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=€bttortatea Vbe Cfcarlott* st Bill Johnson, PuhliAar Rmorlhi^ Gerald Johnson, Publisher - Bob Johnson, Co-Publisher Jalyne Strong, Managing Jackie Robinson, A Pacesetter Krpbably too few Americans are aware that the civil rights movement of the 1960s was ig nited on December 1, 1955. On that historic day, Rosa Parks, a black domestic worker, boarded a Montgomery, Ala., city bus and took a vacant seat in the front of the bus. Tired from her day’s hard work, Ms. Parks refused to comply with the law to give her seat to a white man and move to the rear of the bus. She was arrested and fined $14. The next day black women throughout the city of Montgom ery organized and called for a boycott of the city buses. A few days later, on December 5, 1955, Martin Luther King accepted the job of seeing that the black community of over 50,000 was informed about the boycott Another small but significant step leading to the event ofthe 1960s occurred in 1947 when Jackie Robinson became the first black American to play on a major league baseball team, the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Yet, in spite of these beginnings, it is ironic that with the flood of highly successful black athletes in major league baseball and as we celebrate the 40th anniversary ot Jackie Robinson's entry into the major leagues, we are faced with the reality that big time baseball re mains one of the nation's Ugly reminders of the continued existence of racism in Ameri ca. While a positive step, but a lingering re minder of ongoing racism, Baseball Com missioner Peter Ueberroth reportedly urged the 26 m^jor league team owners to begin to take a more aggressive approach toward af firmative action. The hard reality is that there are very few black coaches or scouts, no black team managers (there have been a few black managers, past years), no black gener al managers, public relations officers, trav eling secretaries, or even typists in the main ■ office. Reports have been noted too that you 1 rarely if ever, see a black sports reporter in the press box. • * , The fact is, from baseball's inception in i 1887 through the emergence «pf Jackie Robin . son 60 years later "the national pastime" has I been as lily-white as any institution in ! America. Nevertheless, in many of these 60 . years, post-season interracial games were : played by black teams against all-star bands . of white teams. Many of the great players of yesteryear - Josh Gibson of the black Balti more Elite Giants and Babe Ruth of the white New York Yankees, to name a few. Interest ingly, the blade teams won 268 of these inter racial baseball games while the whites only won 168. • Profits Realized Interestingly also, it was not until the years of World War II that the black baseball teams began to realise a little profit as they began to draw large crowds of 30,000 to 50,000 at many of their games. Undoubtedly, jt was this success that influenced the major leagues to open their doors to blacks; that is, white owners began to see more money and profits from a previously untapped source of income - black fans. As if directed by the hand of God, Sen. Hap py Chandler, a southerner from Kentucky, was named Commissioner of Baseball in 1945, the year that World War II earns to an end. With the spirit of equality and equal jus tice capturing the imagination of the nation as American soldiers returned from Europe and Asia, nuyor league baseball caught the new spirit, too. Therefore, when Happy Chan dler was asked could blacks play in the ma jor leagues, he replied delightfully, "If k black can make it on Guadacanal, he can make it in the American and National Leagues." This was the opportunity that Branch Ricky had been hoping for. Ricky, the general man ager of the Brooklyn (NY) Dodgers had joined the'Dodger organization after success fill years with the St Louis Cardinals. Ricky was very alert to identifying young baseball talent and was constantly searching for ways to increase gate receipts at Dodger games. Taking a lead from Commissioner Chan dler in 1947 the then 16 owners voted 15 to 1 against allowing Jackie Robinson to be pro moted from the Dodger's' Montreal farm team. Chandler supported Ricky at the cost of being fired from his job, Despite the negative vote majority, mqjor league owners began to compete black baseball talent at a very mini mum cost, even by salary levels in these years of the late 1940s and early 1950s. In ad dition, Robinson, a second baseman, Ricky signed Roy Campanula (a catcher) and Don Newcombe (a pitcher) without paying their former black teams any money. The New York Giants signed Monte Irvin for a mere $5,000, the Cleveland Indians hired Larry Doby for only $10,000 and Luke Easter for a like amount. Thus, even with the door open ing for blacks to play in the major leagues, racism in a new form arose. Apparently be cause of a lack of strong binding contracts held by the black teams, the top-black players were hired away by the nugor leagues without any compensation to the black teams. This led to the quick death of these black baseball teams. This resulted, too, in the nugor leagues getting most of the black baseball fans. ; Black Baseball Heroe? \ Initially, black fans flooded the major leagues' parks to see their black heroes in competition with and against white players. Unfortunately, this all led to the quick death of the black baseball teams. Today, in the 1980s, comparatively few black fans attend major league baseball games. John Holway tells us in his book, "Blackball Stars" that the Baseball "Hall of Fame is a white memory bank. It devotes just one small corner to black baseball history, the same space it devotes to American Legion (high school) ball." Holway reminds us also that comparatively few black players are en shrined in Cooperstown. Nevertheless, with changes in the major leagues' upper leader ship, the future looks brighter on all fronts. The overriding point is that while we hear much about the black superstars with mega buck salaries, we hear little about the slights the blacks in organized baseball are faced with. There is hope for a better tomorrow in the^national pastime" - Major League^Base "Play ball," America, on the field of life with fair play for all because it is the stuff of which great nations grow strong and endure. Do it now for tomorrow may be too late. Yy 'Vai wwrro’KtW MAflHE iJLriMArE IOVE Lsropf is cotiM^m h fpJlH APOUT C£A£K? QoAf PE > CMCf WttJ.,; I G»rald Johnson TheTnithOn Defense Spending! I have always been fascinat ed by the debates on defense spending. It is probably one' argument that both sides start with illogical premises to base ) their viewpoints. The true pre mise of defense spending is. riot America's national securi ty. but America's economical stability. Each year we spend hun dreds of billions of dollars on defense. Each year the spend ing increases. It would stand to reason that we should have a whole lot of weaponry warehoused somewhere, since their hasn't been a major war since the early seventies. What are we doing with the old weapons, since we ware house new ones every year? More importantly, why do we need new ones, since we nev er get a chance to use the old ones. Moreover, what do we do wi(h all of these weapons dur ing peace-time. This situation creates an ob vious problem of stockpiling arms for no good reason. This problem can be easily solved by selling some of the access arms to other coun . . tries. This , of course means that we must promote war. When ire aire not in aroili tary crisis, we better hope someone, sompwhe** is. If not, we haven lot of arms to warehouse. Unfortunately, this situation creates a dilemma for our so ciety. You see, we are a na tion of peace loving people. We constantly publicize our sincerity for world peace. Yet, we constantly build arms that must be sold in the name of peace. It doesn't add up, un less you dig for a logical an swer. I learned a long time ago that whenever political answers do not add up, usually you can find an economical answer. Defense spending is a classic example of this. . There is no company in our country that can come close to matching the dollars spent by our military. Every industry in our socie ty is directly or indirectly tied to defense spending. Every State in our Union depends heavily on Defense contracts I either directly or indirectly The jobs that are created anc maintained by defense spend ing help us have a healthy economy. Without this spend Jjlj ■■ .. v, 5 • ' ing subsidy our ieconomy would be in a mess (an ever bigger mess). The proponents of It fense spending sell us need to protect ottrse against Communism. They1 somehow relate defendel spending with National Sc-* curity. The two are not direct-* ly related. ' The opponents of huge de fense spending ignore the ec onomical implications of a budget cutback. A cut in the defense budget to help fund, entitlement programs coulc not have the same economica payback. I contend that if the U. S < Government would help the1 public understand the whole1 truth behind defense spend-' mg, then the matter would not be such a political football year after year. That is unless you are more adversed to working than you are to pro moting war. America's Youth Or Iron Collar Workers By Sherman N. Miller The proverbial struggle over America's minimum wage struc ture has been rekindled. Political and business pundite are position ing themselves to grab control of America's long-term wage struc ture. Dr. Richard L. Lecher, president of the U.8. Chamber of Com. merce, attempted to capture the momentum by pointing out, "The last time Congress raised the mini mum wage in 1877 - by more than 4«% overall - that hike cost the ernnomy 644,000 Jobe." tiers comments brought to mind an experience where I had helped some domestic workers get their wages raised to the mini mum wage level. We believed these ladies' efforts were worth more than the market was paying and w* were hell-bent on their gaining professional dignity. Yet our strategy ignored any efforts to upgrade these ladies' skills to en courage the market to rsvaluate their labor offering. William G. Giery, executive sec retary of the Foodservice, and Miller hSaiis: By Sherman inner j Lodging Institute, offered ms little comfort in corroborating Lecher by pointing a finger at U.8. Sena tor Ted Kennedy (D-Ma.), sponsor of the minimum wage bill. It should be noted that the Institute's membership includes such com panies as McDonald's Corpora tion, Shoney's, Inc. Wendy’s Inter national, Denny's, Inc., Harass's Pood System, Pitta Hut, Inc., etc. "If past statistics hold true, and there is no rtason to believe any different, the members of the Insti tute, whose employment force ex ceeds three million people, will re duce their work force between (l.A 1 >. ’v; i **'■ i ■ \ v' « .*?!• ’ 30,000 and 78,000 persona for each 10% increase above the cur rent minimum wage," contends Gieiy. Since U.8. Representative Au gustus Hawkins (D-Ca.) is a mo ver of the minimum wage legisla tion in the U.8; House of Repre sentatives, he is also sharing in the wrath of the business community. The powerful National Retail Merchants Association (NRMA), whose membership has annual sales exceeding $178 billion and who employ nearly four million workers, offered plenty of food for thought for the purported spon sors of the minimum wage legisla tion. "Tha likely response by retell stores to a mandated increase In the minimum wage of the magni tude recommended by the lagisla ■ tion would be to hire fewer work er*, reduce the number of hours of those already employed, lay ofT the less productive workers, and increase consumer prices,” claims James R. Williams, president of the NRMA. In these days when pay cute » ■nd minima] pay raiaaa hava ba' coma tha norm, tha National Ra-i •taurant Aaaodation claims tha minimum waga lagislation would maan a 62.2* pay raiaa and it ala-l vataa tha minimum waga of $6.43 par hour." Nevertheless, I have had the du-’ bious honor to work for low wag-' ee during my youth and therefore I see merit in raising the minimum . * prudent amount On the other hand, American labor must compete in an international mar ket place where low cost and high quality foreign producers have decimated our industries. Thus any legislation that raises the min imum wage must be accompanied Iqr programs or techniques to in crease workers' skills to the level that they justify these ineressNs. Lat ua hope that an axorbitant riaa in tha minimum waga doaa not become tha catalyst that ush ars in tha aga of robotiea whara tha Iron Collar Worker makes more •conomic aansa than ofTWring op. portunity to America s youth.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 7, 1987, edition 1
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