Page A2
August 10. 2005
Congressman Fights for Voting Rights Act
Ebony, Jet
Publisher Dies at 87 Defeat would
\
Publisher
countered
stereotypes
(A P) - Publisher John H.
Johnson, whose Ebony and Jet
magazines countered stereotypi
cal coverage of blacks after World
War II and turned hint into one of
the most influential black leaders
in America, died Monday, his
company said. He was 87.
Johnson broke new ground by
bringing positive portrayals of
blacks into a mass-market publi
cation and encouraging corpora
tions to use black models in ad
vertising aimed at black consum
ers.
Boni into an impoverished fam
ily in Arkansas, Johnson went
into business with a $5<X) loan
secured by his mother’s furniture
and built a publishing and cos
metics empire.
Johnson built Ebony from a
circulation of 25.(XM) on its first
press run in November 1945 to a
monthly circulation of 1.9 million
in 1997. Jet magazine, a weekly,
was founded in 1951 and a third
V
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John H. Johnson
magazine. Ebony Man, a monthly
m en's magazine, was started in
1985.
Ebony - named by Johnson's
wife, Eunice - was created to
counter stereotypical portrayals
of blacks in w hite-ow ned new s
papers, m agazines and broad
cast media. The m onthly m aga
zine highlights the positive in
black life.
Johnson also encouraged ma
jo r white companies to advertise
in black media. He sent an ad sales
man to Detroit every week for 10
years before an auto manufacturer
agreed to advertise.
Black Unemployment
Rate Struggling
July’s unemployment rate
for A frican A m ericans
dropped slightly but still
struggles at 9.5 percent, ac
cording to new unemploy
ment numbers by the U.S.
Department of Labor.
T he C o n g re s s io n a l
Black Caucus said black
workers still lag far behind
their white counterparts in
jo b s and e m p lo y m e n t
opportunities since Presi
dent Bush took office.
The caucus noted that
the unemployment rate for
white Americans remained
unchanged at 4.3 percent.
endanger
civil rights
safeguards
(AP) - Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.,
urged Congress to reauthorize the
landmark Voting Rights Act, say
ing Saturday that failing to do so
wou Id i m peri 140 years o f progress
for A frican-A m erican voters.
In the weekly Democratic radio
address, Lewis said his party is
com m itted to strengthening the
sections o f the law that are set to
expire at the end o f next year.
C onservatives are pushing for
m odification of tw o provisions.
One requires nine states, mostly
in the South, to get federal ap
Marchers make their way on Martin Luther King Boulevard in
Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary o f the Voting
Rights Act, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2005. (AP Photo)
proval before changing voting
rules. The other requires election
officials to provide voting m ate
rial in the native language to im
m igrant voters who d o n ’t speak
English.
“Our dem ocracy depends on
p ro tectin g the right o f every
A m erican citizen to vote in every
election,” Lew is said.
L e w is p a r tic ip a te d in the
Southern civil rights struggles of
the 1960s that secured congres
sional passage o f the V oting
Rights Act.
“We were beaten, tear gassed
and tram pled by horses,” said
Lewis, recounting a March 7,1965,
march in A labam a that drew a t
tention to the death of Jimmie Lee
Jackson.
The black Vietnam veteran was
shot as he attem pted to protect
his m other, who was beaten by
police during a civil rights march.
The Voting Rights Act cam e at
a time when it was "alm ost im pos
sible for people o f color to regis
ter to vote” because o f poll taxes
and literacy tests, Lew is said.
Bush s Approval Rating Continues to Drop
Americans’ approval of Presi
dent Bush's handling of Iraq is at
its lowest level yet, according to an
AP-Ipsos poll that also found fewer
than half now think he’s honest.
Approval of Bush’s handling of at 42 percent, with 55 percent disap 45 percent did not. Now, people are
Iraq, which had been hovering in proving. The portion of people who just about evenly split on that issue
the low- to mid-40s most of the year, consider Bush honest has dropped - with 48 percent saying he’s hon
dipped to 38 percent.
slightly from January, when 53 per est and 50 percent saying he’s not.
B ush's overal 1 job approval was cent described him that way while
Opera Singer Remembered
Blood Donor
Helen L. Phillips
broke color barrier
Alarm Issued
(AP) - Helen L. Phillips, a soprano who
broke the color barrier among singers at the
Metropolitan Opera seven years before Marian
Anderson’s historic debut, has died at 86.
Phillips died of heart failure July 27 at New
York’s Isabella Geriatric Center.
Although the opera company had no for
mal policy barring non-whites from appear
ing on its stage, Phillips became the first
black chorister when she was hired as an
extra for five perform ances of M ascagni's
“C avalleria R usticana” from D ecem ber
1947 through February 1948. In 1933, a
troupe of black dancers perform ed with the
Met and in January 1955, Anderson became
the first black singer to perform a m ajor role
for the famed opera, portraying Ulrica in
V erdi's “A Masked Ball.”
A native of St. Louis who graduated from
Lincoln University in Jefferson City. Phillips
went on to build a career as a soloist i n the early
1950s. She sang at M anhattan’s Town Hall in
1953, and with orchestras in Madrid, Spain,
and St. Louis, where she also sang with the
opera company.
She also performed more than 500 times as
part of a State Department entertainment tour
of Austria and West Germany.
The American Red Cross recently
issued a red alert concerning low lev
els o f blood donation in the Pacific
Northwest. The organization said there
is an immediate need for blood donors
as shortages could result soon.
All blood types are needed, with
types O Positive and O Negative in
high demand. Blood type AB positive
is the only category o f eight common
blood types thought to be at a suffi
cient level.
For more information orto schedule
an
a p p o in tm e n t,
v isit
www.redcross.org or call 800-GIVE
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