Number Of Black Elected Officials In The United States Up By 4 Percent Washington, D.C.— Ths num ber of black elected officials in the United States increased by 4 per cent last year, according to the 16th edition of Black Elected Offi cials: A National Roster puhiisW by the Joint Center for Political Btudies. The total number of Mack elected officials rose from 6,424 to 6,681 between January 1986 and January 1987. The previous year's increase was 6.1 percent. The 10 states with the largest numbers of Mack elected officials are Mississippi (548), Louisiana (505), Alabama (448), Georgia (445), Illinois (434), North Caroli na (353), South Carolina (340), Ar kansas (319), Michigan (316), and California (293). A total of 71 black elected offi cials were elected in jurisdictions where no black American had ever before held elective office. Addi tionally, the number of black wom en elected officials has lalmost tripled since 1975, when the Cen ter first began compiling data in piis category. In 1975, the total number of black women elected officials was 530; as of January 1987, the total was 1,564. » The total number of blacks in Pie U.S. House of Representatives has also increased. In 1986, 21 members of the House of Repre sentatives were black. In 1987, the figure rose to 23 with the elections Of Mike Espy (D-MS) and John Lewis^(D-GA). Moreover, two Packs were elected to fill seats pre B' held by blacks: Kweisi (D-MD) succeeded Parren II, who decided not to seek aon, and Floyd Flake (D feated Alton Walton, who had become the first black •sent the 6th Congressional of New York. L. Hannon ounces andidacy While in Raleigh recently, Dr. >" Hannon who ran for Gov -—* in 1983, announced his can ' 9Maey for the office of Lt. Govern Jlhnk". He is presently an te member of the Joint Cen ter for Political Studies program, j#hich has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hannon’s ten topic platform details his campaign issues indud 'to ■H A 120,000 starting salary for beginning teachers. Other teach ers and atata workers salaries raised by ten to fifteen percent. - 2. One hundred percent against hhy type ef merit system designed to rate teachers' efficiency. 'I 8. Improvement of highways for the farm and industrial growth, aa well as for transporta tion in general is a must. ! 4. An expanded effort to create Job employment industries within pis state, and to continue to seek put of state industries by providing jlocal and state competitive incen tives. ■ 8. An "all out" effort to help in crease the number of successful minority businesses throughout pis state. ; 6. An expanded system of day ears centers in the eastern parts of ■ the state and elsewhere that shows a need for such centers. 7. Adequate fond* for improv ing the "Black Image" of our pre dominantly black public universi | ties of the UNO system. '■ Dr. Hannon's press release was carried by tbs Associated Press land UPI. He stated that hs would release foil details of his platform at the time of paying ths official filing foe. Democratic Celebration There are seven blacks who hold statewide office and 410 who serve in legislatures. At the munic ipal level, there are 3,219 black elected officials, including 2,485 coundlmembers and 303 mayors. The number of black mayors in cities with populations over 30,000 increased from 28 to 34. The geographic distribution of black elected officials clearly par- - allels the distribution of the total black population in the United States. The South has 53 percent of the country's black population and 62 percent of all black elected officeholders. The second largest concentration of black elected offi dals, 19.2 percent, is found in the North Central United States, where 19.8 percent'of the black . population is located. The North east, with 18.5 percent of the total black population, has 10.6 percent of the black elected offidals; and 5.7 percent of all black elected offi dals are found in the West, where 8.9 percent of all black Americans reside. There is a direct correlation be tween the black voting age popula tion and the number of black elect ed officials within an area. For ex ample, Mississippi, which has the largest number of black elected of 'ficials (548), is the state with the largest proportion of voting-age blacks (30.8 percent). Voting-age blacks compose 66.6 percent of the total voting-age population in the District of Columbia, where 67.8 percent of all elected officials are black. Conversely, there are no ■ black elected officials in Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota, where blacks compose less .than .05 percent of the total populations. Although blacks continue to moke political gains nationwide andjat almost every level of office, they still hold fewer than 1.6 percent of all elective offices in the United States, while constituting 11 per cent of the total voting-age popula tion. Copies of the 16th edition of Black Elected Officials; A National Roster. 1987, which contains de tailed statistics and data and a complete listing of blacks in elec tive office, can be purchased for $29.50 from the Joint Center for Political Studies, Publications Of fice, 1801 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., #400, Washington, D.C. 20004,(202)626-3500. CRC May Tip Balance Of Pow^r Continued From Page 3A stereotyped. It will be interesting to see how these young men and women ma ture politically. Will they view pol itics as merely a business proposi tion for improving one's network and net worth. Perhaps some will become ideologues who renounce their civil rights heritage. Some will mature into pragmatic states men who are empassioned about educational and economic oppor tunity and who skillfully work to ward those goals with leaders of both parties. The OOP and the county has nutch. to gain from the latter grpup, A party sensitive to the as pirations of African-Americans should by all rights be the majority party. If these young people can expose their peers to what Repub-' licans really stand for and sensi tize fellow CK« at the Wake s, Car qlinae andlWkes to economic de velopment orfeouth African policy options, they will have dona the county a great service and their school proud. . When I took on the teak of club . .advisor, there .were no guarantees that the club would last for one year. It looks as if maybe, just maybe, they will be around for a while. And if just one of the states men discussed above emerges from the activity then the effort will not have been for naught Some of the students have laced derision and hostility from their peers, had their signs ripped down and events cancelled by mysteri ous callers but have always kept their cool and marched on. Tvs always felt that the 1st Afri can-American President of the United States will be a Republican, as were the first members of Con gress. News item: early 21st Cen tury....thi President swung through Winston-Salem briefly addressing a group of students at her alma mater. You just never - know about 21st Century NC PAC Chairman ‘ Yard To Speak At Conference Molly Yar0, Preiidant of the National Organization fear Wom en, will be thekeynote speaker at the North Carolina NOW confer ence, Saturday, September 19, from 8,10am until 5pm, at the Winston-Salem YWCA, 1201 Glade Street $ie conference title is "Taking the Power," smd this theme will be addressed by Ms. Yard in a 9-10am workshop on taking political-power by electing good women candidates. . ; V There will alsy be a panel of fe male elected officials who will talk Cbout their decisions to run, their campaigns and their experiences serving in elected office. Patricia Ireland, VP Executive of National NOW and an attorney, will dis cuss the current legal situation of American women. Molly Yard will hold a press conference at 2pm, following the 12:30pm luncheon and keynote •peech. Appointments for fcidivid' ual interviews with MsiiSed can be made by calling MauraPaYlon at 919 288-7184. VC Rustin: Modern Day Hero u>ntinMd From Fag* 2A James Baldwin wrote of that day in August, 1963i^That day, for a moment, it almost seemed that ws stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could moke the kingdom real, perhaps the beloved community would not forever remain that dream ona dreamed in agony,* While the days,of late August call to mind memories of that won derful moment, they also call to mind simpler memorise: of young people going back to school. And I find myself wondering whether America's young people will have the opportunity to learn about Rustin and about other leaders who shaped our society by partici pating in the conflicts and contro versies of their times. Bayard Rue tin was, as the Atlanta Constitution declared, "a hero for our times." But will our young people have the opportunity to learn about Rustin and similar heroas and he roines? When I read the articles that ap paured about Rustin following his death, it occurred to me that so much about his life is inextricably linked with events and concepts that have been banished from our textbooks - or, at the very least stripped of their excitement and emotional impact. Rustin was bom illegitimate; he grew up in a small town in formsyivania where racial discrimination was a daily reality; a former Communist, he later be came a fierce critic of Soviet totali tarianism; a committed pacifist, he warn imprisoned far refusing mili tary service; a dedicated practi doner of civil disobedience, he wee arretted countless time* for refill ing to obey laws he considered uA The self-appointed cantors of our nation's textbooks and self styled protectors of our young people's virtue would shield stu dents from reading about ths ideas that distinguished Rustin and his life's work; yet I, for one, believe that young people would be in spired to learn that this man and ths movements he advised have had •o great an impact upon our history. Not only have history textbooks underplayed the controversial chapters of history in which acti vists like Rustin played so inspir ing a role, but civics textbooks have down-played ths very idea of controversy itself. As a recent study by People For ths American Way revealed, civics texts all too often are lifeless descriptions of ths institutions and processes of government and neglect to men tion the role which individual dti icns and activist movements can play in promoting their ideals. Ftam the civil righto movement to the Religious Right, the civics texts fail to depict the excitement of ths causes and controversies that have transformed America. Bayard Rustin, of course, was controversy and activism personi fied. During a public career that spanned almost half a century, he championed causes from the plight of Japanese-Americans dur ing World Wkr II to the prospects for democracy in Haiti in the poet gee Textbooks On Page SA The Charlotte Post more than a great " newspaper 11 - Call for a quoti Take a minute and comp we can save you some >oney on your hon or auto iqHrance. (' it H only tal„ uuw square omcBGollBnr BOB white, Ag«nt 401 ^ lnd*P#nd#oc« Nvd. 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