Newspaper Page Text
8A
JUNE 15, 2000
FOCUS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
By Lawrence Harrison
Where we are
hey brought another ver
sion of the Confederate flag
down to where we can more
. easily view it, with lights
andl fence. Only thing missing is
a 24-hour recording of the rebel
fi didn’t think about it, I guess.
issue is not resolved; next
yedr, two years from now, per
haps 30 years from now, it will be
revisited. There are,indeed, other
corticerns to focus on. A lot of
unfinished business.
Education reform is a modern
issue. Lip service won’t suffice.
What will be needed is to make
sure children learn, have the ca
pacity to learn, and are prepared
to learn. If we would only make
the same effort as we do to so
called history preservation.
The most modern technology,
the most vast resources really
mean nothing, ifthey are not used.
Théy do not absorb automatically
into the child (or adult either, for
that matter). It is a question of
what interests us; and interests
certainly are influenced by what
Zoes on around us. The violence
related interests, we surely can
and need to address. Morality
and values are of an abstract na
ture; we have problems passing
the;n on to future generations.
Knowledge is concrete. Despite
that, some, through fault and no
fault of their own, have not shared
completely in its inheritance. We
candobetter. Learning about the
past is only a first step. How we
feel about the pastisnot nearly as
important as how we feel about
the future.
Pottery can be molded. Human
beings can be too. Unfortunately,
the “bad” ones are not as correct
able or disposable in the latter
instance; evidence, a society of
fear and a bulging prison indus
try. Childhood is where change
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has to occur. If government is to
be inclusive, it must be on all
levels. The War on Poverty was
never won, it was just barely be
gun. That has been what we have
reaped. A well-armed “militia”
will not make the difference, bet
ter human beings will.
If we really want to learn and
want learning for all of the citi
zenry, no forces can stop us. We
can debate the matter of funding.
We did not do that this past legis
lative year with the lottery pro
posal. If it is approved this fall,
that means more delay in its
implementation ... and more
money for Georgia. Politics over
the common good once again. It
has not been the best example for
compromise in any areas or for
anyone, young or old.
All was not lost. Finally, we do
have commitment toward eco
nomicdevelopmentin rural South
Carolina, to small and minority
businesses. In the best effort, the
benefits will be lasting and
throughout. Any authority will
only be as good as the people who
serve on it and the plans they
formulate. A vision to the future
is what it represents, a hand up
instead of a hand out, we are al
ways abusing as cliche. It is ac
tion.
So, we are ... well, we have a
longways togoand a short time to
get there. If we have to speak
about how “racial climates” are
anywhere, we are not doing too
well. South Carolinianshavelittle
to be proud of lately. In a state so
vibrant with diversity, that is a
shame. Ifthe Civil War waswaged
to that end, more the shame.
There ought to be a better lesson
to teach our children and our
selves. In the year 2000, we have
failed to do so.
Charles W. Walker
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By John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Why you must go to the polls
he Internet is a wonderful
source of information and
hasrevolutionized the way
many of us do our work,
our studies and even our shop
ping. But everything that one
reads on the Internet is not gos
pel, and for the past year or so
there has been one troubling piece
of misinformation going around
about voting rights for African
Americans. That story says that
the Voting Rights Act will expire
in 2007 and that therefore blacks
will lose our right to vote that
year. That story is just not true.
After receiving that Internet
warning several times myself, and
hearingitin my church, I decided
to find out from the Justice
Department’s Civil Rights unit
what the reality was. I found out
that this rumor is false, and was
reassured that first the voting
rights of African Americans are
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitu
tion and the Voting Rights Act
and that those guarantees are
permanent and do not expire.
The Justice Department
pointed to the 15th amendment
to the Constitution, under which
no one may be denied the right to
vote. In addition, the Voting
Rights Agt itself does not expire
in any year. What will expire in
CHILD WATCH By Marian Wright Edelman |
Grace to lead our children home
he Black Church Initiatives
. waslaunchedin 1997 by the
Children’s Defense Fund
and the Black Community
Crusade for Children we coordi
nate to bring a critical mass of
Black congregationstogethertothe
growing crisis facing Black chil
dren. .
Religious institutions have al
ways played a role in the develop
ment of Black children and fami
lies, and we believe today’s
churches and mosques must be the
moral locomotives for the urgently
needed movement to save our chil
dren from the grip of hopelessness,
violence, and the juvenile justice
and prison systems.
Webegan with a series of gather
ings in cities across the country
where religious leaders advocates,
judges, and young people came to
gether to discuss the alarming sta
tistics on the disproportionately
high numbers of Black children
who are victims of violence or in
volved in the juvenile justice sys
tem. Each gathering also featured
solutions — panelists describing
innovative church-based youth pro
grams across the country making
a difference in the lives of their
2007 are certain provisions of the
Voting Rights Act which contain
extraordinary remedies that ap
plied to certain areas of the South
because the right to vote illegally
had been denied for so long. The
provisions, for example, autho
rize the Attorney General to send
federal registrars to register vot
ers in those areas, as well as fed
eral observers to monitor elec
tions. In addition, these special
provisions require certain coun
ties to gain the approval of the
U.S. Attorney General before
implementing new voting prac
tices. These special provisions of
the Voting Rights Act were origi
nally set to expire in 1970, but
were extended that year and again
in 1975 and 1982. They are now
set to expire in 2007, if they are
not further extended. Evenifthese
provisions expire, however, they
can be reinstated by court order if
there is evidence of discrimina
tory practices in these counties.
Over the past few years I have
watched carefully to see what the
percentage of African Americans
voting acrossthisnationhasbeen.
I tried to get the percentage of
blacks who voted in the recent
presidential primaries, but so far
have been unsuccessful. But in
1998, according to the Joint Cen
community’s children, because
sharing positive solutionsis key to
change. In order to share these
exampleswithother congregations
we have profiled 10 of these suc
cessful programsin anew manual,
Grace to Lead Our Children Home.
Thebudgets, staffsizes, number of
children served, and activities pro
vided bythe programsdescribed vary
widely sothat almost any church can
find a model they can use. For ex
ample, St. Augustine’s Church in
Washington, D.C., Freedom Temple
Church in Garner, N.C., and Metro
politan Baptist Church in Memphis
all run after-school or evening en
richment programs that can be
staffed primarily with volunteers
from a congregation. The Church of
Saint Adalbert in Cleveland also re
lieson volunteerstorun twosuccess
ful group-mentoring programs, one
for boys and one for girls. '
Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist
Church in Kansas City, Missouri, is
one of nearly 60 sites across the
country currently hosting one of the
summer Freedom Schools which
CDF/BCCC sponsor and which will
serve over 5,000 children this sum
mer. Freedom Schools’ paid staffs of
college-aged servant-leaders inte
Editorial
ter for Political and Economic
Studies, the black share of the
vote was 10 percent, the same as
in 1994.
I know that African Americans
are more than 10 percent of the
U.S. population and I remember
the 1984 and 1988 campaigns of
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who helped
us see the potential power of the
black vote in determining not only
who is president, but who repre
sents usin the U.S. Congress and
it state houses. If every person
whosent that false Internet warn
ing about the Voting Rights Act
was registered to vote and voted,
if every African American who is
eligible tovote in this nation would
do so, we would not have to worry
about anyone taking anything
away from us. Most African
Americans are more likely to lose
our right to vote by our own apa
thy than by anything else.
Make no mistake about it, 35
years after the Voting Rights Act,
there are still counties in this
nation where African Americans
are still fighting for their right to
cast their ballots. But the vast
majority of us are stopped only by
our own laziness, our own apa
thy.
In April one of our greatest black
unsung heroesdied. Albert Turner
gratereading, conflictresolution,and
social action into well-developed ac
tivity-based curriculum that pro
motes cultural and historical aware
ness and provides summer options
for children where there are none.
Parents Attend weekly parenting
workshops.
Other programs provide arange of
opportunities for young people over
the course of the year. Windsor
Village United Methodist Church in
Houston has an excellent program
that focuses solely on girls and uses
a small paid staff and dozens of vol
unteers to provide everything from
HIV awareness programs and CPR/
baby-sitting training to mother
daughterluncheonsandcollegetours.
West Angeles Church of Godin Christ
in Los Angeles provides over adozen
programs throughits popular Youth
Ministries including a Rites of Pas
sage program that prepares adoles
cents for the critical transition from
middleschool tohighschooland then
from high school to college.
The Cathedral ofthe Allen A.M.E.
Church in Jamaica, N.Y., reaches
outtochildreninitscommunitywith
a dynamic youth worship service
which draws several hundred young
people each week, many of them
was an advisor to Dr. Martin
LutherKingJr.,in facthe was the
onechosen tolead the mule wagon
that carried Dr. King’s body at his
funeral. Albert Turner lived in
Alabama all his life, helping to
lead the Selma march where civil
rights marchers were badly
beaten, as well as many other
demonstrationsin Alabama. Said
J. L. Chestnut, the Selma civil
rights attorney, “Whenever there
was somethingof unusual danger
and nobody wanted to, you could
count on the fact that Albert ...
would lead it.” Mr. Turner was
one of the 40 first African Ameri
cansregistered to vote in Marion,
Ala.in 1963 and the lawsuits sur
rounding their effort culminated
in the Voting Rights Act itself.
Albert Turner’s determination to
vote meant that he was threat
ened, he was beaten, he was im
prisoned.
Mr. Turner’s civil rights work
did not end in the 1960 s however.
I met Albert Turner in the 1980 s
when abusload of usdid a 25 year
anniversary ofthe Freedom Rides
and went to Alabamabecause Mr,
Turner and other black leaders
were under indictment by the
Reagan Justice Department for
See VOTING, page 9A
from families who would not other-l
wise attend church. 3
New Canaan International Church
in Richmond, Va., is one of the first
churches to participate in One,
Church... Ten families, a new pro--
gramsponsoredby CDR/BCCC. Oné
Church... Ten Families provides an
alternative to the juvenile justice
system by giving juvenilejudges the
option of “sentencing” young offend
ers to regular involvement with a’
family from a local church who have'
agreed to become mentors for the'
youth’s entire family. Volunteers'
from the congregation are trained to'
participate.
Finally, the Boston Ten Point Coa-’
lition, founded by three Black minis--
ters, is a coalition of churches from
many denominations, the police, the
juvenile justice system, and many
other public and private organiza-’
tions who have come together to'
work on behalf of that city’s young'
people. The Ten Point Coalition is'
now being replicated by other com-’
munitiesacrossthecountrywhowish'
to duplicate Boston’s dramatic de-’
creaseinitsyouth crime and murder”
rates.
See GRACE, page 9A