Editorials & Comments
Motion: A Catalyst For Change
Much ballyhoo and credit has
been given to the NCNB Com
munity Development Corpora
tion for serving as a catalyst for
a new urban community that
may lead to the construction of
up to 300 single family homes,
townhouses and condominiums
in the city’s Third Ward Com
munity Development Program
area.
Specifically, the bank corpora
tion is joint venturing the project
with a non-profit neighborhood
group headed by the eloquent Dr.
Mildred Baxter Davis called the
Committee to Restore and Pre
serve Third Ward, Inc., with the
cooperative support of the City of
Charlotte. With the exception of
the involvement of the neighbor
hood group, the concept__being
used to get the upper middle
income housing units built, sold
and occupied parallels the suc
cessful Fourth Ward revitaliz
ation effort.
Undoubtedly, because the
housing was built and occupied
by lower and moderate income
blacks, the 100 single family
houses built in Greenville Jn.1980
- by CBS Realty received less
fanfare than is being given to
Third Ward. Nevertheless, the
two developmental areas have
common roots.
The catalyst or pioneering
.’forerunner for these housing
; developmental projects was the
’ battered and bureaucratically
entrapped MOTION, INC., a City
financed non-profit housing
agency serving in low-income
neighborhoods.
Contract Renewal
i In recent years at contract
renewal time, MOTION has been
presented with poor perform
ance appraisals by the city’s
Budget and Evaluation Depart
ment. This has tended to raise a
cry to drop contractual services
with the agency and to seek other
means of pioneering housing
rehabilitation in low-income
neighborhoods. Undoubtedly,
some inept management prac
tices, a hard working board
chairman with little support, and
the city’s bureaucratic red tape
have combined to limit the maxi
mum efficiency of MOTION.
Therefore, the uncertainty of
the true or full nature of
MOTION’S problems has caused
the City Council to renew the
agency’s contract year after
year. Underlying this, and of
greater significance, is that in
spite of its problems, MOTION
and the philosophy it has been
molded from, is workable and
r-1 ■ —
has evidence of some success.
A CHARLOTTE NEWS edi
torial put the issue in clear
perspective when it said low
income neighborhoods and City
Council alike want MOTION to
survive for this reason.
“MOTION has oeen a force for
housing renewal in neighbor
hoods that private enterprise
would not touch because of the
risks. MOTION took those risks -
with the city's money-and city’s
direction - and has had some
success.”
The editorial adds, “The agen
cy’s failures have been ones of
missed opportunities and un
achieved goals -- not of bad loans
or shoddy housing...Third Ward
(Greenville, Five Points, First
W’ard, the Derita area and scat
tered housing in other areas'
- shows what MOTION can do. It
was^rebuilding housing there
before local banks showed any
interest. It has (with the city’s
help) purchased run-down
houses, brought them up to
standard, and sold them at
prices middle-income families
could afford.”
Housing Services
Furthermore, with public
funds for housing becoming less
available while neighborhood
housing rehabilitation needs
grow, there will remain a need
for MOTION, or an agency like
it, to provide many basic housing
services that private interest
won’t provide under any circum
stances.
Therefore, the big banks with
their massive resources, tax
credit saving profit margins, and
public relations expertise are by
their very nature serving a self
interest that enables them to
participate or not participate
with local government or a
neighborhood in a proposed
housing development plan.
On the other hand, MOTION’S
very existence is based upon the
whims, fantasies, political pres
sures and bureaucracy of local
government. Considering this
reality and the untold problems
in producing housing either by
public or private means, we can
appreciate and sympathize with
the plight yet successful efforts
of MOTION.
The fact is, while the city’s
overall growth toward improv
ing the quality of life for all our
citizens through more and better
housing will continue to need
that contribution of the big
banks, much that needs to be
done at the pioneering level can
and will only happen with
MOTION.
LAW ABIDING BLACKS MUST SPEAK OUT
THE RISE IN BLACK COMMUNITIES
HAS BECOME A SOURCE OF EMBARRASS
MENT TO BLACK LEADERSHIP HOWEVER
THEY MUST ASSUME AN ACTIVE LEADER
&HIP. L. STATEN
A View From Capitol Hill
America Ranks Third In Incarceration
By Cius Savage
Member of Congress
The United States has the
dubious distinction of being
one of the world's leaders
with respect to its rate of
incarceration. Only , the
Soviet Union and South
Africa surpass us.
There is another statistic
involving the criminal
justice system that I find
alarming: the amount of
money spent and projected
for prison construction.
Congressman John Con
yers of Michigan, an out
spoken member of the
House Committee of the
Judiciary, has reported
that the prison building
program in this decade
could cost from $6 to $7
billion. As recent as 1978,
the Federal Bureau of Pri
sons asked Congress for a
construction budget of $67.5
million.
We have every reason to
be concerned about Ameri
ca's prisons and the rate of
incarceration. There is a
disproportionate number of
Blacks in our prisons, and
the same applies to the
number on death row.
Conyers has an interest
ing theory about what the
nation is doing with people
it considers of no use to
society. It allows them to
go unemployed, it takes
them into the military ser
vices, or it places them in
prison. Blacks, it should be
noted, are in disproportion
ate numbers in all three
categories.
With a greater number of
Blacks in our prisons, it
follows then that there are
more Blacks serving
lengthy terms Additional
ly, there is a tr£nd to set
mandatory sentences in
(ius Savage
certain types ol crimes and
a growing mood to apply
the death penalty in more
situations.
Numerous studies have
shown that our present sys
tem of confinement does
not rehabilitate people.
Instead, it hardens them
for more serious criminal
activity.
Conyers, a recent guest
on my radio program, said
that the courts are part of
the problem in the criminal
justice system It takes the
courts too long to give the
accused his or her day in
court Most of the judges
are white. And. as Conyers
pointed out, the jury offers
little more. Instead of
having his case heard by
one of his peers, the black
defendant often faces an
all-white jury.
I here is another aspect
about crime that annoys
me. We hear of crimes of
violence and street crimes.
We all deplore these
actions On the other hand
we hear very little about
the crimes that have a
greater impact on the
nation’s economy
Former Attorney Ge
neral Kamsey Clark said in
a recent report that most of
the crimes that the public
hears about-street crimes
for example-represent
only a small percentage of
the total dollar loss. A
report released by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce in
the mid 1970s showed that
white collar crime is four
times greater than street
crimes in terms of annual
dollar loss to the nation's
economy. This was some
where in the neighborhood
of $44 billion versus $4
billion.
I agree with my col
league and friend Conyers
that if this country is going
to continue the imprison
ment ol DeoDle. it has a
moral obligation to better
equip them for a useful life
as a member of society
when they leave our penal
institutions Chief Justice
Burger advocates this
point of view.
If some kind of real re
habilitation is going to be
suit, more money must be
directed toward educating
inmates and providing
them a chance to learn
viable job skills.
Finally, more alterna
tives to incarceration
should be explored. Among
these suggested by Con
gressman Conyers are re
stitution, day fines, and
community service orders.
Moreover, we should do
further research into the
relationship between crime
and poverty.
Today’s Cereals
The amount of sugar in
today's cereals ranges
from about 2 percent to
about 68 percent.
By Gerald C. Horne. ESQ.
Affirmative
Action
Lessons For Black America
Harlem has long been the community
symbolizing the hopes and dreams of Afro
Americans nationally. Across its broad
avenues and boulevards have stroke W.E.B.
Dubois, Paul Robeson, Marcus Garvey,
Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and
other heroes, not only of New York but the
entire country. Langston Hughes and other
poets have sung the glory of Harlem but if
one of the giants of our past returned to the
rubble-strewn streets, it is doubtful if they
would break out in song. It is often said that
where Black America is going, Harlem will
.get there first and if that is so the
destination for many of us does not appear
to be bright.
First of all there is the threshold issue of
whether Harlem will continue as a Black
community for on the drawing boards of
some there are plans to insure that within a
decade Harlem will be as white as the South
African parliament. With the energy crisis
making commuting from distant suburbs to
New York City less feasible, many affluent
whites have begun buying up Harlem’s
relatively inexpensive stock of 3-4 story
“brownstone” houses and have started
moving back in droves.
This process, known as “gentrification,”
is not peculiar to Harlem but to a greater or
lesser degree has hit Black communities
across the country. It has created a
generation of Black “nomads,” wandering
from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Accelerating this process in Harlem are
the actions of the city administration. Here
too is a lesson that Blacks across the nation
should ponder. Before Ronald Reagan’s
election made being anti-Black fashionable
once more, Mayor Edward Koch of New
York rode to power on the strength of a
racist back lash. Because of abandonment,
failure to pay taxes and the like, the city
now owns 60 percent of Harlem’s residential
property. And now Mayor Koch has pushed
through a plan that has the avowed
potential of increasing the white population
of Harlem.
Mayor Koch is up for reelection this year
and one would think that Black politicans
would be working night and day to put him
in the unemployment line. But despite a
growing tidal wave of sentiment in the
Black community for his primary opponent,
Black politicians like Congressman Charles
Rangel of Harlem have remained mute;
rumors are that the “fix is in” and Black
politicians will sit on their hands and not
come out against the Mayor.
This too is an issue not peculiar to
Harlem. Blacks across the country have to
answer the question of how can Black
politicians be held accountable and be made
to represent our interests as opposed to
their narrow sinecures.
This critical question has assumed dra
matic intensity in light of the scheduled
reapportionment of the New York City
Council. Though the 1980 Census shows that
there is a virtual Black and Latino majority
in the city, the City Council does not reflect
this; ethnic “majority” controls less than 20
percent of the seats in the Council and the
now reapportionment plan assures that this
will be the case over the next decade.
The New York State Black and Puerto
Rican Legislative Caucus has gone to court
to prevent this plan from being implement
ed.
F— BOB JOHNSON -
EDUCATION...The students of the Char
lotte-Mecklenburg School System begin
classes Monday, August 31. Reflecting on
this major part of their lives, I couldn’t help
but think that education does not commence
with the alphabet; it begins with a mother’s
look, with a father's nod of approval or a
sign of blame, with a sister’s gentle
pressure of the hand or a brother’s noble act
of patience.
It begins with hand
fuls of flowers in
green valeys, on hills
and meadows filled
with daisies; with
birds’ nests admired,
but not touched; with
creeping ants, with
humming bees and
glass beehives. It also
begins with pleasant
walks in shady lanes,
and with thoughts
directed in sweet and
BOB JOHNSON
kindly tones and words to nature, to beauty,
to acts of benevolence, to deeds of virtue,
and to the source of all good. For if we work
upon marble it will perish; if we rear
temples they will crumble into dust; but if
we work upon immortal minds, and pene
trate them with principals, with -the-just
fear of God and love of our fellow men, we
engrave on those tablets something that
will brighten to all eternity. Therefore, let
us, as parents and teachers, not limit these
young minds. Because education is not
learning; it is the exercise and development
of the powers of the mind; and the two great
methods by which this end may be
accomplished are in the halls of learning,
and in the conflicts of life.
“Happening” “HAPPENING” toasts a
good year for parents, teachers and stu
dents in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School
System.
BUSINESS & PLEASURE...A person that
knows how to mix pleasures with business,
is never entirely possessed by them; they
either quit or resume them at their will; and
in the use they make of them, they rather
find a relaxation of the mind. Some such
people are proprietors of successful, local
clubs and lounges. Places that provide
varied types of entertainment.
Nathaniel Black is one such person. He is
the chief honcho at the Kings and Queens
Club and Lounge on the corner of Brevard
and Fourth Streets. The club features three
funky DJs: Andy Wallace, Michael Fox and
Tony Johnson -- whose slogan is, “if the
party is uptown, K&Q is the place to get
down.
The club is open Tuesdays through
Sundays from 8 p.m. until. Wednesday night
is Kings’ night and Thursday night is
Queens’ night.
Pearl Ingram runs the Galaxy Night
Club, 1527 W. Boulevard. A place, according
to Mr. Ingram, where there is more fun than
just another disco.
The Galaxy is open five days a week:
Wednesday through Sunday from 10 p.m. til
3 a.m., serving the community with live
entertainment weekly. Every Thursday
night is Ladies’ Lock-Up - free sipping from
the bar until midnight.
“The People’s Choice’’ is an appropriate
slogan for Mike Cotton’s Midway Lounge. A
neighborhood type establishment that
prides itself on congenial atmosphere. The
club features periodical live entertainment,
fun night on Mondays and a special treat for
Mike’s guests coming once a month begin
ning in September.
THE CHARLOTTE POST
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Charlotte. N.C. under the Act of March 3,
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From Capitol Hill
Bureaucracy Can’t Keep Congressional Hack Congress Down
Alfreda I,. Madison
Special To The Post
The Congressional Black
Caucus, whose works are
ignored by the white media
and whose contributions
and talents are snuffed by
the bureaucracy still
pounds away hard for the
people, not only of this
country, but those of the
world, who are victims of
the hierarchy.
Representative Willion
Gray, who is a member of
the Foreign Affairs Com
mittee, arranged for a
meeting of Caucus repre
sentatives with President
Anwar Sadat of Egypt, on
his last United States visit.
The five members who met
with the Egyptian Presi
dent were Representatives
hauntroy, Gray, Conyers,
Rangel and Dymally All
five reported that Mr.
Sadat was very friendly,
that he discussed the Mid
East situation freely and
that he is intensely inter
ested in accomplishing a
pcsettlement in that
ar • Sadat said to *ho
RI-» >■ t'atic:r:. 'hat
HiUM get to know each
other better n-. ■■ oed
the Caucus members to
visit Egypt As he did with
all Americans with whom
he met, President Sadat
emphasized strongly the
Alfreds I.. Madison
settlement talks must in
clude the Palestinians. Me
stated that the United
States has the opportunity
to get Israel to realize that
the Palestinians must have
an independent homeland
and that he could be helpful
in influencing the Saudis to
get the Palestinians to
agree to the right of the
existence of Israel Mr
Sadat told the Caucus that
there is a question as to
what extent the United
States is willing to go in
-mpport of Israel Me feels
lal the United States'
limitations should be made
nown to the Israelis
While the white media
named the other groups
with whom Mr Sadat met,
it ignored the Caucus, other
than on TV showed Mr
Sadat sitting between Mr
Fauntroy and Mr. Conyers,
but never stated who they
were.
Representative John
Conyers, speaking for the
Black Caucus in a press
conference, stated that the
Congressional Black Cau
cus formed a foreign po
licy panel "to internation
alize its concerns and adopt
a more assertive role in
foreign policy questions "
This is in keeping with the
commitment the Caucus
made at the Black Agenda
meeting in 1980, to become
involved in every facet of
United States' policy
making.
With ail eyes focused on
the Air Controllers strike,
the concern and alertness
of the Black Caucus is
again at work Just a few
minutes before the House,
August recess began. Re
presentative John Conyers
introduced H R 4375, a bill
which extends to all Fe
deral employees the right
to strike In explaining the
need for such a bill, Con
yers said President Rea
gan's action against the Air
Controllers is without pre
cedent He stated that Fe
deral employees should
have the right to engage in
concerted activities for the
purpose of collective bar
gaining or other mutual aid
for their protection as is
permitted under Federal
law for private sector em
ployees He called for an
end to the fiction that go
vernment employees are
different from all other
work forces in the United
States. Conyers stated that
policemen, firemen, teach
ers, doctors, nurses and
workers who close down
hospitals have a right to
strike, but that's merely
because Federal employ
ees are in the collective
grip of the government
they are not allowed the
same right. He took strong
opposition with the doc
trine of public service,
which says Federal • em
ployees have a duty and
responsibility as public ser
vants, therefore they can
not enjoy collective bar
gaining rights that every
one else has Conyers
stated that a small union
like the Air Controllers
should have the same
rights as a large union like
Postal employees He con
tinued that H R 4375 per
tains to all Federal em
ployee's that he hopes it will
be given expedited consi
deration before the Post
Office and Civil Service
Committee.
Representative Augustus |
X—✓
Hawkins, author 01 Hum
phrey-Hawkins and Chair
man of the House Sub
committee on employment
opportunities is using his
vacation time by holding
hearings in various cities
These hearings on CETA
and civil rights are being
held in Chicago and Los
Angeles
Even though the Caucus
has received no response
from its letter and tele
gram to President Reagan
and Secretary Haig pro
testing the granting of
visas to the South African
Springbok team, through
its mobilization with other
Blacks, enough pressure
has been placed on Mayor
Koch ol New y ork to cause
him to rescind his actions
to allow the Springboks to
play in Madison Square
Garden Through Jesse
Jackson, the Caucus and
other Blacks, Chicago offi
cials are being pressured to
follow Mayor Koch’s
example
hven though Blacks are
denied roles by the bu
reaucracy, in important
policymaking positions,
through their bulldog de
termination, they are mak
ing inroads in the effecting
of all major issues Just
recently. County Preacher
Jegpe Jackson gave several
reasons for withdrawal of
Black support to Coca
Cola. Last week tht giant
corporation acquiesced to
Kev. Jackson’s requests.
All of this and much
more should signal strong
ly to American and world
leaders, that Blacks can’t
be kept down.
McC.rorey YMCA
Needs Volunteers
Volunteer instructors are
needed at the McCrorey
Branch YMCA, 3801 Beat
ties Ford Road.
Instructors for sewing,
crafts, baseball, dance, fit
ness, card games such as
bridge and pinnocle, and
especially soccer are
needed.
McCrorey Branch YMCA
is looking for a few ta
lented people who don’t
mind sharing their skills
with youth and others will
ing to learn.
If you are interested in
becoming a volunteer in
structor contact Susan
House at 394-2356
sort* OJO^HA ^
The Midway Lounge is located at 3631
Statesville Avenue.
If jazz music is your cup ot tea, then the
Beacon Club, 3020 Beatties Ford Road, is
the place to be. Every Saturday and Sunday
nights, the best jazz musicians around are
featured on the stage of this elegant
nightspot, from 10 p.m. til 2 a.m.
Jack “Chicken” Benson and Luther Cald
well are the dapper owners, who have a way
of making their guests feel very comfort
able.
For the sports enthusiasts and the “cold
est draft in town,” the place to congregate is
the Matador Lounge, 2412 Beatties Ford
Road.
The Matador Lounge, under the very able
management of Carl Clegg is one of the
fastest growing night spots in town.
The Gold Room, 640-A N. Graham Street,
is managed by the lovely Sherry Douglas.
Sherry’s cozy little club features Sunday
afternoon jazz concerts, happy hour Wed
nesday and Thursday evenings from 6-8 p.m
and game night on Wednesdays. Her slogan
is “stop by for a relaxing evening.”
The Upstairs Lounge and Disco, 630 N.
Graham Street, offers an either-or at
mosphere. There is a room for conversa
tional enjoyment and a room for real
boogie. It is enough to keep the very
personable Leroy Watson, manager, quite
fcusy. T