic Development in its 1978 report on Training and Jobe Programs in Action, which was an independent study of a number of major corporate Affirmative Action Programs including Sears, stated that “Sears, Roebuck is the nation's . largest retail employers, its Affirmative Action (AA) program is unique In the country: it is a voluntary compliance pro gram that matches any court imposed AA plan in its sweep ing long-range goals; its man datory requirements wher ever groups are undar-repre •ented in its work force; its comprehensive implementa tion system; and its rapid proportional gains for women and minorities in most job categories in the last few years." Sears’Present Plan ' * Under iU present "Manda tory Achievement of Goals" (MAG) Plan, Sears requires stores to hire one underrepre sented -group member for every white male hired, until the presence of the underre presented group in a particu lar job grouping equals or exceeds its prnsmca in the local trade-hiring area. Sears says this title is intended as a means of command^ line See SEARS on page IS. w \
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 24, 1979, edition 1
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