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EDITORIALS &COMMENTS Voting Protects You! On Tuesday, June 29, Charlotte voters-at least those who are registered and will vote in the primary election as part of the democratic process-will de termine who will govern allegedly to serve the people and protect your interest and ours. The very fact that there will be an election should be enough to remind us to study the issues, become familiar with the candi dates and vote. Unfortunately, that is not enough. We need to be reminded time after time of the importance of voting. We need to be reminded that it was North Carolina’s Jesse Helms and John East who led a filibuster effort in the U.S. Senate last week to try and weaken or kill an extension of the Voting Rights Act. These conservative thinkers and their supporters would use voter apathy to justify their claim that the Voting Rights Act should have been allowed to expire-in August 1982. we make this observation be cause Tuesday’s election, unfor tunately like most primaries, has not created wide public interest. In that regard we need to be reminded that only nine percent of the city’s Democrats went to the polls in the Septem ber 1981 primary, one of the lowest voter turn-outs in Char lotte’s voting history. The low-key nature of the candidates’ campaigns, the lack of substantive issues raised by the candidates, or even your personal dislike for the candi dates, are not excuses for failing to vote to help make the democratic process continue to Work and to further assure free elections. — ; There simply is no reason for" Americans to not vote. This is particularly true for black Americans considering the struggles they have had to have a right to vote. Nevertheless, blacks in Charlotte have histor ically exhibited voter apathy so that isn’t anything new. What is or should be new is a renewed commitment to establish a pat tern of voting in large num bers. Will we see you at the polls on Tuesday? The challenge is yours....be there! Unemployment A re-occurring theme in this column continues to be unem ployment - especially black youth unemployment which cur rently is moving toward 50 per cent. Furthermore, overall black unemployment stands at about 19 percent or twice that of the nation’s general unemployment rate. The question might be asked, how did we get to this state of affairs in our so-called free market economy. Answer: Once we_get beyond the continuing spector of racism in the job market and the assortment of other factors that keep many black Americans in a near per manent state of economic de pression, we find the Reagan Administration and its consor tium of neo-conservatives telling the nation, that we should be willing tp accept a two or three percent rise in the jobless rate in order ~tohold down the^Tate of inflation. This experiment - more unem ployment for less inflation - is reportedly working so well that the nation’s jobless rate has passed nine percent. All of this sounds so neat, so theoretical, so abstract, and so statistical. Jobless Rates However, if you are old enough to remember the Depression or simply and knowledgeable enough to understand some con ditions of the present you will know that there is a'mounting human cost for playing the sta tistical game of inflation Tates versus -jobless—rates.—On the Tighter side is the recent-Johnson C. Smith University graduates who said, “Employment oppor tunities for blacks look pretty bleak. That’s why I’m going back to school to further my education” (that someone can fortunately pay for). On the darker side, some can recall the decade of the 1930’s when, in the writing of historian David Shannon, “Unemployed and homeless men welcomed arrest for vagrancy and the warmth and food to be had in jail...A boy can steal (to eat). A girl can offer her body, but as •likely as not she will find nobody 111 the nidiket with desire and a ■ dime.” • “Or,” as contemporary econo mist Caroline Bird notes, “the ** man • 111! II down mi tho nurh and cried because he could not afford to repair the hole in the only pair of shoes that he could wear looking for work...These scars persist...Social statistics are much more accurate (today) than they were in the 1930’s, so we now can calculate exactly what such feelings costs.” Using data compiled by socio logist Harvey Brenner, Ms. Bird adds, “A community that experi ences a rise of one percent in the unemployment rate can expect to have five percent more sui cides, three to four percent more hospitalization for mental illness, four to six percent more homicides, six to seven percent more admissions to prisons and an increase of two percent in the • overall death rate7’~These came from the “different reactions to the shame of unemployment.” In still another human tragedy stemming from unemployment, a house in the city of Baltimore burned down recently killing 10 members of one family. NEEDED NOW....UNITED COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP 4-BLACK AMERICA 1 ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES 'BLACK folks themselves ARB going TO HAVE TO WORK OUT MANY OF THEIR OWN PROBLEMS, INSTEAD OF LEAVING IT UP TO THE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND PROGRAMS!' ROY WILKINS 1 ___ ■ Tony Brown’s Comments. NAACF Memo Uncovers Real Hem An internal 1961 NAACP memorandum obtained by this writer sheds new light on the NAACP's case against the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). Federal Judge Robert L. Carter, then the NAACP General Counsel, docu mented the historical rela tionship between these two groups: “Conceptually, the Fund was to operate as a part of the NAACP, and while a separate legal entity, it was to function as an NAACP subsidiary and instrumentality." This was in 1940. carter, a member of the inner circle of key lawyers who argued the successful Brown desegregation case, also a<WT5??r“’’"ni^WiTT!f’ has no national institution to preserve and streghthen. Outside the legal problems raised, objections could only rest upon fear that the personal perogatives of some of its officials might be restricted. . “The harm to the NAACP could not have been seen or understood while the former Director Counsel headed the Fund, simply because he sym bolized the NAACP. From its inception the NAACP, like all organizations of its kind, has had to struggle with two polar concepts of its rQle- militancy and ac commodation. At least, since the 1940s, the image of the NAACP as a militant and aggressive organiza tion has been exemplified hy ifsTegaTacimtlBsand-tn the person of Thurgood Marshall as ‘Mr, Civil Rights'.” Many thought Robert Carter, black and a sea soned legal veteran, and not Jack Greenberg, should have been picked by Thur Third in a series good Marshall to succeed him as head of the legal fund. Many still do. Carter’s 1961 memo as the NAACP’s lawyer also explained: “What was done was authorized by the NAACP Board, but with little analysis or under standing of its consequenc es, as the past few years have demonstrated. The right of the Fund to con tinue to use the NAACP’s name was approved, by in ference at least, by the NAACP and by ooquias cense since 1957. “In effect, two separate legal arms came into being, both purporting to -ba—tbe-iegaL_arm of the NAACP. While the Fund's legal department wAs no longer the legal depart ment of the NAACP, it acted as such. It initiated legal activity in the NAACP’s name and spoke for the NAACP.” In effect. Carter pointed out that the NAACP was assuming that the indepen dence of the legal fund and the “divorcement of the NAACP’s legal department was necessary to preserve the Fund’s tax-exempt status.” The memo concluded: “As you can see, the law supports the view that the Fund may finance the NAACP’s legal program, consistent with its own tax exempt status. Under the circumstances, the NAACP should seek to require the Fund to do just that.’* A brilliant lawyer, Carter advised 16 years ago what the NAACP has finally demanded of the fund. He proposed a “Re establishment of an NAACP Legal Depart ment. This is to be ac complished by a staff re organization which merges the present NAACP and Fund legal staff into one entity. This department should have a head called Special, General or what ever Counsel. The depart ment should be under the jurisdiction of the NAACP Board and Executive Secretary.” Of course, we know that Jack Greenberg’s organ ization has turned down that merger offer. Judge Carter advised years ago, as the NAACP’s General , Counsel, that the NAACP was on solid legal grounds. “The NAACP does have a legal basis to claim that the Fund never received _final permission to use the initials. However, lh£ HIM has been using the name without objection for 20 years and could make a showing that official per mission was intended. “The Fund has by its own activities, however, creat ed between it and the NAACP an agency rela tionship. Its staff purports to speak for the NAACP and goes to the public for funds for the NAACP’s legal program. Unless it is willing to do this in fact, we can successfully require it to make clear that the funds it raises are to carry out its own, not the NAACP’s legal program.” We all owe Judge Carter an apology for not having taken his advice in 1961 - and nipping the problem in the bud: "Tony Brown's Journal,” the television series, can be seen on public television Saturday, on Channel 42 at 8 p.m. It can also be seen on channel 58. Sunday, at 6:30 p.m. Consult listings. Rev. John PerkinsH™55=5Sa WALK_ Your TALK Kev. Perkins 1 Submitting To Black Leadership — Jesus was suggesting that those who are traditionally in dozxginant positions should tradte places With .those who are below them and become subject to them. His solution to the arrogance of expectation which James and John showed was a radical reversal of roles. This point of Jesus is not an isolated one; Matthew relates two parables just before his version of this incident, and both make the same point. “So the~tast will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16). This strategy of radically reversing roles to combat sinfulness is characteristic of all Jesus’ ministry. It is central to the very incarnation; without becoming despised, without radically reversing his role from God to man, he could not have supplied the ultimate answer to man’s sinfulness. His Sermon on the Mount m Matthew and his Sermon on the Plain in Luke proclaimed the same radical reversal of roles: the tradi tionally weak and cpppressed would trade places with the religious establishment as objects of God’s favor. The washing of the apostles’ feet was just such a reversal. Jesus was demonstrating to his followers their misunderstanding of leadership. _ Let us consider the Biblical alternative of radical role reversal: whites abandoning their positions of authority over-blacks and. submitting to black authority. To parallel Jesus’ strategy, nothing less is called for. That means more than providing for black leadership. “Indigenous develop ment” among black peoples has been an encouraging new direction in Christian mission. Allowing blacks to determine their own standards and results through local leadership has combatted some of the damage done to blacks by a history of oppression. But what of the oppressor? “Indigenous development” does nothing to treat the damage done to whites by that history. For all of its value in rebuilding an oppressed people and their economy, indi genous development neatly side-steps the real propiem of White racism and the damage it has done to white people. Not only must we permit black leader ship; we must submit to black leadership. . can be effective in identifying and eradicat ing contemporary racism. White submission to black leadership will do more than deal with that arrogance which is so deep within us. Submission to black leadership will also reveal that arrogance which we do not believe is there. Unless we submit ourselves with abandon to black authority in some significant arena of our lives we will not fully understand our hidden prejudice: hedging in response to a request from a black authority: the reflex action of mistrust when a directive comes down: the quaking of subtle rebellion when a correction is made. These reactions which so clearly reveal our surprising, hidden arrogance will plague whites who submit to black authority. Through projects of indigenous develop ment-we have submitted our money and sometimes our skills to black Teadership. Now we must move beyond indigenous development and submit our own selves, to reveal and combat that sin which is arro gance which is racism which deep down deceives us by telling us that a position of authority is our byright. THE CHARLOTTE POST _ ♦ Second Class Postage No. 965500 “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. Subscription Rate $15.60 Per Year Send All 3579’sTo: 1524 West Blvd., Charlotte, N.C.28208 Telephone <764-376-0496 Circulation. 7.151 104 Years of Continuous Service Bill JuIiiisuii Editor, Publisher Bernard Reeves General Manager Fran Farrer Advertising Director , J?annclte fraMiyrOffice Manager Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid At Charlotte, North Carolina 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 8. Michigan Ave. ,s w. 45th ST.. Suite 14*3 Chicago. III. 0001fi New York. New York 10030 Columet 5-0200 , <2I2> 1X9-1220 i From Capitol Hill Auctioneering Promotion Of Welfare Of The People Alirrda L. Madison Special To The Post Unemployment soars daily The latest figures show overall adult employ ment is 9.5 percent, youth 23.1 percent, white adult 8.5 percent, white youth 20 3 percent and black adult 18.7 percent, black youth 49.8 percent The gap is widening monthly between the black and white unem fitoyment. Politicians who want to show that racism plays no part in these great disparities always talk with a sanctimonious sham about the hard core blacks not being job trained. Yet in all budget proposals, except the Congressional Black Caucus budget, funds for job training pro grams are cut The Senate passed budget cuts of $93 billion from the domestic pro grams; the House Republi can budget cut $103 billion and the House Democratic budget cut Domestic pro grams by $49 billion. So what do the members of Congress and the Reagan administration expect these so-called hard core youths to do? They certain ly won’t vanish Are these elected officials showing Alfreds I.. Madison their concern for them by building more jails, giving police a freer hand and bringing back the death penalty? Yet, the President and Congress echo strongly that they are compassion ate people. Why not shift their compassion from pro viding jails to using that same money in providing work training programs? Instead of giving law enforcement officials greater latitude in handling these youths which often result in police brutality, provide more recreational facilities0 Since testimony has proved that death penalty is no deterrance to crime, ways should be pro vided that will give them hope. aii oi mese nudget pro posals consist, as Repre sentative Ronald Dellums says, of auctioning, cuts in domestic programs which promote the general wel fare of the middle, low and no-income people are sold to the bidder who comes with the biggest domestic cuts. The administration and Congress base their bids on findings of econo ■ mists The President got everything he wanted in his fiscal 1982 budget because economists proved to him that his supply-side eco nomy would work. The result nas been higher and higher unemployment, fewer young people being able to receive education, soaring health eare, the elderly finding it almost impossible to exist and businesses going bankrupt. Andy Rooney’s advice is not so ironical afterall when he said, "put all economists in solitary con finement until they know what they’re talking about ” .Highly qualified > 'icks are also victims of the racial employment hatchet. It is ludicrous, for those whd argue against affirmative action are the best reasons why this nation needs some legal enforcement against racial discriminatory practices in employment. An example of the Senate Capital Hill staff employ ment is as follows - the senator's name, the total number of staff members, and the number of blacks on staff: Adnor; 18. 0. Armstrong: 25,1; Baucus: 25, 0; Riden: 15, 4; Boren: 17, 0; Bum pers: 21, 2; Burdock: 17, 0; Kagleton: 30, 4; Harry Byrd: 23, 0; Cannon: 20, 0; East: 30, 0; Chafee: 19, 1; Cochran: 18, 2; Dansforth: 30, 1; Dixon: 32, 1; Glenn: 32, 4; Andrews: 15, 0; Baker: 40.1; Benton: 40. 7, Boschwit: 27, 0; Bradley: 29, 5; Dominici: 20, 1; Durenberger: 29, 3; Exon: 14, 2; Warner: 23, 1; Helms: 30, 0; Long: 30, 5; Chiles: 22, 2, D'Amato: 55, 0, Hatch: 23, 1; Dodd: 23, 1; and Cohen: 30,0. This is a partial list of the Senator's hiring practices, which is just about typical. The total number of staff members in this group is 832 and only 48 of them are 'black We are unable to ascertain their status, but from general observations of office visits and attend ance at committee hear ings, professional positions held by these 48 blacks would only be a mere token. There are 30 pages on the Senate side, two are black. Most Senators and the Reagan administration argue that the American people are only Interested in qualified personnel. It’s very hard to get employ ment data from the White House; there are 20 on the White House press staff and no blacks, Mrs. Rea gan has 15 on her staff and one black. If these elected officials feel these inequi ties are not based on racism, then they should analyze these conditions, seriously, and come up with a solution __ Hearing Set For Housing Plan The Charlotte City Coun cil will hold a public hearing on Monday, June 28, at 3 p m in the Coun cil Chamber at City Hall to hear comments and sug gestions on an amendment to the Charlotte Housing Assistance Plan. . The amendment propos es to increase the number of eligible areas or census tracts for the construction of housing for lower income citizens. A hearing is ne cessary prior to any final action by the City Council. Residents , from Com munity Development neighborhood strategy areas and agencies or other persons interested in the Housing Assistance Plan are encouraged to attend Persona wishing to speak should contact the Office of the City Clerk, 374-2*47, by noon the day of the hearing. If possible, comments should also be placed in writing for consideration Persons not able to attend the hearing should send written respodam to the Director, Community Development Depa Ca meron- Brown 301 South McDowell Charlotte, N C. 28204
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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