Newspaper Page Text
imisA the PEOPLE’S PAPER (20C)
NATIONAL BLACK NEWS SERVICE \ J
MEMBER S
Vol. 2
FOR BLACK READERS ONLY
By Carl Rowan
Washington - White readers
of this newspaper can move on
to the crossword puzzle, or the
bridge column, or the sports
pages. I want to rap a bit with
my black readers today.
And if what I say angers a
few brothers and sisters, so be
it. But its time blacks -
especially young blacks -
stopped deluding themselves
into believing that the sheepish
following of stupid fads is
“black solidarity.”
Its time to stop swallowing
this marlarky that styling your
hair in 30 nappy plaits, with
enough head skin showing to
cane-bottom granny’s rocker, is
the epitome of “pride in racial
heritage.”
The current Ebony magazine
has a feature called “Is the
Afro on the Way Out?” It
suggests that the college group
didn’t find enough “black
pride” in the old Afro, so
young blacks have now
resorted to “ancient African
hairstyles” such as the “tree
cornrow” - modeled by a lassie
who looks as though she got
her head caught in a
corn-shucker. Another sister
sports “cornrows tipped with
curls” -- and looks as though
she got caught in a stampede of
hungry locusts.
Anybody who didn’t find
enough “black pride” with a
“bush” is supposed to finally
discover his or her black
identity in a “cornrow.”
This is, to put it as decently
as I can. pure nonsense. Black
Minister Says Segregation and
Discrimination Not Necessarily
Wrong
Rev. M.J. Whitaker
Contrary to many of his
colleagues, the Reverend M.J.
Whitaker finds, nothing wrong
with segregation and
discrimination. He feels that
both will and SHOULD always
be with us.
Reverend Whitaker is pastor
of the Second Mt. Carmel
Baptist Church and recently
explained to his congregation
that the words segregation and
discrimination are
misunderstood by most people.
“Neither word carries any
connotation of injustice in
their true meanings. The
purpose for which we segregate
determines whether segregation
is right or wrong.
“The thing that makes the
words so horrible to the Negro
is the gross injustices, the
indignity, the insults that have
been heaped upon the Negro
within the framework of
segregation.”
“A man with a
communicable disease is
separated or segregated from
other people. A bad apple is
segregated from the good ones
Carl Rowan
Americans can let their hair
grow to the ground, they can
shave till their heads outshine
cue balls, they can straighten
or tease or crocinole or curl
process, t hey can buy wigs till
they run out of money (as a lot
of Americans do in Nairobi and
other African cities I have
visited), but there isn’t going to
be any meaningful black pride
until more black people are
making solid achievements in
competition with the white
majority.
Nothing galls me more than
a black dude who is cutting
classes, or who never reads a
newspaper or magazine or
book, or won’t hold onto a
job, or won’t give a dime to
help some needy black, sitting
around the barber shop or the
pool hall or the student union
talking about how Iris “rags” or
his “fro” symbolizes black
pride.
No Greek, no Jew, no
Roman, no Aztec ever designed
enough rags or grew enough
hair to cloak failure to the
extent that it could pass for
to keep the good ones from
spoiling. So that the purpose
for the segregation determines
this wisdom.
“The Bible mentions
segregation on the basis of
rightousness and wickedness.
God forbade the children of
Israel from marrying with
groups that worshipped
heathen gods. The Bible does
not teach segregation based on
one nation being better than
another. But on the basis of
rightousness and wickedness.”
Rev. Whitaker rejects the
concept that the Bible teaches
segregation based upon race.
CLASS DISCRIMINATION
“When the people on the
upper levels have their
entertainment, they don’t
invite the people on the lower
level. When the big white
people give their
entertainment, they don’t
invite the poor whites from
Harrisburg.
“Greek letter fraternities do
not invite the general public,
and there isn’t any harm in
that.” They are upholding the
laws of their society.
We live by discrimination, in
our choice clothing, ties or
suits.
Rev. Whitaker is disturbed
over the fact that historians
have ommited the
contributious Blacks. And feels
that whites have suffered from
this omission as well as Blacks.
Whites who know nothing of
the contributions of Blacks
have no reason to hold Blacks
P.O. Box 953
“pride.”
Black people in this country
feel a grueling challenge of
survival. Many of the most
powerful forces in the land are
arrayed against us these days,
some openly and some
secretly. So we need to put
down all the nonsense and bull,
and get about the business of
manning the ramparts. 1 don’t
give a damn how you style
your hair; what bothers me is
that you spend more time on
your hair than on your physics
or English class.
That folderol over “ancient
African hairstyles” gave me a
special pain in the scalp
because I read it just after
reading a very troubling article
by a black senior at Harvard.
This young man, Sylvester
Monroe, wrote in the Saturday
Review of Education, about
what has happened as black
students have let their search
for “blackness” and “pride”
carry them into a separatism
that shuts them off from the
intellectual strength of
Harvard.
Monroe quotes a black
Harvard professor. Martin A.
Kilson, as saying: “The
problem with black students at
Harvard is that they are too
caught up in ideology. Most
people who deal in ideologies
believe only 10 per cent of it,
at most. But blacks at Harvard
want to believe 90 per cent of
their own ideological bull
So true. A lot of young
in high regard.
WEEKLY REVIEW EDITOR
As former newspaper editor,
discrimination is nothing new
for Rev. Whitaker. He founded
the now non-existent “Weekly
Review” in 1947, after buying
the “Echo” from the late
Edward Simmons. The Weekly
Review was very successful
until he supported the
Supreme Court’s decision to
outlaw segregation in public
schools. Then the merchants
withdrew their advertising
from the paper. “From then
on, I could hardly make
enough out of the paper to
keep it going.
In 1964, he sold the Weekly
Review to Dr. Ranzy Weston
and attorney John Watkins.
The paper ceased publication
in 1970.
Rev. Whitaker has been
pastor of the Second Mt.
Carmel Baptist Church for 29
years and has encouraged
young people in his church to
unite. Youngsters have received
$1,525 in scholarships, mainly
writing masonic essays.
Under his direction, the
Weekly Review won a number
of awards including the George
Washington Award in 1950, a
second place metal for an
editorial on “The Negro’s
Fundamental Belief in the
American Way of Life.” The
award also carried a check for
S3OO.
In 1951, he received the
George Washington award for
general editorial policy.
people think they are snowing
Whitey. They are going
through his university, taking
his degree, without submitting
to the rigors of his academic
procedures. They get away
with it because Whitey doesn’t
know how to cope with “black
solidarity.”
But these young blacks are
snowing themselves.
Sometimes destroying
themselves. Not many are as
honest as Monroe, who admits
that he is nervous as hell about
leaving Harvard to compete in
a “complex, demanding white
world.” Monroe fears that he
has screwed himself by
spending three years at Harvard
Did Essex Seek Revenge
For Student Murders
Washington -- NBNS -- The
contents of a note presumed
by the New Orleans police to
have been written by Mark
Essex or someone associated
with him, links the January 7
battle between Essex and 700
New Orleans policemen with
the November 16 murders of
two Southern University
students by law officers.
Meanwhile, here a leading
Pan Africanist organizer in a
speece before a college student
body commented on the
implications of the New
Orleans “sniper: siege.”
Essex, who was killed by
gunfire the night of January 7
atop the Downtown Howard
Johnson Hotel, had held the
police at bay for 27 hours
before his body was riddled
with bullets by officers in a
helicopter.
The note in question,
according to police officials,
was received at a New Orleans
television station with a
January postmark. According
to New Orleans newsman Bill
Elder, the letter warned of an
attack on police headquarters
on New Year’s Eve, but that
holiday mail delivery had
caused the letter to not be
received until after the attack
had taken place.
The letter apparently
referred to a Dec. 31 attack on
the Central lockup (police
station) in which a police cadet
was killed and another
policeman standing near him
was wounded.
Police said the same .44
magnum Ruger carbine found
beside Essex’s body was the
one which fired the bullets that
killed the police cadet.
The letter received by
WWL-TV said:
“Africa greets you. On
December 31, 1973
(approximately) 11 p.m. the
downtown New Orleans police
department will be attacked.
“Reason -- many. But the
death of two innocent brothers
will be avenged and many
others. Tell pig (Police
Superintendent Clarence)
Giarusso the felony squad ain’t
(obscenity).”
The letter was signed
“Mata,” a Swahili word
meaning “instrument to kill.”
The word “Mata” was also
found on the walls of Essex’s
New Orleans apartment.
According to New Orleans
police officials, however, the
From the Atlanta Constitution
in “an isolated black vacuum.”
Let’s face reality: we don’t
have enough manpower to
dominate it; we don’t have
enough dollar-power to buy it.
And we’ll be short of all these
“powers” until we develop a
lot more brainpower. In truth,
that’s the one power we can
develop rapidly, with zeal,
without scaring the dominant
group to the point that it loads
on new oppressions.
So, in the name of the souls
of black folk, let’s say to hell
with this nonsense about hair.
Let’s face up to some tests of
manhood and womanhood that
are truly revelant to black
uplift.
investigating officers are not
pursuing any attempt to link
the Southern student murders
with the January 7 events.
“We don’t have any other
evidence supporting a link,”
said an official. “The letter was
very sketchy and didn’t tell us
anything we didn’t already
know,” said the law officer,,
reiterating that the letter was
received after the police station
attack.
“There have been no change
in the line of investigation,” he
repeated.
The president of the student
government association at the
New Orleans campus of
Southern University, Earl
Picard, is not sure that
policemen are not doing some
checking in an attempt to
establish some relationship
between student protest
leaders and Essex.
“There have been events to
verbally tie the two events,”
siad Picard, “but as far as he
could tell “nothing has come
of it, although I would assume
that' checks are being made.”
At the same time, in a
speech to students at
Washington’s Technical
Institute last week on the
relationship between the
nation struggle of blacks in the
United States and the African
revolution, Owusu Sadaukai,
president of Malcolm X
Liberation University, touched
on the New Orleans event.
He warned student
revolutionaries about the
danger to the national Black
community caused by
undertaking of unorganized
individual acts of violence
against the enemy.
“Although we might
positively respond at a gut level
to such acts, and share fully
the rage that instigates them,
those of us who speak to black
students around the country
have a duty to point out the
reaction that sets in, and the
resulting further intensification
of repression against the black
community,” Sadaukai
continued.
“We have to weigh whetger
or not the black community is
organized enough to be
prepared to deal with the
consequences,” said the Pan
Africanist educator and
organizer. “Not now, not now,
not now,” he repeated
indicating his belief that the
community is not now so
Augusta, Georgia
ZZ JFI
City councilwoman Carrie J. Mays, representing Mayor Lewis A. Newman,
presents the Key to the City to Mrs. Lillian P. Benbow, National President of the
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. The program was held in the Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel at
Paine College on Sunday in observance of the Founder’s Day of the Augusta-Aiken
Chapter.
(See related photos, page 4.)
organized.
“What I’m saying should in
no way be interpreted as
unsympathetic criticism of
brother Essex,” Sadaukai
stressed.
“I just feel very strongly
that it’s my duty to point out
Wilkins
Blasts
Nixon,
Budget Cuts
Washington -- (NBNS) -
Noting that there cannot be
“true justice in this country
until we have eradicated all
vestiges of discrimination,”
civil rights leader Roy Wilkins
lambasted President Nixon and
his recent cutbacks in federal
programs which enable blacks
and other minorities “the
opportunity to realize
themselves fully.”
Speaking before the annual
board dinner of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights,
Wilkins recalled the President’s
oath to “preserve, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the
United States.” However, he
added, “our experiences with
the way in which he (the
President) discharged that oath
in the past are a desquieting
preview of what we may
expect in the next four years.”
Wilkins, who serves as
chairman of the Conference
and whose remarks came on
the same day that Mr. Nixon’s
budget was released also
denounced the Adminis
tration’s substantial cutbacks
in education, housing,
employment, health, and
welfare programs.
Referring to Constitutional
provisions of insuing domestic
tranquility and promoting the
general welfare, Wilkins said:
“There can be no domestic
tranquility unless the general
welfare is advanced .... We, the
most powerful nation, the
wealthiest nation in the world,
are on the verge of turning our
blacks upon those among us
who are most disadvantaged.
“We are embarked upon a
course that must alarm all of us
concerned with the nation’s
well-being,” Wilkins said.
“Even before Inauguration
Day, the process was underway
the reactive repression that
individual strikes bring down
on the community,” he said in
his concluding remarks on the
matter.
“Revolution must proceed
from an organized mass-based
movement,” Sadaukai
EDITORIAL
REWARDS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
We wish to congratulate the Chief of Police and the
Mayor for their decision this week to offer a SSOO
reward for information leading to the arrest of persons
involved in unsolved assault, robbery and rape cases.
This kind of affirmative action is long overdue.
There is one glaring omission, however. Why weren’t
BURGLARIES included among the offenses the rewards
are aimed to stop. Burglaries are by tar the most
common offense in the Black community (the majority
community in Augusta). And this could raise some
interesting questions. Is the recent action taken because
most of the offenders are Blacks who have begun to
assault rob and rape the "wrong” people? And is it that
burglary is not yet serious enough to be included
because most burglaries involve Blacks burglarizing
Blacks?
Although we are pleased to see the action taken to
deter assault, robbery and rape, we believe that no less
action should be taken to halt the tremendous amount
of burglary in our community.
Whereas we have heard no statement on the subject,
we feel that it is very important that citizens be made
aware that they can give information leading to these
arrests in complete confidence, it is absolutely unfair to
ask citizens to provide this information unless they are
assured that their identity will not be made available to
the offender.
it is also important that we get co-operation of the
judicial system. Lawyers and judges who repeatedly
return criminals to the streets are just as dangerous as
the offenders themselves. And action needs to be taken
to assure that the courts work to protect the public and
not the criminal.
Eliminating crime is going to require the co-operation
of all, and we urge this co-operation.
of cutting back and weakening
and even abolishing programs
designed to promote the
general welfare.”
In addition, Wilkins said, the
Nixon Administration “both
excites and panders to the
current hysteria over busing,”
this, hampering school
desegregation and equal
See Wilkes P. 4
February J 1973 No.
declared. In response to a
student’s question he implied
that individual acts should only
be carried out within the larger
context of the mass-based
organization, as happens in
other national wars of
liberation.
The local chapter of
the NAACP will meet
Monday, February 12,
1973 at 7:30 P.M. at
the Tabernacle Baptist
Church.
The Rev. C.S.
Hamilton is president.
Members and non
members are welcome.