Page 2, Portland Observer, February 24, 1988
EDITORIAL
/
O P IN IO N
Civil Rights Journal
EDITORIAL
Beniamin F. Chavis Jr.
Racism in Iowa
Manning Marable
THE RIGHT TO VOTE: USE IT OR LOSE IT!
In the February 9, 1988, Issue of the Des Moines Register, the headline
read: ‘Clive police urge residents: Report sightings of Blacks." A few days
later another headline appeared: "Critics urge Clive's racist chief resign".
The headlines were in reference to a letter from the Clive, Iowa, Police
Department "asking residents to report Black men in their neighborhoods at
night" According to the Register, "the fliers were distributed to block cap
tains in Neighborhood Watch areas of the Des Moines suburb. The fliers
described a burglary during which the homeowners woke up to find an in
truder in their bedroom. The suspect was described as a large Black man."
The flier also said, "If you see a black male in your neighborhood at night,
please call the Clive police immediately so that we can try to find out who the
individual is."
To date, no evidence has been found to indicate whether or not the man
in question was African-American.
Larry Carter, President of the Des Moines branch of the NAACP said the
statement was terrible
"The police department has other resources
available to them to track down a suspect. There must be a better way of get
ting this information out without incriminating every black male who may
wish to go to Clive. We should be able to go freely wherever we choose
without being subjected to police questioning simply because we are large or
we are black,” he said.
Clive Police Chief Dean Dymond agreed with Mr. Carter, saying the state
ment would be retracted in the next publication to block captains
Mr. Dymond’s agreeable stance has not dampened the anger of some
Des Moines residents. The Des Moines' Humuan Rights Commission has
demanded Chief Dymond’s resignaton. Mark Lambert, assistant director of
the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, said the statement was “ incredibly offensive."
“ The fact that someone is black is not enough of a reason to have them
checked out by police or suspect them of being criminal. Sometimes police
in mostly-white neighborhoods decide that if a crime is committed by a black,
anyone like that seen in the area is automatically a suspect," Lambert noted
In a defensive move. Chief Dymond said, "Nothing racial was meant by
it. We put out a publication every two months and we will make a special note
to retract that statement.”
However, Mary Rhem-Brewer, a representative of the Black United Front,
said, “ No discussion, no compromise The issue is, does a black man have
the right to be in Clive . . . This is opening the door for another Howard Beach
right here.” Commissioner Carlos Jayne said the fliers represent a racist at
titude. “ It was a policy that was surreptitiously instituted and not just an off-
the-cuff remark. His mistake wasn’t in saying it. It was in having it written
down.”
According to the 1980 census, Clive was listed as having a population of
5,900 people with about 40 African-Americans.
The incidents in Clive and Howard Beach were bound to happen. Their
roots go back to the days of what is now known as "White flight.”
“ White flight” refers to the attitudes of whites who moved out of the
cities rather than live as neighbors with non-whites, African-Americans in par
ticular. Intended or not, the impression given was, "We prefer not to live near
or in your neighborhoods." Ironically, these were the same neighborhoods
they called home a few years before. When they took flight, so did their
money and their businesses. In fact, many businesses followed them to the
suburbs, leaving the inner city depleted of important economic resources."
Now, in many of these suburbs, African-Americans are being told, in no
uncertain terms, “ You are not welcome here. We don’t want to see your black
face around here.” That was the message of Howard Beach. That is the
message coming from the suburbs of Clive in Des Moines. That was the
message of Forsyth County. It’s a message we can expect to continue to
hear.
See “ Racism in Iowa’’ — Page 4
by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
The date was February 18, 1965.
The place was Marion, Alabama.
What happened there that night was
to change the course of history
dramatically. It would also have un
told affect on the right of African
Americans to vote in the South and
throughout the country.
On that night in February, voting
rights activists, including Albert
Turner from Dr King's Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), had organized a march.
The march would show, again, that
African Americans would not be in
timidated by the unbridled violence
inflicted on them by Alabama offi
cials every time they tried to register
to vote.
Soon after the march began,
Alabama State Troopers rioted.
They began beating and clubbing
the demonstrators, among them an
84-year-old marcher named Cager
Lee. Lees grandson, Jimmie Lee
Jackson, immediately came to his
grandfather’s aid and carried him
into a nearby Black-owned restaur
ant. The troopers followed, still
clubbing everyone in sight, including
Jimmie Lee’s mother. When he tried
to protect her, the troopers promptly
shot the young man point blank in
his side. Then, propping him up,
they shot him twice again. Jimmie
Lee Jackson died seven days later.
This was the death which promp
ted voting rights organizers to in
itiate the Selma to Montgomery
March to protest his murder. On
March 6, 1965, the march was set to
begin on the Edmund Pettis Bridge
in Selma. As Movement organizers
from SCLC and SNCC (the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Commit
tee), along with local residents,
began to move forward. Alabama
State Troopers viciously attacked
the unarmed group.
Only this time it was different —
the brutality was televised. Televi
sion viewers throughout the nation
watched, horrified, as the evening
news showed troopers relentlessly
clubbing the fallen, many of them
women. Movement organizers had
endured countless acts of violence
over the years during the voting
rights struggle. However, this one
act of senseless brutality, fed to
America with its IV dinners, meant
that the violence could no longer be
ignored.
As a result of intense public pres
sure, Congress passed the Voting
Rights Act which was signed into
law by President Johnson on August
6, 1965. The Act cleared the way fcr
the registration of hundreds of
thousands of African American vot
ers throughout the South.
This year a national committee
has been formed, based in Selma,
Alabama, which plans to com
memorate the historic voting rights
struggle there. The main celebration
takes place on March 6th in Selma.
The Annual National Celebration of
the Right to Vote was initiated by
Atty. Rose Sanders, the dynamic ac
tivist attorney from Selma. She and
her husband, State Sen. Hank San
ders, have long been in the forefront
of voter mobilization and education
in the Alabama Black Belt. She
speaks of the importance of begin
ning this yearly celebration through
out the country, saying, “ Rather
than every 20 years, we need to
celebrate our voting rights victories
every year — in our classrooms, our
churches and our homes. We must
keep uppermost in the minds of the
community, and particularly our
children, how many of us died for
this precious right. And if we don’t
use it, we ll surely lose it.”
Albert Turner, still a tireless civil
rights worker in Perry County,
Alabama, echoes these words in an
inspiring television documentary,
produced by WNYC-TV in New York
City. Entitled, “ Somebody Marched
for Me,” the film is about the continu
ing voting rights struggles in the
Alabama Black Belt. Mr. Turner is
shown pointing to the bullet-riddled
gravestone of Jimmie Lee Jackson.
He explains, "White racists still
shoot at Jimmie Lee s grave. They
keep trying to kill what he stood for
but it won’t die. And every time we
vote, he lives again through us."
As the Presidential primaries and
elections draw near, we would all do
well to remember his words, and to
remember, too, the blood which was
shed throughout the years for the
right to vote.
The Civil Rights Journal, written by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., is a publication of the United
Church of Christ.
.
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Joe Clark, the crusading Black
principal of Eastside High School,
Patterson, New Jersey, has re
ceived a great amount of media at
tention and public praise in recent
weeks. And when viewed superfi
cially, its easy to praise Clark as a
valiant educator who’s been unjustly
maligned by liberals of various
stripes.
Clark was named principal of one
of New Jersey’s worst public
schools about six years ago.
Eastside was overrun by drugs and
violence, and Clark was determined
to turn things around. Cultivating a
style which was simultaneously pro
vocative, c o n fro n ta tio n a l and
charismatic, he patrolled school cor
ridors with a bullhorn, shouting out
orders. Clark promoted the Protes
tant work ethic, and praised young
women who were virgins for uphold
ing morality. The principal criticized
families who relied upon welfare as
lazy, and condemned difficult stu
dents as "leeches, miscreants and
hoodlums." Although the principal
had no legal authority to expel stu
dents without the approval of the
Patterson School Board, Clark
purged 300 of Eastside’s 3,000 stu
dents in 1982, and in late 1987 he
banned an additional 60 students.
Clark’s premptive actions stirred a
hornet’s nest of public criticism.
Educators condemned Clark’s ac
tions as counterproductive, noting
that under New Jersey law, all indi
viduals are entitled to a public edu-..
cation until aqe 21. Patterson's
School Board condemned dark, and
ordered him to reinstate the 60
pupils who had recently been expel
led. But a groundswell of support for
Clark occurred, initially from many
working class and poor Black resi
dents of Patterson who favored a
hardline approach on educational
issues. Supporters noted that
scores on the Scholastic Aptitude
Test for Eastside students have
risen since Clark’s tenure, as well as
school marks on the statewide profi
ciency test for Math and English
composition.
Clark presents himself as a
toughminded educator, an urban
prophet struggling for quality stan
dards in the public schools. Regrett
ably, some Blacks have cheered his
bombastic and bullying tactics,
thinking that bullhorns and expul
sions are a substitute for real educa
tion. But Clark is a false prophet, a
shallow and demagogic adminis
trator who prefers to exert authority
at the expense of the broader goal of
enriching the educational experi
ence for innercity Black and His
panic youth. The Reaganities see in
Clark a cheap but sensational way
to win over a fragment of the ghet
to's Black working class, frustrated
by poor schools and high crime
rates. But Clark's strategy is nothing
but a dead end.
Dr. Manning Marable is Chairperson of the Black Studies Department, Ohio State University,
Columbus. Ohio. “ Along the Color Line" appears in over 140 newspapers internationally.
Identity and Survival
by J.M. Gates, MBA
G e n e ra tio n a l c o n n e c
tio n s in the positives of
keep-on-keeping-on appear
in Black film connections,
paper fans, posters, pag
eants, benevolent so cie ties
and the on-going positive
tra d itio n s that b o lste r an in
spired w illin g n e s s to risk
all for im provem ent of self
and the next generation.
C ultural id e n tity and sur
vival were the what o f it all.
C e rta in le tte r s in th e
George P. Johnson F ilm
C o lle c tio n at U niversity of
C a lifo rn ia (Los A ngeles)
te ll how A fro-A m erica ns
sought m oney from the
United States governm ent
to make film s fo r Black
troops w ho w ould go to
Europe in the First W orld
War.
Even before that,
stock c e rtific a te s o f Black
film investm ent evidence
the serious th in kin g and
planning.
Mgr /Controller
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P.O. Box 3137
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T h e ' Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions
“FALSE PROPHET: JOE CLARK”
Letters to the Editor
OREGON'S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION
Articles M o n d a y 5 p m
Along the Color Line
Arthur Schomberg’s Dream Fulfilled
Editor:
I’m in clin e d to believe we
m ust
judge
beginnings
by
endings, not endings by begin
nings. It m atters not how the
developm ent of the eye took
place nor how im p e rfe ct was the
firs t sense of sight, if the eye
now gives us co rre ct in form a
tio n o f external objects. So it
m atters not how the in tu itio n s of
right and of God originated, if
they now give us know ledge of
o bjective truth. We m ust take
fo r granted that e volution of
ideas is not from sense to non
sense. We can understand the
amoeba and the polyp only by a
lig h t reflected from the study of
man.
We m ust elim ina te an in fer
io rity com lex. We are not so un
cultured. We m ust learn to con
verse w ith educated, cultured
people w ith o u t trem bling w ith
fear.
We m ust m otivate our
youngsters o f p o te n tia lly great
achievem ent. They have lived in
a w orld of deprivation, blocked
against anything educational.
We m u st fig h t a g a in s t the
poverty-nurtured a ttitu d e o f peo
ple. You really learn the d if
ference between good and bad
when you live in an area where
you have a choice. It’s tim e to
remember, what happens to us
tom orrow depends on what we
teach o u r c h ild re n today.
H isto ry show s that the strength
o f today has com e out o f the
im m igrant group of yesterday.
We m ust lift our people to the ir
potential.
Harlem in the 1920’s, a period
that was know n as the Harlem
R enaissance, sw ung to the
m usic of Duke E llin g to n and
F le tche r Henderson. Caucasoid
New Yorkers flocked to Harlem
n ig h tc lu b s to be hypnotized by
the voice o f Ethel W aters and
the dancing feet of B ill “ Bo-
ja n g le s ” Robinson. But it was in
amazed fa s c in a tio n tha t the
dow ntow ners beheld the erudi
tio n o f the s c h o la r W.E.B.
DuBois and the elegant lyrical
prose of Jean Toomer. These
literary voices co ntra d icted all
o f the stereotypes that dom i
nated the ir perceptions o f Black
people. Stated Sybil G ow ly, in
the now -defunct Negro W orld
Statesm an, "Everyone wanted
to w rite a book about Negroes
and everyone wanted to read
what everyone had w ritte n about
the m .”
During th is period, Ernestine
Rose was head librarian at the
branch of the New York Public
Library on 135th Street between
Lenox Avenue and what is now
A d a m C la y to n P o w e ll, Jr.
B o u le v a r d , th e n
S e v e n th
Avenue. C urious and eager to
learn a b o u t B la ck p e o p le ’ s
o rig in s and a c tiv itie s past and
present, H arlem ites and others
w ere e m p ty in g the lib ra ry ’s
shelves of books like M cK ay’s
novel, "H o m e to H arlem ", and
Jam es W eldon Jo h n so n ’s an
thology, “ The Book of Am erican
Negro Poetry.” As the people
came in, Ernestine Rose got
busier and became in creasingly
concerned — the c ity ’s budget
for replacem ent o f volum es hav
ing been depleted — about
preserving and expanding the li
brary’s stock.
By now, A rthu r A. Schom burg
had been living in New York City
for more than 30 years, having
e m m ig ra te d th e re fro m his
native Puerto Rico. As a ch ild in
San Juan, S chom burg had had
burned in to his co nsciou sn ess
th e w o rd s o f h is m u la tto
teacher.
“ N egroes,” she had
told her pupils, “ have made no
h istory.” Incredulous in lig h t of
the capable Black businessm en,
a rtists, m in iste rs and teachers
he knew w hose ancestors, he
surm ised, could not have been
stupid, the little boy had grown
up to be the man w ho w ould
travel halfw ay around the world
gathering evidence to expose
his teacher’s lie. S chom burg's
reputation as a c o lle c to r of
b o o k s a b o u t A fric a n s and
A frican-A m ericans was known
to librarian Rose and, through
friends, she contacted him. If he
was so su ccessfu l in fin ding
b o o k s fo r h im s e lf in th e
bookstores of Latin Am erica, the
C a rib b ea n , E urope and the
United States, he m ig h t be able
to help the library obtain books,
too.
In 1929, S chom burg's private
c o lle c tio n was deemed to be of
such im portance that, at the urg
ing o f the o ffic ia ls o f the Na
2p.-----------------------------------------
* * ri
• *j<
t io n a l U rg a n L e a g u e , th e
Carnegie C orporation bought it
fo r $10,000 and donated it to the
D ivision of Negro Literature,
H istory and Prints, at the 135th
Street Library. Since then, the
S c h o m b u rg C o lle c tio n has
grown trem endously. Jean H ut
son, u n til recently the curator
fo r the C enter for the last 35
years, says, “ The library is grow
ing steadily.
The Schom burg
C olle ctio n, always a part o f the
C ircu la tio n Departm ent of the
N e w Y o rk P u b lic L ib ra ry ,
became, in 1972, one of the four
main com ponents o f the New
York P ublic Library’s Research
Libraries.
Its name was also
changed in 1972 to the S chom
burg C enter for Research in
Black C ulture.
Alex Haley did a great deal of
research fo r his best-selling
book "R o o ts ” at the Schom burg
Center. P sychologist/educator
Dr. Kenneth Clark supports the
Center. It was at the Schom burg
Center that Kwame Nkrumah
firs t read about A frican history.
In Ghana during his childhood,
the E n g lish c o lo n iz e rs only
allow ed the history of England
to be taught. When I last spoke
a t H u n te r C o lle g e B la c k
S tudents Union, I n otice A rthur
S cho m b u rg ’ s dream fu lfille d ,
the dream that young Black peo
ple in the generations suc
ceeding his own w ould know
nothing of the lie his teacher
had told him — that "th e Negro
has made no h is to ry ."
Dr. Jam il Cherovee