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The Rad and Black » Wednesday. May 13,1992 » >
Lowery sheds light on the Rodney King trial and the SCLC
Joseph Lowery, wearing a button that says 'Stop the Killing,' speaks out against in
justice and racial discrimination and speaks up for civil rights and humanitarianism.
By KEITH ST1RCWALT
Staff Writer
■ INTERVIEW
In a recent interview with the
Bed and Black, Southern Christian
Leadership Conference President
Joseph Lowery, a leader in the na
tional civil rights movement since
the ‘60s, discussed the Rodney King
trial, the role of the SCLC in the 90s
and his future plans.
Q: In your opinion, what are
the m^jor concerns of the SCLC
and how have they changed
over the past 35 years?
A: The major concerns of the
SCLC are steady - to help bring
into being, into reality, what we call
our basic purpose and that means
justice; it means fighting racial dis
crimination.
Q: How do you plan to
achieve this?
A: Well with whatever peaceful,
non-violent means we can find. We
do it by marching, kneel-ins, sit-ins,
negotiations. There may be laws
we choose to break, but if we do, we
do it with non-violence and we’re
prepared to take the consequences.
I guess the things that have
changed have been the new things,
like health issues. We’ve moved
into new arenas like health care
and international themes like hu
man rights. I really think we’ve
raced to eliminate segregation, and
move all citizens into the main
stream. In time we’ve added health
issues, war, human rights, the
death penalty, drugs, AIDS and
teenage pregnancy. I guess SCLC
has always tied the moral impera
tive of our faith to political and eco
nomic problems. I guess that’s
what distinguishes us from other
civil rights groups - our spiritual
perspective, plus the fact that we’ve
always been more direct, more ac
tivists. While NAACP may have
been litigating, we were having
marches and sit-ins.
Q: What is the SCLC doing to
combat the drug problem?
A: Well, different chapters use
different means. Nationally we
have a program called Wings of
Hope, which deals with the drug
problem directly.
Q: How do you feel about
suggestions by SCLC members
that you should resign after 15
years as president to make way
for younger leadership?
A: It hasn’t been suggested to
me personally; you’ll have to ask
them (members). They didn’t ask
me.
Q: So you don*t know when
do you think youll retire from
SCLC?
A: No, the Lord called me to it, I
guess the Lord will call me out. We
don’t hire presidents of SCLC, we
elect them (annually) on what we
think is God’s mandate. We like
the church to call presidents, so I
guess when the Lord gets ready
he’ll replace me. To answer your
question, 1 have no idea.
Q: You're retiring from
Cascade United Methodist in
June to devote more time to
SCLC. On average, how much
time did you spend between the
two jobs?
A: It’s all ministry to me. It’s
just different offices, different com
mittees. The SCLC is sort of the al
ter-ego of the church. Both deal
with the same programs, drugs,
health care, homeless.
I run through airports for exer
cise. It’s hard to say how much
time I spent between the two jobs.
I really don’t know how much time
it takes. On Delta I guess 1 have
about a million miles, and I had
eight hundred and some thousand
on Eastern before they went un
der. It’s really an impossible ques
tion to answer.
Q: How do you feel about the
Rodney King beating trial ver
dict and the riots that erupted
in reaction to the verdict?
What advice would you give
those who are having prob
lems dealing with the verdict?
A: Well we had a protest at Dr.
King’s tomb. Dr. King said vio
lence is the voice of the unheard or
it’s the voice of those who don’t
know how to be heard. And some
times you can’t get at them to
teach them how to be heard, and it
takes incidents like this, a crisis
like this and I*m so happy that I
don’t know what to do to see them
excited by all of this.
I don’t like the violence that oc
curred, but we’ve got to get in
volved in changing those tradi
tions that produce the anti-social
behavior. Poverty leads to de
spair, despair leads to desperation,
desperation leads to anti-social be
havior. These people don’t know
how to be heard. They believe it
takes the violence to get heard.
Q: How do you think the
Rodney King case will fare in
the federal civil investigation?
A: I think they (the LA officers)
will be indicted. I don’t see how
they can fail to indict them, now
whether they can get a conviction
is an entirely different question.
Q: Two weeks ago, the
state celebrated Confederate
Memorial Day and there has
been increasing controversy
over the Georgia state flag. Do
you find this offensive? Also,
do you feel the holiday and
continuous recognition of the
Confederate battle flag have
hindered the cause of civil
rights?
A: What hurt us is not the flying
of the flag - it’s what the flying of
the flag indicates that is still in
their hearts. Minority contractors
have received less than one percent
of state contracts. No black con
tractor has ever built a state build
ing or even had a joint venture.
That’s what I’m worried about and
that’s why I haven’t really jumped
on the anti-flag thing. We’ve got so
many other mtyor problems, but
maybe we’ve got to pay attention to
the flag, because that’s a symbol.
It’s so stupid in Georgia, because
we just changed it a few years ago.
On the Confederate Memorial
Day, this country made a move to
make Memorial Day the memorial
day for all those who gave their
lives in war, and I don’t know that
we pick out a day to remember the
Union soldiers. I have no problem
with people remembering their rel
atives who died in any war, but
why provoke racial problems.
Q: Do you favor any particu
lar candidate?
A: I think we underestimate
Clinton. I think he’s got more vi
sion. In Arkansas, he hasn’t done
too bad considering what he had
to work with. Then we crippled
him with the tabloid stuff, but
he’s back on stable ground.
Q: Does the SCLC endorse
any particular candidate?
A: No.
Teaching assistants do it for love, money and experience
By THERESA WALSH
Staff Writer
Doug Gamble is one of many graduate students
who can make up to $10,000 a year, have his tuition
reduced to less than $150 each quarter and get expe
rience in the graduate teaching program at the
Universitv.
"It’s very economical. You get paid to go to school
and it’s fun," said Gamble, who teaches a Geography
121 two-hour lab twice a week.
Gamble, a graduate student in geography, said to
get hired after graduation at a good four- year college,
teaching experience is a must.
Gamble said students from many majors are in his
classes.
“Almost everybody who’s in there doesn’t really
want to be there," he said. "It’s hard to motivate them.
You get very frustrated. Sometimes it seems like the
students don’t put any effort forth."
But Gamble said sometimes he finds teaching re
warding.
Myra Moore, a graduate student from Atlanta, has
been a teaching assistant for three quarters. She said
she enjoy8 teaching Economics 106 in the night school
to around 15 students and thinks it will help her in the
future. Moore said she prepares for two to three hours
for each class. She said the economics TAs make be
tween $7,000 to $9,000 plus their matriculation fees
are waived. Moore, who plans to teach economics in
the future said, “It certainly is nice to know that I en
joy it and I feel like I’m capable of doing it."
Mike Moran, director of freshman English, said it
is “very valuable teaching experience” that will help
when they go to interview for that first job. Moran said
most of the 73 English TAs this year will go into teach
ing after they graduate.
Alan Atkins, a first year graduate student from
Rochester, Minn., will be teaching Accounting 110 fall
quarter for the experience. He plans on starting his
preparation this summer. Atkins doesn’t plan on
teaching straight out of school, but said that, “it’s al
ways a retirement plan.” By teaching one class a quar
ter, Atkins receives $4,500 per year and his matricu
lation fees are waived.
Gamble said some of the roughest times for him are
trying to balance his schedule. He takes 15 hours, in
addition to teaching the one class. He said his prepa
ration time is one hour per class, as opposed to two or
three hours when he first began.
Gamble said the pay is enough for him live on and
go out occasionally. He added, however, that there are
some biology and chemistry TAs who live near him
that make $100 to $150 more than he does.
He said the geography program is competitive.
Moran also said it is very competitive in his de
partment, especially if the applicant is a master's can
didate. He said they try to support all their doctoral
candidates, which leaves some of the others out in the
cold. He said that even though the English TAs are
paid $10,000 to teach four classes n year, there are
some drawbacks to the job.
“Our TAs work very hard,” Moran said. “They «e
entirely responsible for their courses."
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