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.
Kraft General Foods Group
Miller Brewing Company
Philip Morris Credit Corporation
Mission Viejo Realty Group
'<