TUESDAY
•-'■fv'-v T*'T*
Black Theater Agenda |
Writer-poet Maya Angelou will be among the 1
performers during the National Black
Theater Festival.
Page 9 1
Muhammad Ali
over 1000 copies of his new
“Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times”
Page 5
1
This Week
In 1948 President Harry
Truman issued an Executive
Order that ended segregation in
the Armed Forces. The last all
black military unit was
disbanded in 1951.
RALEIGH, N.C.,
VOL. 50, NO. 69
TUESDAY, JULY 23,1991
N.C.'s Semi-Weekly
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
SINGLE COPY Q|T
IN RALEIGH 4LW0
ELSEWHERE 300
Leadership Caucus Examines Health Care
BY GROVER BAILEY
Maufiag Editor
The most important issue and
fundamental subject facing African
Americans today that will without a
doubt take on the question of survival
as we near the year 2000 is health
care and all its ramifications and
tributaries from hospitalization to
clean drinking water to toxic waste in
depressed communities.
It must be accepted without
argument or question: the African
American community is in serious
trouble and at the root is disease
stemming from the lack of heath care
and branching into sickness,
dependency, poverty and death.
Aspects of this vast problem
emerged as a topic for the N.C. Black
Leadership Caucus over the weekend
in a serious attempt to evaluate the
health care crisis in America for
blacks that is growing with a
relentless intensity.
Fred D. McQueen during the three
day gathering of workshops said it
straight: “I think we need to educate
the voters and let them know this is a
political issue.” McQueen is the past
president of the Old North State
Medical Society, a prestigious collage
bf fine, dedicated African-American
physicians. “Medicine is political,"
he said.
McQueen is right and so is Dr.
Louis Sullivan, secretary of Health
and Human Services who says the
most pressing problem in the
African-American community can be
characterized under two major
scions: “access to health care and
cost of health care.”
Here are the facts: Some 33 million
of our citizens are without health
insurance, roughly 15 percent of our
population. Some areas of the
country, primarily rural areas,
(See LEADERSHIP, P. 2)
m # ■
CAMPBELL
IWfI
TOWNS
Blacks Challenge Bush
Leaders
Seeking
Summit
MY LARRY A. STILL
WASHINGTON, D.C.-As major
civil righto organizations and black
community loaders debated the next
move in blocking President George
Bush’s apparent “turn back the
dock’’ conservative agenda, the
political Congressional Black Caucus
federal Appeals Court Judge
Clarence Thomas to the U.S. '
Supreme Court and still seek passage
of a 1M1 Civil Righto Bill.
The 27 predominantly Democratic
Party House of Representatives
members “went on record... to make
dera to the people of this nation and
those we serve... our irrevocable
stand on this matter... We will not
shrink from our responsibility to
challenge this president to bring
before the American people, and the
Congress, a fit and appropriate
nominee who will do justice to the
legacy of [retiring Supreme Court
Justice] Thurgood Marshall,” said
the CBC statement released by Rep.
Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), CBC
chairman.
“Our preliminary findings show
that Clarence Thomas does not meet
(See SUMMIT, P. 2)
Inside
Africa
BY WILLIAM REED
Btocfc Americans’ interest in Africa
and our limited effectiveness as
Africa advocates can best be il
lustrated through the current issue of
sanctions against the African country
of South Africa. The truth may well
be that African-Americans, and our
leadership, are so preoccupied with
our own domestic affairs that we
have confused our problems with
foreign affairs. In the case of South
Africa, we illustrate little understan
ding of the geo-eeonomlc-political
process and how to use traditional
and cognitive techniques to build
wealth programs to help black South
Africans and even ourselves. In the
sanctions Issue, directed to harass
whites, we’ve not shown any ad
vocacy efforts to directly help blacks
there.
In a forthcoming Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies
report, authored by Ambassador
Walter Carrington and Edward Dorn,
black American leader*’ attitudes
toward international affairs and
Africa were examined. In the report,
to prominent black Americans were
interviewed, and virtually all of these
Mack leaders said they were “strong
ly interested” in international af
fairs. In spite of their own high level
of personal and/or professional in
terest, the respondents felt that
blacks m a grwm were not greatly in
volved in foreign affairs. Eighty
seven percent of the total study stam
(See INSIDE AFRICA, P. 2)
UNDERAGE CIGARETTE BUYING-In a ground-breaking
purchaie operation for a tetiacca-producing state, 28 toons
aged 12-15 attempted to purchase cigarettes at 100
stores and 25 wending machines, to determine the
COMMIT wM rebate the retnttt of the operation on July 31
at 10:30 a.m. in the City Council Chambers of the
Municipal Building
Legislature Funds Legal Services
For Poor Despite Budget Problems
The 1991 General Assembly,
despite unprecedented budget con
straints, has appropriated $1 million
for civil legal service for poor people.
ThJl continues the financial commit
ment begun by the legislature in the
last biennium to Legal Services of
North Carolina.
“The courthouse doors should not
be closed to the poor because of the
tough budget times,” said Rep.
MU ton P. (Toby) Fitch, Jr., the prin
cipal sponsor of funding for Legal
Services. "Justice should be
available to everyone, not just to
those who can hire a lawyer. The
General Assembly continued to sup
port this valuable program to meet
the mandate of our state Constitu
tion—that the courts be open to til.’’
The state funds are targeted for six
specific groups of people most
urgently in need of these services:
domestic violence victims, children,
older adults, disabled persons,
farmers facing foreclosures, and per
sons seeking to move off welfare and
into the Job force. Legal Services of
North Carolina, created by the N.C.
Bar Association in 1976, administers
these funds through 15 local Legal
Services programs serving all 100
counties.
“The General Assembly has
recognized the vast unmet legal
needs of poor people in our state,”
says Richard M. Taylor, Jr., Legal
Services of North Carolina’s ex
ecutive director. “This support Is
very Important to our overall funding
effort. We want to make access fp the
justice system available to every
North Carolinian.’' '
In 1968, Legal Services of North
Carolina began a three-pronged cam
paign to double the program’s fun
ding. Funding had declined sharply
during the 1900s,* when federal funds
for Legal Services were cut severely.
At the same time, the number Of poor
people in North Carolina increased to
1.2 million eligible for free legal ser
vices.
‘tn addition tp the II million in
statp funding, Legal Services, is now
laying the groundwork for the second
part of our overall fundraising
effort,” says Taylor. “This is an Ac
(See FUNDING POOR, P. 2) .
Toxic Waste Eyes
Poor Communities
For Storage Sites
Money For Rich,
Refuse For Poor
BY CHARLES E. BELLE
Aa AMtjTtk
If it is true that the meek shall in
herit the earth, then they better check
the underground tanks. The African
Americans who are becoming in
creasingly unemployed are gathering
into growing geographic sectors of
American society. African
Americans are increasing their
unemployment rate, dispropor
tionately represented among the
; at percent of the unemployed
or nearly one out of every four. Near
ly twice their representation in the
national population of 12 percent.
Placing them among the poor and
low-income communities in the coun
try. The very places where they
dump most of the toxic waste.
A study of location of “commercial
hazardous water facilities” and “un
controlled toxic waste sites,” as
defined by the U S. Environmental
Protection Agency, puts these
“dumps” next door, under the floor
and all around the houses of a vast
majority of ethnic communities. It is
reported that “three out of every five
African-American and Hispanic
Americans live in communities with
uncontrolled toxic waste sites.” Since
also “approximately half of all Asian
Pacific Islanders and American In
dians lived in communities with un
controlled toxic waste sites,” it can
be concluded that the country has
been committed to this sinner policy
either overtly or covertly.
The unhazardous waste disposal
business is 925 billion a year, while
the hazardous business is almost too
U|*to put a number on. By ignoring
this pollution problem or rather put
ting it on the back and front porches
of the poor, the president and his
policymakers allow profits to be
made at the expense of a majority of
poor people of all colors in low
income communities.
(See TOXIC WASTE, P. 2)
Residents
Exposed To
Chemicals
In Shiloh
BY RACHEL A. HARDY
Special To The CAROLINIAN
The Shiloh Coalition for Com
munity Control and Improve
ment recently completed a health
survey and screening with help
from the N.C. Student Rural
Health Coalition. The survey and
screening addresses health con
cerns of woftowri community
members who hire Wen exposed
to dangerous chemicals by the
local Koppers Co. plant (now
owned by Beasers).
The health screening was an
important political step for the
workers and commiunity. It
represents one of the demands
raised with the Environmental
Protection Agency, the N.C.
Department of Human Resources
and Beater/Koppers Co. by the
workers and the community, ac
cording to Justice Speaks, a
newspaper published by Black
Workers for Justice.
Since 1M8, the Koppers Co.
operated a factory which treated
wood with pentachlorophenol and
isopropyl ether. The waste was
dumped in an adjacent pond;
from there It seeped into the
groundwater. The pond is now a
Superfund site on the priority list
for waste cleanup by the EPA. It
is one of the most dangerous toxic
waste sites In North Carolina.
PCP has been banned in eight
countries and can cause cancer,
skin rashes, breathing difficulties
and liver damage, according to
animal studies.
Residents of this predominant
ly black community in western
Wake County have not been able
to drink the water from their
wells since 1M8, when the con
tamination was discovered. '
(See EXPOSED, P. 2)
Black Community Still
Knocks On Bank's Door
BY MICHAEL G. WALTON
IptctolTlTk* CAROLINIAN
When Jesus told tho parable of the
talents (Matthew 28:14-30), the basis
of the story is that the man who had
large sums of money placed It in the
hands of others to use for a time. Two
of thoee be gave the money to put it to
work, and when he returned to collect
he received interest, while one man
just buried Ms in the ground. In the
black community, one often does not
get the chance to display good Or bad
money management skills because
the financial system is closed. Rev.
Charles R. Stith, a Methodist pastor
from Boston, is actively pressing the
money-lending industry to open its
doors and hands to the black com
munity. . , .
Rev. Stith is the founder and na
tional president of the Organization
for a New Equality, which Is an ad
vocacy organisation dedicated to
helping people who have historically
been shut out by the banking industry
get their fair share of the billions of
dollars lent to Americans yearly.
Court cases, government records,
and just a ride through most inner
cities show that there is a lack of
basic banking services in moot black
communities, and that this is a direct
result of specific discriminatory
policies of moat banking institutions.
Because of discriminatory banking,
practices, this is the picture id most
inner cities:
•There are few bank branches or
automatic teller machines in the fi
ner city. Instead of free or low-coat
bank services, inner-city residents
must often rely on the exorbitant fees
of private check-cashing outlets and
money exchanges.
• Very few mortgagee are granted
to reeidenta of inner-city housing.
Mortgages are more often given to
people outside the inner city, who
then rent the homes to inner-city
residents. This creates low rates of
with horrid
intimately*' *40,
is leu'than >4,1
* v>"r,s c*
Nat worth la the difference between
the value of all your caah and other
aaaeta and the amount of your debts
and liabilities. Lack of home owner
ship was listed as one of the key fac
tors in the difference.
t 1988 study released by the
ibrConstitutton newspaper sug
W;' that a white high-school
out With a job had a 80 percent
r chance of getting a mortgage
jn some markets than a black
op with a graduate degree.
pattern of
industry that
grata hat patted acts to address
these problems. In 1977 Congress
patted the Community Reinvestment
Act and in 1999 it passed the Financial
Institutions Reform, Recovery apd
Enforcement Act. The focus of Jhbse ^
acts is. to have financial institutions^
reinvest money in previously shht-out'
communities, through such measures
as home loans, small business loans,
and opening more full-service banks
in the inner city.
The Organization for a New Equali
' ty works to get institutions to comply
with the. CRA and FIRREA. Rev.
Stith says that communities need to
make funks responsive to their
needs, and that th^e congressional
acts are the fools needed to make the
banking indw|ry reepoijd.tothe black
community.
“Historically,” 'said Rev stith,
"the struggle for equal opportunity
has been defined by the Civil Rights
.’’Act. While enforcement of the edd
\ Civil Rights Act and passage of a new
(See FINANCIAL, P. 2)
teV' *
Hie U.S. Department of Com
merce reported that the average
net worth of a white family in
America is approximately 140,000
and the average net worth foi;
African-American families is less **
than $4,000. Net worth is the dif
ference between the value of all
your cash and assets and the
aipount of your debts and
liabilities. t