Newspaper Page Text
KwameTure: Social,
Cultural and Black
Activist Succumbs
to Prostate Cancer
By Howard Franklin
World & Local News Editor
Kwame Ture, who coined
the phrase "Black Power" as
Stokely Carmichael and used
it in the civil rights upheavals
of the 1960's, died Sunday in
Guinea. He was 57.
An AAPRP (All-African
People's Revolutionary Party)
member and one on Ture's
closest friends, Amadou Ly,
was with him when he died.
The Rev. Jeese Jackson said he
visited with Ture three times
at his home in Guinea during
a trip to Africa last week.
"In many ways he was at
peace with himself, " Jackson
said in a telephone interview
from Washington. "He wanted
his last days to be in guinea
and West Africa. He wanted to
be amongst the people of
Africa."
Ture was diagnosed with
prostate cancer in 1996. He
was treated in Cuba and
received financial assistance
for his treatment from Nation
of Islam leader Louis
Farakhan.
Born in Trinidad on June
29, 1941, Ture described
himself as in compliant
acceptance of white authority
while growing up.
At age 11, his parents
moved him to New York,
where the bright youngster
attended the academically
elite Bronx High School of
Science He later reproached
his new surroundings, a
liberal, middle class white
neighborhood, as phony.
In 1960, he enrolled at
Howard University in Wash.,
D.C., where he earned a
philosophy degree and dove
headfirst into the civil rights
struggle.
As youth, Carmichael,
he was among the most fiery
and visible leaders of the Black
militancy in the 1960's, first as
the head of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee and then as prime
minister of the Black Panther
Party.
In a time when black
college students were beaten
and arrested for daring to sit
at white-only Southern lunch
counters, Carmichael joined
the first freedom rides and
suffered the first of many
jailings when he reached
Mississippi.
In 1966, three weeks before
his 25th birthday, he was
elected national chairman of
the SNCC and raised the cry
of "black power' while leading
the freedom march in
Mississippi shortly thereafter.
In 1968, he left the SNCC
for the Black panthers, but
separated from that urban-
guerilla movement because it
favored working with radical
whites. He said history
showed such alliances had
"led to the complete
subversion of Blacks by
Whites."
Rep. John Lewis, who met
Carmichael in the freedom
rides of 1961 and preceded
him as the chairman of the
SNCC, said he would be
remembered, "as one of the
more militant spokespersons
of that period. He held strong
views in terms of civil rights
and civil liberties, both here
and in Africa."
From Guinea, he declared
himself a Pan-Africanist with
the goal of forming "one
cohesive force to wage an
unrelenting armed struggle
against the white Western
empire for the liberation of our
people."
His mother, three sisters,
and two sons survive Ture.
5,500 jobs will be lost in
historic takeover
FRANKFURT, Germany
(AP) - As Deutsche Bank AG
officially announced its
acquisition of Bankers Trust
Corp. today, the German bank
said it will cut 5,500 jobs,
mostly in New York and
London.
Deutsche Bank Chairman
Rolf Breuer said not all of the
lost jobs would be at Bankers
Trust. The global markets,
global equities, and
information technology/
operations departments will
each account for 25 percent of
the job cuts. The remaining
quarter will stem from "other
areas," Breuer said at a news
conference.
Although executives said
the managerial structure of the
combined bank is still being
determined, Deutsche Bank
has set aside $400 million for
bonus payments to hold onto
prized managers at Bankers
Trust.
According to the terms of
the widely anticipated deal,
Deutsche Bank will pay
Bankers Trust shareholders $93
a share, or about $10.1 billion,
sealing the largest takeover
ever of a U.S. financial
institution by a foreign bank.
The boards of both banks
approved the offer Sunday.
The deal combines
Germany's largest bank, with
assets of $675 billion, with the
eighth-largest U.S. bank, with
$156 billion in assets.
With assets of more than
$800 billion, the combined
bank would surpass current
No. 1 UBS AG of Switzerland
and the recently formed
Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S.
financial services company.
Breuer will head the
combined company. Frank
Newman, Bankers Trust's
chairman, and Josef
Ackermann, the current head
of Deutsche
Bank's
global
corporate
and
institutional
business,
are expected
to jointly
head the
merged
investment
and
corporate
banking
operations.
The Wall
Street Journal reported today
that Newman has agreed to
stay on for at least three
years. A Bankers Trust
spokesman said he could not
confirm that.
The merger is part of
Deutsche Bank's strategy to
extend operations into North
America. The bank
failed earlier this
year in a bid for J.P.
Morgan & Co., and
reportedly looked
into several
potential targets.
New York-
based Bankers
Trust, meanwhile,
was perceived as
ripe for acquisition.
While strong in
stock and bond
underwriting and
in real estate, the
company does not
have a consumer banking
business to shield it from Wall
Street losses, unlike its other
large competitors. It was hit
harder than many competitors
by the summer's financial
problems in Asia and Russia.
Both Deutsche Bank and
Bankers Trust are in the midst
of individual restructuring
efforts aimed at cutting costs.
Deutsche Bank announced
early this year a $1.5 billion
restructuring, while Bankers
Trust announced a $300 million
restructuring effort at the end
of the third quarter.
In morning trading, shares
of Bankers Trust rose $1,311/
4, or 1.5 percent, to $86,871/2
on the New York Stock
Exchange. Deutsche Bank does
not trade in the United States,
although Breuer said Deutsche
Bank may list its shares on U.S.
stock exchanges sometime
next year.
The merger must be
approved by New York state
and U.S. banking regulators.