t'.ige2.
'fia r : Observer, June 10, 1987
ON COKE
Coke Sweetens Apartheid
The future of South Africa will ultimately be determined by South Afri
cans, particularly by the majority who have been excluded from political
power. U.S. based multi-national corporations can either assist or hinder
the process of genuine change.
The divestment movement throughout the U.S. is a non-violent strategy
to bring about the desired fundamental change in South Africa. Success
in the disinvestment movement is one of the most effective building blocks
toward bringing pressure on the South African Government. The Coke
Campaign is one facet of the disinvestment movement.
Based on the September 17, 1986 announcement by Coca-Cola that they
intend to disinvest, many people believe that Coca-Cola has actually dis-
invested. Apparently, it is important and profitable for Coke to maintain
economic links with South Africa at all costs—even if they have to distort
the truth.
According to an Atlanta Journal Constitution article November 9, 1986,
Coke is the dominant name in the South American soft drink industry, with
69 percent of the market and 76 percent of its sales to blacks. The figures
are unlikely to change despite Coca-Cola's move to divest, or sell off, its
South African interests.
A financial Times article March 7, 1987 stated that Coke has offered
shares of its soft drink bottling industry to 8,000 black South African re
tailers.
It must be remembered that the object of disinvestment is not to change
the color of people who finance apartheid, but to end all financial support
for apartheid.
Why a Coke Campaign?
BOYCOTT
1. Coke continues to have the largest share of the South A f
rican soft drink industry, w ith 69% of the market, and 76% of
its sales to Blacks.
2. Coke has not actually sold any of its shares to Blacks, only
offered them. The apartheid regime places servere limitations
COCA-COLA
on Black business development.
3. Coke is moving its syrup plant to Swaziland, a neighbor
ing country of South Africa that is forced to maintain close
economic ties to South Africa.
4. Coca-Cola products will still be sold through 15 indepen
dent bottling companies.
Coca-Cola still helps to finance apartheid. Any corporation
that makes a profit from apartheid participates in the destruc
tion of the lives of the majority of the people. Total disinvest
ment must mean the cessation of all economic operations and
connections, including license, trademarks, factories, suppliers
and distributors.
PRODUCTS
Contact POSAF, 230-9427,
for more information.
Along the Color Line
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
by Or Manning Marable
A NEWS SERVICE
Dr Manning M .r.tble is professor of sociology and political science
at Purdue University
Along the Color Line" appears in over 140
OF THE U N IT E D C H U R C H OF CHRIST
newspapers internationally.
COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
Gwen Patton: Black Activist Under Harassment
The Execution of Edward Earl Johnson
Edward Earl Johnson, a 26-year-old African Ameri
can, was put to death in the gas chamber at Parchman
Prison at 12:06 a.m. on May 21st. He was from Walnut
Grove, Mississippi and his execution marks the return of
the imposition of the death penalty by the state of Mis
sissippi.
Now that the Supreme Court has decided that capital
punishment is constitutional, even given racial dispari
ties, we will be witnessing the deaths of hundreds just
like Edward Johnson. Therefore, we should understand
more fully the horror this decision has unleashed.
Mr. Johnson's case is a good example. On June 2,
1979, his car broke down and he called a repair truck
for assistance. That same evening the home of a white
woman was broken into and she was robbed. The town
marshall, passing by her home, was killed by the robber
during his escape. When the sheriff discovered, only a
few hours later, that Mr. Johnson had made the call,
thus placing him in the area, he picked up Mr. Johnson
and took him to the victim's home. The woman stated
that Mr. Johnson was n ot the man who had robbed
her.
Mr. Johnson had no previous record and was gain
fully employed by a local factory. Further, one could
reasonably assume that a robber would not deliberately
place himself at the scene of a crime by calling a tow
truck after the robbery. Yet, just two days later, the
sheriff and other officers again picked up Mr. Johnson,
even over the tearful protests of his grandmother, who
had raised him. This time Mr. Johnson was taken to a
remote area in the woods where the sheriff and his men
threatened to beat his grandparents unless he signed a
confession. Johnson signed. The woman, hearing of
the confession, changed her mind and said Mr. John
son was the robber. Mr. Johnson continued to pro
claim his innocence, even until death.
There are now 787 African American prisoners on
death row across the nation; of that number 47 are in
Mississippi. According to Tanya Coke of the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund, a 1985 study, focusing on the
death penalty in Mississippi, was conducted by Prof.
Richard A. Berk of the University of California at Santa
Barbara. Ms. Coke states that the results of that study
show that "discrimination is particularly egregious in
Mississippi, even worse than that proven in the Georgia
study (validated in the Supreme Court's recent capital
punishment decision]."
These figures should not be viewed in a vacuum. We
know that African American and other racial and ethnic
peoples are as subject to racist violence at the hands of
the legal system as they are at the hands of some crazed
civilian mob. The kind of men who killed 14-year-old
Emmett Till for saying "hey, baby" to a white woman in
Mississippi in 1955 are alive and well and sitting as
judges and juries in Mississippi . . . and in every other
state in the union.
The Supreme Court's capital punishment decision
admitted that the Georgia study "indicates a discre
pancy that appears to correlate with race." Then, the
Court added, (QUOTE) "apparent disparities in senten
cing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice sys
tem.” (UNQUOTE) These so-called "disparities" have
cost Edward Johnson his life. These "disparities" will
also cost the lives of many other African Americans
and Hispanic Americans unless we join together now to
mount an organized legal challenge to the Court's de
cision.
In his dissent to the decision, Supreme Court Justice
William J. Brennan warned, "It is tempting to pretend
that minorites on death row share a fate in no way con
nected to our own, that our treatment of them sounds
no echoes beyond the chambers in which they die.
Such an illusion is ultimately corrosive, for the reverber
ations of injustice are not so easily confined."
We would do well to heed these words. We would
also do well to remember the words of Edward John
son. As he was being strapped into the chair in the gas
chamber he kept saying with disbelief, "I guess nobody
is going to call. I guess nobody is going to call."
This is Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. of the United Church of Christ for
Civil Rights Journal.
Don't Be Fooled Into
Believing The Constitution
Is Obsolete!!!
¡To“
I
The American Constitution is the oldest existing con
stitution in the world. The year, 1987, we celebrate
ft's 200th birthday.
When something is around for 200 years, it is only
natural to take it for granted. A recent national survey
sponsored by the Hearst Corporation revealed that a
majority of Americans misunderstand many basic pro
visions of the U.S. Constitution. For instance, 46 per
cent of the population do not know that the purpose of
the original Constitution was to create a federal govern
ment and define it's powers.
In the first 100 years of our country the Constitution
was taught in it’s full text, purpose and intent in all in
stitutions of learning. Most churches taught the Con
stitution in it's full text, purpose and intent as an en
dowment of our Creator, a gift from God. Today it is
not allowed to be taught in our public schools or in our
churches. As a result most Americans are in the dark
regarding detailed knowledge of our Constitution.
Only an informed Citizenry with an independent and
free spirit can change the disastrous course that this
country is taking. Most elected officials take an oath
to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution with little or
no knowledge of what it is. For a citizen to serve as a
juror or to vote without this knowledge of it, is as dan
gerous as a blind man walking through a mine field.
Don't be fooled into believing the Constitution is ob
solete. Correctly applied and followed it is as effective
today as the day it was ratified.
THOMAS JEFFERSON said, " If a nation expects to
be ignorant and free it expects something that can
not be."
It is also likely that an uninformed Citizenry would
resort to violence when the real solution is with an in
formed Citizenry'.
S.W. Thompson
Umatilla, Oregon
Why is Gwen Patton deemed so controversial, so
dangerous to the educational and political status quo of
Alabama? Because she's never apologized for being in
favor of Black empowerment and equal rights. She be-
lives that when certain Black "misleaders" consistently
misrepresent the ambitions and desires of our people,
they should be removed from high office. "W e must
empower ourselves by choosing leaders who articulate
our needs and are fully accountable," Patton asserts.
"W e do not need political leaders who decide for every
one what is good for them ."
Gwen Patton is also one of the rarest of Black intel
lectuals—a dedicated teacher-writer who compre
hends along with W.E.B. Du Bois, that the ultimate
purpose of learning is to transform political and social
realities, on behalf of our people. There is no conflict
between academic excellence and political engage
ment. There is a struggle currently being waged, Pat
ton has written, between "close-minded Blacks" who
continue to defend the system vs. Black intellectuals
who are "open-minded." Afro-Americans in the se
cond category are "penalized, sometimes violently,
because they think, they analyze. The cliche 'you study
too much' . . . is sadly a part of the psyche in some
Black settings which adopt programs to stifle current
and potential contributions and development of the
Black intellectual." It would seem that ASU wants to
"stifle" intellectual freedom by purging Patton from its
ranks.
Jesse Jackson and the National Rainbow Coalition
have already taken an uncompromising stand in support
of Gwen Patton. At the Rainbow's board of directors
meeting in late 1986, a resolution passed unanimously
which declared: "W e protest the termination of Dr.
Patton by the administration of Alabama State Univer
sity and call for her reinstatement . . . Her termination
was a clear act of political discrimination, resulting from
her leadership in voter registration/education efforts
and the Rainbow campaign.” Messages of political
support and financial contributions can be sent directly
to Prof. Gwen Patton, 46 East Patton Avenue, Mont
gomery, Alabama, 36105. Can we fail to support those
Black activists and teachers who have already sacrificed-
for our struggle?
One of the greatest fighters for Black freedom and
political rights in the South today is Gwendolyn M.
Patton. Twenty years ago she was a student body lead
er at Tuskegee Institute and conducted "freedom
schools" promoting voter registration throughout the
Black Belt. In the late sixties Patton served as director
of the Southern Student Human Relations Project and
executive secretary of the National Black Anti-war Anti-
Draft Union. After receiving her master's degree at
Antioch University, Patton eventually returned to her
home in the South. She became well-known in recent
years as a television moderator and columnist for the
Montgomery-Tuskegee Times weekly newspaper. As
an articulate and dynamic classroom teacher/scholar,
she received the highest ratings from students and col
leagues at Alabama State University. Despite these
strong credentials, Patton has been fired from her job at
this historic Black college. Why?
All the evidence points to a blatant case of political
harassment aimed against Patton. In 1983 84, Patton
had become actively involved in Jesse Jackson's Pre
sidential campaign. Running successfully as a delegate
for the Rainbow Coalition to the Democratic National
Convention, Patton alienated the Black political esta
blishment tied closely to Mondale and other white party
hierarchs. Chief among Patton's critics were the lead
ers of the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC),
the Black caucus of the state's Democratic Party. In
June, 1986, Patton unsuccessfully challenge ADC lead
er Alvin Holmes for his seat in the Alabama State Legi
slature. Although Patton lost, her electoral effort clear
ly established the basis for more extensive Rainbow
political mobilization in the future.
As Patton's progressive political star began to rise,
she became increasingly under seige at Alabama State
University—an institution whose board of trustees in
clude prominent ADC chairman Joe Reed. At first the
school criticized Patton's teaching and cited "poor
student evaluations." Patton was eventually denied
tenure on the spurious grounds that she has been in
structing classes in topics outside of her specific aca
demic field-despite the fact that she was officially
assigned to such classes! Patton had no choice but to
sue the university's board of trustees.
Mr
Mrs
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