I
August 6th. 1970
Democratic National Convention
W? see the world
by Yvane
Copley News Service
through Black eyes
I No panic in China
• * « « » » * » { * ' i l M I M I »»»♦««< M I «09999««999« f» 8 « I M I 9009009991
-
The reaction of the Chinese people in the wake of
x the disosterous earthquake that killed tens of thou-
= sands of people and distroyed some of the nation's
E most important cities can be compared to the reac-
= tion of Americans in times of crisis.
EL According to the reports of foreigners who were in
— China during the quake, the people responded with-
EEs out panic and aided each other. The people moved
quicky and quietly to reach safety and to help others
reach safety. Following the disaster, calm has reign
ed.
In the United States, we have not only witnessed
panic, but every disaster seems to be followed by
looting. It is every man for himself, even at the
expense of others.
Some observers have explained that the Chinese
are used to regimentation and submerge their own
needs to those of the group, whereas Americans are
taught to ba individualists.
There must be a way to teach individualism and
practice democracy without losing all concern for
other individuals or for the common good.
Perhaps one factor in the Chinese response is
planning. Their government has expected an earth
quake and prepared for it. We have no plans in the
event of disaster — in fact, most families do not even
take the time to formalize a plan with their children
in case of a fire in their home.
But the overriding difference seems to be a differ
ence in attitude — the attitude we see practiced
every day in business and in every aspect of our lives
- that of looking out for ourselves at the expense of
the other guy.
Perhaps the Chinese have found that “commun
ity” Barbara Jordan was talking about.
Deaatioialize games
Every four years there is renewed concern about
the politicization of the Olympic games and talk
about how the Olympics are supposed to be contests
between individuals. Yet each time there Is the
inevitable counting of each country's medals.
This year there were the boycotts by African
nations, the rejection of Taiwan, the threats of the
United States and the Soviet Union to withdraw.
Perhaps the answer would be to eliminate nation
ality altogether — let each athlete compete for
himself and forget national desigration, flag waving
and the national anthems.
Then the Olympics could again be “for the ath
letes."
¿■other Potat of View
With all deliberate spaed
by Benjamin L Hooks
FCC Commissioner
Last month, CBS held a preview showing of a
dramatic documentary. With All Diliberate Speed.
The title was taken from the Supreme Court ruling a
year after the historic school desegregation decision
of 1954. The film stirred poignant memories and
vividly underlined why the struggle for equal educa
tional opportunity, through busing, or whatever
means, must not be deterred by bigots who would
turn back the clock or fhe “ Sunshine soldiers" who
duck for cover at the slightest hint of an opposing
rain.
It was, indeed, a painful recounting of two men,
one Black — Rev. Albert J. DeLaine, played brilliantly
by Paul Winfield, and the other white - Federal
District Judge J. Waities Waring, staunchly portrayed
by John Randolph - who struggled and plotted to
end segregation in Clarendon County (South Caro
lina) schools in the 1940's.
The case was lost, with Judge Waring issuing the
lone dissent in a three-Judge court decision. Never
theless, the case, Briggs vs. Elliot, became one of five
consolidated in the famous landmark Brown vs. the
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansos, decision
which ripped forever from the American fabric like a
gangrenous sore, the separate but equal dictum that
had been canon law since 1895.
To many of us it was a slice of real life racing
across that silver screen. The story was told in the
sensitive faces of those Black, saintly children as they
steed forlornly while white kids boarding the fami
liar (now embattled) yellow school bus stuck out
their tongues, cruelly as children will, and taunted,
“You can't ride this bus." It was a blatant statement
of fact.
Black children could ride no school buses. They
had none. They trudged miles to school, past confer -
table white well-equipped schools to ill-equipped
one-room shacks that barely masqueraded as school
rooms. There, huddled together in freezing ill-heat
ed rooms, or sweltering torrid temperatures, they
scratched for the dribs and drabs of a wretched and
woefully inadequate education they managed dur
ing a shortened school term.
Is there any wonder that many see the truth in
what the wry old Black observer once soid, "White
folks sho' know that us Black folks is superior. 'Cause
it takes 10 times as much money to educate them as
it do us."
We who lived in the south saw much of this. Not so
much in the larger urban areas, but in the rural and
the poorer backwoods areas of the south, where
those of us who worked with Dr. King and Southern
Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP
confronted it head on.
How many Clarendon County, South Carolines
were there? Too many. They stretched like an infinity
of mirrors in a mad house of unending reflections.
Although one would have been too many, they were
everywhere in the south, the midwest, the far west
indeed in many areas in the north.
Judge Waiting died in the '60's in New York, an
exile from his home where he was born to privilege
and comfort. The Reverend DeLaine died in the
1970's in North Carolina, also an exile, driven like
Waring, by the cretinous white bigots of that day.
After desegregation. Clarendon County schools,
today have become all Black. Nevertheless, these
schools are a far greater improvement over those
wretched wrecks Black children earlier attended.
And, it seems to me, there are three hopeful
lessons to be learned from the devastating experi
ence: (1) that there are whites who are ready even
now to lay their all on the line for decency, justice,
equality, humanity, and indeed, are doing it; (2)
young Blacks, so impatient for change, who see the
revolution as having begun sometime in the early
1970's, must see from this film how much enduring
time, effort, and suffering went into just this wee
vignette of human struggle for school desegregation,
the denouncement of which is still out there some
where in a distant time warp; and (3) the long,
historic leadership role of the Black minister and the
Black church in the struggle for human dignity,
freedom, and the keeping alive of a sense of com
munity, personhood, and spirituality among our
people.
A curious twist to this, also, is the fact that hun
dreds of thousands of Black victims of this shamefully
inadequate education system made their way north
to the auto plants of Detroit, the tractor works of
Moline, Illinois, etc., and with their third-grade
learning, worked to make a better life for their
children.
These are the present-day generation, many of
whom look with disdain at historic Black sacrifice
and scorn all past civil rights struggles as "irrele
vant." What will life be like for their children?
Who would have bsltovsd that the
. Democratic National Convention would
end w ith M artin L uther King Sr. giving
the benediction to a cheering audience,
clasped in harmony w ith the Democratic
nominee who accepted pledges of support
from California Governor Je rry Brown
and form er Alabama Governor Georgs
Wallace?
The U n ity party, as the Democratic
Party has now become known, appears to
have accomplished a nearly incompre
hensible fe a t I t has coalesced behind
Jimmy C arter, a stranger from Georgia.
W h at exactly is the C a rte r mystique?
I ’ve heard some say it is his ability to
be all things to all people, largely by
saying nothing.
Though thia fallacy grew during the
campaign, it is not based upon fact. As a
member of the Democratic Platform
Committee, I can verify that there are 45
position papers in the C a rte r campaign
covering each issue in detail. These posi
tions cover everything from the elvsl of
defense spending, nuclear proliferation,
welfare reform to agriculture. During his
acceptance speech, C a rts r reviewed
these positions in detail.
But this year the positions on issues
are not the paramount consideration. The
American people are looking for leader
ship.
A t the last tw o Democratic conven
tions. issues were paramount. Significant
social change was in progress.
The turm oil and acrimony, though
frightening, is an extension of free and
open expression of opinion, so cherished
in our democracy. Those w ith divergent
views must never be excluded from the
processes of the Democratic P arty. But
the price of division on issues is high.
The political reality is that the great
body of Americans who vote the middle
of the road, who retain a healthy skepti
cism of politics and politicians, aren't go
ing to vote for a party embroiled In
controversy. These mainstream A m eri
cans back off from politicians who haven't
resolved their differences. Since these
are the voters who determ ine elections,
the nation has smarted under eight years
at united, but tragic. Republican leader
ship.
T h ia i : year, 1978, is the year for Demo
crats to unite and assume leadership.
Jimmy C arter is the rig ht man a t the
rig ht time.
He w ent to the people. Democrats fin
ally noticed a man who won in the p ri
maries, following a truly democratic pro
cess. They saw a man who gains his
extraordinary strength from a funda
mentalist adherence to basic values and
who is surrounded by supporters who are
devoted, not to an ideology or economic
theory or goad, but to a person in whom
they have tremendous confidence.
I have been naked again and again, how
can Blacks accept a Southern w hite can
didate?
The answer has been very clear. Blacks
that worked w ith C a rte r in a difficult
political environment knew him to be
uncompromising on the very basic quali
ties such as justice and equality. He is
known for giving people a fair break.
Jimm y C arter is a man who, on the
basis of pai t performance, can be expect
ed to offer equity, justice and equal op
portunity to Blacks. Given the treatm ent
they have received in the past, this is a
rare man indeed. *
i
^
Jimmy C a rts r wl
In 1979 I had
I
presiding a t the Io
i
most tumultuous,
cratic convention
i
was a real pleasui
sional colleagu
Barbara Jordan i
note speech and L
frst woman to chi
vention.
1 was honored b
of Governor J e rr
but many have i
decision to remaii
candidate was di'
I am sure Gov
reviewed the imp
in light of his own
as its impact on
There were man;
sidered and weigh
to be nominated «
the magnitude of I
ed in the few shori
in spite of a pre«
Governor Brow
enthusiasm in you
diverse status. 7
some conclusion t
Je rry Brown has i
and 1 also know
support the Demo
I f there was any fear in my mind that
Carter subscribed to that biblical phrase.
“Vengeance ia Mine, sayeth the Lord."
they w ere dispelled when I was asked to
second the nomination for vice president
for Senator W alter Mondale, a person I
greatly adm ire and respect
M y hope is that the unity theme can
spread from the Madison Square Garden
out over the whole United State«.
Pullman porters win
(Continued from p. 1 col. 8)
awarded.
Basically, the court found that had
there not been discrimination on the p art
of Pullman against its porters, those por
ters would have been promoted to con
ductor jobs and received higher pay-
In February, six years a fter the suit
was originally filed and a fte r appeals to
both the 10th U.S. Circuit Court o f Ap
peals in Denver and the U.S. Supreme
Court, Judge A rra j ruled th a t Pullman
had discriminated against the former
employes.
T w e lv e Blacks w ere promoted to the
position of conductor in 1987, but the suit
claimed that they had to give up all the
seniority they had accumulated as por
tera and were placed on the bottom line of
the conductor's list, behind junior con
ductors.
Although railroad retirem ent benefits
w ere included in the suit, the court stated
that the Railroad Retirem ent Board is the
appropriate body to consider and resolve
this question.
W hile the special master now compiles
his list of the eligible porters, the court
ordered him to request the Equal E m
ployment Opportunity Commission to
d raft a form of notice to all members of
the class action. His report is due back to
the court as Phase H I in the ease by
February 9th, 1977.
Only Pullman porters who actually
worked as porter in charge on or a t any
tim e a fter October 25th, 1985 are eligible
for the back pay awards as ruled by the
circuit court. This eliminates Pullman at
tendanta. For further information contact
W illie L. Leftwich. Hudson. Leftw ich A
Davenport,
1101
Fifteenth
Street
N orthw est, Suite 808. Washington, D.C.
20006. Telephone: (202) 452 1566.
p 'j. n 't a . ï t
■'q* »KT .07-^
Carter foreign policy
(Continued from p. 1 col. 8)
pute the amount of back pay relief to be
on detente w ith the Soviet Union to a
strengthening of ties w ith our allies and
with N A T O .
Having rejected both the Schlesinger
and Kissinger strategies. C arter may be
more w illing to compromise in the S A L T
(Strategic Arm s Lim itation) talkea than
President Ford. H e says he is committed
“to reach an agreement w ith the Soviet
Union on definitive and substantial re
ductions, carefully balanced if possible, la
actual total nuclear capability."
C a rte r says his ultim ate goal to "nuc
lear disarmament" - reduction of world
nuclear arms to saro. H e also rejects the
need for exact equality w ith the Soviets
in the numbers and sise of every weapon
s system. He says calculations of slight
advantages for either side are not a “ma
for consideration”.
C arter’s expectations of S A L T easily
exceed those of the present administra
tion, wihe has sought only to lim it the
number of nuclear weapons deployed by
On the question of nuclear non-prolif
eration, C arter has also gone beyond the
administration's position "by linking the
issue with nuclear arms reductions by the
U.S. and Soveiet Union.
“T he longer effective arms reduction is
postponed," says C arter, "the more likely
it to that other nations will be encouraged
to develop their own nuclear capability."
He added, "W e have little rig h t ot ask
others to deny themselves such weapons
for the indefinite future unless we dem
onstrate meaningful progress toward the
goal of control, then reduction, and ulti
mately elimination of nuclear arsenals."
In other areas of defense policy. Car
ter's positions are closer to Ford's. He
says be would reduce sales of conven
tional arms to the Third World, and pled
ged to “work w ith our allies, some of
whom are also selling arms, and also seek
to work w ith the Soviets, to increase the
emphasis on peace and to reduce the
commerce in weapons of w ar."
Defense spending would probably con
tinue to rise under Carter, though a t a
lower rate than under a Republican Pres
ident. C arter calls for a modest »5 - 7
billion cut from this year's record »119
billion defense requst, which would still
provide for growth over last year's bud
«•*-
In the end. Carter's statements on the
maintainence of a strong conventional
defense while limiting U .8 . incursions in
to internal foreign wars are positions
virtually any of the candidates could a-
bide by. But his apparent disavowal of
the Schlesinger counterforce strategy
makes inevitable a lively debate over the
question of w hat rival strategy he w ill
substitute for bargaining w ith the U.S.'s
chief rival, the Soviet Union.
ROZEU’S
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i In greens ef ten or ■
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