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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1989)
Page 12 Portland Observer April 27, 1989 PERSPECTIVES “DATELINE FREEDQM:CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE PRESS” TO BE REBROADCAST ON PUBLIC TELEVISION THE ARMOUR J.} By McKinley Burt BLACK GENIUS- WHITE COVER PART 111 Last w eeks’ article under this same title certainly provoked a lot of discussion in the community, and at several schools in the district. As strangers on the bus and in the m arket (recognizing me from the accom panying picture) approached to comment. I was made aware o f the great positive im pact that know ledge of self can have ,and I thought how much this type of input is needed forour children and youth to help counter the insidious forces that drive them to gangs in search o f ; self-image and role models. Please listen up, you parents, teachers and counselors. Let us exam ine som e o f the sources of the worlds wisdom as handed down to us through proverbs, folk tales and morality plays-always with w hite covers, either deliberate or assumed. From J. A. Rogers (W orlds’ G reat Men of Color) we have the following: “ The influence o f E so p -E so p ’s Fables on W estern thoughtand morality is profound. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Aristophanes, Solon, Cicero, Julius Caesar...Shakespeare and other great thinkers found inspiration in his w ords o f wisdom. "Socrates spent his last days p u ttin g his fables into verse.’’ They didn’t tell us that in school, did they? This great African thinker lived in the sixth century B.C., and according to the m onk, Planudes the Great, was a “ native of Asia Miner and a Negro..Tlat -nosed, with lips thick and pendulous and a black skin from which he contracted his name (Esop being the same with E thiop).” S o m etim es£ so p is confused with another groat African Sage, Lokman who lived 1100 B.C. M ohammed The Prophet quoted him as an authority and nam ed the 31st chapter o f the Koran after him. Among his best known fables is the follow ing : “ a rabbit, meeting a lion one day said reproachfully,I have always a great num ber o f children while you have but one or tw o now and then. The lioness replied, It is true but, my one ch ild is a lion. In todays’ world the cover story continues. How many of our youth (or you) know the true background of Famed 88 year old Je ste r H airsto n , the Black internationally know n com poser, conductor, choral arranger and lecturer on African-American music who (back then) graduated cumlaude from Tufts University. This is the man who, when H all Jo h n so n became ill, took over his choir and in one month trained them to do the R ussian m usic for the fabled movie, L ost H orizon. The Russian composer D im itri T io m k in won an A cadem y A w ard for the score, but Jester Hairston was never m entioned. Timomkin remained his w hite cover for the next twenty years, while the unsung Black genius worked as the Russians’ conductor and arranger. W hy, then, we may ask , does NBC have Mr. Hairston playing the role of a no-too-bright church board m ember (Roily Forbes) in the situation comedy, A M EN ?,w hen the fabulous story of his life and cultural contributions provide a wealth of material for significant dramas that could portray the real cultural co n trib u tio n s o f g reat A frican - Amercians in music and the theatre. The situation of Jester Hairston brings to mind the story o f T hom as E dison, the busiest w hite cover in history. A fictionalized version appeared on Educational Channel 10 several weeks ago, N ot told here was the well docum ented (Patents) truth o f the developm ent o f the filam ent that made the electric light bulb possible, that Lewis H oward Latim er, the Black inventor (1848 to 1928) was the genius who made it possible, Last year T he G e n e ra l E le c tr ic F o u n d a tio n contributed $25,000 toward preserving his home. This is the same Latim er who was hired by Alexander G ra h a m Bell to m ake enough sense out o f his ideas for a telephone to execute the drawings for a patent. W hen Bell, in turn, was hired by T h o m as E d iso n , the sm a rt businessm an, he persuaded Edison to bring Latimer aboard as the only Black m em ber of the E dison Pioneers. He is well covered by Edison and it is little known that he also patened the light switch and socket, and wrote the first textbook on The Edison Electric System. G ranville W oods, the Black inventor of The W estinghouse Air Brake, escaped the cover by suing Edison twice, and winning judgem ent in the Ohio district. W A SH IN G TO N , D.C. A pr.13, 1 9 8 9 - The critically acclaimed docum entary “ Dateline Freedom: Civil Rights and the Press,” hosted by W ashington Post w riter Juan W illiam s, will be rebroadcast W ednesday , May 3 at 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS (Check local listings.) Through archival footage and interviews with many o f the reporters who brought this struggle to the public’s attention, the half-hour program which premiered in January tells the behind-the-scenes story of how the press covered the civil rights movement. These journalists, who were mostly white, m ale and southern, share their recollections at a ringside seat in one of the m ost important m ovem ents in recent history. A m ong those interviewed in “ Dateline Freedom ” are: John Chancellor, Charles Q uinn and Richard Valeriani NBC; Herb Kaplow o f NBC, later of ABC; Robert Schakne o f CBS; N ew sw eek’s Karl Flem m ing; Jack Nelson of The Los Angeles Tim es; and Haynes Johnson o f The W ashington Star and later The W ashington Post, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage o f the 1965 M ontgomery to Selma march M ost o f the reporters interviewed thought their work made a positive contribution. According to Schakne, “ Television nationalized the story.’ John C hancellor said o f his coverage o f Little Rock, “ Journalism can amplify social change . . . and so I think we worked as an am plifier.” And, Juan W illiam s notes, * ‘Television seized on the civil rights movem ent, with its dram a and its violence, and stayed with it.” D ateline Freedom: Civil Rights and the P ress” is a production of W ETA, W ashington, D.C., in association with the University o f Mississippi. Funding for the program is provided by the G annett Foundation and the Times M irror Corporation. A dditional funding has been supplied by public television stations. Producer for the program is Sue Ducat. Executive GM Presents Major Grants To Howard University Two General Motors executives, Alfred S. W arren Jr., vice president of the industrial relations staff (pictured far left), and Roderick D Gillum vice president and general counsel o f the GM subsidiary Saturn Corp, (tar right),cam e to Howard University recently to present checks for the first installments o f major grants to the university totaling $350,000. Receiving the checks for Howard were Dr. Roger D. Estep vice president for developm ent and university relations (left center),and Daniel O. Bem stine, interim dean of the law school (right center). GM brought the solarpow ered Sunraycer car to the producer is Ricki Green. cerem onies for exhibition. (Photo by Marvin Jones) THE FIRST AMENDMENT ONGRESS shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the Freedom of Speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. C Saluting The Black Press Guardians O f Our Birthright When the U.S. Constitution was first written, our founding fathers believed that freedom of the press was so important that it was written and guaranteed in the very first article in the Bill of Rights. Frederick Douglass From the founding in 1847 of The North Star newspaper by Frederick Douglass to the writings of James Baldwin, newspaper reporters, authors, poets and playwrights have protected, recorded and taught black history to each successive generation. Freedom cannot function without the free expression and com munication ot ideas. We salute the men and women ot the Black Press and their noble profession. Perhaps Langston Hughes said it b est. . . "There's a dream in this land with its hack against the wall. To save the dream fo r one , it must he saved fo r all. ' ’ Langston Hughes P h ilip M o rris C o m p an ies Inc. Langston Hughes Philip Morris U.S. A. Philip Morris International Inc. 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