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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2003
LIFE
REVOLUTION continued from page I
ROBERT GAINES/ MAROON TIGER
Atlanta. These groups have resorted to
extreme and drastic measures to ensure
their concealment. As of today, however,
they hide no more. Their purpose: to give
the African-American the right to vote
without harassment. To give us a voice.
Before you read further, you must
make a decision. If you want a better
future for yourself and your children,
start walking to Maddox Chapel. Read
as you go.
Carlton James Walters '04, a Negro
Studies major, is the president of Voice
of Black America (VBA) at Morehouse
College. Last Saturday, while the Tiger's
decoy reporter was interviewing Dr.
Garrison at his Buckhead home, I
interviewed Mr. Walters at the VBA’s
secret campus headquarters: a bathroom
in the Graves Hall Laundromat that has
not been in use, thanks to an “Out of
Order” sign on the door.
"It’s one instance,” said Walters,
“where the fact that broken things are
never fixed within a reasonable period
of time on this campus has come in
handy." This quip, however, is an
isolated moment of lightness and humor,
the decisions and directives issuing from
the executive's seat on the rusty
commode are usually weighted by
urgency and seriousness.
‘Tuesday 4 November is our day
of change. Every student at Morehouse
who wants to reclaim his rights as a
citizen of this country must participate.
This is no time for indecision; it's a time
for action. We will congregate in front
of the statue of Maddox at the chapel
and proceed, as a group, to the polling
station. They can't get us if our numbers
are large enough. They can’t threaten us
all.”
Around the city of Atlanta today,
other black newspapers and periodicals
are printing articles similar to this one.
VBA presidents throughout the city will
make themselves known and rally all
registered voters at their institutions. The
black vote, this year, will count.
“Over the years, Morehouse’s
population has dwindled to include less
and less students from other states and
countries. We find one positive in this
negative, however: Eighty percent of
students at the college can vote in the
November 4 Atlanta elections. That's
approximately 400 of the 500 students
enrolled here. Four hundred from
Morehouse, 400 from Spelman, 700
from Clark... It adds up. The black
youth can make a difference.”
Walters and his team of ten
students, with help from other branches
of the VBA and black professionals
throughout the city, have been working
diligently to forward the cause even in
their seclusion. They were the force
behind the citywide black voter
registration drive earlier this year, an
effort strongly and subtly opposed by
government officials. Though the
amount of publicity generated by the
drive ensured that most eligible black
Atlantans were registered (compare 95.3
percent irr2003 to 11.8 in 1999), Walters
and other VBA officials knew that this
was only the first step in an ongoing
process.
"You register to vote, you
immediately become a target of threats.
We all know that. Who here hasn't
gotten one of those notes in his mailbox?
Things like that frighten people. They
want to intimidate us into remaining
quiet.”
For the record, the notes contain
the following warning: “If you know
what’s good for you, n*gger, you’ 11 stay
home on November 4.” A rough sketch
of a noose hanging from a tree adorns
the card.
Merill Cambridge ’05, a former
political science major (when the
administration pulled the plug on the
political science program last year, he
was halfway through the curriculum),
is the VBA vice president. Though he
hails from New York and will not be
eligible to vote in today’s election, he
will still be on the front line.
“Not being able to vote is not an
excuse. We need everyone’s support
when we march today. Atlantans, New
Yorkers, Texans... Our strength will be
in our numbers. This is more than
electing a man to power; this is electing
ourselves to freedom.”
Candidate for the office of mayor
Noah McAllister, himself a secret
member of the VBA since its inception,
has the support of the black community
in Atlanta. Until today, however, no one
expected that he would have its vote.
While Dr. Garrison and other
candidates for various office are out in
the streets freely campaigning and
kissing babies, McAllister and the entire
slate of black and white candidates in
support of voter rights and ending racism
have had to keep a low profile; the threats
in their mailboxes are far more serious
and specific than the ones we receive.
Walters explained today’s process
for voting: “We will gather at the chapel.
Spelman students will gather at their
meeting place. Other schools and
minority groups will gather at their
meeting places. And we'll all march to
Centennial Olympic Park, where the
large group will splinter off, depending
on the location of the various polling
stations to which voters have been
assigned. Similar exercises will be
conducted at central locations
throughout the city. They can threaten
individuals, but the threat is reduced
when we stick together."
The VBA concedes that some
violence may result from today's efforts.
They do not expect disgruntled parties
to hold their peace. "But we have to do
something,” said Cambridge simply.
At particular risk today will be the
white Atlantans who choose to march
in the black throngs. Dr. Nolan Craig,
the white Biology professor who was
assaulted on Fair St. last year and had
the words “N*gger Lover” scraped into
his back with a dinner fork, will be one
of those.
“Unless we do something,
barbarians like that will take over. What
they did to me was horrible, but I'd be
just as bad if I don’t try to do something
to change the society that breeds that
kind of behavior. This is not a battle
between black and white; it’s a battle
between right and wrong, and black
people and white people have to decide
which side they’re on.”
If the VB A is able to pull off today's
coup at the polling stations, Atlanta’s
racist history may work in favor of
McAllister. Because scare tactics
traditionally ensured a negligible
minority vote, the white electorate has
become increasingly lax in recent years,
since electing this or that “suitable”
candidate is more or less a formality.
Approximately 14percent of eligible
white Atlantans are registered to vote;
traditionally, about a third of that number
casts no ballots. Should a significant
number of registered black and minority
Atlantans make it to the polls today,
McAllister has a very good chance of
defeating Garrison.
The momentum from today’s
election, should McAllister and his
colleagues be victorious, could well have
a tremendous impact on the outcome of
next year’s presidential elections. If the
VBA’s efforts are not successful, its
future and our future will be a big
question mark. Much rides on what
happens today.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
longtime civil rights activist had some
words of inspiration for today’s
marchers from his Birmingham jail cell:
“If only we lived in a world in which
people could vote without being
harassed and threatened. The black man,
the white man, every man would cherish
the opportunity to have his voice heard,
to make a difference. None would take
it for granted, whether they were electing
a mayor or a commissioner or a school
board director. Unfortunately, we do not
live in such a world. So you must march
today for yourselves and for the future.
I believe I survived those assassination
attempts in 1968 and 1983 for a reason:
God couldn’t give me rest just yet, not
until I see some change or the promise
of change. You are that promise. You
are the future.”
STUDENTS continued from page 1
restaurant was not due to close for
another hour.
While Barrington preferred to just
forget about the entire incident, Johnson
wanted to get some answers.
"I was asking myself why that lady
would ask us to leave when there was
still an hour before closing time,” an irate
Johnson told the Maroon Tiger. “I just
could not come up with any rational
answer.”
The two students decided to return
to the restaurant to ask the employee in
question to explain her reasons for
asking them to leave. The waitress
(whose name has been witheld for legal
reasons) initially came up with an excuse
that was not satisfactory to Johnson.
After being prodded further, she
finally said in a spiteful tone, “I don't
have to explain nothing to no colored
boy. They [the Caucasian couple]
requested a seat back there and that was
the only one available at the time.
Besides, you and your friend had been
back there long enough.”
Johnson became furious and was
determined to get revenge, but he was
held back by Barrington.
“You have to be able to pick your
battles,” said Barrington. “Some cards
you can play, but other times the deck is
stacked even before you pick up your
hand, and although it may not be right
that is just the way things are.”
While the two students plan to file
a civil suit against the restaurant in the
coming weeks, neither is optimistic
about a favorable resolution to the
incident. In the past forty years, the
Fulton County Court has never decided
in favor of an African American when
the opposing side has been white.
African American citizens, however, are
powerless to do anything about this
imbalance, since the members of the
court are all appointed by Georgia
Governor James Crowe, a traditionally
favorite candidate among Geoiga voters,
who are all white.
... I am not tragically
colored. There is no
great sorrow damned up
in my soul... I do not
belong to the sobbing
school of Negrohood
who hold that nature
somehow has given
them a low- down dirty
deal and whose feelings
are all hurt about it... I
have seen that the world
is to the strong regard
less of a little pigmenta
tion more or less.
- Zora Neale Hurston