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Page 5 Portland Observer JULY 6.1989
RABBIS
ENDORSE CIVIL
RIGHTS RE
VERSE
CARAVAN
PERSPECTIVES
Public Schools as curriculum con
sultant in 1983.
On July 1,1978 Napoleon landed
an army on the coast of Africa near
Alexandria£gypt. This was a city
which had once housed the greatest
cultural and technical libraries and
medical research centers in the world-
and to which the G reeks came to
study and cart off sciences and phi
losophies that were promptly claimed
as their own. So alien to Greek thought
were these original African concepts,
that back in their homeland, many of
the thieves were driven out or con
demned to death like Socrates. Add
to this tribe of plagarists the names of
Euclid, Hero, Eratosthenes (all AFri-
can bom), Plato, Thales, Democri
tus, Pythagoras, among others-and
Aristotle who loved to quote the old
Greek proverb, Something new is
always com ingoutof Africa (Snow
den, “ Blacks in Antiquity” , 1970).
Napoleon's intent, then, was crys
tal clear for though his army was
rather small for its task o f driving out
the British, it did include over 150
scholars, scientists and artists who
were io study, report on and illustrate
the whole range of life in this part of
Africa-its geology, natural history,
culture, technology, and people (sound
familiar?). Many o f the bright young
professionals in this party became
some of the most renowned scien
tists and mathematicians in Europe.
And, no wonder, for they had access
to a treasure trove whose develop
ment began 6000 years earlier in
Ethiopia, Nubia (today ’s S udan), and
in Upper Egypt (Emil Ludwig, * * Na
poleon” . 1926).
by McKinley Burt
Black Interaction
In Europe IV
There once was a little dark com-
plexioned man bom on the Mediter
ranean island of Corsica(1769); A
place not that far from Sicily, also a
land of intense rivalries and vendet
tas. Thousands of years earlier this
molten sea had been a stage for the
expeditions and conquests of Afri
can Pharaohs. The little man’s name
was Napoleon Bonaparte-on the way
to becoming a great general and
Emperor of France, and Europe’s
greatest importer of Africana.
As we move from the African
presence and triumphs in Russia and
England and now to France, I have
an opportunity to emphasize the central
point of this “ Interaction” series by
quoting Ralph Ellison. The noted
Black author’s classic novel, “ The
Invisible man” , was an award-win
ning description of the genocidal
exclusion of Blacks from even the
consciousness of white America.
In his collection of essays, “ Going
to the Territory” , Mr. Ellison com
ments: “ What, by the way, is one to
make of a While youngster who,
with a transistor radio screaming a
Stevie Wonder tune in his ear, shouts
racial epithets at Black youngsters
trying to swim at a public beach-and
this in the name of the ethnic sanc
tity of what has been declared neigh
borhood turf.”
Over the past year I have clearly
revealed the modus operandi of the
American media, book publishers and
educational establishment They have
mandated that the world’s history is
to be presented in the mode of the
ethnic sanctity of a white neigh-
borhood turf. The following is from
material I furnished to the Portland
General Bonaparte gathered his
scholars and soldiers before the Great
A frican P yram id and told them,
“ Forty centuries of greatness look
down upon you” . They must have
believed him for the shiploads of
documents and artifacts brought back
to France not only became a major
facetof the newly established Louvre
Museum, but sparked a Second Ren
THE AFRICAN-
AMERICAN INSTI
TUTE ELECTS NEW
PRESIDENT
The Board of Trustees of The
African-American Institute (AAI)
announces the election of Vivian
Lowery Derryck as AAI’s new presi
dent
Ms. Derryck, recently the Execu
tive Director of the Washington In
ternational Center of Meridian House
International in Washington, D.C., is
a former Deputy Assistant Secretary
in the U.S. Department of State and
Alternate Representative to the U.N.
Commission on the Status of Women.
She has also served as Vice-Presi
dent of the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs.
Having worked for the U.S. Agency
for International Development and
various international private volun
tary organizations, Ms. Derryck has
more than 20 years o f experience in
international economic and political
development in Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean and South America.
Founded in 1953, AAI is the prin
cipal not-for-profit, private Ameri
can organization working to strengthen
U.S.-African relations and assist in
African development. Il is supported
by contributions from individuals,
corporations, and philanthropic foun
dations; endowment income; and U.S.
government contracts for specific
training programs. Its headquarters
are in New York, with a sub-office in
Washington D.C., and program rep
resentatives in 22 African countries.
The Board of Trustees also an
nounces the election of Maurice
Tempclsman.Senior Partner of Leon
Tcmpclsman & Son, as its new Chair
man, and Roger Wilkins, as its new
Vice-Chairman. Mr. Wilkins is a
Clarence J. Robinson Professor of
History and American Culture, George
Mason University, and a Senior Fel
low of the Institute for policy Stud
ies.
aissance in mathematics, asuo iomy
and geodesy.
Napoleon’s artists even reproduced
the graffiti of European scientists
who, like the ancient Greeks, had
gone to Africa to study the mathe
matics of the Pyramid upon which
Two hundred and thirty six rabbis
they emblazoned their names-Men
and
other synagogue leaders from
to whom notable discoveries b ea r
across the United States endorsed the
ing their nam es had been falsely at
"Reverse Freedom Caravan” com
tributed. Most obviously plagarized:
M ercator (map projections and ge
memorating the 25th anniversary of
the deaths of Michael Schwemer,
ometry); Fibonacci (This series
James Earl Chaney and Andrew
proved to be the most powerful equa
Goodman. These young men, a Black
tions ever developed for physics,
chemistry, genetics and nuclear re and two Jews, were murdered while
actions).
on a campaign to register Black vot
On a more pedestrian note, but no
ers during the summer of 1964. The
less important, French reproductions
Caravan left Philadelphia, Missis
of 4000 year old African designs led
sippi on June 21 for a three day
to the proliferation throughout Eu journey, stopping in Washington, D.C.
rope of the Em pire Style of dress on June 23 and ending in New York
and furniture-stylish innovations City on June 24.
created at a time when most Greeks
A1 Vorspan, Senior Vice Presi
wore animal skins or artless togas. At dent of the Union of American He
the King T ut Exhibit it was evident
brew Congregations, the nation’s
that the ancient Africans (by 1600 largest Jewish organization, speak
ing at a Caravan event in Statuary
B.C.) had invented such m odern
furniture techniques as the tongue
Hall of the United States Capitol
and groove jo in t, the dowel, rabbet said, “ In life they [Chaney, Goodman,
and m iter, and the m oritse and and Schwemer] symbolized a Jew-
tenon. See the illustrations in a book ish-Black partnership which became
by Hollis S. Baker. “ Furniture in the a powerful engine for social ju stice.
Ancient W orld” . 1965 (note the . . People have tried to bury this
lathes). And today’s haute couture partnership and recite obituaries for
presents and Em pire Style fashion it, but it still lives. Blacks and Jews
share a vision of an open, decent and
revival every other decade or so.
compassionate
America.”
Napoleon lost the Egyptian cam
The
Jewish
community was ac
paign because his puny fleet could
not match that of the British, but not tively involved in the Reverse Cara
before his great Black calvary gen van. In addition to Vorspan’s speech
eral, Thomas Alexander Dumas, had in Statuary Hall, Rabbi David Saper-
won The Battle of the Pyram ids stein, director of the Religious Ac
and prevailed at Cairo. This pro tion Center of Reform Judaism, spoke
vided enough time for the scholars to at the culminating event of the Cara
ship their African treasure to France; van, a service at New York City’s
particularly there was time for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on
famed Chapollion to find the Rosetta June 24 and at a rally for voter regis
Stone. This tablet led to the deci tration on the steps of the Capitol on
phering of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, June 23.
and opened the magnificent ancient
African Vista to the world.
Next week, more revelations of
PORTLAND OBSERVER
ethnic sanctity.
“ The fiyes and Ears ot the C om m unity"
288-0033
Recent Supreme Court Decision Sends Minority
Women Reeling
ft
Four recent United States Supreme groups within the society, to imple
Court decisions “ dealt severe blows ment compensatory programs that
to programs designed to assure the redress long-standing systemic so
rights of women and racial/ethnic cial deprivation of racial and ethnic
persons in this society,” according minorities.”
A June 27 Supreme Court deci
to a statement released June 28, here
by the head of the board of Church sion giving states added authority to
and Society of the United Methodist execute 16-and 17-yearold murder
ers or those who are “ mildly” or
Church.
While two of the Supreme Court “ moderately” retarded, must be de
decisions have rewritten the legal cried by “ people of faith,” the state
rules for minority hiring in U.S. ment says. The Board of Church and
government and industry, the other Society was also amicus curiae in
two “ limit the scope of affirmative two of the cases that were before the
action and chip away at basic civil court.
A total of 30 youths, all younger
rights for women and racial /ethnic
than
18 when they committed mur
persons,” said the Rev. Thom White
ders,
now
await execution on the na
Wolf Fassett, general secretary of
tion’s
death
rows and the courts esti
the church’s chief social action agency.
mate that as many as one-fifth of the
The most distressing ruling issued nearly 2,200 men and women on
by the court this year came in Patter death row nationwide are retarded to
son v. McLean Credit Union, a case some degree. “ To order execution of
in which the board signed as amicus children and mentally retarded per
curiae, Mr. Fassett said in the state sons, for whom we have a special re
ment. In that case, the court unani sponsibility, is reprehensible,” the
mously upheld a law used to chal statement continues.
lenge discrimination in making pri
The statement also condemns “ the
vate contracts, but refused, by a 5-4 Supreme Court’s refusal to exclude
vote, to extend the law to racial har children and retarded persons from
assm ent
application of the death penalty,”
saying to do so wool .1T; “ t ji outrage
According to Mr. Fassett, the
that we must protest and work to
court’s ruling narrows the 1866 land
change.”
mark civil rights ruling since it makes
The United Methodist Church is
it difficult to sue on the basis of racial
opposed
to the death penalty and
harassment
urges
through
its Social Principles
The United Methodist Church in
“
its
elimination
from all criminal
its Social Principles statement as
codes.”
serts “ the obligation of society, and
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