4A
EDITORIAL AND OPINION/ Hit C^rlsne $ot
Thursday, January 19, 2006
®l)c Charlotte
The Voire of the Blark Community
1531 Camden Hoad Charlotte, NC. 28203
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Robert L Johnson CO-publi.SHER/GFJ^FJ?al manager
Herbert L White editor in chief
OPINION
D.G.
Mariin
Veterans
who became
heroes back
home in HC.
Warriors helped state institutions thrive
and build legacy for others to emulate
Last week many of the state’s insiders were focused on the
University of North Carolina. On Friday, Eirskine Bowles, the
new president of the university, made his first report to the uni
versity’s governing board. His outline of the challenges facing
the university and the state showed the high level of his under
standing of the state and the difficult tasks facing North
Carolina.
During the same week there were smaller groups across the
state talking about another important figure in the history of the
University of North Carolina; William Dees, the first elected
chair of the university’s board of governors, who died in
Goldsboro.
William Friday, the first president of the unified 16-campus
university is due the largest share of credit for the successful
laimch of the new system of hi^er education in
North Carolina beginning in 1971. But Friday
would be the first to say that the leadership of
Dees on the board and Dees’s fiiendship and
support for President Friday were critical.
* Eariy on, the new university system faced divi
sive challenges, including the establishment and
governance of the new medical school at East
Carolina and a dispute with the Federal gov
ernment over the method of desegregating
North Carolina higher education.
Looking back at the complicated circum
stances and the passionately held positions of the adversaries, it
is hard to believe that the university system survived. In times
of great challen^, imiversity governing boards often lose confi
dence in. their university presidents, causing leadership crises
that bring down bring down presidents, good and bad.
The trust and fiiendship between Friday and Dees, and their
close coimections with other members of the university govern
ing board, made it certain that Friday would always have the
backing of important leaders in times of trouble. Althou^
Friday had to face a set of challenges that would have been
brou^t down most university administrators, he always sur
vived and foimd a path
Where did this close connection come fium?
At lunch last week, John Sanders, retired director of the
Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, reminded me of the core
of fiiendships that developed among several World War 11 vet
erans at UNC Law School.
William Friday talked about the group on UNC-IV in
response to a question fiom Don Curtis, who asked Friday why
he decided to go to law school after the war, “Well, you get into
an experience like that war put us all in, you were thrown with
90 many different people fiom all over everywhere, not only
[theJUnited States, but foreign countries. And you realize how
much you need all the education you can get. And I had always
had an inkling to want to study law. And my wife, Ida, wMited
to get more education herself, so we agreed we’d come back. I
had a great experience. I came back here with Iferry Sanford and
Bill Aycock and John Jcnrlan and William Dees and Dickson
Phillips, a legendary group of people. We all went strai^t
through and stuck tc^ther ev^ since, worked on things in this
state ”
Now that William Dees and Tferry Sanford are gone fiom that
group, we ought to remember and thank the others; William
Friday. Bill Aycock, beloved former chancellor of UNC-Chapel
Hill; John Jordan, former state senator and chair of the univer
sity’s governing board; and Dickson Phillips, former dean of
UNC Law School and retired Federal Court of Appeals judge.
(Last week, my cousin Boyce Martin, also a Federal judge in
Louisville. Kentucky told me that Phillips is a hero to many col
leagues on the b^ich.).
As we remember and thank William Dees and his dose
fiiends, we can thank all those who served in Worid War n and
came back to serve and build back home.
About them I wrote a few years ago; TTiey came back fipom the
war with more maturity, eneagy ccmfidence, poeticality open-
mindedness, (fiddpline, love of country and competitiv^ess
than any generatiem our country has ever seen.
Then the country gave them advanced educaticmal opportuni
ties never available to 90 many Americans bef(xe.
With that mixtiue of healthy traits and education, they caused
an explosion oS economic growth that underpins our country’s
continuing pusperity and success.
The veterans of Worid War II are a generation to cherish, to
thank, and to learn ffexu.
D.G, MARTIN is the host of UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwcuch.
which airs on Sundays at 5 pm.
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riftWWlfeFoUMPACNew
The FBI and hounding Martin King
George E.
Curry
Few people in history have
been as dedicated to civil
rights as Dr, King. In an
interview with Playboy mag
azine, he
noted that he
worked 20
hours a day,
traveled
325,000 miles
a year, giving
450 speedies.
That gruriing
schedule alone
was enough to
take a toll on Dr. King and his
family life. But more mental
ly and physically taxing was
a vicious, unrelenting stealth
campaign by FBI Director J,
Eidgar Hoover to harass Dr.
King,
Hoover suspected that
Stanley Levison, a King
adviser, had Communist ties,
and used that as a pretext to
smearing Dr. King.
Writing in his Pulitzer
Prize-winning book, “Bearing
the Cross,” David J. Garrow
noted: ‘FBI officials focused
upon Levison’s ongoing
involvement with King’s and
SCLCs affairs, and in early
October renewed their
entreaties to Robert Kennedy
about the serious seemity
threat represented by
Levison’s role and King’s
refusal to sever the relation
ship. Their warnings received
a sympathetic hearing by the
attorney general and Robert
Kennedy felt compelled to
take the step that the FBI
had been recommending
since midsummer the wire
tapping of King’s home and
office in Atlanta.”
Garrow wrote, ‘Fver since
the wiretaps on King’s own
home and office were added
in November, the supervisors
of the King-Levison investi
gation had been turning their
attention more and more to
King’s private life and away
fix)m their previous fixation
on hid supposed Communist
ties.
iAt a mid-December conf^-
ence. Bureau officials dis
cussed in detail how they
could gather further evidence
of what they felt were Kingis
serious p)ersonal and moral
shortcomings, and had
resolved that if they could,
they would use such material
to expose King “as an
immoral opportunist” and
“clerical fi'aud.”
In “At Cannanis EMge,” the
last of his trilogy on the dvil
rights movement, Taylor
Branch recounts how the FBI
used former Massachusetts
Sen. Leverett Saltonstall to
prevent King fium receiving
an honorary degree from
Springfield College, derailed
an effort by King to obtain a
loan for SCLC firom labor
leader Jimmy Hoffa and,
even more troubling, decided
not to inform King of immi
nent threats on his life.
“Hoover revised internal
communications about the.
latest threats to kill King if
he marched on TUesday in
Selma - one via the Secret
Service about two alleged
gunmen out of Detroit, anoth
er about a killing squad fix>m
the Coushatta, Louisiana, Ku
Klux Klan - and vetoed plans
to give a routine warning to
King,” wrote Branch, who
won the Pulitzer Prize for
‘Farting the Waters,” his first
civil rights book.
The author continued, “No,”
Hoover scrawled on one
memo, and on another
ordered agents “not to tell
King anything.” He reminded
top officials of a previous
order to ®cdude King fiom
the standard advisory to the
targets of threats, and explic
itly confined FBI notice to
Sheriff Clark and other local
authorities of dubious protec
tive value.”
Hoover detested King and
resented King’s si^gestion
that the FBI did not a^res-
sively investigate the mur
derers of dvil ri^ts activists.
Hoover would later describe
King as the ‘^e most notori
ous” liar in America.
Branch writes, “Richard
Harwood disclosed in the
Washington Post that FBI
offidals had offered to
reporters tape-recorded evi
dence of “moral turpitude” on
King’s part. No other news
outlet would touch the cryptic
revelation, which Harwood
buried among equally sensi
tive suggestions that Hoover
had become a pampered
tyrant with homoseoial lean
ings.”
Perhaps the most disgust
ing act in a series of disgust
ing acts, the FBI tried to get
Dr. King to commit suidde.
An anonymous threatening
letter and cxDpy of tape record
ings were mailed to King at
his SCLC office in Atlanta.
“There is but one way out
for you,” the letter said. “You
better take it before your
filthy, abnormal fi*audulent
self is bared to the nation.”
David Garrow writes, “King
and his aides had little doubt
about the origin of the pack
age; J. Eldgar Hoover’s FBI.
, The material on the tape -
dirty jokes and bawdy
remarks King had made a
year earlier at Washington’s
Willard Hotel, plus the
sounds of people engaging in
sex - had obviously been
acquired by buying King’s
hotel rooms.”
Garrow recalls a conversa
tion between Kii^, his wife,
Cbretta, and activist Dorothy
Cotton.
“G^et at first, Martin sud
denly spoke up, his wife
remembered. ‘T’ve told you all
that I don’t expect to survive
this revolution; this society is
too sick.” And of course
Dorothy said, “Oh, Martin,
don’t say that.” And he said,
“Well, Fm just being realis
tic.” Coretta recalled that she
“had heard him say it several
times before.”
He had an awareness of
what could happMi to him,
and he “was not able to foi^et
about it because he lived with
this constantly”
Dr. King also lived with the
constant harassment of his
own govOTunent.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association News Service and
Blackl^essUSA rom.
The future of Supreme Court activism
Ron
Walters
Listening to the debate over
the Supreme Court nomina
tion of Judge
Samuel Alito,
a practical
question
comes to
mind. If the
fi*amers of
the
Constitution
could not
anticipate the
future and if the future of this
country served up an agenda
of things to be decided beyond
their ability to conceptualize
the future, then what role
does the Suprone Court have
in moving the coimtry for
ward and addressing those
unanticipated questions?
It is not enou^ to say that
they should stay within the
orbit the Constitution, or
that the issues raised outside
of the original concept are
merely ‘’political questions,*
especially if they are also fun
damentally related to the
human and dvil ri^ts of dti-
zens.
SucK, an unantidpated
question was the overthrow
of Plessy V. Ferguson by the
Supreme Court responding to
the demand fca* equal educa-
ticai between the races. Yet, I
can hear in the whining
about ‘’activists judges,’ the
dear vdee (ff lament about
Brown v Board (ff Educaticxi,
as well as the court’s uphedd-
ing the constitutionality of
the 1964 Civil Ri^ts Act and
the 1969 Voting Rights Act.
At the time these decisions
were passed, blacks had
experienced half a decade of
denial of their rights in the
20th century and it took a
courageous and enlightened
court to strike down racism in
the system of public educa
tion Key committees in the
Congress were led by
Southerners, but with this
decision behind him, Lyndon
Johnson could exercise his
presidential power in
responding to the Fourteenth
Amendment- based demands
of the Civil Rights mov^nent.
Think for a moment what
would have happened if there
were no courageous Warren
Court. Blacks may not have
been as emboldened, and
Johnson may not have had
the precedent to make public
policy
The importance of the
changes that occurred is that
they aligned the United
States with not only a
response to the demand for
equal ri^ts in this country,
but to the human ri^ts revo
lution occurring all over the
worid. In that context, they
were enlightened changes.
The Universal Declaratixi of
Human Rights created by the
United Nations declared that
civil ri^ts were also basic
human ri^ts to be eryoyed
by all people everywh«*e.
That view was the outcome of
the lesson learned in the
blood spilled of the Second
Worid War. The creditality of
America as a democratic
nation was already an issue
in the Cold W’ar and rejecting
the demand for dvil rights
would have confirmed the‘
view of America as a racist
state.
With the confidence provid
ed by the post war global
movement, Johnson respond
ed to the Civil Ri^ts move
ment with enli^t^ed lead
ership, proposing public poli
cy that would help to move
the country in the direction
the world was going. It also
enabled him to teach the
country that poverty was
wrong, that women needed
equality and that the bloody
revolts occurring in major
dties were happening
because of the long denial of
justice.
So, if cons^^ative politi-
dans are ri^t and the task of
the Si4)reme Court is only to
interpret existing law, that
would appear to throw the
matter of matching an evolv
ing human situation with
enli^tened polides iq> to the
president and the Congress;
in other words, into the realm
of pme politics. That is what
is happening today The pres
ident and his colleagues in
the Congress appear to
believe that the rights won by
blacks, women, otha* disad
vantaged groups are situa
tional, political issues to be
changed and discarded
according to the whims of the
majority
At this moment, the poten
tial elevation of Samud Alito
to the Sui»*eme Court would
appear to change the funda
mental nature of that body.
such that it will not be the
place to look for enlightened
leadership in the future. This
conclusion, based on a thor-
ou^ study of Alito’s record by
the Alliance for Justice,
revealed his membership in
the Concerned Alumni of
Princeton, a group that
opposed the entrance of
women and blacks into the
university, and as an appel
late court judge, in 86 percent
of dvil rights decisions he
sided against •the com
plainant. In taking these and
many other radical positions,
he exhibited conservative
activism, often going beyond
the facts presented in cases to
offer his own analysis based
on his own evidaace in a case.
The addition of Samuel
Alito would help to check the
power of Congress and ele
vate that of the executive
branch, thus closing off
important avenues for Iso
lating enliOtei^ public pol
icy, ironically in bodies where
blacks have recently begun to
partidpate in effective num
bers. This administration
has shown to what extremes
dvil rights are threatened in
its misapqjropriation of power
in the conduct erf* the war in
Iraq.
Most tragic of ail, the evi
dence is that they do not care,
but the lack of caring could be
disastrous.
RON WALTERS director of the
African American Leadership
Institute, Professor of
Gox'ernmeni and Politics at the
Unnersity of Maryland.
\