Page 4 Portland Observer, March 4, 1982 Black students and the School of Law EDITORIAL/OPINION Oregon needs leadership The State Legislature fin a lly made a decision M o n d a y n ig h t. They added $193.9 m illio n in new taxes and cu t $136.1 m illio n fro m state agency budgets and property tax relief. The Legislature managed to hold the line on agency cuts— $87 m illio n as opposed to the G ov­ e rn o r’ s proposed $120.9 m illio n , and on basic school support w ith $16.3 m illio n rath er than the G overnor’ s proposed $21.3 m illio n. They made up the difference by adding cigar­ ette taxes and an income tax surcharge, and by cutting property tax relief on the more expensive homes. In other words, those who are still w o rk­ ing and have expensive homes w ill pay a little more taxes. N e ith e r the L e g is la tu re n o r the G o v e rn o r dem onstrated the decisive leadership necessary to raise th e m o n e y th a t is needed to keep a q u a lity e d u ca tio n system and to p ro v id e the services e s s e n tia l d u r in g these tim e s o f d e p re s s io n w h en m any p e o p le are unem ployed. There are other avenues fo r raising m oney— one being a state lottery. We hope that when the Legislature convenes next January it w ill take that under consideration. Several weeks ago we tested public opinion and found a willingness to try this option. In light o f the performance o f the Legislature in its recent special session, the residents o f Ore­ gon s h o u ld c a re fu lly co n s id e r th e ir e le c tio n choices. Those who are elected frequently forget whom they are elected to serve. Poor Bob! Senator Bob P ackw ood was rig h t when he said President Reagan’ s “ concept o f A m e rica ’ ’ has h u rt the R epublican p a rty and that he is sometimes unresponsive to Republican congres­ sional leaders. He m ig h t have added that Rea­ gan is unresponsive to the needs o f the Am erican people. Packw ood’ s m istake is his apology under fire from the W hite House and the Republican party leadership— state and national. A pparently Packwood felt he was correct and s till believes he is correct. So w hy apologize fo r the truth? H e Y, «-AH«..' Tzzzx Zf GrR&rr, I I ses ßUC&T f ioti ÍK--- t i d / wk toP'R e MAKING. G -€N U IN & \ T R o tft& s s 0 L by Manning Marable One o f the key elements in the ra­ cist reaction against Black people in the 1980s has been the serious reduc­ tion o f Black students adm itted to this nation’s law schools. Black law­ yers provide the legal troops so es­ sential in challenging discrimination and Reagan’s backward and bank­ rupt public policy agenda. A t the University o f Pennsylvania’ s Law School, Black students recently staged a highly successful c o n fer­ ence (in which I took part as a fea­ tured speaker) by certain quarters o f the Black media in Philadelphia, re­ veals much as to the currently con­ fused status o f the Black M o v e ­ ment. Throughout its history, the U n i­ versity o f Pennsylvania Law School has merited critical acclaim as one o f the country's leading centers for the study o f ju risp ru d en ce. L ike other Ivy League institutions, it has also practiced a policy o f W hite Su­ premacy that w ould m ake even George W allace blush w ith envy. From I88S until I9S9, only 13 Black students graduated from the Law School. Between I9 6 0 and 1968, a mere 7 Blacks achieved law degrees. The unrelenting political pressure o f the C iv il Rights M ovem ent forced the school to capitulate to Blacks* demands. The number o f Black Law School graduates at the University o f Pennsylvania jum ped from 6 in 1969 to 14 in 1973, 20 in 1974, and 31 in 1979. But with Reaganism and the polit­ ical reaction o f recent years, the progress o f the 1970s was quickly re­ versed. Only 18 Blacks graduated in 1981, and 11 graduated this Spring. One o f only two Black faculty mem­ bers was denied tenure last summer. A t a faculty meeting in late 1981, oarganized chiefly to discuss race relatio n s, very little was accom ­ plished. In an open letter, one Black law student expressed her profound frustrations with both the meeting and the continuation o f institutional racism: “ The faculty failed to offer any sort o f solutions to the problem ( o f race re latio n s ). R ath er, they again demonstrated their insensitiv­ ity, i f not racism, towards the m i­ n o rity presence at Penn. For example, not a single professor in attendance bothered to challenge the proposition that, ’it is a held be­ lief that minorities at this law school are in te lle c tu a lly in f e r io r .’ This proposition was put before the fac­ ulty body not once, but twice; and twice it went unchallenged. Racism is a real and pervasive issue in this institution and it would be unrealis­ tic to expect the perpetuators o f the problem to devise the solution." Black law students at Penn spon­ sored the annual Mid-East Regional Conference o f Black American Law Students Association (B A L S A ) on February 5-7. The central theme o f the conference was "Perspective for the Eighties— Challenges and Re­ sponsibilities o f the Black Legal C om m unity." W ith an almost non­ existent budget, the students brought to Penn an impressive array o f Black legal and political activists, including Philadelphia Congress­ man B ill G ray; New Jersey State Representative Wayne Bryant; Vic­ tor G oode, Executive D irector o f the N atio n al Conference o f Black Law yers; New Y o rk Judge Bruce Wright; and the Honorable A. Leon H ig g in b oth am , U .S . judge o f the C o urt o f Appeals, T h ird D istrict. Black student leader R obert A . Marchman informed the media that the conference’ s goal was " t o in ­ crease our awareness and knowledge o f the social, economic and legal problems adversely affecting Black law people.” Curiously, on the first day o f the conference. Chuck Slone, one o f the most prominent Black journalists in Am erica and a leader o f P hiladel­ p h ia’s Black com m unity, used the pages o f the P h ila d e lp h ia D a ily News to criticize Penn’ s Black law students. Stone’s chief lament was that David M . W hite, the author o f Towards a Diversified Legal Profes­ sio n, was not in attendance. The w hite legal scholar, who lives in Berkeley, C alifo rn ia, has analyzed the problem o f relatively low law school admissions test (L S A T ) scores among Blacks. Stone charged that W hite "w asn’t invited because his new book is more important to Black law students than anything they’ ll be discussing this weekend." Sessions on “ T h ird W o rld C o n ­ cern s" and the "C o n s e rv a tiv e T r e n d " were " u n re la te d to law school success." F or Stone, the question o f the cutbacks in Black law students was related to " a dwindling number o f qualified m i­ norities.” The conference "should have assigned more energies to the hermorrhaging o f their SQ (survival quotient).” For Penn’ s Black law students, S tone’ s criticism was unexpected and even somewhat puzzling. They had previously invited Stone to appear at the conference, where he could have aired his criticisms in a more fraternal manner. In a letter dated January 12, 1982, he declined to attend, but wished the students well. Since the conference was able to pay only modest honoraria and travel expenses, they could not have afforded to invite W h ite from the West coast— a sim ple fact that Stone, who was invited, should have known. Penn's Black students are con­ cerned about the L S A T . On February 9, 1982, the Black pre-law undergrads even held a detailed seminar on the L S A T featu ring Alan Freedman o f the National Cen­ ter for Educational Testing. But the simple fact remains that the basic reason that Black admissions to law, m edical and o th er professional schools has declined recently has less to do with low board scores and more to do with politics. Black stu­ dents at most law schools today who are accepted have L S A T scores that are 50 to 75 points higher on average than they were a decade ago. Yet Black admissions in the 1970s were higher than today. Stone’s daughter attends Penn as an undergraduate student, so he un­ doubtedly has some cursory insight into (he current struggles against ra­ cism on campus. But the question remains— why the unmerited c riti­ cism o f Black law students on the eve o f what was viewed by most ob­ servers as one o f the most successful meetings o f its kind held this aca­ demic year? The opinion o f one close observer o f Black Philadelphia politics sug­ gests (hat Stone’s salvo at Black law students could be indirectly related to his continued vendetta with a ma­ jo r conference speaker, B ill G ray. According to this source. Stone con­ sidered himself as heir apparent to the Congressional seat o f R .N . Nix. W hen G ray won the seat, Stone's position was preempted. In 1981 he pondered a race against the Dem o­ crat Gray by running as a Republi­ can, a strategy not unrelated Io (hat o f Slate Senator M ilto n Street. When he determined that he could not win in G ray’s district, he decid­ ed to bide his tim e , a ttac kin g the Congressman's political activities. D id G ra y ’ s p a rtic ip a tio n at Penn trigger Stone's column? What Stone may not recognize is that his unthinking and uncharac­ teristic broadside could be used to underm ine the p o litic al resolve o f Blacks at law schools besides Penn. The struggle to increase the number o f Black atto rn eys, the struggle against racism, demands a greater degree o f responsibility than Stone has recently exhibited. Reagan agenda ineffective Letters to the Editor Administration ignores repression in South Africa To the editor: Secretary o f State Haig brought a message from President Reagan to the Chicago rally held in support of the Polish union S o lid arity a few weeks ago. “ We will not do business with the Soviet Union or P o lan d ," he said, “ as long as there is repres­ sion in P o la n d .” N o m atter what your feelings about the Polish situa­ tion, those o f us concerned with the plight o f the twenty million Blacks in South Africa found cold comfort in the statement. Poland has been a com munist- ruled country for decades. By West­ ern definition communist means re­ pressive. In the world of realpolitik, no other reaction should have been expected o f the Polish regime when confronted with Solidarity. In South A fric a , however, we have a government that claims to be a republic where people vote fo r their political leaders. In reality, the 84 per cent o f the population that is non-white has no political voice at all. Yet, that government prides it­ self on being a member o f the free world; and our government not onlv recognizes that m em bership b ut, under the R e a g a n /H a ig /C ro c k e r policy o f constructive engagement, seeks closer ties between us and them. C o n vien tly o verlo o ked — or ex­ plained away— is the long history o f repression, oppression and racism practiced by the governm ent o f South Africa. Racism is written into its constitution and repression and oppression the aim o f its intricate web o f apartheid laws. Like Lech Walesa, Nelson M an ­ dela demanded for his people the right to vote. Nelson M andela has been in jail on Robben Island for al­ most twenty years. Like Lech W a l­ esa, Steve Biko attempted to build solidarity among his people. Steve Biko was killed while in police cus­ tody in 1977. L ik e Lech W alesa, Thozamile Gqweta seeks to organize the workers o f his country. Thoza­ mile Gqweta is now in jail. W hy is our President so dis­ traught at repression in a Com m u­ nist state and so accepting o f it in a so-called free -w o rld nation? I ’ ve come to the sad, disturbing conclu­ sion that racism is so entrenched in the American system that repression o f Black people just isn’t terribly re­ pugnant to us. And so we are out­ raged by Poland but do business as usual with South Africa. Franklin H. Williams President, Phelps Stokes Fund »Pf« Name Subscription«: 110.00 per year in Tri County area. Poetm eetar Send eddreee change» to the Portland Obaerver, P O Box 3137, Portend, Oregon »7208. Address 283 2486 MEMBER A ! Williams, Advertising Manager toaoclatloo - Fow.w