1
\
THE TRIBUNAL AID
A VIABLE, VALID REQUIREMENT
RESPONDING TO
BLACK NORTH CAROLINA
VOLUME III, NO. 44 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7,1976
$5.00 PER YEAR
25 CENTS PRESS RUN 8,500
MEMBER: North Carolina Black Publishers Association — North Carolina Press Association, Inc.
Ksoeoeoeeoeeeooooeeoeeo^
BICENTENNIAL!
BLACK HISTORY
“Lost-Strayed-Or Stolen ”
The 1976 Editions of THE TRIBUNAL AID
will be dedicated to Americans bicentennial
Celebration, with emphasis on contributions
our Race has made in the making of America,
from birth to the present.»
In 1976 there should not be a need to lift
these contributions from isolated sources. Our
past should be Interwoven into the fabric of
our civilization, because we are, except for the
Indian, Americans oldest ethnic minority.
We have helped make America what it was,
and what it is, since the founding of Virginia.
We have been a factor in many major issues in
our history. There have been many misdeeds
against us, yet we have been able to live
through them and fight back. This is living
proof of our history.
Our role in the making of America is neither
well known or correctly known. Many positive
contributions have escaped historians and
have not found their way into the pages of
Fay Ashe, Black History Editor
many history books.
We will strive to give readers, Black and
white, many little-known facts about our past
and it is hoped that a proper perspective of our
history will be of value to persons who may
believe that as Black People we have an
unworthy past; and hence, no strong claims to
all rights of other Americans.
The Free Blacks In The North 1800-1860
Black history in the Western Hemisphere jaost
probably begins with the discovery of the New World
by Christopher Columbus In 1942. Blacks are known to
have participated meaningfully in a number of later
explorations made by Europeans In various parts of the
United States and Spanish America. Facts such as
these at once fashion a new dimension for Black history
within the mainstream of American history. Inasmuch
as one of the primary purposes of this feature is to
record some historical achievements of the Black, it
becomes most important to offer the reader
chronological accounts through which he can
conveniently familiarize himself with the broad sweep
of American Black history. The years covered here are
1492-1954.
1807:
LONDON, ENGLAND
British parliament abo
lishes the slave trade.
Blacks in the North were
unlike Blacks in the South
in three respects. (1) The
restrictions against Blacks
were less severe; (2) Blacks
in the North could protest
against restrictions; (3)
Blacks had greater oppor
tunity for self-expression
through his churches,
newspapers, and conven
tions, and by participating
in reform movements,
particularly the abolitionist
crusade.
Blacks were not as
numerous in the North,
therefore, their presence
did not arouse the degree of was against Black suffrage, and Vermont - the Black
uneasiness and dread as in In 1840 in the four states in population was very small -
the Salve States. Still the which Blacks had equal except for Massachusetts.
North was no Garden of suffrage - Massachusetts, In New York Blacks could
Eden for the Black man. By Maine, New Hampshire, vote only if they owned
1830 slavery had been
abolished in the North but
Blacks still were considered
inferior; they were regard
ed as a threat to the general
welfare and a liability.
In most states Blacks
could not vote. During the
forty years preceding the
Civil War, a period when
the ballot was being
extended to the common
man, every incoming state
$250 worth of property.
a skilled occupation could
find no white craftsman
who would take them on as
apprentice. In the North the
white worker looked upon
the Black man as a threat to
In making a living Blacks his job.
faced many restrictions. The Black man in the
Blacks were confined to the North was completely
lowest paid jobs generally excluded from trades, but if
in two fields, common labor he could obtain full
and domestic service. Most employment in unskilled
Northern Blacks had fields his plight was not
known independent entre
preneur in the fur trade was
•lEAN BAPTISTE POINT
SABLE, whose stations
were located along the
shores of lake Michigan.
SABLE became the t'lrst
permanent settler on the
present site of Chicago.
There were the self-em-
ployed Blacks, and a few
gave employment to others.
Sailmaker JAMES FOR-
TEN hired white and Black
William Whipper^
an early advocate of
passive resistance to
unjust laws.
learned a trade as slaves, hopeless. But after 1840
but as free men they were even menial jobs, such as workers in his Philadelphia
not given the opportunity to maids, waiters, cooks and plant; STEPHEN SMITH
put their training to use. porters were being taken
Blacks who wanted to learn
Livingstone College's 122nd Observance
1807:
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Congress bars the im
portation of any new slaves
into the territory of the
United States (effective
January 1, 1808).
1808;
UNITED STATES
As of this year, the one in
which the Congressional
ban on the importation of
slaves is scheduled to take
effect, there are one million
slaves in the country.
of
1809:
MARYLAND
Birth into slavery
author/educator James W.
C. Pennington, whose
education is assisted by a
Pennsylvania Quaker and
who goes on, as a
freedman, to become an
eloquent orator, president
of Hartford Central Associ
ation of Congressional
Ministers, and representa
tive to the 1843 Anti-Slav
ery Convention in London.
SALISBURY -This the
Founder’s Day address
delivered by Dr. Broadus
N. Butler, director of
leadership development in
higher education, Ameri
can Council on Education,
Washington, D.C.
The occasion was one
hundred and twenty second
observance of the birth of
the founder and first
president of Livingstone
College, Dr. Joseph
Charles Price, February
12, 1976. Many thanks to
Livingstone College and
Dr. Broadus for allowing us
to share parts of his
address with our readers.
We feel that is a warning as
well as a challenge in his
address.
We offer the same to our
readers in two parts.
We are being even in this
day challenged to move all
such achievements forward
with an equivalent en
hancement of the spiritual
quality of the life and
culture both of ourselves
and of our nation. There are
clear indications of increas
es of material affluence and
Johyi M. Langston^
first Negro elected
to public office,
served in the Brown-
heim, Ohio council
in 1855. It was the
beginning of a ca
reer in public serv
ice that later led to
a diplomatic post in
Haiti and a place in
the United States
Congress.
PART TWO
of economic and social porations, schools, even Anti-Defamation League, and integration. We have
advancement; but our Presidents of the United The National Conference of the option under a body of
greatest present danger States. We go by two time Christians and Jews, law which they did not
has already been demon- clocks. On the faster one ASPIRA, the Appalachia have. No matter how
strated as a proneness to the media do much to shape Regional Commission, to complex our society has
gullibility and myopia as our climate. On the slower name just a few. Somebody become, we have the power
reflected in the seductive one, the colleges do much, must show the way toward to do the right. They had
rhetoric of black power on It is the case of Ezekiel’s a new moral and spiritual the will, but they were
the one hand, and on the wheel within the wheel. bond. wanting in power. We have
other hand, the loss of So let us look at those Thus, as we honor our the power, but we need a
moral posture in the early beginnings and see Fathers and the visionary new miracle of will such as
overcompensating effort to those people who spoke of founders of this college, we was exhibited by the
imitate the crass, corrupt, Life, Liberty and Happi- must gird ourselves to Reverend Joseph Albert
immoral, erotic and sensate ness; who appealed to the again find the qualities of DeLaine of Clarendon,
style of conspicuous parts unifying theme of we, the mind and spirit and of South Carolina whose
of the society. It makes no people; who recognized the redoubled effort of disci- persistent quest in spite of white immigrants,
sense that our young and values of religion, morality pline and work to put high the loss of job and Many times these newconi-
gifted athletes coming from and knowledge; who spoke vision back into its proper possessions, and threats objected to working
our colleges into sudden of freedom of speech, of place. We must reach out upon his life, brought one beside Black people and
fortunes, for example, assembly, of press and of our hands to each other in a of the most significant hastened the
would spend more money religion; who framed a fundamental grasp for Supreme Court judgments P^cess of Black displace-
for a Rolls Royce or a Constitution to include a those truer realities that in the two centuries of this nient.
Mercedes Benz than it Bill of Rights to assure the were ours until this most nation - the 1954 Brown vs. Despite many obstacles
would take to educate ten of primacy of human justice recent time. The death of Topeka decision. If we some Blacks managed to
their brothers and sisters to over prdperty and wealth; Dr. Martin Luther King in cannot restore that kind of niake a good living. In 1856
enable their own alma who did all of those things 1968 did indeed mark a will, consciousness, and I^'^cks in New York City
maters to do so. They could while knowing that they moral and spiritual turning quest so that we can mold $200,000 in bank
at least assure the could not yet deal with the point away from the very and shape it into a new deposits. Cincinniati Blacks
finanmcial and educational problems of slavery, immi- pattern of commitments reality in our colleges and onwed property valued in
security of their own gration, urban segregation, and the progression of churches, then where do we excess ot $500,000 in 1852,
families. We must find a race, class and religious achievements for which he turn to find the “higher f^'acks in most northern
way to do something about discrimination; and the was himself martyred. Now law” or to create conditions cities were well-to-do
this well before they leave disfranchisement of wom- there is a faint glimmer of a to support the “happiness caterers and restaurateurs,
our colleges. They should en, free men of color, return that must grow of mankind” for the future? Barbering was another
not leave our institutions immigrants and Indians, brighter with every passing FredericK Dougia;>s and wide-open field to Blacks.
— — — 1 and towns with a glory road Think about those, and day. You who are privi- Abraham Lincoln, two There were many prosper-
L O H d fTi O r Ic S ourselves, what leged to be at Livingstone towering giants of the ous Black farmers in
and WILLIAM WHIPPER
were highly successful
lumber merchants and
HENRY BOYD of Cincin
nati was the owner of a bed
stead factor which had
some twenty employees.
At (he outset the Free
Black man made one very
important decision: He
would remain in America.
From the time of the
Revolutionary War Blacks
had been advised to return
to Africa. To some whites
the back-to-Africa move
ment was a good way to get
rid of the troublesome free
Black. To the humanitarian
the movement was a way to
send to Africa a Christian
ized population and to
discharge a moral obliga
tion to return the Black to
his ancestral homeland.
In 1817 (he American
colonization Society was
organized. This organiza
tion sought the aid of
our athletes and entertain- about us?
Of Black America
know how much reliance critical years of the past Indiana.
cannot build future Think upon why the was vested in education century, have left with us Blacks were employed in
William Wells
Broivn, writer.
congress in acquiring
place to which to send
p security spending it up for African Methodist Episco- and how much faith was both eloquent admonitions the fur trade, as cooks, Blacks. Congress respond-
No more substantial testimony to the role of the Black
in the growth and development of America can be
found than the numerous historical landmarks in
various regions of the country which are associated with
Black Americana. Many of these-like the Alamo and
Bunker Hill—are not conventionally known as sites
involving chapters of Negro history.
CALIFORNIA,
HOLLYWOOD
Grauman’s Chinese
Theater
In 1967, Sidney Poitier
became the first black actor
to record his footprints in
the concrete of Grauman’s
Chinese Theater, a ritual
which has become synony
mous with stardom and
success in Hollywood film
circles.
a successful and affluent
black mine owner who was
one of the finest engineers . , ...
and metallurgists in the
state. Rodgers was only one
luxaries which they do not pal Zion church exists and placed in the southern and profound prayers that hunters, guides, interpre
own and driving Rolls what happened in John schools, churches and we must some day bring ters and salaried traders,
Royces. We must own Street Methodist Church in colleges to be the rocks and the will and the power one well known fur trader,
those buildings and invest New York City in 1796, the foundations for all that together to fulfill the unity JIM BECKWOURTH was
in security stock instead of even after what had flowed in consequence of and destiny that we employed by the American
rolling stock. We need happened in St. George commitments to the Civil promised to the world Fur Company, and in 1850
Methodist Church in Phila- Rights Movement and the when, as a nation, we had discovered the lowest point
delphia in 1787 right in the final decision to be free at no other option than to across the northern Sierra-
midst of the writing and last. assert independenr; in Nevada mountains, which
adopting of the Northwest You who have trod those order to seek dir lity, became known as BECK-
sound investments in our
educational institutions, in
our families and communi
ties, and in our business
enterprises if we are to
have economic and social
of several black miners who
struck it rich in gold and
quartz. One Black, known
to history only as Dick,
reputedly amassed a for-
the most critical year since
1776 in terms of our
national destiny, let us not
only pray, but consciously
Ordinance and the Consti- weary years in the Zion
tution. Think further upon tradition should meditate
why neither the AME and well not just upon the
the AME Zion churches names of Bishop Varick and
could come together in his fellow church founders,
1820, nor could they return but upon the meaning of
to their former affiliations the ultimate mission of
with the Methodist church. Bishop Varick, Bishop
Continued on Page 4
WOURTH PASS. The best
CALIFORNIA, HORNITOS brains out.
Home of Moses Rodgers,
» » «
BIBLIOGRAPHY America New York: Pitt-
Drotning, Phillip T. A man Publishing Corpora-
Guide to Negro History in tion 1967
America New York: Dou- pios^i. Harry A. Phe
bleday and Company, 1968 kaiser, Ernest The Negro
Katz, William Loren Alamanac New York: Bel-
Eyewitness; The Negro in ,uether Company
commit ourselves and our We have a deep need now Allen, the REv. Absalom
tune of more than $100 000 '"stitutions of higher learn- to return to a viable Jones, Dr. Joseph C. Price,
but lost it all on the proposition that Coalition of Harmoney and the whole succession of
Sacramento gaming tables never again repeat among all of the groups dedicated seekers after the
and, in despair, blew his
the aftermath of 1876. We which share the common ultimate unity of peoples in
must give serious thought cause of the survival of dignity and reverence,
to the words of Professor equality, dignity and demo- What their real mission was
Max Lerner who recently cracy in America. We need could not then be accom-
observed that at present: healing harmony across plished in any other way
I speak of the climate of such groups as the NAACP, than to assert their dignity
ideas, which is the crucial the National Urban League, through independence and
SCLS, PUSH, The Con- separation. It is now our
gressional Black Caucus, sacred obligation to com-
The Leadership Conference plete and to fulfill their
on Civil Rights, The mission through dignity
force in the desting of our
society. Legislatures have
to operate within it, and
courts; trade unions, cor-
-Martin R. Delantj, a brilliant and fiery^ spokes
man for Negro rights. A Harvard graduate, doc
tor. editor, -world traveler, African explorer, and
scientist, he became a major in the Union Army
during the Civil War.
ed, and a colony in Africa
would be the answer to the
problem of what to do with
Blacks captured in the
illegal slave trade.
Blacks were not enthus
iastic about the idea of
colonization. By 1852 fewer
than 8,000 Blacks went to
Liberia and only 2,800 of
these were free Blacks.
Long before the Civil
War, several Blacks were
owners of growing North
ern business. THOMAS L.
JENNINGS, a New York
tailor, invented a process
for cleaning clothes, pat
ented it, and made a
fortune. One of his sons
became a New Orleans
dentist and another son
became a successful Boston
Business man. JENNINGS
like FORTEN, used his
money to finance antislave
ry groups.
JOHN JONES came to
Chicago from North Carol
ina with only $3.50 in his
pocket. JONES made a
great deal of money in the
Continued on Page 4
1776 Honoring America s Bicentennial 1976