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TO BE EQUAL By Hugh B. Price
Say ‘no’ to Confederateideals
mid the celebrations of Jackie
Robinson’s achievement fifty
years ago and Tiger Woods’
Sunday at Augusta — evidence
of what can happen when bar
riers are dismantled — I noticed that a
report released last week by the Harvard
Project on School Desegregation found
that the nation’s public schools are more
segregated now than at any time since
the 1954 Supreme Court school integra
tion decision.
And I noticed last week President
Clinton again reiterated that he is deter
mined to find a way to heal the racial
division which he called “America’s con
stant curse.”
Ithought of these developments after I
learned that Virginia Governor George
Allen has designated April “Confederate
history and Heritage Month.”
Praising the Confederacy’s “four-year
struggle forindependence and sovereign
rights” and “the cause of liberty,” Gov.
Allen told a reporter that the Confed
eracy is “part of our history. Many Vir
ginians—thousands of Virginians, fami
liess—have ties to those who were in
volved in the War Between the States.
For people to selectively exclude certain
parts of our history from any recognition
or mention is to me poor history.”
Civil rights groups have protested Gov
ernor Allen’s open admiration for the
principles of the Confederacy—and with
good reason. After all, those principles
are what led to the Brown v. Board of
Education decision in 1954. That people
like Gov. Allen still cling to them makes
clear why, at the end of the 20th century,
the President of the United States has to
be concerned about the fact that America
is still not one nation indivisible.
So, let us not exclude the history and
heritage of the Confederacy from our
schools and colleges, and from the na
tional discussion.
I mean its true heritage and history, of
course, not Gov. Allen’s gauzy mint-ju
lep-on-the-veranda confection that’sbeen
the stuff of Confederate propaganda since
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox
in 1865.
African Americans especially must chal-
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By Bernice Powell Jackson
Tiger Woods: a sign of hope
! s we celebrate Jackie
: Robinson’s entry into the big
‘ leagues 50 years ago, we find
¢ ourselves celebrating another
first — Tiger Woods becoming
the first person of color to win the Mas
ters golf tournament. Some might argue
that firsts in the world of sports are not
really meaningful, but history shows that
Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color
barrier was the dawning of the new day.
- Clearly Tiger Woods has not suffered
the abuse, indignities and threats that
Robinson did half a century ago. But the
reality is that were he not the famed
Tiger Woods, there would be golf courses
and clubs where he, as a person of color,
would not be welcome even today. At the
Augusta National, home of the Masters,
noblack had played in this famed tourna
ment before 1975 and the club had no
African-American members until seven
_yearsago.
it Growing up in the segregated nation’s
_capitol, I remember trailing my uncle
“around the city’s African-American golf
f,course, Langston Golf Course. Hundreds
Freaknik has its moments, but relatively tame
' By Steve Visser
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
5
A ATLANTA
Freaknik revelerssnubbed planned fes
tivities and took to the streets to enjoy
the weekend’s traditional activities of
-cruising, meeting and jamming.
. Police Chief Beverly Harvard, who had
-her own tradition of wading into Freaknik
traffic, declared thisyear’s gathering rela
tively tame.
“I'm very pleased to say we've had no
ysignificant incidents,” Chief Beverly
yHarvard said Friday night. “We haven’t
yhad any major gridlock.”
v Still, Freaknik's first night had its prob
(lems. A bouncer was in stable condition
.at Grady Memorial Hospital after police
(said he was shot in the back at the Crystal
Palace, an all-night southeast Atlanta
dance club.
A Closer Look
lenge the claim that examining the Con
federacy is a whites-only activity. In fact,
of course, our roots in the Antebellum
South go very deep. We saw the region
and its white citizens from the keenest
vantage point: from the slave quarters.
But one need not depend on family
experience or group lore to determine the
truth about the Confederacy.
For example, it is true that the 1860
census found that 3.95 million, or about
89 percent of the 4.4 million people of
Africa descent in America at the time
(four million of whom were in the South)
were held in bondage.
And it is true that such men as
Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice Presi
dent of the Confederacy, were quite clear
about their purpose.
In his speech, “Slavery, the Corner
stone of the Confederacy,” given at Sa
vannah, Ga.on March 21, 1861, Stephens
declared: “The prevailing ideas enter
tained by Thomas Jefferson and most of
the leading statesmen at the time of the
formation of the (United States) were
that the enslavement of the African was
in violation of the laws of nature, that it
was wrong in principle, social (sic), mor
ally and politically.”
In contrast, Stephens went on to say,
“Our new Government is founded upon
exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations
are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the
great truth that the Negro is not equal to
the white man, that slavery, subordina
tion to the superior race, is his natural
and moral condition.”
of unnamed amateur and professional
golfers laid the groundwork for Tiger
Woods.
After his win, Woods acknowledged
those who had paed the way for him —
Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder and Teddy
Rhodes. These men endured hostilities
and insultsjust to play agame which they
loved. These men, and other athletes of
color before them, established a level of
excellence and a measure of grace which
Tiger Woods has learned well.
Jackie Robinson had to endure taunts,
name-calling and mean-spirited pranks
from his fellow team members as well as
spectators. He found himself isolated
from most of his teammates, some of
whom threatened not to play with him.
He was spiked by opposing players, called
“nigger” and other racial epithets and
yet his playing was so outstanding that
he was named “Rookie of the Year.”
Tiger Woods, coming a half a century
later, has missed much of that kind of
bigotry. Still, golf remains a game of the
well-to-do and of European Americans
for the most part. Business people of
Two other people are recovering at the
hospital after a three-car accident on a
stretch of Interstate 75/85 near down
town Atlanta. The names of the three
people were not released.
Previous Freakniks, the annual street
party for black college students and young
adults, have lured more than 100,000
people to Atlanta’s streets. The party is
notorious for causing traffic jams as driv
ersstop their vehicles in the middle of the
street to mingle with pedestrians.
After a slow start Friday afternoon,
revelers took over downtown streets,
hanging out of car windows, jumping out
for impromptu dancing and halfhearted
stripteases.
Ms. Harvard said she hit the pavement
herself to eyeball the crowds and found
them fairly well-behaved — with one
notable exception.
She and two other officers were watch
That Stephens accurately stated the
Confederacy’s guiding principle is con
firmed by the break-away region’s blue
print for nationhood: the Confederate
Constitution of 1861. That brief
document’s five “Negro (sic) slavery”
clauses leave no doubt that the mainte
nance and expansion of slavery was the
entire purpose of the Confederacy.
Of course, one can understand why
those gripped by the perverse romance of
the Confederacy never mention these
and many other facts. They prove that
there was nothing positive about its prin
ciples.
Why is it important to refute the asser
tions of Gov. Allen and other modern-day
Confederate sympathizers?
Because, as his proclamation and events
in the society at large make clear, White
America is still divided in some signifi
cant measure about which principles—
those of the United States Constitution
or those of the Confederate Constitution
— it will pledge allegiance to.
The Confederates not only believed in
the master-race theory, they sought to
build a separate nation on that evil foun
dation. Those sentiments, codified into
law throughout the South thirty years
later, were what Black America and its
white allies spent most of the 20th cen
tury forging a civil rights movement
against.
How revealing that, now, at century’s
end, a United States governor thinks the
principles of the Confederacy are worth
honoring. |
color, aware of the deals made on the golf
course, have long lamented their lack of
access to private golf courses and clubs.
Tiger Woods, only 21 years old, broke a
multitude of records with his one Mas
ters Tournament win. He already has
much poise and is growing in his self
awareness and respect for those who have
gone before him. He has refused to be
categorized as an African-American
player, recognizing that half of him is
Asian American. He has grown in his
self-understanding for it wasonlya couple
of years ago that he seemed to be strug
gling with racial identity labels. Some
African Americans saw this as a denial of
who he was, but his speech after the
Masters win showed that he has matured
in his thinking around race.
Some have said that they find it diffi
cult tounderstand why Tiger Woods’ win
is arace issue. Unfortunately, as long as
there are still racial firsts in this nation
and as longas discrimination keeps young
people from reachingtheir potential, race
will be a factor in all that we do.
ing young men frolic near Woodruff Park
by panning for a young woman'’s video
camera.
“Everything was going fine and then
one of them decides to unzip his pants,”
Ms. Harvard said. “It wasright in front of
us so we had to take action. That’s the
type of behavior we don’t plan to toler
ate.”
She and the officers arrested the man,
one of four arrests as of late Friday re
lated to Freaknik, all misdemeanors, Ms.
Harvard said.
Police had issued 22 other citations,
which like the arrests, were for misde
mou.‘;l‘hechargunnged from disor
conduct to possession of marijuana
to reckless driving.
Traffic problems cropped up Friday
night, and police quickly moved toisolate
knots of gridlock.
Police refused to estimate the crowd,
Closer to Home
FACT OF THE MATTER IS By Coach Michael Thomas
Tiger Woods’ feat proves the
worth of talent, opportunity
iger Woods’ demolition of the
Masters’ golf course and the
field proves one thing: Given
the opportunity, African Ameri
cans can be ultra-successful in
golf, a sport previously dominated by
whites. Tiger Woods made this very obvi
ous. There are various reasons why blacks
haven’t had the opportunity to be suc
cessful in golf.
One of the main reasons for the lack of
African-American participation in golf is
economics. It costs money to play golf. In
relationship to other sports, such as bas
ketball, football or baseball, golf is very
expensive, Forinstance, in order for a kid
to play basketball, all he or she needsis a
ball and a hoop. Many times the hoop is
provided by local recreation departments
at the parks. Likewise, all a youngster
would need to play football is a football
and an empty lot or backyard. Further
more, with only a baseball, stick and
open field, children can strike up a game
of baseball. Most kids can afford these
things.
But golfis a lot different. First of all, to
legitimately play and appreciate golf, one
must play on a golf course. How many
golf courses are located in the inner city
(which is where a very large percentage
FOCUS IN SOUTH CAROLINA By Lawrence E. Harrison
Tiger Woods reminds us of
the lessons of history, culture
ust when you think race rela
- tionsare beingdefined these days
by people such as Dennis Rod
man and issues such as the Con
federate flag, along comes Tiger
Woods. His story is not just of
one person or maybe not even a pivotal
social moment, but in the midst of dark
ness, there can be light. The focus must
always be on hope and light.
The nature of a Dennis Rodman is by
no means unique or even only contempo
rary. Survival tactics are well-founded in
African-American history. The condi
tions and circumstances demanded it.
The harm does indeed occur when it is
nationally exploited and nationally pre
sented. By experience, we should not
expect less than that. Role models can be
both from within and they can be offered
from without. It has been a matter of,
and always will be a matter of, who has
our best interests at heart and what
those best interests are. The answer
should not surprise us; but apparently
far too many people are surprised by it.
The closer images are the one we know
best, beginning of course with the one in
the mirror. There are no others that can
possibly care more about our communi
ties and neighborhoods and the people in
them. It is in our history, we just have to
make it a living history once again. No
other images can do it completely for us.
If we cannot or will not, it will not only be
a lost history, but surely a lost future as
well. Media stars are important; how
ever, they are not nearly as important as
the needed heroes and heroines of every
day life.
but Ms. Harvard said that Friday’s crowd
had far fewer people than last year, which
was fortunate since a grand scheme to
lure young partiers off the streets during
Freaknik started to unravel Friday after
a lack of cash forced the cancellation of
two concerts.
Six Atlanta bands had planned to play
for at least 5,000 people at the Atlanta
Civic Center on Friday and Saturday
nights.
“It’sdisappointing because we had tried
to get events so students could come and
have a good time and now we have to tell
them those events aren’t going on,” said
Andrea Harris, a spokeswoman for Spring
Jam ’97 Inc., a partnership that orga
nized the concerts. 2
Corporate sponsorships counted on to
help pay for the concerts didn’t material
ize, she said.
Other events that did go on weren't
AUGUSTA FOCUS APRIL 24, 1997
of blacks live)? Consequently, in order
for a child to play golf, he or she would
have to have transportation to the sub
urbs in order to reach a golf course.
Secondly, if these kids could somehow
get transportation to these golf courses,
most would require either a membership
or playing fee. Also, these same kids
would have to own a set of golf clubs and
balls. This is assuming they could find a
country club that would accept biacks as
members.
All this has made it very difficult for
black youngsters to ever get started in
golf. As a result, there are not many
African-American golfers for black kids
to relate to or emulate. Over the years,
this fact has perpetuated minimal inter
est in the sport on the part of African-
American kids. Therefore, black kids have
naturally migrated to sports they could
both afford and to those that had partici
pants they could relate to and emulate.
Tiger Woods, however, is the excep
tion. He had the golfing opportunity made
available to him at an early age. He has
made the most of it. Because blacks are
becoming more affluent, and because they
now have someone to emulate, we can
expect to see a rise in popularity in the
game
Tiger thanked those who had gone be
fore, whopaved the way. Everyone should
do that. The African-American culture
would not exist without it. The sacrifices
endured must always be in our memo
ries, individually and collectively. Oth
ers can be excused if they do not know;
however, the shame is indeed ours, if we
or future writers of the African-Ameri
can story do not know. Not only must we
remain in control of our history, its im
portance must never be underestimated.
A people’sstory, a people’s history, if told
in its totality, includes all of its compo
nents, all of its causes and all of its
effects.
The word “heritage” has been used a
lotlately, correctly and incorrectly. Ifthe
truth be known, very few of us, notice
ably including Tiger, can claim direct
descent from either the “Motherland,”
“Fatherland,” or any other “lands” that
make up America. That is surely the
physical side. The culture side is just as
uncertain, whether or not we admit to it.
Our historical past can be seen in many
shades, from rose-colored to dark-tinted.
Add to it man’s inhumanity to man and
we can see why interpretations and the
symbols of those interpretations bother
us still. We have not gotten beyond it.
The question is, will we ever be able to?
The course of human events may
present positive or negative experiences.
We share it all. We rejoice in its achieve
ments and we are amazed at its short
comings. History is best when it is vi
brant, living. It is Tiger Woods and it is
the world surrounding a Tiger Woods. It
is of us all.
enough to lure the young people from
their cars. A street festival on Martin
Luther King Drive was virtually empt
despite a sound stage, food stands an
other vendors ready for a party on
breezy spring day. i
“I guess Freaknik is getting off to
slow start, but it’ll perk up by Saturda
afternoon,” said Jamal Williams, a soph
more at Clark Atlanta University, whe
other Freaknik festivities also failed
attract attention. “All the honeys will
in full effect by the weekend.” ‘
Freaknik took form in 1982, when stu't
dents at Spelman and Morris Brown col
leges hosted a picnic for about 65 stu
dents during spring break. The grou
dubbed the picnic “Freaknik,” after
Eopulm". dance in the 1970 s known as th
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