church
Education Fund Offering Grants To
Preserve Black Culture, Tradition
ATLANTA (AP)— In jail cells and
beseiged meeting halls, the low, slow
tones of the somber anthem stirred
hearts and stiffened resolves:
“We shall overcome; We shall
overcome;
“We shall overcome—someday.
"Oh deep in my heart I do believe
“We shall overcome someday.”
Today, long after the civil rights
era, the song that helped change lives
is still doing so through a $100,000
fund built on royalties.
The fund offers grants of up to
$1,000 for groups preserving black
culture, esoecially music, in the
South. For most of the 15 years of the
Georgia Sea Islands Festival, for
example, it has made a grant to pay
for the apperances of traditional
black musicians, including so-called
“shouters.”
“We rely on it,” said Frankie
Sullivan Quimby, a leader of the
annual event preserving the heritage
of slaves and their descendants.
The fund is administered by
Tennessee’s Highlander Research
and Education Center, a training
school for social activists where “We
Shall Overcome” was popularized.
Thp fund is administered by
ill iinaii
Tennessee’s Highlander Reasearch
and Education Center, a training
school for social activists where “We
Shall Overcome” was popularized.
At the school’s workshops, group
singing in the evenings followed
group discussions in the day.
At one sing-akmg in 1M7, students
who were members of the Food,
Tobacco and Agriculture Workers
Union offered “We Shall Overcome,”
which had been sung on their picket
lines by black members. Though
there’s some debate over its roots,
many historians trace the song to a
gosnel hymn, “I’ll Be All Right” by
Finney, Director,
NAACP Youth and College Division, second from right,
present? an award to Pepsi-Coia Company tor its
"continuous support” of the division’s popular Roy Wilkins
Scholarship Lucheon during the Association’s recent 83rd
Annual Convention in Nashville, TN. Pepsi-Cola executives
accepting the award are, from left, Maurice Cox, Vice
President. Corporate Development and Diversity, Betty
CONTINUOUS SUPPORT!-Yvonne L.
i _m.
Shine, Supervisor, Media Services and
Public Relations. Pepsi-Coia reel
Youth and College Division with 256
Emmy Award winning motion
Equal,” that starred Sidney
discussions in commemoratieN of the
the U S. Supreme Court decisis
Public Schools.
Church Plans Boycott
Of Japanese Products
DETROIT (API — A national black Baptist organization is
onsidering urging its members to boycott Japanese products in
retaliation for alleged racial slurs by Japanese leaders.
Delegates to the Progressive National Baptist Convention voyted
to send the issue to its civil rights committee, said the Rev. Tyrone
Pitts, general secretary of the organization.
"We’re calling on all our constituents to not purchase anything
that is clearly a Japanese product,” said the Rev. Calvin Butts of
New York, resolutions committee chairman of the 2.5 million
member religious group.
Pitts said the boycott proposal wouldn’t be taken up again until
January at the earliest.
Black Americans have accused Japanese companies of
discrimination in hiring workers for their U. S. plants. They also
have been angered by remarks such as that from a Japanese Cabinet
minister, who said in 1990 that black Americans "ruin the
atmosphere” when they move into white neighborhoods.
Japan’s then-prime minister later called the comment
inappropriate.
More recently, another Japanese official called American workers
lazy. The boycott represents a response on behalf of ail Americans,
Butts said.
"Blacks are concerned about what the Japanese say about us, but
also what they’ve said about all of us as Americans,” he said
The boycott also is important to blacks "because unemployment in
the American auto industry, in particular, Impacts black people
heavily," Butts said.
W tier Huizenga, president of the American International
Automobile Dealers Association said recently he couldn't speak for
Japanese companies’ hiring practices. But he criticized the proposed
boycott in a statement read by a spokesman.
"We find it curious that these people would stereotype a race of
people, based on the actions of a few,” Huizenga said. "This Baptist
Convention should know better than anyone else that this is a very
dangerous precedent to be setting.”
Calls to Butts and the Rev. Charles Adams of Detroit, president of
the Baptist organization, weren’t immediately returned last week.
t
THE SAL
N ARMY
Group Targets Needs of Youth
(NU) • The hamn of foe Victo
rian nrphanage, fdkd out ao viv
idly by 19th-ceomry author Charles
Dickens, also gave Salvation Amy
founder William Booth panee as he
Tint considered opening r*——"
homes far chikhen.
Need prevailed, as it atiH does,
and Booth's fledging nmndininn
courageously opened ns MX strictly
regulated nurseries, children’s homes
and maternity homes in Endand in
the 1880s.
Today, The Salvation Amy main
tains scores of youth-oriented pro
grams, focusing an child develop
ment as well as social services.
There is mose devekmnental help
throughcampsandywingcluba.com
munity centers vn well-defined
programs and services, and scouting
organizations. Salvation Amy spon
sors 200 scout grtwma chartered by
the Boy Scouts of America, for in
stance, and Guide and Sunbeam pro
grams offer school-aged girls guid
ance in citizenship, personal and
spiritual values.
The Salvation Amy also main
tains residential care programs de
signed to treat social, emotional,
menial, or behavioral problems, and
foster normal development and so
cial functioning in children. At other
Salvation Army centers, young
people can find emergency or short
term help.
On any given day in the United
States, The Salvation Amy has re
ported, more than 5,000 children ind
youth are under its care and supervi
sion.
C.A. Tindley.
Folk singer Pete Seeger often gets
credit for spreading “We Shall
Overcome” nationally. But, in an
Interview, he credited Highlander’s
late music director Zilphia Horton
and a musician and author at the
school, Guy Cara wan.
Seeger remembered being at a New
York fundraising party when Zilphia
Horton came up.
“Have you heard this wonderful
new song I’ve got?” she said
excitedly. Recollecting, he began to
sing it:
“We will overcome...”
Seeger printed it in the publication
“People’s Song” in 1948 and took it to
concerts, later changing “will” to
“shall ”
Cara wan, meanwhile, taught it to
civil rights leaders who streamed
through Highlander; they taught
their followers.
As the song spread with the
burgeoning movement, Seeger,
Carwan mid an arranger, Frank
Hamilton, took out the original
copyright, adding the name of Mrs.
Horton, who had died; all royalties
were to go to a special non-profit fund
supporting black culture.
“Like a damn fool,” Seeger said, he
did not at first ask himself, “What are
four white people’s names doing oo
this song?” The copyright since has
been amended to include members of
the tobacco workers union and the
civil rights movement
A copyright may be academic Mr
a song that, Seeger once said, “Is
niver sung exactly the same way
twice.”
“WeshaU live in peace..."
“We’ll walk hand in hand...”
“WeshaU all be free...”
“It has verses like ‘We are not
afraid,’ that people sang in very
dangerous situations,” Carawan
said. “It has, I don’t know, a blind
hope.”
And though it has been boomed out
by 10,000-voice masses and
harmonised on intricately by
quartets, he suggested what may be
the most powerful rendition of all:
“Just one person singing it in a ceU.”
Church To
Hear Choir
At Revival
F aith Missionary Baptist Church
will hold its annual revival the week
of August 17-21. The Rev. William H.
Height, pastor of First Baptist
Church in Smithfleld will be the
speaker for the week.
Praise service will begin nightly at
7:Mp.m. Inspirational singing will be
at 8 p.m. and worship service will
begin at 8:15 p.m._
Choirs„ rendering music for the
week are as follows: Monday. The
Combined Choirs of First Baptist
Church, Smithfleld; Tuesday. The
J.P. Rogers Gospel Choir of Johnston
Piney Grove, Clayton; Wednesday,
Hie Youth Choir of Faith Missionary
Baptist Church; Thursday. The
Everready Gospel Choir, Oak City
Baptist Church, Raleigh; and
Friday. The Mass Choir of Faith
Missionary Baptist Church.
Pastor Ervis E. Allen. Jr. and the
church family invite the public to1
worship with them in these services.
The church b located at 908 Suffolk
Blvd.
Drive Safely
VISITING OR. KING'S MEMORIAL- Visitors and residents
keep the dream alive through visits to Martin Luther King,
Jr. Memorial Gardens on Martin Luther King Boulevard in
Southeast Raleigh. The wife of the slain leader, Colretta
Scon King dcNvofHii aa address n Ha mmhI NaNonai
Youth Assembly at the Raleigh CMc Center, argad yeung
people to deal with Mb’! chalenges thrMfh aaa-vMent
means, including educaDon ami hard work. (Photo by Cash
Michaels)
Kev. King
Speaks On
Violence
BREMERTON, Wash. (AP)—
The Rev. Bernice King, daughter
of slain civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr., will give the key
note address at a weeklong confer
ence on urban issues.
Bernice King will speak at the
opening banquet Aug. 30. The con
ference, sponsored by the Emman
uel Apostolic Church and Commu
nity Resource Center, will run
through Sept. 6.
Workshops will cover a range of
urban and community topics. One
session on gangs and violence will
bring together clergymen who
serve inner-city churches in the
Interstate 5 corridor from Belling
ham to Portland, Ore.
It is sure that,
come what may,
will get God’s pay)
“You are indeed charitable when
you give, and while giving turn your
face away so that you may not see the
sfayness of the receiver. (Gibran)
My heart ached when I read
Barbara Reynolds column in the USA
International Edition of June 13,
while on the airplane coming back
from Russia. The article is worth a
re-write for the material is not in
some of the local papers.
“Behind closed doors in the
nation’s capital, children as young as
7 are being forced into prostitution,
often by their own parents to pay for
drugs or household rent
Numerous adults are participating
in these unthinkable acts, some of
whom are infecting kids with the
deadly AIDS virus.
Par too many lives are destroyed
by age 10 says Dr. Jan Hutchinson, a
medical doctor of child and youth
services for D. C.’s Commission on
Mental Health.
Hutcinson, a 43-year-old
psychiatric pediatrician tries to piece
young lives together after they are
wrecked by adults. She agonises over
why adults- parents, neighbors,
teachers, doctors, police, media, and
governments- aren’t fighting harder
to save disposable kids, a growing
phenomen acmes the USA.
Nationally, there are about 3
million reported cases of child abuse
yearly. They range from an Iowa
mother starving her invalid 5-year
old son to death to a Detroit woman
abandoning her child on a busy
freeway.
While L.A. rioters exploded
publicly on the streets, family mini
riots explode quietly behind the
closed doors of over-crowded flats
seething with Joblessness, drugs,
and spiritual poverty.
Out of public sight and mind,
depression and hopelessness turn to
rage. Parents strike out and abuse
their children. Maqy with values as
weak as those of politicians who
ignore the problem, allow their
children to be prostitued or killed.
Two infants in Washington were
beaten to death by adults before their
second birthdays this week. About
1,500 more of the city’s children will
be beaten raped, burned or
prostituted before the year is out.
Not one presidential candidate is
campaigning on rescuing abused,
abandoned, homeless kids from their
living bells, which is a main reason
they are being turned out.
Things have deteriorated to the
point that jail is sometimes viewed as
a graduation preeent up from the
streets. Free food and a place lima or
drive-by shootings.
Solutions must be found.
Orphanages must be considered
because 3 J million children stngMlt
to survive in zero-parent households
Drug teatment must be increaaod for
adults, and mental health sendees
must be provided for the kids, who
are suffering Vietnam War-Uke
traumas.
Kids can’t wait for political
solutions and broken fostercare
safety nets to catch them. Bvery
responsible adult, whether single or
married, must find ways to become a.
substitute parent.
When adults tail to rescue a
throwaway child, that child often
flunks out of Ufe.”
Dr. Hutchinson’s article addressed
a part America that is more than
depressing. How tragic that we
want to neq> save the wnoie worKL
when throw-away kids are
everywhere. What has happened in
our own country to let this abuse
exist?
Hutchinson is writing about cruel
physical existence, and not even
addressing the spiritual emptiness In
these children’s lives! It is heart
breaking! No, all men (or women)
are not born or created equal, and all
need a fair chance at life.
The one thing that I feel sure about
is that these children are loved by a
Heavenly Father. He surely know
who is miss treating and abusing
these children, and His ways are Just
God does not interfere with men’s
free agency, but he will at some point
and time gather those children to
Him and address their wrongs to
those who were responsible. Eternity
is a long time to pay for such crimes
against children!
Children are an inheritance from
the Lord. “It is not the will of the
father that any of these should
perish.” In the Book of Mormon
(Mosiah) 4:14, the Lord tells Us
people, “And Ye will not suffer your
children that they go brngpry, or
naked...” Children are a gift from
God and precious in His sight Oh
that each child could be protected
from those who serve the devil!
“This is sure that come what may,
who does God’s work will get God’s
TVO MINUTES
vm IMF MALE
SV cotiwum t. SIAM MM.
"UNDERSTANDEST THOU WHAT
THOU READEST?"
Hus was the question
Philip asked of the Ethio
pian prinee as he sat read
ing from Isaiah’s prophecy
(Acts 8:30), and it is a quee
tion which we should con
tinually keep asking our
selves as we read the holy
Scriptures.
There are always those
among God’s people who do
not much care whether or
not they understand what
they read, if only it warms
their hearts! To them the
Bible is little more than a
fetish. Taking only those
Scriptures which appeal to
them, and leaving the rest,
they actually feel them
selves quite spiritual and
often talk about believing
the Bible whether they un
derstand it or not!
But such "spirituality” is
far from genuine, and. such
"faith” is blind and super
stitious at best.
While it is true that the
Bible teaches many truths
which we believe, although
they are beyond our com
prehension (such as its
opening verse!), yet how can
we believe what the Bible
X unless we understand
it eayet God would
have us understand what
we read and believe it intel
ligently. Indeed, true faith
will want to know and un
derstand more and more of
God’s Word. One who does
not care whether or not he
understands what God has
said is not interested in
knowing what God has said
at all. His faith is based on
his own will rather than on
God’s Word, for regardless
of the meaning of Scripture,
he will take any passage
that suits his fancy and use
it as he wishes.
How great an emphasis
God Himself puts upon the
importance of understand
ing His Word! On one occa
sion, when our Lord saw
the multitudes. He "was
moved with compassion to
ward than because they
were as sheep not having a
shepherd: and He began to
teach them many things ”
(Marie 6:34).
And now that the secret
of God’s great plan has been
made known, how much
more reason there is to
study the Scriptures with
a view to understanding
them! How Paul, by the
Spirit, emphasises this as
he writes of his prayers for
the saints: "THATthe God
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may
give unto you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in
the knowledge of Him: the
eyes of your understanding
being enlightened; that ye
may know what is the hope
of his calling. . (Eph.
1:17,18).