THE BETTER WE KNOW US
DURHAM -- Husband, Father,
Businessman, Church Leader, Civic
Leader, Politician, etc. all of these help to
describe the involvements and commit
ments of this week’s introductee.
Mr. Asa T. Spaulding, former
president of North Carolina Mutual Life
Insurance Company, the world’s largest
Black owned and operated business, is
truely “a man for all seasons.”
Referred to by THE MASONIC
JOURNAL, Mr. Spaulding was pro
claimed A Great American, Honorable,
Internationally Acclaimed Business
Executive, Aminent Administrator,
Illustrious Statesmand and A Loyal
Devoted Mason.
He is further described as, “A Noted
Humanitarian and ranks among history’s
men of extraordinary, attainments.
A Native of Columbus County, Mr.
Spaulding was formerly educated at the
National Training School (Now North
Carolina Central University). He did
further study at Howard University,
Washington, D.C.; School of Commerce,
Accounts and Finance, New York
University - B.S. in Accounting, (Magna
Cum Laude). Additionally, he studied at
the University of Michigan (M.A. in
Mathematics and Actuaril Science; and
hold many Honorary Degrees from the
following schools: Shaw University,
North Carolina Central University,
Morgan State College, University of
North Carolina, and Duke University.
He has held and served well in
numerous highly significant leadership
roles throughout his home city, county,
state, nation and abroad. His influence ha
been and continues to be a stimulating
force among persons of various ranks.
He served first actuary of the National
Negro Insurance Association: president
for two terms of same National Negro
Insurance Organization: Honorary Admi
ral in the North Carolina Navy; received
citation from U.S.A. President “for his
unselfish devotion in helping to stabilize
our economy"; featured in an article in
the German newspaper, Rhein-Zeitung;
recipient of the Frederick Douglass
Achievement Award: featured in TIME
magazine; elected trustee, American free
from Hunger foundation; he and Mrs.
Spaulding guests at dinners at White
House on three different occasions - and
of three Presidents; member of the U.S.
Delegation to the Inaugural Ceremonies
of President William V.S. Tubman of
Liberia; member of the United Delegation
to the UNESCO General Conference in
New Delhi, India, by appointment of
President Eisenhower and confirmation
by the U.S. Senate.
;vice-chairman, North Carolina Advi
sory Committee to the U.S. Commission
on Human Rights: recipient of “City of
Philadelphia Tribute,” conferred by
Mayor James H.J. Tate; elected to the
University of North Carolina School of
Society; elected to Board of Directors,
W.T. Grant Company, New York;
recipient of American Academy Golden
Achievement Award, as the representa
tive of the “many who excek“l recipient
of the National Urban League's Equal
Opportunity Day Award; elected to the
Board of Directors, Durham Chamber of
Continued on Page 4
THE TRIBUNAL AID
A VIABLE, VALID REQUIREMENT
RESPONDING TO
BLACK NORTH CAROLINA
VOLUME III, NO. 47
WEDNujSDAY, APRIL 28,1976 $5.00 PER YEAR
25 CENTS
MEMBER;
North Carolina Black Publishers Association — North Carolina Press Association, Inc.
—— «
This Week’s Black History is provided by;
■ f WINSTON
The 1976 Editions of THE TRIBUNAL AID
will be dedicated to America's 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, America’s 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
Fay Ashe, Black
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
History Editor
many history books.
We will strive to give readers, Black and
white, many littie-iinown 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.
MUTUAL
Life Insurance Company
From Booker T. Washington’s ‘Atlanta Compromise’
BICENTENNIAL
BLACK HISTORY
“Lost-Strayed-Or Stolen ”
a 0 og caOiQ B&e>000Qr^.a300C>c300jCte
Black history lii the Western Hemlspiiere most
probably begins with the discovery of the New Worid
by Christopher Colnmbas In 1942. Blacks are known to
have participated meanlngfnily in a number of later
explorations made by Enropeans in varioas 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. Inasmnch
as one of the primary purposes of this featnre 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.
A ship lost at sea for
many days suddenly sight
ed a friendly vessel. From
the mast of the unfortunate
vessel was seen a signal,
“Water, water; we die of
thirst!” The answer from
the friendly vessel at once
came back, “Cast down
your bucket where you
are.” A second time the
signal, “Water, water;
send us water!” ran up
from the distressed vessel,
and was answered, “Cast
down your bucket where
you are,” A third and
fourth signal for water was
answered, “Cast down
your bucket where you
are”. The captain of the
distressed vessel, at last
came up full of fresh, cities, most patient, faith-
sparkling water from the ful, law abiding, and
mouth of the Amazon un-resentful people the
River. To those of my race world has seen,
who depend on bettering In all things that are
their condition in a foreign purely social, we can be as
of these privileges. The
opportunity to earn a dollar
in a factory just now is
worth infinitely more than
the opportunity to spend i
dollar in an opera-house.
land or who underestimate
the importance of cultivat
ing friendly relations with
the southern white man,
who is their next-door-
neighbor, I would say:
“Cast down your bucket
where you are...”
To those of the white race
...where I permitted I
would repeat what 1 say to
my own race; “Cast down
your bucket where you
are”. Cast it down among
eight millions of Negroes
who have, without strikes
and labor wars, tilled your
1809 Hardin Count, Ken
tucky
Birth of Abraham Lincoln
1810 Washington, D.C.
President Madison tells
Congress that some Ameri
cans are still violating the
laws of humanity and their
own country by carrying on
trade in enslaved Africans.
Madison encourages Con
gress to devise “further
heeding the injunction, cast fields, cleared your forest,
from New Orleans. The down his bucket, and it builded vour railroads and
revolt is led
Deslandes.
by Charles!”
Historical Landmarks
1812 Louisiana
Admission of Louisiana
to the Union as a slave _
state. State law enables
freedmen to serve in the
state militia.
1813 New York City
Birth of James McCune
means of suppressing the Smith, a black physician
evil.” and writer who is educated
in New York’s African Free
1810 Salem Massachusetts School, studies at the
Birth of anti-slavery University of Glasgow in
leader Charles Lenox Re- Scotland and eventually
mond who, in 1838, is ® pharmacy in New
appointed an agent for the ^ork. Smith also serves for
Massachusetts Anti-Slave- 232 years on the staff of the
ry Society and, two years Colored Orphan Asylum. A
later attends the world ‘^“f'tributor to many aboli- Indies. A merchant, Leifes-
Anti’siavery Convention in periodicals and an dorff operated the first
London Durine the Civil author whose work covered • steamer to pass through the
War Remorjot his ^ -de range of topics. Golden Gate, was later
colleague and fellow aboli- Sm’th is regarded by Henry appointed U.S. vice-consul,
tionish Frederick Douglass Highland Garnet as the and ultimately became a
in recruiting black volun- most scholarly Negro of his civic and educational leader
teers for the 54th Massa-
Of Black America .
other races and peoples the
doctrine preached...has
been that manly self-re
spect is worth more than
lands and houses, and that
a people who voluntarily
surrender such respect, or
cease striving for it, are not
rumors began to spread worth civilizing,
that he had buried a In answer to this, it has
fortune in the hill which been claimed that Negroes
now bears his name. can survive only through
submission. Mr. Washing-
Ford actually became a ton distinctly asks that
wealthy hotelowner and Black people give up, at
restauranteur (repeating
the success he had
originally had in Nicaragua)
but, in spite of this, people With open heart surgery
persisted in believing his and heart transplants
wealth was really derived moving out of the experi-
from the hillside, treasure- mental stage it is timely to
trove. The result was that, go back and review the first
separate as the fingers, yet
one hand in all things
essential to mutual pro
gress. The wisest among
my race understand that
the agitation of questions of
social equality is the
extremest folly, and that
progress in the enjoyment
of all privileges that will
come to us must be the
result of severe and
constant struggle rather
than artificial forcing. It is
important and right that all
privileges of the law be
ours, but is vastly more
important that we be
prepared for the exercises
Dr. William E. B. DuBois
Answers Booker T, Washington
——— .j
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—iike the Alamo and
Bunker Hili-are not conventionally known as sites
involving chapters of Negro history.
San Francisco:
Leidesdorff Street
named after William
Alexander Leidesdorff, a
wealthy, and influential
California pioneer of black
and Danish ancestory and a
native of the Danish West
least for the present, three
things, 1. POLITICAL
TA SPEECH) there have
occured; (1) The disfran-
POWER, 2. INSISTENCE chisement of the Negro. (2)
ON CIVIL RIGHTS, 3.
HIGHER EDUCATION OF
NEGRO YOUTH, and
concentrate all their ener
gies on industrial educa
tion, the accumulation of
wealth, and the conciliation
THE LEGAL CREATION
OF A DISTINCT STATUS
OF CIVIL INFERIORITY.
(3) THE STEADY WITH
DRAWAL OF AID FROM
INSTITUTIONS FOR
HIGHER TRAINING OF
of the South...As a result of THE NEGRO. These move-
this tender of the palni-
branch, what has been the
return? In these years,
(SINCE BOOKER T.
WASHINGTON’S ATLAN-
Heart Surgery
successful operations on
the human heart. It was
ments are not, to be sure,
direct result of mr.
Washington’s teachings;
but his propaganda has,
without a shadow of a
doubt, helped their speed
ier accomplishments...Ne
groes do not expect that
the free right to vote, to
enjoy civil rights, and to be
performed by DR. DANIEL educated, will come in a
HALE WILLIAMS, a Black moment; they do not expect
chusetts.
1811 Delaware
The state forbids the
immigration of free Ne
groes, and stipulates that it
considers any native-born
free Negro who has been
out of Delaware for mroe
than six months to be a
nonresident.
1811 Louisiana
U.S. troops suppress a
slave uprising in two
parishes some 35 miles
* « *
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Drotning, Phillip T. A
Guide to Negro History in
America New York: Dou
bleday and Company, 1968
Katz, William Loren
Eyewitness: The Negro in
America New York: Pitt
man Publishing Corpora
tion 1967
Ploski, Harry A. Phe
Kaiser. Ernest The Negro
Aiamanac New York: Bel-
luether Company
in San Francisco.
COLORADO
Breckenridge:
Barney Ford Hill
[just outside of city limits]
A fugitive slave who
went to Colorado in 1860 in
search of gold, Barney Ford
had once operated a station
in Chicago's Underground
Railroad and been involved
with the famed revolution
ary, John Brown.
Ford found gold, but was
cleared out of his claim by
outlaws. He managed to
get back to Denver, where
over the years, the hill
became pockmarked with
the diggings of those who
refused to believe Ford’s
protestations and denials.
Later in life Ford was
beleaguered by hoodlums
and other riffraff who
insisted on spying upon his
every move in the hope that
he would one day betray a
vital clue to the where
abouts every move in the
hope that he would one day
betray a vital clue to the
whereabouts of the alleged
treasure.
surgeon and some assis
tants at Provident Hospital
in Chicago on July 10, 1893.
James Cornish, a twenty-
four-year-olu Black ex
pressman had been
to see the bias and
prejudices of years disap
pear at the blast of a
trumpet; but they are
absolutely certain that the
way for a people to gain
stabbed and the only way their reasonable rights is
his life might be saved was not by voluntarily throwing
I operation to
wound in his
through i
close the
heart.
Assisting Dr. Williams in
the delicate operation were
other surgeons attached to
the hospital, which was
founded by Dr. Williams so
Black doctors and nurses
Continued on Page 3
them away and insisting
that they do not want them;
that the way for people to
gain respect is not by
continually belitting and
ridiculing themselves; that
on the contrary, Negroes
must insist continually in
season and out of season,
that voting is necessary to
proper manhood, that color
discrimination is barbar
ism, and that black boys
need education as well as
white boys...
So far as Mr. Washing
ton preaches THRIFT,
PATIENCE AND INDUS
TRIAL TRAINING for the
masses, we must hold up
his hands and strive with
him...But so far as Mr.
Washington apologizes for
injustice. North or South,
does not rightly value the
privilege and duty of
voting, belittles the emas
culating effects of caste
distinctions, and opposes
the higher training and
ambition of our brighter
minds...we must unceas
ingly and firmly oppose
them.
By every civilized and
peaceful method we must
strive for the rights which
the world accords to men,
clinging waveringly to
those great words which
the sons of the Founding
Fathers would faint forget:
“We hold these truths to be
self-evident: That all men
are created equal; that they
are endowed by their
Creator with certain un
alienable rights; that
among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.”
1776 Honoring America's Bicentennial 1976