Newspaper Page Text
8A
AUGUST 5, 1999
EDITORIAL b
Forget the rebel flag!
T he continuing controversy sur
@ rounding the Confederate
b Flag is at best diversionary.
Yes, the flag is offensive to many —
egpecially African Americans. But,
fhere are many other issues that
dre at least as offensive, if not more
offensive to all African Americans.
Leading the list are incidents of
{Eising crime rates, racial profiling
by law enforcement officials, the
dismantling of our human
infrastructure (from welfare reform
0 ever increasing rates of incar
f;ération and drug abuse) and the
continuing disparity between
{Black” and “White” Americans on
the economic front.
7 While we understand the emo
ional basis for the recent call by the
&outh Carolina NAACP to call for a
boycott of the state until the confed
erate emblem is removed from its
government buildings, the decision
{o spend precious time and re
gources for a goal that is psychologi
cal should be questioned by every
thinking person regardless of
ethnicity.
. Consider that, even if the goal is
achieved, what would be the benefit
— in real terms — for every man,
woman and child in the Palmetto
state?
.How many children will be gradu
ated from high school as a result?
How many new millionaires will be
created from the ranks to the very
capable South Carolinian black en
ttepreneurs?
While the effort speaks directly
to the racist symbolism of the Con
federate flag — a symbol that many
African Americans consider to be
on the par with the dreaded KKK
ipitials and the Nazi swastika —
the effort is likely to have unfore
seen negative consequences as fair
minded, moderate whites feel the
pressure to cross the line and sit at
the table with their hard-core white
supremacist brethren who welcome
yet another issue to further divide
the races.
- Who can deny that on the thresh
old of the new millennium, the key
igsues are education, health care
and economic prosperity. The South
Carolina NAACP, like, the Georgia
NAACP, should focus their atten
tion on the single most threatening
ttend in America’s politics —the
dismantling of access to public edu
cation. A growing number of politi
¢ians and right-wing conservatives
Augusta
Focus
Since 1981 '
A Walker Group
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1143 Laney-Walker Blvd.
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AUGUSTA FOCUS
are embracing vouchers and char
ter Schools. While civil rights advo
cates are being diverted into anti
rebel flag adventures, the right
wing agenda rolls along unabated.
We must resist the temptation to
race to the barricades and engage in
a flag fight instead of a fight to
maintain effective and efficient edu
cation strategies.
Conservatives are smart enough
to realize that with a strong
economy, their bread and butter is
sues are social and political. They
realize that their movement is dead
in its tracks unless they can latch
onto an issue that would unite their
dwindling ranks into a racist strong
hold —the rebel flag is just such an
issue.
They are more adept at playing
the race card than liberals could
ever hope to be. It has worked
before, it will work again, “Throw
them coloreds the race bone and
they will bite every time.” They
know that, when it comes to the
race card, the Joker in the wild.
Blacks must understand that the
right-wing locomotive has run out
of steam. Their primary source of
energy comes from racial politics.
With the election of Democratic gov
ernors, in South Carolina, Georgia
and Alabama, the vaunted “South
ern strategy” has run its course.
The name of this new game is inclu
sion and getting mired down in an
emotional tussle over a piece of cloth
is very unwise at this stage in south
ern politics.
If African Americans provide the
right-wing with the racial fuel to
upset the Democratic majorities in
this part of the south, we can say
good-bye to moderates like Gover
nor Roy Barnes of Georgia and Jim
Hodges of South Carolina. The con
servatives know that 2000 is a piv
otal year in southern politics. They
must win at all cost or lose southern
legislatures for the next decade.
They must act and act now.
We hope that Georgia’s black
elected officials avoid “Flag Fight
2000” at all costs. We cannot afford
such a stupid and costly error. An
insincere Zell Miller tried the flag
.issue for political gain and nearly
got run out of town. Zell Miller had
no interest in black progress or
pride. He simply was looking for an
advantage, but he barely escaped
political disaster. Black elected of
ficials, however, won’t be so lucky.
Charles W. Walker
Publisher
Frederick Benjamin
Managing Editor
Dot T. Ealy
Marketing Director
Lillian Wan
Copy Editor
Samuel Daniels
Production Assistant
Denise Lipscomb
Production Assistant
Karen Haeusler
Production Assistant
Timothy Cox
Staff Writer
Michael W. Newton Jr.
Senior Account Executive
Frank Johnson
Circulation Manager
. Tonya Evans
Office Manager
Opinion
W R -
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RILANTRS \ fifi% @ %flefi G
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TRAGEDY /- fi Ly
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| @ ko, MIKE LUCKOVICH
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson
James Farmer: fallen warrior
iththe death of James Farmer,
we have lost another warrior
who served fearlessly on the
battlefield for justice. And it occurred to
me once again how many leaders of the
civil rights movement we really had,
contrary to popular opinion and the me
dia accounts. Indeed, we are often asked
today why we don’t have “a leader” in the
contemporary civil rights movement,
when the reality always was that we had
leaders in the plural and today is no
different.
James Farmer, former head of the
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), was
clearly one of them. Farmer, who was
one of the many civil rights leaders de
voted to strategy of non-violence, was
often on the cutting edge of the move
ment. It was to CORE that students from
North Carolina turned after staging the
nation’s first sit-ins at a Greensboro lunch
counter and it was CORE which began
the Freedom Rides in 1961. Three of the
students who were the first fatalities of
the Mississippi Freedom Summerin 1964
were CORE members.
Yet his was a name that many Ameri
cans never knew. Sadly many young
people today not only don’t know of him,
but have never heard of Roy Wilkins,
Whitney Young or Daisy Bates or Fannie
GUEST COMMENTARY By Lloyd «J. Jordan, Esq.
Good news! What good news?
he recent Newsweek magazine
(June 7, 1999) focus on “The Good
News About Black America” made
a compelling case for African
American Greek letter organizations to
continue their programmatic work of
community uplift.
The eight major African American
Greek letter organizations are rooted in
precepts concerning the advancement of
Black People. That is why the Newsweek
report hits home with Greeks.
In short, the article notes that here
have been social and economic gains in
Black America, but the quotients of com
parative data show that what we may call
gains would be called failure by other
progressive cultures.
The article notes that Black income is
higher and unemployment is lower, but
at the same time, income is even higher
for other Americans and unemployment
is twice the rate of whites. Black median
income is at a “record high” of $34,644,
but still $21,378 less than the average for
whites (based on 1997 statistics).
Ofparticular concern are statistics rela
tive to young people.
College completion rates were on a
steady rise between 1981 and 1997 for
white males climbing 28% to 34% and
white females jumping 24%t0 36%, and
a marginal rise for Black females 156% to
19%. Meanwhile, Black males are going
in the oppositedirection dropping alarm
ingly 16% to 13%. These are scary figures
because it gives us a prognosis for the
future of which we need to be concerned.
Black America has the same amount of
young Black males going to jail as it does
going to college, 13%. Y
Lou Hamer. Farmer
”~. N was appalled to learn
] that in one survey or
E ¥ young blacks, some did
. not even know who
@ Martin Luther King, Jr.
\ 4 was, thinking he was
"‘4 someone who had
k- Y worked for Al Sharpton.
o When President
st | Clinton awarded
Farmer Farmer the Presiden
tial Medal of Freedom in 1998, he felt
somewhat vindicated. “He was one of the
founding fathers not just gs the new;
South, but of the New America,” said
Congressman’ ' John’ Léws, himself a’
leader in the civil rights movement and
who, along with Mr. Farmer, was beaten
and jailed on the Freedom Rides.’
The grandson of a slave,James Farmer
was the son of a minister/scholar and a
teacher and spent most of his youth in a
protected black college environment. He
went to the Howard University School of
Religion, but decided against becominga
Methodist minister like his father be
cause the Methodist Church in the South
was segregated. As a conscientious objec
tor during World War 11, Farmer worked
for the Fellowship of Reconciliation,
where his commitment to integration
Newsweek also re
ports that in one Ohio
community, Black
make up 50% of the
high school population,
but account for less
than 10% of those at
the top of the class,
and nearly 90% of the
bottom.
While many Blacks
are moving up the lad-
o
A
Jordan
der of economic success, most remain
mired in the same comparative quotients
of disproportionate attainment.
Wellness issues such as health insur
ance, lead poisoning, cancer and HIV
continue to be problems of disproportion
in Black America as are standardized
education achievement proficiency and
voter turnout. That’s just scratching the
surface of issues with negative compara
GO e MRS O eSB - SASSELE §HE R GRS, g L R s =o A
Announcement ‘nnouscement Announcil
: ; |
The CSRA Classic, Inc. & Delta House, Inc. Youth Leadership i
Program is currently accepting students between the ages of 12 .
and 17 to participate in the program. '
The leadership program is designed to provide students ‘ :
with ongoing activities that will enhance them educa- ; :
tionally, culturally, and socially. | !
To register or to receive additional information, |
please call Monique Walker at 722-4222 or Lamont i
Belk at 721-2320. ||
i
Registration is limited. 3 i
The deadline for registration is |
X Monday August9,l9oß. ... . . ||
and non-violence only intensified.
James Farmer risked his life for his
beliefs on many occasions. On one such
night, armed Louisiana state troopers
kicked down doors and beat up blacks on
the streets on Plaquemine, asthey looked
for Farmer. “I was meant to die th
night,” Farmer himself recalled, addin
that the only way he got out because &
funeral home director had him play dea
in the back of a hearse that carried hi
out of town. , !
He was jailed many times in protes
across the South. Indeed, on August 28,
1963 as Martin Luther King, Jr., w
deliveringhis famous speech,Jim Farm
was §itting in jail in Plaquemine, LA
had to send his own speech via an aidd}
“We will not stop until the dogs sto
biting us in the South and the rats stop
biting us in the North,” Farmer wrote.}.
Inhislater years Jim Farmer taught
several colleges and briefly worked in thé
Nixon administrationin the Departme
of Health, Education and Welfare. Buth
soon realized that he could be more effed;
tive outside the government. He h
been failing health for many years, bat}
tling a severe case of diabetes. ;
The world is a better place because of
James Farmer. He will be missed. :
tive quotients and percentages when comy
pared to other Americans. |
Greek letter organizations must conh
tinue programs that spur Black student§
towards academic achievement, proh
grams that move communities towar:
betterliving and economic empowerme
initiatives that will yield opportuniti
for business ownership and jobs. !
Collectively, as college trained profest
sionals, we are at the forefront of th
continuing struggle and as the sayin,
goes-"To whom much is given, much ig
expected.” 7
The Newsweek article not only makes
a compelling case that we must turn {p
the intensity on our various programs,
but it has also helped define our agenda
going into the next millennium. |
Lloyd Jordan is the National President
(Grand Basileus) of Omega Psi Phi Fra'
ternity i