Paee A-4
THE TRffiUNAL AID
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1976
EDITORIALS
‘You’re A Part Of The Solution^ Or You’re A Part Of The Problem *
IHE *IEWS OF HE WIITEI'S »E NOT UW»»S HOSE Of TIE PUPEI’S
The Post-
Reconstruction
Years 1878-1905
Time Foj;_Action In The Black Communitv
Cbntinued from Pa^e 1
1866-through 1869, and by
1876 the Association was
running fourteen normal
and high schools. Following
examples of other denomi
nations, the Episcoplains
founded ST. AUGUSTINE
at Raleigh, North Carolina
in 1867.
Students attending the
typical church-related
school or college were
notable for their eagerness
to learn. Many were adults
responding to opportunity
no matter how belated it
had come. Most of the
schools meeting the needs
of its students spent most
of their time on basic
elements of knowledge.
Although these schools
were open to all students
without regard to color,
almost no White student
was likely to be found in
attendance. The student
body may not have been
mixed, but the faculty was
and the teachers were
conscientious and dedicat
ed. The majority of the
teachers were female, and
many were Black. Some
were graduates of SPELL
MAN COLLEGE founded in
Atlanta in 1882, others had
degrees from Oberlin,
Wellesley and Vassar.
All church-related
schools shared the common
need for money. Fortunate
ly in the closing decades of
the century, the State
Governments in the South
and Educational Founda
tions established by philan
thropists in the North
became available.
The new South became
school minded and in
building schools with public
funds, it was impossible to
ignore Blacks. On the
grounds that Blacks paid
fewer taxes, and the belief
that there was little point in
giving him any training
beyond reading and writ
ing, less money was spent
on the development of
schools for Blacks. White
school boards and superin
tendents established separ
ate schools which were
never equal. The salaries
and the length of the school
year differed for Black and
White. School for Blacks
was often held in church
basements, hired halls, or
vacant stores.
The Southern States
offered little support to
college level work of
Blacks. The MORRILL ACT
OF 1862, provided for the
founding and maintenance
of agricultural and mechan
ical colleges across the
nation, but was silent about
dividing federal funds on
a racial basis. Three
Southern States did, how
ever make available to
Blacks a portion of the
funds received from the
national treasury.
The second MORRILL
ACT, passed in 1890,
specifically authorized the
use of land-grant funds for
Black colleges; it stated
that these funds should be
■'EOUITABLY DIVIDED"
between White and Black
colleges. Equal division of
these funds were slow in
coming, and as late as 1916
none of the sixteen existing
Black land-grant institu
tions were offering college
level work. Black parents
supplemented the school
funds which the state
provided. Some gave from
their own pockets what they
could, others raised money
by holding rummage sales,
giving suppers and selling
raffle tickets.
UfHtTBY COULD, FOR AU
mnHTS, AMD PURPOSES PUT
HIS 6UNS AWAY, y^VB ALWAYS
BetHABLE TO HILL OUR--
SELVES BETTBR THAN HE CAN.
f40WWESEHD EACH OTHER
DEATH m SMALL BA&S.
/j:.
CLAYTOH RUBY
UBeOATOR
•'I
TO BE EQUAL
by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
Executive Director of tfae'Nttioaal Urban Letgue
INSIGHT:
For Teens Only
by
Miller Carter/ Jr.
These givings, although
meager compared to the
total need, were an
influence in enlisting sub
stantial contributions from
great educational founda
tions being established.
Some of these philanthropic
agencies which showed
interest in Blacks were:
John F. Slater Fund, THE
•lEANES FUND, THE
ROSENWALD FUND, THE
PHELPS-STOKES FUND.
Another agency that em
braced the Negro in its
interest was the GENERAL
EDUCATION BOARD,
established by JOHN D.
ROCKEFELLER in 1903.
In addition to gifts from
foundations. Negro schools
received support from
individuals. One of the
earliest and most generous
was ANDREW CARNE
GIE.
ALTHOUGH THE EDITORIALS WRITTEN IN
THIS NEWSPAPER ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE
THE ONLY ANSWERS TO THE PROBLEMS
AND CONDITIONS EXPRESSED, SOME PER
SONS MAY STILL DISAGREE WITH THESE
THOUGHTS, BECAUSE OF THIS, THE NEWS
PAPER EXTENDS AN INVITATION TO ANY
RESPONSIBLE PERSON WHO WISHES TO
REFUTE THESE EXPRESSIONS TO DO SO,
AND FREE AND EQUAL SPACE WILL BE PRO
VIDED.
1234 Montlieu Avenue
Post Office Box 921 Phone [919| 885-6519|i
Hig^h Point, N. C. 27261
Published Every- Wednesday
by Triad Publicatiuns, Inc.
Mailed Subscription Rale .S5.00 Per Year
ALBERT A. CAMPBELL, tDH OR
don L. bailey, GENERAL MANAGER
JEAN M. WHITE, SECRETARY
ROBERT MELVIN, CIRCULATION MANAGER
loo
Second Class Postage Paid at High Point, N.C.
OB o o caooooooooooooooooocfl
I have taken a stand on almost every
issue that involves today’s teens.
However, I must admit, 1 have
deliberately been avoiding a most
important issue. One, I feel, that most of
us are caught up in and which plays a
very important role in many of our lives.
This issue, if you can’t tell by now, is
drugs. Many of you, I’m sure, have been
waiting for such an article. Well, here it is
at last!
Drugs today are as much a part of
society as alcohol but they are used
mostly by today’s teens rather than
adults. Though teens are the primary
users, I can’t let them bear all of the
blame because many adults use it also.
Society frowns on a teen that uses drugs;
but, let’s face the facts--don’t we all?
Older people use some form(s) of drug
almost daily but preach to their children,
"It’s wrong!” What’s the difference
between a parent using drugs and the
teen who uses them? Parents say, “I’m
grown, I can do what I want,” but what
reason can a teen give.
Sure drugs are dangerous but ‘‘what’s
good for the goose is good for the
gander.” If parents, and others, can
preach it--then why not practice it? Set a
good example. ‘‘Lay off the booze.” But
no! Booze is socially accepted. Sure
everyone does not drink; but then again,
everyone doesn’t smoke reefers, pop pills
or do hard chemicals.
Let's talk about one specific drug now.
Marijuana! It's the most popular of the
whole drug line up. More people, young
and old alike, would rather smoke reefers
(marijuana) than anything else. Now,
let’s compare reefers to alcohol. Reefers
make you high and so does alcohol. A
reefer high may last for a couple of hours
and then it wears off-but alcohol stays in
the blood much longer. Have you heard
nearly as many reports about people
having accidents because of marijuana as
compared to accidents attributed to
alcohol. Some say that marijuana
"stinks”, but have you ever smelled the
breath of an alcoholic. How many people
do you hear about being addicted to
marijuana as compared to the number of
people hooked on alcohol? Maybe this is
not a good comparison, but based on
what I have just said, which would you
choose?
Alcohol is accepted all over the world
as a relaxing drink, a social drink, a
before-dinner drink, an after-dinner drink
or just a drink, period. Some of the most
important people in the world drink
alcohol in some form or another and
everyone knows that. But did you know
that some of the most important people
and some top officials in the world also
enjoy some form of drugs? Sure they do!
They are human, too, with human
curiosities and feelings. Someone you
know, who you probably least expect,
probably smokes or has smoked
marijuana. It could be mom, dad, your
neighbor, the secretary, the boss or even
!iianager--whu knows.
Now comes the ultimate issue! Should
marijuana be legalized? Everybody hold
to their heads, sit down and read a little
at a time because what I say may shock
you.
YES! I think marijuana should, and
maybe someday will, be legalized. Go
back to the days of prohibition, when
liquor was facing the same issue. Law
forbade liquor to be manufactured and
sold, but still someone went against the
law and liquor remained in circulation. Of
course, like marijuana, it was bought and
sold illegally. There were many “busts”
on liquor joints but the people wanted it
so badly that they got it despite the law.
Soon liquor was legalized and flooded the
country and was socially accepted.
Marijuana has been through the same
problems; but still teens smoke it and will
always smoke.
Humans love the challenge of doing
something wrong and getting away with
it. Which may be the reason marijuana is
still here today. Maybe if and when it is
legalized, it will take away the challenge
and the desire for teens to smoke.
Otherwise marijuana is here to stay.
When Lester Granger died early in
January, little attention was paid to the
event and while some older people
vaguely recalled the name, others knew
nothing about the man and what he stood
for.
That in itself tells us something about
the shameful way contributors to our
achievements and our heritage are
shunted aside and forgotten, even in their
lifetimes, in the constant pursuit for new
and even more exotic people and issues.
It is especially important, then, that we
take advantage of the Black History Week
celebrations to recall not only Lester
Granger’s contributions, but those of
other unsung black heroes, men and
women who not only survived the days of
blatant racist oppression, but led the
fight to end it, a fight whose beneficiaries
were all are.
And the fact that this is the
Bicentennial year makes it all the more
important for the Lester Grangers of our
history to be brought out of the unfair
obscurity of the past and restored to their
rightful place in our nation’s history.
Granger was executive director of the
National Urgan League for twenty of the
stormiest years in our history, from 1941
to 1961. He presided over that agency
through a World War, the desegregatio n
of the armed forces, the Korean War, and
the beginnings of the southern civil rights
movement, and he did it with distinction.
In the 1930s, when all unions were
suspect and blacks were prevented from
joining them both by racist who refused
to integrate their unions and by local
forces that tried to stop blacks from
organizing anything themselves, Granger
led the fight for unionization of black
labor.
Through the Urban League’s Workers’
Council movement he directed, he
recruited black workers to join unions and
if white unionists refused them
membership, to set up union locals of
their own. Often, such work meant
risking his life.
When war loomed, he was one of the
key men who backed Phil Randolph’s
plans for a March on Washington,
leading to an executive order opening
defense plants to black workers. And
when the war came, he helped set up
placement programs that got blacks into
those defense jobs.
One of his big targets was military
segregation. How many young people
today know that blacks were segregated
into separate units up to the Korean War
in the early 50s? It was largely through
Granger’s efforts that the armed forces
became integrated; in 1945 he conducted
a personal study for the Secretary of the
Navy that resulted in breaking down in
racial barriers in that service.
When the Supreme Court ruled school
segregation unconstitutional, Granger
loudly backed the decision, bringing
down his organization the full wrath of
the frustrated southern segregationists
whose locally powerful pressures resulted
in a drying up of funds for some local
Leagues. But Granger held firm and the
organization weathered the storm.
He took over a debt-ridden Urban
League and shepherded it through one of
the msot unstable periods in American
history. At the end of his reign the
League was stronger and more solidly
entrenched than ever before, and black
people had made significant advances, at
least in some small part through his
efforts.
Men like Lester Granger must not be
permitted to fade into obscurity. Older
leaders like Walter White of the NAACP,
the still-active A. Philip Randolph, Mary
McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson, and a
host of others of their generation must
have their stories told in the schools, in
churches and synagogues, and in civic
meetings at all times and not only on
Black History Week celebrations.
Lester Granger once defined black
goals as “the right to work, the right to
vote, the right to physical safety and the
right to dignity and self-respect.” The
struggle for those goals is still with us,
and by keeping the memory of Lester
Granger and the multitude of other
unsung black heroes before us, we have
a better chance of fulfilling those goals.
At a time when so many figures in
American history are dredged up and
presented to the public in Bicentennial
programs that make noble heroes out of
slaveowners and moral statesmen out of
politicians of two hundred years ago, let’s
insist on having the true story of
neglected black fighters for justice told!
N.C. Department Of Human Resources
There are an estimated 200,000 North
Carolinians who are alcohol or drug
abusers. Nearly 50 percent of admissions
to psychiatric hospitals are diagnosed as
alcoholics.
As this problem increases, how does it
affect the economy of our state?
“These and other personal/medical
problems, which cause poor job
performance, cost the economy of
North Carolina over $350 million a year,”
said A. Richard Rhyne, occupational
programs consultant with the Division of
Mental Health Services, N.C. Depart
ment of Human Resources.
Approximately 10 percent of any work
force has these problems, according to
U.S. Department of Health, Education
and Welfare reports.
At this time, 125 industries in the state
have adopted Employee Assistance
Programs to identify employees problems
at the earliest possible stage, to motivate
them to seek help, and to refer them to
the most appropriate service available.
Professionals in the Division of Mental
Health help industries develop these
programs for employees with alcohol,
drugs, family or legal related concerns.
Management in these industries
focuses on the employee’s job
performance. An employee who
consistently does poor work or is absent
frequently can be referred to an
appropriate person or agency for help.
These sources are identified in the
company’s Employee Assistance policy.
The employer does not act as a
counselor, and employees are assured
that the referral will be kept confidential,
"Without the concern of the employer,
the number of people who are alcohol or
drug abusers will grow. They eventually
become a problem of the taxpayer, when j
our institutions and rehabilitation
programs have to take over,” said Rhyne.
“If industry can help us with early
intervention, shorter term treatment for
these people will be required,” Rhyne
concluded, ‘it will mean a better chance
of recovery for people who are a vital part
of our economy.”
Tlings You Slould Knw
BASSETT...
. The reconstruction act of i867
ANOTfC I4rt amendment; 1868/guaranteed
CrVlL RIGHTS TO FREEDMEN. BASSETXA RE
CONSTRUCTION LEADER/WHO STUDIED ClAS*
SIC^MATH aGEN. LIT. AT YALE a GRADUATED
FROM BIRMINGHAM ACADEMY a CONN.STATE NORMAL SCHOOL^
WAS APPOINTED US. MINISTERTO HAITI /BETTER HQUSIMfi
CAME YEARS LATER.EXAMPLE: HARLEM RIVER HOUSES,JUME IfelSaT/