< _
Foundation Building For A Successful Cause
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)—Of
coum it helps, but you don’t have to
be a Ford or a Rockefeller to
establish a foundation.
Or rich.
Or old money.
You can do it as a comfortable but
not-quite-wealthy middle-class
member of one of the country's racial
and ethnic minorities.
Foundations that hand out money
have been established by scores of
melting pot Americans—like Joe
Shoong, a Chinese Immigrant mer
chant; or Mary Carmen Saucedo, a
Hispanic retired school ad
ministrator; or Lonnie Porter, a
black Janitor who died at age M and
left his $100,000 life savings to set up
an endowment that supports students
at the United Theological Sem^ary
in Dayton, Ohio.
Increasingly, reports the Council
on Foundations, a resource house for
1,200 grant-making organizations,
members of racial and ethnic
minorities are creating foundations
to help their own kind or society in
general.
It requires money, but not a for
tune, the council says; $2,000 can
make you a full-fledged philan
thropist, a regular Rockefeller, with
a fund bearing your family name and
perpetuating your good intentions in
to eternity.
The classic case is Le Ly Hayslip.
Once a South Vietnamese peasant,
she married an Ameican, came to
this country, opened a restaurant,
succeeded in business, was widowed,
went back to Vietnam, was appalled
at the poverty there, and returned to
California. She sold her restaurant
and two of the three houses she own
ed, and with the proceeds, establish
ed the East Meets West Foundation.
It earmarks earnings to help people
in Ms. Haysllp’s native land recover
from the wounds of war, providing
medical equipment and supplies to
hospitals and village clinics. One pro
gram enables Americans to support
Vietnamese families whose fathers
and sons were severely disabled in
the war .
Sensing that the benevolent tradi
tions of America's black, Hispanic,
Aslan-American and American In
dian communities are an untold
story, the Council on Foundations
assigned Karen Lynn, a member of
its staff, to investigate.
Ms. Lynn came to the council from
five years at United Way of Chicago.
After a two-year study, she has writ
ten a report that concludes:
“Looking beyond the perception of
minorities as the recipients of chari
ty, you will And these communities
have always been benevolent.
American Indians, Asians, blacks
and Hispanics have a strong tradition
of selflessness dating back many cen
turies. Giving, not receiving, marks
the histories of these minority
groups.”
She cites the American Indian
tradition of disbursing the personal
property of a deceased member of the
tribe among all his survivors.
From that history, it was not a
great leap to 1977, when Dagmar
Thorpe, member of the Sac and Fox
tribe, named his foundation the
Seventh Generation Fund, honoring
the Great Law of the Iroquois People
of the Longhousfe: “We must consider
the impact of our decisions on the
seventh generation.” The fund seeks
to advance the self-sufficiency of
North American tribes.
All told, the country has more than
30,000 foundations, with assets of
more than $122 billion. In 1968, they
gave away $7.4 billion. The $5 billion
Ford Foundation is the largest; it
disbursed $213 million in 1968.
Foundations must file forms with
the IRS, but these require no ethnic
identification, so fixing the exact
number of minority-created founda
tions is difficult.
Ms. Lynn estimates that there may
be 500 or more family foundations
established by minorities. Some, like
those founded by entertainers Bill
Cosby and Oprah Winfrey, are well
funded and well-known. Others are
vitually unknown.
Hobart Lee, a California educator,
thought he had located all the
Chinese-American foundations when
he reported to a 1969 conference on
minority foundations that he had
found 14 of them. Lee kept searching
and this year he published a list of
140.
The most famous of them is the
Milton Shoong Foundation, which has
$8.5 million in assets and gives away
half a million a year to such causes as
Boys Town of Italy, two Buddhist
temples, three Christian churchesL
(See BENEVOLENCE, P 18)
#
Health Crisis
Focused On At
Annual Meeting
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands—The
health crisis facing Black Americans
was one of the major “action”
concerns discussed In depth and
acted upon at the 14th Annual
Lefiflatlve Conference of the
Nattpul Black Caucus of State
A Legislators held here recently.
M More than 400 Black state
% legislators from throughout the
^United States, program participants
and special guests attended the
week long conference.
In light of recent reports on more
than 190,000 dvina from
preventable illnesses and of the life
expectancy gap between whites and
Blacks worsening, NBCSL conferees
devoted a day and a half of their
conference to Black health survival
One of the actions at the session on
health, presided over by Maryland
State Senator Larry Young, was the
passing of a resolution calling for a
nationwide public awareness
campaign to reduce the significant
incidence of high blood pressure or
hypertension among Black
Americans.
Senator Young, as chairman of the
NBCSL Health Committee, said,
“High blood pressure or hypertension
are silent killers and a major
contributor to the alarmingly high
excess in deaths among African
Americans, and the sad fact is that
the disease is preventable, troatahln
and controllable.”
(SeePROPnsAi. p is>
Johnson Named
Chairman Of
Commission
Chief Justice James G. Exum, Jr.
of the North Carolina State Supreme
Court last week announced the ap
pointment of Court of Appeals Judge
Clifton E. Johnson as chairman of the
Judicial Standards Commission.
Judge Johnson was named to a six
year term to succeed Appeals Court
Judge S. Gerald Arnold, who has
served as chairman of the commis
sion since 1981 and was not eligible
under the law for reappointment.
The commission investigates
charges of misconduct by Judges and
makes recommendations to the
Supreme Court for disciplinary ac
tion ranging from a reprimand to
removal from office. It is responsible
to the court for enforcement of the
Code of Judicial Conduct.
“It will be a great challenge,”
Judge Johnson said. “The commis
sion’s work is very important and I
look forward to the challenge. I ap
preciate the confidence the chief
Justice has placed in me.”
The Judge added, “Judge Arnold
has done an outstanding Job and I
hope to be able to do as well.”
The appointment is effective the
first of the year. One of the first tasks
the commission will face under Judge
Johnson is to make a study of propos
ed changes in the state’s Code of
Judicial Conduct.
Chief Justice Exum recently asked
the commission to make the study in
light of recent revisions in the
American Bar Association’s recom
mended code, including the rule
governing political activity by can
didates in Judicial elections. The chief
Justice asked for recommendations
from the commission by May 1.
The ABA’s proposed code is leu
restrictive on political activity by
judicial candidates than the code now
in effect.
Judge Johnson, 49, a native of Mar
tin County, has been on the Court of
Appeals since August 1981. He earned
his undergraduate degree in 1984 and
his law degree in 1987 at North
Carolina Central University in
Durham.
He was a Superior Court judge in
Charlotte from 1977 until he went on
the Court of Appeals. The judge also
served as an assistant district at
torney in Mecklenburg County in
1989, u a District Court judge from
1989 to 1974, and u Mecklenburg’s
chief District Court judge from
1974-77.
Among his professional activities,
(See APPOINTED, P. 18)
DAY CARE SHARES CHRISTMAS JOY-On Friday,
21, tha happy bright-eyad children at Teiza Felly's
Care shared acthrities and Christinas careb with
geests In pantemhne and singing. The guests shan
singing Christmas careis and hymns, accempanled by
of the assistants, Mrs. Maude Hunter. Guests Included
parents, special guests from The Golden Girts Nursing Care
and others from the community. They ended by sharing In
a Christmas party for their parents and special guests.
Mayor Dinkins Reflects On Years
Within New York’s Mayor Office
NEW YORK, N.Y. (AP)-Mayor
David Dinkins, reflecting on his first
year in office, says he's proud that he
maintained the city’s bond rating
despite the budget gap.
But he wishes he could have spec.!
less time dealing with fiscal problems
and more time on the social issues
that propelled him into office.
“I look forward to the day when we
will be able to move ahead on some of
the dreams that have been, for the
moment at least, deferred,” Dinkins
said during a recent discussion with
reporters about his first term.
A projected gap of at least $250
million in the city’s 1991 fiscal year
budget has forced the mayor to cut
funds in virtually every area, from
education and street-cleaning to
libraries and bridge repair.
According to a federal report
released the week before Christmas,
the New York metropolitan region
lost an estimated 100,000 jobs in
private industry in 1990, half of them
in New York City.
The fiscal crisis has made it dif
ficult for Dinkins to devote time to the
city’s poor and young, whose plight
he promised to Improve during his
campaign for mayor.
The city’s first black mayor
acknowledges that his inability to
focus on social issues has made some
of his strongest supporters impatient
for results.
A recent New York-Newsday poll
showed that only 32 percent of those
interviewed approved of his job per
formance, down'from S3 percent in
June. The biggest decline in approval
came among blacks still largely sup
portive of him but down to 65 percent
from 76 percent—and Manhattan
residents.
Dinkins says the high points of his
first year included Nelson Mandela’s
visit, which, he said, “did wonderful
things” for the city; a decision by the
Democratic Party to hold its 1962 con
vention here; and his City Hall
speech calling for racial harmony as
New Yorkers awaited a verdict in the
first trial in the Bensonhurst racial
slaying.
While the city’s crime rate has
soared, with annual city murders top
ping 3,000 for the first time, Dinkins
said he is also proud of his “Safe
Streets, Safe City” plan to hire
thousands of new police officers.
But he failed to win the approval of
the crime plan by the state
Legislature, which recessed two
weeks ago without acting on it.
Asked whether he had made a
mistake in not consulting the
lawmakers as the plan was
developed, Dinkins said, “They were
seven or eight weeks late with their
budget. Would it have been wise to
have sought to include them as we
were developing the package? I
didn’t think that smart—when people
were worrying and clamoring and
needed some assurance that there
was movement.”
The mayor said he could not name
three things he would have done dif
ferently during Us first year.
Asked about his priorities for 1992,
the mayor said he would focus first on
fiscal stability, followed by public
safety and then education, youth ser
(See DREAMS DEFERRED, P. 18)
at last, to atop rotorrHig to Joan
at “tho boot unknown pop otar in
boon nutting out albums oinco 1*73 whan oho
Hor nowoot AiM album, and it’s bar 14th, lo
Armatrading Shows Off
With Intellectual Hit
It is time, at last, to stop referring
to Joan Armatrading, as the New
York Times once did, as “the best
unknown pop star in the business."
She has, after all, been putting out
albums since 1973 when she released
"Whatever’s For Us.” Her newest
A&M album—and it’s her 14th -is till
ed “Hearts and Flowers.”
She was a female singer/song
writer back at a time when women
who both wrote and sang were a rare
breed, when her few equals were
Carole King and Joni Mitchell. These
days, she’s been Joined by the likes of
Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman.
Sinead O’Connor. Michelle Shocked
and many more. Thanks to Joan Ar
matrading, women are doing it for
themselves, more and more
•*! like the term
singer/songwriter," says Ar
matrading. "It means that I write the
songs and sing them That’s my job
description, and I enjoy it At one
point, singer/songwriter meant folk
or dirge or highly intellectual stufl
that only 10 people would listen to
Now. it's different; Kobert Plant is a
singer/songwriter
Joan Armatrading, modest as ever,
is seriously underplaying the impor
lance of what she does She's a lot
■nore than a woman who writes songs
md sings them For her. emotion is
tie secret at the heart of everything
-he does One of her earliest
signature songs, in fact, was titled.
Show Some Emotion And emotion
is what she's never been ashamed to
show
It I were to write a certain lyric,
she >ays, “1 want people to believe
'he song I want them to say. 'Oh
\eah. I’ve been there.’ When I write
the songs, six times out of 10 they
don t have anything to do with me.
Hut I'm usually in a position to see
some of what’s been going on in order
to write it truthfully. Ultimately, you
iust write the songs for vourself
(See MS ARMATRADING. P 181
Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Turner of Charles street had bouse guests for a week
during the holiday season. Ms. Mable Richie and grandson, Chester Randall,
were visiting from Denver, Colo. While in the city, they were dinner guests of
Dr. and Mrs. E.B. Palmer. On Sunday, Dec. 23,1990, the Turners and other
family members held a pre-Christmas family dinner at the K&S Cafeteria in
the Tower Shopping Center. There the family enjoyed the meal and exchang
ed gifts.
It was a pleasure for this writer to talk with Chester who is captain o! his
school’s wrestling team and plays tight end on the football team. The two of
them left on Christmas Eve for Houston and St. Antonio, Texas.
The members of the Queens of Hearts Club took delight in purchasing
items of food and toys for the Christmas season. They gathered at Ruby
Stroud’s home on Friday to pack the items in decorated boxes for delivery. It
was a time of sharing and spreading joy. Edwinton Ball is club president
Sometimes it is a good idea to check on rumors. It was my good fortun. to
call my homey, Dr. Julius Nimmons, a Danville native, and ask him if he had
any news. At that time, he was preparing to leave for Belaire, Md., where he
will assume the position of dean of arts and sciences ast Harford Community
College. We wish him the very best.
Ruby Boyd spent the holidays in the Bahamas. We will get more news
when she returns.
Congratulations to the representatives of the many clubs, churches and
organizations that gave to the United Negro College Fund on Saturday, Dec
29,1990, at the NCAE Building in Raleigh and at other places in Durham and
Fayetteville. It was indeed a beautiful sight to witness individuals as they
were called to stand in line.
It was a total community effort. Congratulations to Ken Wilkins and his
committee members.
The community of Rochester Heights, located just off the Old Garner
Road, was indeed a “thing of beauty’’ on Christmas Eve as Spanish candles
were lined on the curves up and down the streets and around the corners of
Calloway Drive, Boaz Road, Charles Street, Bailey Drive, Waller Place, and
others. This has been a tradition for approximately 10 years. The white hags
lined with sand and candles represent the light of Christmas in our hearts
Dr. Lucy Rose Adams spent the Christmas holidays with her sister and
brother-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Stanley A. Early, Jr., of Dayton, Ohm Wlule in
the city, Lucy Rose attended a number of social events.
(See SOCIAL SCENE, P. 18)
Gun Control Laws May
Halt Legal Regulation
NEW ORLEANS, La.-Gun con
trol: Crime cure or new opportunity
to discriminate?
Whether by intent or impact, gun
control efforts have a dispropor
tionate effect on blacks, according to
a study by Tulane associate law pro
fessor Raymond T. Diamond and
Rutgers associate law professor
Robert J. Cottrol.
In cities throughout the country, for
example, proposed gun control
regulations would deny the right of
people in public housing to own or
carry firearms. Since in most of the
cities, the overwhelming majority of
people in public housing are blacks
and other minorities, the racial im
plications are clear, according to the
team.
“This sort of legislation tends to ig
nore the suggesteion that these are
the very people who are at risk from
the illegal use of firearms and also at
risk of lesser protection from the
police," says Diamond.
“Civil rights groups should be
outraged that people in public hous
ing are being singled out," Cottrol
adds “In an effort to prevent crime,
poor blacks are being stigmatized as
part of a dangerous class. These
regulations fail to distinguish bet
ween poor blacks that are law
abiding and the criminals who prey
on them. "
"The regulations will not disarm
criminals but will disarm the least
Drotected people in our society, the
law-abiding poor,” he says Tnat i
unconscionable.”
In their current research “The St
cond Amendment: Toward:, an Afro
Americanist Reconsideration, they
examine gun control efforts from a
historical point of view as well a, itli
an eye to policy implications i tv
paper was delivered in the fall btfor.
the American Society of ) tgal
History and, according to its authors
will serve as the basis for a broader
study of the issue.
Cottrol and Diamond look at th*.
collective rights interpretation of th<
Second Amendment—the idea that
the framers of it had in mind a ua
tional militia in which all men par
ticipated—and the individual right
interpretation, which holds that the
framers wanted to ensure popuiai
participation in the defenses at the
community and guarantee tha'
citizens had the means to overthrow a
tyrannical government, which they
had so recently done.
The paper traces the states dif
ferent approaches to the right of ah
men to own firearms in the young
United States, a right which was
rescinded for blacks during tin
antebellum period. It looks at restnc
tions aimed at blacks alter th, c ivil
War, the role of "private whitt
violence in reclaiming white domina
tion in the South,” black resistance to
the white violence that accompanied
20th century Jim Crow laws, and the
(See GUN CONTROL, P 18