Newspaper Page Text
8A
MARCH 8, 2001
BUSINESS EXCHANGE By William Reed
Black reparations
goes “mainstream”
ust two years ago, tout
ing reparations for Black
slavery was a lonely pur
suit. So,imagine the glee
that Robert L. Brock, a 76-year
old legal activist, felt when writ
ers from mainstream newspa
pers the likes of the Boston
Globe and Washington Post ap
proached him for interviews
and information about his long
history pursuing reparations
for Blacks.
Pollsin 1995 showed lessthan
10 percent of African Ameri
cans supporting the concept of
reparations. Against thisback
drop of swimming against the
tide, Brock toiled 40 years to
ward getting Blacks compensa
tion for the “40 acres and a
mule” they should have gotten
at the end of slavery. He has
filed numerous class-action
suites for Blacks to gain com
pensation for slavery, includ
ing the Dec. 10, 1965 suit that
preserved the rights of blacks
tosueagainst thestatuesof the
13** Amendment. “You
couldn’t collect if not for me,”
laments Brock regarding high
powered lawyers, including
Harvard law professor Charles
Ogletree and Johnnie Cochran
who has been plotting strategy
foraclass-actionslawsuit seek
ing reparations.
With the high profile of
Randall Robinson and lawyers
Ogletree and Cochran, main
stream media such as CBS, the
Post and the Globe, have been
reporting comments like that
of Georgia Pentecostal minis
ter, Rev. Gary Grant, saying,
“The white man has been tak
ingadvantage of the Black man
all our lives. Now, we want to
get paid.” A growing number
of reparations proponents have
propelled Detroit Congressman
John Conyers’ bill — H.R. 40
— to the forefront in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
But, instead of getting the
issue to the Supreme Court,
where Brock wants it heard,
the acknowledgment of the
reparationsissue by the major
ity media has simply reaped
scorn on Brock. “Many are
starting to questions the man
and his message,” a Black fe
malewriter Tatsha Robertson,
states in an Oct. 17, 2000 ar
ticle in the Boston Globe.
Michael Fletcher an African-
American writer for the Wash
ington Post, alludes in a De
cember 2000 story that Brock
may be perpetrating “a scam”
when he asks people wanting
him to file their claim for repa
rations topay SSO. The IRS has
distributed statementscaution
ing African Americans against
being “misled” by offersrelated
to reparations. And Ms.
Robertson’s article says, “U.S.
Representative John Conyers,
who has been pushing for a
reparations bill in Congress
(H.R. 40) since 1989, recently
sent out a letter warning Afri
AuguSta Charles W. Walker
Publisher
Focus Frederick Benjamin
Managing Editor
Since 1981 Dot T. Ealy
A Walker Group Marketing Director ‘
- Publication
1143 Laney Walker Blvd.
, Lillian Wan Copy Editor
j = Timothy Cox Staff Writer
(,/ i \ Tonya Evans Office Manager
\N A Jerome Turner Advertising Rep
\\W Samuel Daniels Production Assistant
Dennis Williams Aduvertising Production
AUGUSTAFOCUS
can Americans about an uni
dentified man who sounds
just like Brock.”
“Why are they attacking
me?” asks Brock. “Hell, lam
the one who got Conyers
started on the bill.” Corre
spondence records do show
that Brock’s early 1980 s dis
cussions of reparations with
former California Congress
men Agustus Hawkins and
Mervyn Dymally prompted
them to publicly announce
their support for reparations
and for Brock to share his
findings with the executive
director of the Congressional
Black Caucus. From those
CBC discussions came the
reparations bill that Conyers
has introduced annually in
Congress since 1989.
“Conyers doesn’t give me
credit for starting the issue,
but that really isn’t impor
tant,” Brock says. However,
he does get credit in the
American Bar Association
Journal’s story on repara
tionsin their November 2000
issue.
Brock says any Black’s de
mand for reparations must
be based on four things: 1) an
understanding of his citizen
ship rights as an African of
slave descent; 2) an under
standingofU.S.laws and stat
utes written for Africans of
slave descent; 3) an under
standing of the history of sla
very in the U.S. and other
European nations; and 4) an
understanding of the work
the Self Determination com
mittee has completed. Brock
points out that the web site
for his Self Determination
€ ommititee.
www.directblackaction.com,
clearly spells out his successes
and why each Black must
make a claim for their own
reparation payments. “You
must make your legal claim
to get your money, or repara
tions. Just like others, such
asJapanese-Americans, have
made their legal claim and
gottheirreparationsmoney,”
he states.
Brock’s 40-year pursuit of
reparations hasbeeninspired
by the teachings of Marcus
Garvey, Father Divine,
Bishop Turner of the AME
Church, and Ms. Alberta
Spain, who teamed up with
Mississippi Senator Bilbo in
1939 to get support for a bill
topay Blacksreparations. He
says Black Reparations has
taken a long time to come
into the public eye becausein
the past, bringing it up was
difficult. For example, in the
€arly 1980 s, no Black would
dare bring it up because they
feared repercussions from
whites. Now, he is realizing
thatrepercussionscanbejust
aslethal when they come from
Blacks in the employ of
whites.
2D, WE WD
¢ —== 9 ToE WARRINGS.
N & T KNER T
b b WS GUING TO
1y WPFER
” r\% §,¢" -
L .w‘!"‘s‘§s ANorsa
e U N
Y Rcplbsele 47
1T JUST RIRTS, .
BECAUSE &=%
MAYEE QUD'YE fl\?
PORE SMETHING QALY
RAUTIT N ¥ f\%
%3/;\;:\\ ;g N ??\\ W
M \»Aé& f (T ,v_‘f’;’r},
ID3eO B SPO) JN T
TO BE EQUAL By Hugh B. Price
Putting faith to work? Caution advised
t goes without saying that
churches and faith-based
organizations of all kinds
have for decades played a
vitalrolein aidingindividuals
and familiesin distressin ways
that have contributed to alle
viating some of America’s
most serious social problems.
President Bush recognized
the constructive role they’ve
played by creating the White
House Office of Faith-Based
and Community Initiatives. Its
purpose is to promote the inte
gration of religious groupsinto
federally financed social ser
vices.
Yet the initiative has raised
concerns in some quarters, in
cluding among theologians,
civil rights and civil liberties
organizations, and social ser
vice groups, that it will breach
the constitutional barriers
separating church and state,
and produce a host of other
problems.
The Bush Administration
has pledged to undertake the
effort with care and a proper
appreciation for the Constitu
tional safeguards.
GUEST COMMENTARY By Sheldon Richman
Are we a nation of helpless children?
resident Bill Clinton
took some flak in the
closing weeks of his ad
ministration when he
told a Rolling Stone inter
viewer, “Ithink that most small
amounts of marijuana have
been decriminalized in some
places and should be.”
Thenegativereaction wasso
strong that a Clinton spokes
man said that the president
was not endorsing decriminal
ization. You figure it out. I
guess it all depends on what
your definition of “should” is.
Shepherd Smith, president
of the Institute for Youth De
velopment, responded, “De
criminalizing ‘small amounts
of marijuana’ is simply a eu
phemistic way of saying it’s
fine to smoke it, just don’t sell
it. So we now have the presi
dent of the United States on
record again saying to young
peoplethat smoking marijuana
is basically OK.”
Oh really?
Let me rush to the former
president’s defense. Since
when is it an endorsement of
an activity to say that it
shouldn’tbetreated asacrime?
There are many things that
are perfectly legal to do that
would best beavoided. Bungee
jumping is the first example
that springs to mind, but there
Ovinion
Nonetheless, thereisnoother
way to think of the faith-based
initiative—withitsintention of
dispensing millions of federal
dollarsto faith-based organiza
tions - except as forging a sig
nificantly expanded direct re
lationship between the federal
government and faith-based
groups. The federal govern
ment should venture into this
arena with caution and care.
This isn’t to say the effort
doesnotdeservetobe supported
for precisely thereasonlstated
in beginning this column: the
long-standinginvolvementand
track record of churches and
faith-based organizations in
addressing the humanitarian
needs of people is admirable.
Black America knows first
hand how valuable and essen
tial theseinstitutionsaretothe
health and vitality of our com
munity. The church and other
faith-based organizations have
been both black Americans’
spiritual rock and alsoin many,
many instances down through
the years a crucial provider of
material assistance. Their
value has been and continues
are many others. Did you ever
hear anyone say, “By making
bungee jumping legal, we are
sending a message to our kids
that such risky behavior is
OK?” Some people enthusias
tically endorse bungee jump
ing. Search the World Wide
Web and you’ll find people who
call it “the ultimate rush.”
Butisit accurate to say “we”
— meaning society or the coun
try - are telling kids that they
should bungee jump? I don’t
think so.
Some people just don’t get
the point of a free society. The
freedom to do something
doesn’t mean you ought to do
that thing. How basic can you
get?
Yet we seem to want to teach
our children the opposite les
son: if somethingis legal, then
itisOK todoit. And that leads
to the view that we should le
galizeonly thosethings wewant
people todo. That’sjust nutty.
Under what used tobeknown
as “liberalism” (today we say
“classical liperalism,”) people
werefreetodoanythingexcept
that which was expressly (and
justly) prohibited by the law,
such as murder, robbery, rap
and the like. On the other
hand, government could do
nothing except that which was
expressly (and justly) permit
=g TR il
@ NG
i VE R A
1)
\.
22 % AL THOSE
N YL PR STUDENTS..
‘ QY- UNARMED!
o
tobeimmense. Wordsthegreat
diva Leontyne Price once used
to describe the importance to
African Americans of Negro
spirituals - she said they were
“the black heartbeat” — apply
to faith-based organizations
themselves.
The National Urban League
has drawn on the importance
of faith-based organizations
within black communities to
help us carry out our mission
sinceits founding 90 years ago.
Our success would not be as
great otherwise.
That tradition, and necessity,
of partnership continuestoday.
Forexample, our affiliate, the
Tucson Urban League, is part
of a coalition drawn together
by the Pilgrim Rest Missionary
Baptist Church there, its com
munity neighbor, to seek fed
eral funds from the Depart
ment of Housing and Urban
Development, a housing devel
opment for senior citizens. The
coalition includes a local non
profit housingcorporation, and
the Urban League’s national
housing and community devel
opment staff has also assisted
ted toit. To use the imagery of
political philosopher Stephen
Macedo, government power
constituted a few islands in a
sea of liberty.
All that has changed now,
thanks to the gang that appro
priated the word “liberalism”
about a century ago. Today,
continuing with Macedo’sanal
ogy, liberty constitutes a few
islands in a sea of government
power. Weare quickly heading
toward a situation in which, as
someoneonce put it,everything
thatis not forbiddenisrequired.
In other words: total govern
ment.
The price is the liberty, self
responsibility, and dignity of
theindividual. Contrary tothe
attitude of so many people to
day, that is no small price. As
Charles Murray, authorof What
It Means to Be a Libertarian,
self-responsibility is what keeps
our lives from being trivial.
Everyone pays lip service to
self-responsibility. But whatis
so misunderstood is that self
responsibility requires free
dom. Try imagining one with
out theother. It’slike tryingto
square the circle. It cannot be
done.
The American political sys
tem hasbeen seized by theidea
that there are areas in which
individuals may not be permit
the effort.
We’venot hesitated tocall on:
faith-based organizations for
our national projects, too.
The most dramatic example
is our effort to inspire more
black youngsters to do well in
schooland dogood in their com
munities, the Campaign for
African-American Achieve
ment. At the national level,
we’ve been joined in that cam
paignbynearly twodozenblack
professional and civic associa
tions. But we went first to the
Congress of National Black
Churches, the 20,000,000
strong coalition of eight de
nominations and 65,000
churches.
In other words, we fully un
derstand the power and reach
and determination to do good
of faith-based organizations.
That’s also been the experi
ence of Franklin D. Raines,
chairman and CEO of Fannie
Mae, and a National Urban
League trustee. Raines wrote
in a recent Wall Street Journal
that his experienceis “that the
See FAITH, Page 9A
ted liberty and self-responsibil
ity. Drugs areonesuch area. A
hundred years ago people were
trusted with the freedom and
responsibility of self-medica
tion. They could freely buy
opiates and marijuana; Coca-
Colacontained cocaine. Asmall
percentage of the population
harmed themselves with those
substances. But there was no
drug problem. The drug prob
lem was born the day govern
ment began passing laws de
priving people of freedom and
responsibility. Thoselawsgave
us black markets with their
attendant violence, organized
crime, and law enforcement
corruption. They did some
thing worse — if worse can be
imagined. Theyinfantilized the
American people. The results
were predictable. The sphere
of freedom and self-responsi
bility sphere shrank radically -
to a point where no one is re
sponsible for anything any
more.
If you treat adults like chil
dren, many of them will come
tobelieve thatthatiswhat they
are.
Sheldon Richman is senior
fellow at The Future of Free
dom Foundation (www.fff.org)
in Fairfax, Va. and editor of
Ideas on Liberty magazine.