Newspaper Page Text
SPELMA N
Fp
L>e siM
mi
THE VOICE
OF BLACK WOMANHOOD
SPO TLIGHT
VOL. XXX NO. 6
ATLANTA, GA.
MARCH, 1977
Schomburg Collections
Library Still Suffers
Spelman Hosts Blue & White Ball
By Tandra L. Dawson
At west 135th Street near
Lenox Ave. (in New York City),
is a 73-year-old, delapidated
Carnegie building, the coun
try’s most outstanding collec
tion of black art, literature and
history is housed. Surrounded
by abandoned tenements and
threatened by its own crum
bling walls, the Schomburg
Collection, has been a longtim
victim of racist discrimination
practiced by the New York
Public Library System.
Glenderlyn Johnson, a
leader of the Citizen Coalition
to Save the Schomburg and a
member of the Schomburg
Library staff said in a
Worker’s World interview that
the New York Public Library
(N.Y.P.L) administration has
been the cause of the continued
poor conditions of the Schom
burg.
“Since the collection became
a part of the library system,
the N.Y.P.L. administration
had never lived up to its res
ponsibility to insure the proper
maintenance of the Collec
tion,” Ms. Johnson said.
The Shomburg had its begin
nings in 1926 when Arthur
Schomburg, an Afro-Puerto
Rican, donated his collection
to the N.Y.P.L. for a ten
thousand dollar (10,00) grant
from the Carnegie
Cooperation. This was done on
the stipulation that it remain
in Harlem. Dr Lawrence Red
dick became the curator in
1939 and resigned only nine
years later, taking a position
at Atlanta University. He
claimed that the N.Y.P.L. had
“virgually starved” the
Schomburg. Jean Blackwell
succeeded him and is the
present curator.
The library contains
valuable photographs,
magazines, pamphlets,
newspaper clippings,
microfilm, tape recordings,
phonograph records, manus
cripts and books of and about
black people in Africa, the
Carribbean and the U.S.
There, is kept the manuscripts
of Claude McKay and Richard
Wright. Microfilms of more
than 400 black newspapers
Continued on page 7
By Nancy Hite
On Saturday, January 29,
1977 the women of Spelman
College hosted its annual Blue
and White Ball. It was indeed a
gala event. The lovely women
of Spelman College were
dressed in crepe de shine, silk,
and matt jersy of a variety of
colors. The men were equally
as fine, there were three piece
suits in pin stripe and solid
colors. It was a night of stars,
everybody was a star, students
and faculty included.
The ball was not just dan
cing. It was studded with en
chanting entertainment. The
Morehouse Jazz Lab provided
the music. The Lab did musical.
numbers such as “Free,” the
theme from “S.W.A.T.,” and
“Cher Chez La Femme,” to
name a few of the popular
pieces that the joyous crowd
danced to. The audience was
also exposed to the talents of
Joint Effort Productions
Dance group, featuring Yvette
Cason
U.S, Foreign Policy Towards South A frica
Over the past two years the
world has watched the United
States change her foreign
policy toward Southern Africa
from one of nonrecognition of
black majority rule to
recognition of black majority
rule. Has this change of policy
been due to a new humanistic
view of the plight of the
African in Southern Africa; or
has the change of policy been
due to a fear of not having a
degree of influence in Southern
Africa once it becomes com
pletely governed by the black
majority? The following
article will attempt to answer
these questions by providing
insight on the past and present
U.S. Foreign Policy toward
Southern Africa.
In 1969, under the direction
of Henry Kissinger, the
National Security Council,
Interdepartmental Group for
Africa convened to review the
U.S.- Foreign Policy toward
Southern Africa. The result of
this meeting was five possible
policy options for the Nixon-
Kissinger administraton to
take toward Southern Africa.
The option that the American
government decided to adopt
was option two, known as the
“Tarbaby Memorandum.” The
premise of option two stated:
The whites are here to say
and the only way that
constructive change can come
about is through them. There
is no hope for the blacks to
gain the political rights they
seek through violence, which
will only lead to chaos and in
creased opportunities for the
Communists. We can, by selec
tive relaxation of our stance
toward the white regimes, en
courage some modification of
their current racial and
colonial policies... (The Kis
singer Study of Southern
Africa, Mohamed A. El
Khawas and Barry Coehn, pp.
105-106).
With Mozambique and
Angola fighting for and win
ning their indepence from
Portugal; with the present
struggles for black majority
rule taking place in Zimbabwe
(Rhodesia), Namibia (South
West Africa) and Azania
(South Africa); and with the
more intensed and influential
presence of Russia and China
in Southern Africa, the U.S.
government has been forced to
change its Foreign Policy
toward Southern Africa. There
had not been a visit by a
Secretary of State or a Foreign
Policy Advisor to Southern
Africa in a decade. During the
Spring of 1976 Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger made a
tour of several African coun
tries to meet with heads of
state and officials to discuss
majority rule in Southern
Africa. In the summer of 1976,
Kissinger participated in what
is known as “Shuttle
Diplomacy” to insure that
black majority rule would exist
in Zimbabwe within two years.
As a result of the changes in
Southern Africa, Kissinger
began to realize the
recognition had to be given to
Black leadership in Southern
Africa and to the liberation
movements.
The U.S. had to change its
policy for basically two
reasons. First, the U.S.
realized that if a civil war oc-
cured between the white ruling
regime and the black Africans
in Simbabwe, the whites would
lose control over the black ma
jority. America fears that the
black majority would turn to
Russia and China for the
technology to develop their
resources. The U.S. depends
heavily on Southern Africa for
natural resources, consequen
tly Kissinger realized it was
necessary to negogiate with
black Southern Africa leaders
to plan for black majority rule.
Secondly, the U.S. realized
that Russia and China were
playing key roles in various
sections of Southern Africa,
especially in helping
liberation armies. The United
States could not take a chance
on losing all major influence in
Southern Africa which would
possibly mean that China or
Russia would become the most
dominant influence in Africa.
On April 27, 1976, while in
Continued on page 8