Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1972)
Observer’s Periscope Congressional Black Caucus moves forward Rep. Ralph Metcalfe repre sents Chicago's black 1stI lis ti let. He was elected In 1970 and seives on tie Interstate and Foreign Affairs Commit tee. Rep. Charles Rangel, re presentative of Harlem , de feated Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 ami seives on the sc lence and AstronautsCoinmiiteeaml the S e l e c t Committee on C rim e. Rep. Charles Diggs, J r , is from Michigan. He was elected in 1954 and is Chairman otthe African Subcommittee on Af rican Affairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and member of the committee on D istrict of Columbia. He is chairman of theCongressloiial Black Caucus. Representative George W, Collins Is from Chicago's 6th D istric t, where Blacks out n u m b e r whites two to one. E lected In 1970, he Is on the Government Operations Coni- mIttee and the Publ K W o r k s Committee. Rep. John Conyers is fi om D etroit’ s piedominantly black 1st D istrict. He was elected In 1964 and serves ontheCov- ei nnient operations ami Judi ciary Committees. Rep. Ronald Dellums, from Oakland's 7th D istrict, which is ethnically m i x e d , w a s elected* in 1970. He is on the committees for D i s t r i c t of Columbia ami Foreign Affaii s. Rep. Robert Nix, of P hila- tielphia, was elected in 1958 ami is the oldest member of the Black Caucus. Deserves on the Forlegn Affairs Com mittee and on the Post Office ami C ivil service Committee. Representative S h ir le y Chisholm was elected f r o m Brooklyn ( Bedford - stuyve- sant) in I9b8. she serves on the Education and Labor and the Veterans’ Affairs Com mittees. Representative LacyClayts from St. Louis, district that is 50 per cent black. Elected in 1969, lie serves on the Educa tion and Labor Committee. Rep. Walter Fauntroy was elected to Congress as a dele gate from Washington, D.C. In 1970. He is not officially a member of the House and can not vote. He represents a con stituency of 750,000. Rep. Augustus Hawkins re presents Los Angeles' all black 21st D istrict. Elected in I9b2, lie serves on the Educa tion ami LaborConiinittee ami th e House Administration Committee. R e p . Parren Mitchell re presents an integrated district of Baltimore, Maryland, ami was elected in 1970. He is on th e Small Business and the Banking and Currency Com mittees. He is a former col lege professor. Rep. Louis Stokes from Ohio was elected in 1968. tie is th e brother of f o r m e r Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes ami is on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Washington D. C . and th e federal government have al ways held some hope for blacks since they c o u ld not look to the states or to local government for redress. Until recently there have been few blacks in government who could influence the decisions that were made to affect black people. During R e c o n s t r u c t i o n black men were elected to pub lic office, and sat in the state legislatures, but that period was short and was followed by more than a generation of re pressive legislation. Today, for the firs t time in American history, black peo ple are looking to W ashington with more interest and hope, kindled in part by the promise that a group of black legisla tors, the Congressional Black Caucus, may at last have a ma jo r influence on federal power. T h e Caucus is composed of 12 Congressmen and one Con gresswoman, one of whom is a non-voting member. There are growing signs that its pri mary goal - to articulate th e needs of the country's 22 m il lion black people — is achiev able. T h e Caucus grew out of a group that met informally, us ually at weekly luncheons. The program so far has in cluded an exhaustive list of 61 detailed recommendations, a compendium of black griev ances, that was presented to President Nixon after much prolonged and p u b l ic iz e d White House rebuff of the black legislators, all of whom are Democrats. When they w e r e unable to see the president, the Black Caucus announced that its members would boycott the President’s State of the Union Address. Thedomesticpubli city on the boycott was bad enough: the international play on th e story wasdevastating. Radio Peking and Radio Mos cow were especially hard on the president, broadcasting their message to the nations of Africa and Asia. Two days after the boycotted address, the White House a r ranged an audience. On March 25,1971, the Black Caucus went to see the Presi dent. It was a disappointing session and no answer was given to their recommenda tions. Caucus recommendations assigned high priority to eco nomic security and develop ment, but included important social problems such as ine quitable welfare programs, inadequate federal assistance to state and local government, the poverty program, poor c h i ld development services, civil rights, crim inal justice and the drug problem. Since the Roosevelt Ad ministration th e Democratic Party has taken the black vote for granted, but theCaucus has put the party on notice that it cannot expect black support without making and keeping definite commitments. Chairman Diggs feels the Caucus has given the black legislators m o r e p o w e r , since the whole has become greater than the sum of its parts. T h e i r presence as a unified force has made C o n gress more sensitive to black needs and given black political power a new reality and visa- bility. The aim of the Caucus is to form a political strategy that w i l l give blacks bargaining leverage with both the Demo cratic and Republican Parties. " I f blacks use their votes in telligently they can affect th e outcome of e v e r y election fiom city council to the Presi dency,” says Representative W alter Fauntroy, Washington D .C .'s non-voting representa tive. Blacks make up II per cent of the population, but they control the inner cities. "We are n o t opposed to coalition politics, only now we’ re going to be part of the coalition,’ ’ one member said. The members of the Black Caucus have become more than 13 Congressmen repre senting their individual dis t r i c t s . T h e y , as a u n i t , represent 24 million black Americans. Medio hearings set The Congressional Black Caucus will hold ad hoc hear ings in the mass media and the black community in March. Congiessman W illiam Clay (Dem .-M o.) w ill chair the hearings. Samuel F . Yette w ill be among those invited to testily. Yette, Newsweek Magazines first anil only black corres pondent in its Washington Bureau, was recently fired. According to Represen tative Clay, "Numerous in stances of the white mass media’s failure to properly interpret the Black movement and the issues affecting the Black community, their un willingness to adequately in crease minority employment on their staffs, and the in sidious method of firing a number of highly competent Black journalists prompted this thorough investigation of the mass media." Recommendations obtained from the hearings w ill be used as a part of the National Black Agenda being prepared by the Congressional Black Caucus. v
