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Editorials & Comments America Loses A Great Man Joe Louis - Dignity And Candor The legendary “Brown Bomb er,” Joe Louis, who reigned as heavyweight boxing champion for over 12 years is dead. For those of you too young to grasp the significance of these few words, or more accurately the man - Joe Louis - means that you cannot fully appreciate the greatness of a man and his era. Louis, a man of humble means was born Joseph Louis Barrow in Lafayette, Alabama, and grew to manhood in Detroit. A profes sional boxer for 17 years, Louis won 68 of his 71 fights. His record includes 54 knockouts, 12 occur ring in the first round. A 6-foot, lVfc-inch, 200-pounder, Louis re lentlessly stalked his opponents until he struck with quick, jolting jabs and rapid combination punches to the head and body that usually kayoed his opponents. A man of little formal edu cation, Louis nevertheless char acterized dignity and candor. Following one of his rare defeats to Max Schmeling, Louis simply said, “He just whipped me, ma.” On another occasion, when a racist news photographer asked Louis to pose eating a slice of watermelon, he refused saying he did not like watermelon, when in fact he really loved water melon. On still another occasion when Muhammad Ali was heavy weight champion, he hired Louis as an advisor. When appearing on television together, Ali said, Joe, you really think you could whip me?” Louis replied, “When I had the title I went on a what they called a bum-of-the-month tour.” Ali asked, “You mean I’m a bum?” Louis answered, “You woulda been on the tour.” The “tour” seemed appropriate con sidering that Louis defended his title 25 times during the 12 years that he held the heavyweight title. This was in an era when people truly believed the champ was the greatest man on earth. Louis left an impact on the world of boxing that expanded far beyond his opponents. When he knocked out Max Schmeling in 1938, after a loss two years earlier, the fights had had inter national significance. Under Adolph Hitler’s “Aryan supre macy” doctrine, German-born Schmeling was an Aryon hero and certainly could defeat a black man; in less than two minutes Louis had beaten the Aryon hefo badly. In spite of being boxing champ in an era of racial bigotry, Louis was the nation hero of blacks and whites. With his quiet dignity and practical candor, Louis was more than another sports per sonality - a force that contribut ed to easing racial tension. Un doubtedly, too, he opened the door for the acceptance of blacks in many other SDorts. Joe Louis, a man among many who don’t deserve to be called such, truly deserves to be called “The Champ/’ Vote To Preserve Districting Included in the nine-part, $53.4 million bond issue, voters will be asked to vote for an April 28 will be $4 million in a Trade Street boulevard, new sidewalks and school zone warning signs. These \ projects, as well as the transit mail mentioned last week, should be supported because of their practical contribution to making Charlotte a better place to live.______ The proposed $2 million Trade Street boulevard would provide a 15-foot wide grass planted median for Trade Street It would stretch from Irwin Avenue near the 1-77 exit to West Trade Street to Kings Drive near CPCC with the exception of a block near the intersection of Trade and Try on Streets. This project will certainly compliment the transit mall. More significantly, it will contribute to cleaning up the current environment on West Trade Street as well as serve as a more pleasing gateway into the City via 1-77 at West Trade. At a cost of $400,000, a low cost item in the overall bond package is the need tor standardized school zone warning signs. This would cover the cost of needed school zone traffic signs at over 100 locations. These uniform signs will con tribute to the City’s transport ation commitment. Of greater importance, is the fact that these signs will make it much safer for our children by slowing traffic in school area. This is more than —adequate reason_for supporting the school zoning warning signs item in the bond package. Another item in the bond pack age worthy of your support is the $1.6 million for general sidewalk construction. Support of this pro ject would allow the City to continue its needed program of sidewalk construction through out the City. This would allow the City to respond to neighborhood requests from a pool of funds for needed sidewalks. It would cer tainly be wise, however, for neighborhood groups to monitor the City’s engineering depart ment’s methods of determining priorities to assure equitable dis tribution of sidewalk construc tion if the bond item is approved. Blacks’ Destiny In Own Hands... DAILY FLIGHTS OF SLACK \\l+ CAPITAL FROJA^. BLACK COKHUNITtiS. \SUBURB/A u black *5 conmiHiytt IL ! Letters To The Editor Craig La wing Demonstrates True Leadership Dear Sir: When the election day results were known on November 5, 1980, the Equal Rights Amendment was declared dead in North Carolina by many pro ponents. To both the House and Senate, North Carolina voters had elected a slight majority of anti-ERA members and in my opinion, for reasons other than ERA. The opponents then proceeded to force a vote on the issue.' Proponents were looking for any and every way to prevent another humiliat ing defeat, including ask ing the Senate leadership to prevent such a defeat on the Senate floor. That was accomplished and now news media and others cry “Foul.” Not so! When you don't have the votes, you don't have the votes. And as I was reminded by an opponent, “If you (the op ponents) had had the votes, you would have done just what we (the opponents) tried." He—is—right, we would have tried to force a vote. The comment that no female legislators knew about the deal is inaccu rate. Several of us knew of the deal’s formation, even if not involved in its con clusion. Lieutenant Governor Green, Senators La wing and Royall and others, de monstrated true leadership in concluding several weeks of ERA trauma by formulating the only sure methoda vailable to prevent another ERA defeat on the Senate floor. By their action, legislators can now concentrate on budget and other state matters which desperately need our at tention. So now media and others can stop “crying over spilt milk ” ERA in North Carolina died No vember 4, 1980. The deal' of February only provided a quiet burial rather than a public execution which the opponents had planned. Sincerely, Senator Carolyn Mathis Complicated Wording DearSir: We, in our cozy neighbor hoods-Dilworth, Eliza beth. Hidden Valley, Myers Park, Clanton Park. Sedge field, Madison Park are in danger! Because of the compli cated wording of the April 28th ballot, we must vote NO in support of District representation. Why? As a resident of the Madison Park neighbor hood, I expect my council man, George Selden, to help me out when the Char lotte Water Department fails to help me find out why my water pressure is low. At-large represent atives don’t have a neigh borhood constitutency and don't, usually, feel a direct responsibility to me. After all I only have 1 vote and an at-large politician can look To the whole city for putem tial supporters. In the shuf fle of large government I am NOT assured that I’ll get help from the Water Department as quickly. In contrast, my district representative would, after all; I MAY vote for him. I believe in the Cohstitu tion. I believe that I live in a representative demo cracy. It follows then, I am represented by my elected officials and therefore my vote counts! At-large representation is a direct threat to my strongest beliefs. It is a threat to ALL neighbor hoods since water pressure problems, or any other pro blems requiring city as sistance, call ALL neigh borhoods. Politicians who support at-large representation like Davjd Berryhill and Her bert Spaugh apparently do not have people like you and me in mind. Vote NO. Support district representation. Help our councilmen to. act jn our best interests. Judy Vaughan, member Equal Rights Council Constantly Confronted With Pain Of Lonefciegg Dear Sir: Please allow me a few moments of your valuable time so that I may intro duce myself and explain why I am writing you this letter. I am a young man who is presently incarce rated at the Southern Ohio -r^TAfflienal Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. Here, I have been incarcerated for many years, having been incarcerated before reach ing manhood. In my predi cament, I am constantly confronted with the pain and sorrow of loneliness; I have no friends or family with whom I may share my innermost feelings and needs and rely upon for comfort in the face of my grim situation. For these reasons, I am addressing this letter to you with hopes that you will be kind enough to-publish this letter in your newspaper for me so that I may obtain a friend. Sincerely, Willie Johnson P O Box 45699, L-2-14 Lucasville, Ohio 4569* =■ By Gerald C. Horne, ESQ 2=2™ Affirmative Action Kindness And Discrimination ..The two favorite words used by our business, political and judicial leaders to rationalize and condone discrimination are qualifications and merit. Thus, how do we account for their success? Obviously, quali fications and merit. What kind of people are they looking to hire? Obviously, those with qualifications who merit the opportunities of our society. Why do they hire or promote so few females, blacks, Mexican-Ameri cans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans'or members of other minorities? Obviously, because they cannot find those with the qualifications or who merit the opportunities. There are several positions and views which stem from this type of belief. It is not racism and sexism which account for the inequities in our society. We do not discrim inate. If they would only qualify them selves, we would hire and promote them. If they would compete or could compete and become the best, we would promote them. At another level, and a more insidious level because they have the victims believ ing the same nonsense, is the belief that discrimination is subtle, vague, difficulty to define or identify. On the contrary, as the-examples to be presented will show, qualifications and merit have nothing to do with who really gets the opportunities. On the contrary, discrimination is not subtle, vague, difficult to define, or identify. In fact, qualifications and merit are the code words for racism and sexism. In fact, the arguments elative to the subtleness and vagueness of dis crimination are just excuses and rational izations that our leaders, and most notably judges, used to deny justice and fairness to minorities and females. I say this because the gatekeepers and power brokers in industry know how people are selected and rewarded. Let’s look at two examples of over discrimination dealing with qualifications and merit. Also, these examples should be analyzed within the contest of the criticism leveled by Justice Thurgood Marshall, who is responsible for the Second Circuit Federal courts. Justice Marshall, at the annual conference of the Second Circuit last May, was concerned about the Second Circuit s record' in cases dealing with affirmative action and anti-discrimination. He said that to win an affirmative action case in the Sdcond Circuit, “you have to beat the judges over the head. ”_ In the first case, a black employee at IBM 4 claimed that he was discriminated against for opportunities for promotions because of his race. According to the pre-trial trans cript and other evidence, the black techni cian had invented the IBM Automatic Impurity Profiler. According to the black employee, he was denied a promotion because he had not written and published any papers. The manager, in his testimony under oath, said that in fact, he had rejected the worker’s promotion because a require ment for the promotion was “the writing and publishing of papers.” He also re commended that the worker “should get out of the development and engineering area because he lacked the ability to work in that kind of environment.” It should be noted that the employee receivedtwo patents for his inventions while working in the area. THE CHARLOTTE POST Second Class Postage No. 965500 “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co.. Inc. 1524 West Blvd., Charlotte, N.C. 28208 Telephone (704)376-0496 _ __ 62 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson...Editor, Publisher Bernard Reeves...General Manager Fran Farrer...Advertising Director Wayne Long...Circulation Manager Dannette Gaither...Office Manager Second Class Postage No. 96550 Paid At Charlotte, N.C. under.the Act of March 3.1878 Member National Newspaper Publishers ____ Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m. Monday. All photos and copy submitted become the property of the POST _and will not be returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. 2400 S. Michigan Ave. 45 W. 45th St.. Suite 1493 Chicago, III. 60616 New York. N.Y. 10036 _ t olumet 5-0200(212> 189-1220 A I from Capitol Hill Will Common Sense Or Gun Control Lows Prevml? By Alfreda L. Madison Special To The Post Again we've been faced with the tragedy at the hands of an assasin’s but let No one can forget the horrible television sight ol seeing President Reagan being pushed into a limou sine by the secret service and three men lying on the cement walk bleeding from bullet wounds. Congress, immediately recessed and people either crowded around the television lis tening for reports of the shootings or talked to any one around. We can all be thankful for the miracle that no one was killed and that all four victims are improving ' rrtcety-— At the White House, the evening of the shooting, there was none of the jubi lation and jokes that re porters usually carry on between getting news and reporting. Everyone was crowded around the several televisions an xiously awaiting any word from the hospital Press Secretary Jfm Brady, is greatly liked by all correspondents He is a t Alfrrda L. Madison very cneenui person, who being a team player, doesn't always give forth right answers to the re porters' questions, but being such a witty and affable person, he is able to get away with responses or lack of them without an swering the questions As the one most often lone Black reporter at the White House among a host of white reporters, who has to ask about issues as they relate to Blacks, with very scarcely any follow up by other reporters so my ques tions as is not the case with the white reporters, Jim Brady seemed special to me. In his press briefings he always recognizes me for questions. When report ers try to have a personal word with him immediate ly following the briefings, he has just about always found a moment for me. Once when I was in the room of the Deputy Press Secretary having a conver sation. Jim knocked on the door and said, ’’Alfreda, don’t leave, m forty-five minutes the President will come to the press room and make a statement on At lanta. I believe it will be of interest to you.” Then upon my second trip to the tran sition team press confer ence having asked ques tions relative Blacks and Jim had to acknowledge Ifiaf he didn’t know the answer, I went to him alter thqconference and said, "I work for Black papers and I have to ask the Black questions " He replied, “I understand but I'll have to find some answers for you " So I along with all other White House cor respondents certainly hope that Jim Brady will soon return to his post of duty This shooting just goes to show that with all of our law enforcement protec tion, big defense build-up and talk about Soviet threats, we can’t save our selves from the harm of our own guns. It is encumbent upon our national leaders to turn the search light inward and focus attention on saving us from our selves. As after the assassin ation of every great leader, there is a public outcry for gun control, and congress goes into action of investi gating to see if negligence was the cause Some or ganizations and some members of congress have been trying for years to get a gun control bill through congress, but the ever pre sent lobbying of the rich National Rifle Associa tion's anti-gun control sen timent always prevail. Yearly, hand guns in the United States kill and in jure more than 240,000 peo ple The hand gun propo nents argue that hand guns are protection President Reagan voiced favor for the use of hand guns and Mrs Reagan said that her husband gave her a small gun. Notwithstanding, that and being surrounded by secret service and police with revolvers, these were no protection from the as sasin's hand gun Senator Kennedy to gether with Representative Peter Rodins are co-spon soring a gun control bill. However, the Senator ad mits that the bill doesn’t have very much of a chance of getting through this conservative congress There is an organization composed of a number of prominent Americans called Handgun Control. Inc. This group intends to mobilize a fore* of at least a million or more citizens to demand that congress passes the Kennedy-Rodins Handgun bllf. Tf congress fails to do this, the or ganization intends to develop its own political war chest to defeat the gun advocates in 1982. The group has also urged the Attorney General to make gun control a top priority in his task force. This organization’s action can serve as a signal to President Reagan or Vice President Bush, that if v they have any idea about a second term, it might be wise to reassess their gun control stand. Presbyterian To Honor k Junior Volunteers Presbyterian Hospital will honor Its Junior Vo lunteers Saturday in its annual Junior Volunteer * Appreciation Day, held this 1 year in the Fellowship Hall of St. John’s Baptist Church. The young volunteers will be treated to a brunch and be entertained by mime Eddie Williams Presbyterian currently has 284 Junior Volunteers, too more than last year. Among them, they clocked more than 40,000 hours of --4 --T ‘
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