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The Augusta News-Review - March 3, 1977
Walking With Dignity
By AL IRBY
The Way To Handle Idi Amin
This column has been slow to join in the current westernized
crescendo against the flamboyant Idi Amin, although he is
unpredictable. I know from past experience, what organized
adverse propagando can do to alleged dissidents, without
documented proof. A point, that remains glaring, is that of the
“Blade Panthers” in this country; now, these young people were
certainly militant, but so were many white groups, and just as
guilty, or more so than these misdirected kids. For instance, the
many young white insurrectionaries of the 19605, not to mention
the abomible Nazi and Ku Klux Klan, had the entire nation
trembling. But none of these were murdered in bed, and hasseled
out of the country, as the nefarious FBI, of that day did to the
Black Panthers.
American UN Ambassador, Andrew Young, spoke a mouthful,
in commenting on the Ugandan affair, he said: “It reminded us of
the series of ‘suicides’ or fatal ‘accidents’ involving Blacks that
have taken place in white-run South African jails - even though
some African whites and far right leaning Americans will deplore
linking the two atrocities.” Only one thing Ambassador Young is
running off his mouth, without knowing the whole truth about
Uganda. It is certainly ample ground for skepticism that the
deaths of the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda and two of the
nation’s Cabinet ministers were actually accidental as the
Kampala government maintains. Given President Amin’s past
record of outrages against individuals or groups suspected of
plotting against him, and the accusation of treason against the
three men, doubt aboht the official version of what happened this
time is not surprising, and the resulting torrent of criticism is well
deserved.
What to do about it, however, is not easy to delineate. It is one
thing, for example, to point to human rights violations in a nation
such as the Soviet Union, as President Carter has done, and quite
another to remonstrate effectively with a minor African country
ruled by an impulsive dictator. Yet there are some things that can
be done. One would be to recommend that the United Nations
Commission of Human Rights institute a study in depth of the
situation in Uganda. I don’t believe the commission will flinch
from this assignment. Another, perhaps more effective step would
Solid evidence that Southern Blacks had been left out of the
tremendous economic growth of the past decade was reported at
the recent “The Rising Economy of the South” seminar held in
Austin, Texas.
The various reports showed, however, that the Sunbelt states
of the South were enjoying healthy economic expansion which
was not being hurt by the current energy crisis. The program was
sponsored by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and
the University of Texas conference was attended by key
reporters, editorial writers and others from the South.
Another recent evaluation of the South was by Roy Reed,
Southern correspondent of the highly respected New York Times.
Then there was Vernon Jordan in the “State of Black America,
1977” coupled with “Roots” and all of the news reports
reviewing this television drama which will change racial attitudes -
I hope.
PAPERS BEING SHARED
WITH ELECTED OFFICIALS AND LIBRARIES
All of this data is most important to persons in public life and
working for equal opportunity and racial change. There are four
papers including: (1) “The State of Black America”, (2)
highlights of “The Rising Economy of the South", (3) the N.Y.
Times article, “New Face On South’s Rights Fight”, and (4) a
special collection of news clippings on “Roots” 1 feel they
are of such value that our “Blacks Who Helped Build Augusta”
committee will share same with various friends throughout the
South... IN addition, copies will be forwarded to the Paine
College Libary, Wallace Branch Library, Augusta College, the
Newsßeview and the Augusta-Richmond County Library.... They
should be copied and then shared with others. Several copies are
being sent to Charles Walker for his Human Rights Commission...
GOOD TOOLS FOR PLANNING CONSTRUCTIVE CHANGE
What are some of the highlights? They include: (1) The Texas
seminar told us that - (A) Blacks had not shared in the huge
growth like white Southerners, (B) As Southern population
growth ensued, a steady in-migration of Blacks was noted, (C)
Southern whites had now reached parity witii whites elsewhere in
the nation. (D) Many Southern cities were experiencing
population loss to tiieir surburbs but with increasing colored
residents, and (E) In 1969 with 53 per cent of the national Black
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Page 4
be to have an investigation by African Churchmen; because in the
near future, it will be the African Church that will be the
recognizable voice of stature.
Canon Burgess Carr, head of the All-African Council of
Churches based in Nairobi, Kenya, could head such a mission; he
has already requested Mr. Amin’s permission to look into the
current situation. With the Organization of African Unity likely
to be ineffective for the same reason as the UN, the thrust for a
change in Uganda’s erratic course of murder and massacre, which
represents a threat to the stability of the whole East African area,
is best left to Africans themselves. Meanwhile, some effort to get
to the bottom of this latest incident, and to prevent future such
occurrences is surely essential. It cannot be shrugged off as simply
difficult or impractical. For one thing, such apparent outrages
provide verbal ammunition and justification for those white
Rhodesians and South Africans who still contend that Black
Africans are not capable of governing themselves properly ; they
can use such recent action in Uganda to buttress the argument
that they should not be expected to place themselves at the
mercy of such leaders.
A GOOD FRIEND, A GREAT AUGUSTAN
What can I say, when a great guy like Phil Waring has heaped
the kind of sincere accolades on such a maverick, nondescript
person like me. When it comes to magnanimous unselfishness, and
love for his fellowman, and his home town, I cannot hold a
shakey candle to Phil. He resides at the present in St. Louis, but
his heart and soul belong to Augusta. He blue-prints projects and
progress for his home town, and takes a back seat, so others can
reap the praise and honor.
When I think of him, Kipling’s immortal poem “IF” always
rushes to my mind. Allow me to do a bit of paraphrasing of that
challenging poem:
Phil can talk with crowds and keep his virtue,
and walk with Kings, and not lose the common touch.
All men count with him, but none too much to make him forget
anyone and his native hometown.Hurry,Phil,you and your lovely
wife, come and live in Augusta.
"GOING PLACES”
By Philip Waring
Blacks Left Out Expanded
Southern Economic Growth
population Blacks had 43 per cent of income of their group....
Yet, in 1974 they had lost ground, receing only 39 per cent of
the total Black income...
GREAT GAP IN BLACK VS WHITE INCOME
Now let’s look at (2) the “New Face On South’s Rights Fight”
article: (A) A white supremacy - KKK type of bullyragging still
exists unfortunately in the Gulf coastal areas between Pensacola,
Fla., and Mobile, Ala., (B) Public accommodations have opened
up for minorities through the South, (C) There has been a one
third drop of Blacks living on the poverty line, (D) While there
has been a vast increase in Black income from its previous very,
very low status there is a tremendous gap in current Black and
white income... As an example, in the time period of 1967 to
1975 we see that the Black man’s average income went from
$3703 to $7978... During this same period of unprecedented
Southern growth its white male income rose from $6827 to
$12,530... (E) Overall Southern retail, sales, banking and savings
growth will be unable to move forward while one racial group
remains so far ahead... (F) While Blacks are now voting freely,
except in some rural areas, those achieving elected or appointed
office still are very, very small... Note Mobile with its huge Negro
population but only a handful able to get into elected office...
Remember how the Mobile City Council cried to high heavens
when Federal court ordered council elections on a wards basis?...
MAIN AREAS NOW POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
A further look at the Times article quotes Attorney Michael
Figures of Mobile. He said the future action is in a “war of
attitudes” (“Roots” should help here)... He said those who
marched in the Civil Rights struggle are now going into business,
working in consumer groups, battling utility companies, arguing
tedious lawsuits, running for public office, and pouring endlessly
over bureaucratic structures to discover ways of siphoning power
to the powerless and get Blacks into the Main Stream of
America... The main areas are politics and the economic front...
DATA NOW AVAILABLE IN AUGUSTA
Again, remember there are now places in Augusta where you
may get these documents... Use them and work together with our
political and civic leaders to bring about constructive change...
This data should be shared with public officials, civic leaders and
others...
Beniamin
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COMMISMO S E It
Haley Relives
Kunta Kinte’s Agony
Friedrich Wilhelm Neitzsche said it: “Nothing great in this
world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
The German philosopher (1854 1900) whose beliefs are
passionately embraced by both liberal and Nazi, sinner and saint,
A save
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The Supreme Court has been sending signals that may be
announcing, in its subtle way, a retreat from a forward position
on civil rights. Some retreat decisions are truly ominous.
In one case, the Court ruled that a Chicago suburb that refused
to rezone to allow a low-income housing project to be built was
not in violation of the Constitution. According to the Supreme
Court’s majority, it was not enough to show that few Blacks lived
in the town or that its zoning laws helped keep them out. The
standard now has to be “proof of racially discriminatory intent or
purpose.”
That means civil rights advocates can’t rely on proving
discriminatory RESULTS of official actions, they have to prove
discriminatory INTENT. And it’s much harder, sometimes
impossible, to prove that a town adopts and maintains zoning
laws for the express purpose of racial discrimination. Intent
cannot be inferred from discriminatory results.
Adoption of that standard would place in jeopardy past civil
rights decisions and is in line with Court decisions restricting
access to the courts for redress of grievances and limiting
constitutional guarantees against discrimination.
In another case. Blacks filed suit to force the government to
cut off funds to a New York suburb that discriminates. An
appeals court rejected their suit, saying they had no standing to
sue since they did not reside in the town - an absurd ruling since
it virtually ensures that no one would be found to start such a
suit. The Supreme Court threw the case out, in effect, upholding
the appeales court.
By adopting a new standard -- the intent to discriminate
instead of the generally accepted older standard of discriminatory
effects of state actions, the Court has effectively raised the stakes
in discrimination cases.
That means all cases, not just housing and zoning cases. The
new standard was in fact developed in a case involving a challenge
to Washington, D.C.’s police examinations. The Court rejected
charges of unconstitutiona’ disc. mmatior based on higher Black
failure rates on the employment test, saying that discriminatory
intent had to be proved.
Back in 1973 it raised that point in a Denver school
has been dead now for more than 76 years, but he comes vividly
to mind today because of Alex Haley and. Roots.
On the Black Journal TV show, Haley, author of that
astonishing best-selling novel, the televised version of which was
such a recent blockbusting success, revealed a side of himself
hitherto hidden from the public.
In a candid interview with host-executive producer Tony
Brown, Haley revealed the agony he suffered before finally
completing the book which took him 12 years of tough and
patient research to write.
He told of being aboard a ship, of trying to relive his ancestor,
Kunta Kinte’s agony; of sweltering in the steaming, fetid hold of
the slave ship on the dread middle passage from Kinte’s native
Juffure, Gambia village, to the shores of America where he was
sold like cattle into slavery.
Yet, the ability to sit down and write those conjured
experiences continued to elude Haley. One day, he stood by the
ship’s railing and thought, how nice it would be if he just climbed
over and sank into the welcome arms of the ocean.
“I felt good, almost exhilerated,” he said. For that would be
the solution to his impasse. No more pressure from impatient
publishers and editors, from the host of people he owed money,
from family and friends who were depending on him to complete
the book on which he had labored so long and of which he felt at
that time he was on the verge of failing to complete.
Sanity returned. He started to sweat. His knees grew weak and
he got down on all fours, crawling crab-like on deck away from
the rail to the middle of the ship. He lay panting on the ship’s
hold, exhausted, frightened. Later, in his cabin, he collapsed on
the bun. his body wracked by huge paraoxysms of sobs. He cried
for hours on end. the pain and emotion welling up from deep
inside, surging, powerful, relentless, unbearable.
And then a voice, “almost as if it were Kinte’s,” told him to
get up and be about the business of writing the book. The
enormous passion had cleansed him. He was ready for
constructive action.
From there it was relatively easy. Throughout history, men on
the verge of great decisions or enormous accomplishments, have
revealed similar experiences. Nietzsche is right.
We all know there are enormous forces outside ourselves of
which we have only an inkling of their origins and strengths. There
Christians and others of strong religious beliefs most often
experience the impact of such forces. Perhaps because we are
more sensitive to their existence. We have been touched by God.
we say. And, of course, we have been.
I believe Alex Haley was touched by God that day. I do not
TO BE EQUAL
By Vernon E. Jordon Jr.
Supreme Court Retreats On Rights
desegregation case and last month it sent an Indianapolis case
back to district court ordering the lower court to review its ruling
in the light of the suburban zoning case mentioned here. In effect
it was saying to the lower court, unless you can show
Indianapolis' discriminatory intent to segregate its schools, don’t
order a desegregation plan. The Court also agreed to review
busing in Dayton, despite its proven success.
The irony here is that there are those who say busing isn’t the
answer to school segregation, housing integregation is. Now the
Court has placed both housing and school inintegregation in
jeopardy.
On the face of it, requiring proof of intent to discriminate
sounds reasonable. But it is not. In many instances it’s all but
impossible to document intent to the satisfaction of a court. And
many public policy actions have complex side effects regardless
of intent.
For example, a town council can decide to put in new street
lighting over a ten year period, beginning with the north side of
town and working south. That sounds all right, but let's say most
of the town’s Blacks live on the south side and hence would not
get the new lighting for ten years, if at all. The EFFECT of the
decision would be unconstitutional violation of equal protection
clause based on race.
But if INTENT is the standard required by the Court, it may
well be impossible to prove anything intentianally discriminatory.
So long as officials watch what they write and say for the record,
they might get away with anything.
So while it may be hard to figure out what’s going on in the
inner reaches of the Supreme Court, it looks like it’s bad for
Black people. Nixon may be gone, but his Court lives on.
know his religious beliefs, but there is no doubt that his is an
impassioned work, an inspired one, touching as it does the
heart-strings of us all.
I suffered with Haley as he talked on that TV show. His pains
and anguish became mine. But having the benefit of uninvolved
hind sight, 1 knew that this was just preliminary to the great burst
of creative energetic forces breaking loose; that this was God’s
way of testing him and that Haley would not be, as indeed, he
was not, found wanting.
He was resisting in some profound, but unconscious way, doing
what he knew he must - maybe because he sincerely felt
momentarily inadequate to the task - and this resistance had to
be confronted before it could be overcome, routed, freeing the
artist to do the Lord’s work. Hence, Haley’s agony that day on
ship.
We are all, from time to time, assailed with doubts. The larger
the problem to be tackled, the larger the doubt to be dealt with.
Sometimes we can overcome these doubts on our own. But
sometimes, and it seems sometimes these days I have to do it
more often than not, I have to get down on my knees and pray
for divine guidance. When all else fails, I do not hesitate to pray.
And I am seldom left wanting.
And so Haley, too, was seeking perhaps unknowingly, divine
guidance on that day. It came to him, enabling us all, thus, to be
beneficiaries of his inspired creation.
Nietzsche was indeed right: Nothing great in this world is ever
accomplished with passion. To which I would add the qualifier:
“divine”. (NNPA)
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