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The Augusta News-Review - November 17, 1977 -
Stye
Mallorv K. Millender • Editor-Publisher
Frank Bowman General & Advertising Manager
Mary Gordon Circulation
Sharon C. Caldwell Reporter
Mailing Address
Box 953 - Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4555
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 3090? Vv
AMALGAMATED
PUBLISHERS, INC.
NATIONAL ADVCATItING REPRESENTATIVES W
• NfWTOW • CHICAGO
Is the wolf at OMBE’s door?
Last week, Dr. Berkeley G.
Burrell, president of the National
Business League, cried, “Wolf” in
effect when a secret U.S.
Department of Commerce report
regarding the reorganization of the
Office of Minority Business
Enterprise (OMBE) was leaked to
him. To his astonishment, the
Under Secretary of Commerce had
hired, without any consultation
with the Black business
community, a white research firm
to make a study of OMBE and
suggest ways of reorganizing it.
In the quietly-kept
reorganization plan, the number of
funded organizations (many of
them Black) will be reduced from
204 to 56 and the funds they have
been receiving out of a «$50.3
million budget to provide
management training and technical
assistance to small businesses will
immediately go instead to large
Business Development Centers,
leaving the presently funded
organizations with no funds from
OMBE.
Actually, only Dr. Burrell’s
telegram to Commerce Secretary
Junita Kreps prevented the cutoff
of funds on November 7. Thus
OMBE becomes the first agency on
w hich zero based budgeting is being
forced.
This, is a nutshell, is the proposal
made in the secret document which
was about to be put into effect
when it was slipped to Dr. Burrell
was wired to protest to the
Secretary of Commerce and hastile
called a meeting of the National
Business League’s National Council
for Policy Review. More than a
score of Black and
Spanish-American business leaders
flew in for the emergency meeting.
In his opening statement, Dr.
Burrell pointed out that while he is
concerned about the imminent fate
of OMBE, he was more concerned
Voting representation
in Congress is a must
for District of Columbia
The Declaration of Independence -
that revolutionary document of human
principles - which serves as one of the
underpinnings of American society states:
“...governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed.”
That is true for all American citizens,
except those of us who live in
Washington, D.C. the capital of the
U.S., and the “Free World."
We are the only citizens in our great
country who cannot elect our own voting
■representatives to the United States
House of Representatives or the United
States Senate. It is simply a case of
Democracy denied!
It is now time to complete the work of
our Founding Fathers and provide liberty
and justice for the three quarters of a
million District of Columbia residents
(70% of whom are Black) who have no
voting voice in Congress.
The 750,000 residents of the District
make it larger than 10 of our states:
Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Montana,
Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota,
South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
But these states have 34 Congressmen;
the District, none. And we pay more than
a billion dollars annually in federal
income taxes - more than is paid by the
residents of 14 states.
about the way in which Under
Secretary of Commerce Sidney
Harman had proceeded with the
study whose recommendations he
was about to adopt without any
consultation whatever with the
minority community or the 204
business training firms that would
be affected.
To Dr. Burrell’s intimation that
he saw the wolf scratching on the
door of minority business training,
Under Secretary Harman assured
him that although the wolf was
perhaps at the door, and even
scratching on it, he certainly would
not break it down, at least until he
had consulted with the study group
that Dr. Burrell has set up.
However, the under secretary
gave no assurance that the wolf
would not, indeed, break OMBE’s
door in after the consultation.
Although this was implicit in that
Dr. Harman said, he seemed to
speak out of both sides of his
mouth, leaving the listeners in a
quandry.
Nevertheless, the October 28
report to him is not ambiguous:
“Because of the Office of
Management and Budget will have
to be consulted before the
Department can ask the Congress to
endorse the funding decision, you
(Dr. Harman) should meet with
Dennis Green sometimes next
Thursday or Friday . . . Congress
will most likely adjourn late the
following week. The Department
needs the Appropriation
Committee’s approval of the NEW
1978 spending plan before then.”
Does this sound like an “inhouse
preliminary working paper” as Dr.
Hannan claims it is? The wolf
certainly seems to lx 1 at OMBE’s
door. Black businessmen had better
come out ready to fight. And in the
future, all Americans would be wise
to keep their eyes on government
wide open.
By Del. Walter E. Fauntroy
The issue of Federal District
representation is even more enlightening
when considered in the context of the
international community. Os the 16
Federal Districts in other countries, only
Brazil and Nigeria deny the residents full
representation. London, Paris, and Bonn
residents are represented in their national
legislatures. Is the United States less
democratic than England. France, or West
Germany?
On Wednesday. September 21, 1977,
President Carter made history. He became
the first President ever to support full
Congressional representation for the
District of Columbia.
With the President’s support and the
leadership of Members such as Rep. Don
Edwards (D. Calif.), we are moving
toward achieving full democracy for the
District.
Excluding District residents from this
process and privilege is simple a case of
democracy denied that must be corrected
now if this nation is to ever fully
implement the principles of our
Declaration of Independence that “all
men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights...”
Certainly foremost among those
“Rights” is the ability to say who shall
represent us in the Halls of Congress. As
American citizens, we cannot accept
anything less.
Page 2
Walking with dignity
' ■
A recent convention of Rhodesian
Black politicians, businessmen, religious
and labor leaders has designated October
as “Unity Month”. The two-day Salisbury
conclave called by the Rev. Ndabaningi
Sithole, leader of the African National
Council, running true to Black people’s
tendency to polarity , it has made little
progress along the unity road. None of
the other nationalist groups made an
appearance; their arguments were that the
whole affair was aimed at building Mr.
Sithole’s image rather than Black unity,
lere are the groups that failed to attend
- Robert Mugabe’s ZANU, Joshua
Nkomo’s ZAPU, Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s
UANC, and Chief Chirau’s ZUPO, yet all
of them are hoping to lead their nation
out white bondage.
For all of that, Mr. Sithole has some
modest gains to show for his performance
since returning home from exile only two
months ago. A goodly number of Bishop
Muzorewa’s top advisers have changed
over to Sithole’s side and joined his party,
and he claims to be picking up
widespread grassroots support along the
way. Unfortunatley, it is impossible to
verify these claims. Mr. Sithole himself
says that until there is a one-man,
one-vote election in Rhodesia, no one will
know who commands the most popular
support.
White Rhodesians say that all the
evidence points to Bishop Muzorewa
commanding majority support, probably
followed, especially in the western half of
the country, by Mr. Nkomo. Mr. Sithole
probably would rank third, and the
militant Mr. Mugabe would come at the
bottom in the poll. But these are nothing
more than informed guestimates, and it
would be foolish to read too much into
them. Mr. Nkomo and Mr. Mugabe, for
example, prefer to remain outside
Rhodesia and have joined forces as the
Patriotic Front, in which capacity they
undoubtedly can muster substantial Black
support within the country.
What is important about the
fast-changing Rhodesian situation is the
growing gap between those nationalists
operating legally within Rhodesia and the
nationalist guerrillas based in neighboring
Lusaka, Zambia, and Maputo,
Mozambique. The Salisbury-based
nationalists all have accepted the
Anglo-American settlement proposals
brought here to Rhodesia by British
Foreign Secretary David Owen and U.S.
All of us were elated when
Atlanta-based N.Y Times columnist B.D.
Ayres highlighted our own Richmond
County Commissioner Edward Mclntyre
in an in depth evaluation of the South
and its Black voters.
Mr. Mclntyre, who is also president of
the National Association of Minority
County Officials and vice president of
Pilgrim Life, is quoted in how Black
elected officials have to use skill and
timing in their public affairs projects.
I have reproduced copies which are
being sent to Mrs. Gwen Cummings for
the Wallace Branch of the
Augusta-Richmond County Public
Library, Dr. Julius Scott (for his Social
Science Dept, and the Paine Library), to
members of the elected-appointed Black
officials of Augusta-Richmond County,
selected community leaders and other
interracial sources interested in fairness
and justice for Blacks in the American
political system.
TO BE PUBLISHED IN NEWS REVIEW
A summary of this significant article
will, of course, be detailed in future
editions of your own News-Review. Mr.
Ayres is concerned that Southern Blacks,
who number over 20 per cent in the
South, have less than three per cent of
elective offices. He further states that
there is great need for motivation and
organization with year around voter
education, registration and
“get-out-the-vote” campaigns. This is no
more than a badly needed “catch up”
thrust. Less than three per cent of
elective offices surely should be an item
of concern!!
I’ve also prepared. Commissioner Ed, a
summary of the recent Tennessee Black
Caucus meeting held in Memphis. This
will also be sent to Augusta with
additional copies for your Georgia
state wide group.
MAY SHE REST IN PEACE
My deep condolences to the Hollis and
Carr Families on the recent passing of
Mrs. Rosalyn Carr Hollis. She was a lovely
Rhodesian
I Black Schisms
By Al Irby
Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young -
admittedly with some reservations, but
they are not seeking major changes. The
Patriotic Front, which is supported by
the presidents of the so-called “frontline”
nations of Zambia, Mozambique,
Botswana, and Tanzania, has accepted the
terms as a “basis for discussions” but
want radical changes in the transitional
arrangements, changes that would give
the Front’s guerillas a major if not a
dominant role during the transition to
Black majority rule.
In Salisbury, it is argued that the Front
is demanding these changes because it
knows it would lose any genuienly free
elections. The view from Salisbury is that
in the weeks and months ahead, the
Western powers will have to make a
choice between the whites and the
relatively moderate nationalists at home
on the one hand and the more militant
elements outside the country and their
frontline backers. It is almost
inconceivable that there can be any
compromise between the whites and the
Patriotic Front on the critical issue of the
composition and control of the
Rhodesian security froces during the
transition period.
In two television interviews recently,
Prime Minister lan Smith spoke with
notably more conciliatory line than
hithertofore; showing himself willing to
negotiate the details of the Owen-Young
package without demanding major
changes aside from the issue os loaw and
order during the transition. The present
suggestion is that the guerrilla forces form
the basis of the Rhodesian Army after an
agreement, but with some “acceptable”
elements of the existing forces being
retained. This proposal is clearly
unacceptable not only to Mr. Smith but
also to the nationalist moderates in
Rhodesia who have no army to support
them and who, understandably, fear that
their electoral chances would diminish if
their political rivals were running the
armed forces.
An influential minority believes that if
Mr. Smith was to bargain hard on the
law-and-order issue and buy the rest of
the Anglo-American package, regardless
of its many distasteful elements (so far as
his supporters are concerned), then there
might just be a chance of heading off
all-out threats, and securing a relatively
peaceful transition to Black rule.
Going places
Mclntyre makes
Sunday N.Y. Times
By Philip Waring
person indeed who made her mark in
society. She will be missed.
POLITICAL THRUST
While this writer has been a life-long
independent Democrat (Oh Boy, how 1
used to argue with J.P. Waring Sr., a
long-time Republican), there is need to
look around us for all kinds of different
options and adjustments in the American
political game.... ,
May I share an editorial from the N.Y.
Amsterdam News released shortly after
the election of Congressman Koch as
mayor of New York.... It reads thusly:
THE NEED FOR BLACK REPUBLICANS
The election of Ed Koch, and Black
involvement in that election, pointed up a
major weakness in our political strategy.
We had no choice but to go for Koch.
There are about a million Black adults
of voting age in this city. About 550,000
are now registered; a like number are not
registered. Approximately 95 per cent of
those who are registered are Democrats.
It is time, we believe, to broaden our
options through a massive campaign to
register Blacks as Republicans.
The Amsterdam News, in policy,
ideology and by natural inclination,
supports most of the programs and
leaders of the Democratic Party. But our
community should not be in the position
of having only the option of supporting
Ed Koch. We should also be in the
position of putting half a million swing
voters behind a strong Republican
candidate.
More importantly, we should not be in
the position, as we were during the
Nixon-Ford years, of being out of power
just because the Democratic Party is out
of power.
A wiser strategy would be to have as
many Blacks registered as possible, then
we would be in a position to barter with
both parties. As one political scientist
said: there are no permanent political
coalitions, only permanent political
interests.
Andy Young vindicated
By Laura Parks
A while ago Ambassador Young
created quite a furor following his
remarks about racialism in certain
European countries. This outcry against
him was of such intensity and magnitude
that he was advised to discontinue his
habit of frankly speaking his mind on
those matters.
Being a loyal member of the
Presidential team he dutifully complied
with the President’s wishes and began his
long and difficult search for majority rule
in Rhodesia and racial justice in South
America. Today, Ambassador Young is in
the midst of extraordinary delicate
negotiations with a multitude of
international leaders and an almost as
numerous host of private emmissaries
who are attempting to sway him first this
way then that way according to the very
anciet principles of self interest.
Andy Young's diplomatic salad days
are over. The novelty of his presence on
the world diplomatic state has all but
vanished. How he moves from world
capital to world capital, from diplomatic
gathering to Presidential secret sessions
with suauve assurance and firm in his
knowledge that when he speaks he will
have a captive worldwide audience.
Nevertheless, Andy Young’s first
language is not diplomatic jargon. His
native tongue, learned in the harsh days
of the rebellious 60s, remains muted and
hurried beneath an alien ligua franca in
which the nations of the world talk to
each other of war and peace.
It was therefore not surprising that
during the early days of his diplomatic
apprenticeship for the passions and the
rhetoric of another time to have surfaced
in bitter anger as he denounced racism in
Western Europe. It was his last cry to the
heavens a final appeal to men of goodwill
to wake up and take notice of racism in
Europe where some have said it could not
possibly exist before being silenced by
the requirements his diplomatic duties.
Racism is on the rise in Western
Europe, especially in Britain. The
contagion has spread with such rapidity
that the powerful British Union of
Journalists, alarmed by developments,
sent to all of its members a special four
page supplement in the Union paper the
“Journalist” warning the nations press
corps to mount an immediate and
sustained campaign against racism and the
Bek it'&p
One of the hidden issues facing
American medicine is the dearth of Black
psychiatrists. This is an issue that goes
beyond the narrow one of ensuring equal
access to all professions for Blacks and
other minorities; it has a bearing on the
social and educational issues facing the
Black community.
With mental health occupying an
increasingly larger role in the public
consciousness Black underrepresentation
in the field becomes more crucial. There
are only 450 Black psychiatrists in
America today -a mere 1.7% of the more
than 26,000.
The importance of increasing those
numbers becomes apparent when we
realize that the mental health needs of
minority communities are lareelv unmet.
The stresses produced by racial
discrimination, poverty, and deprivation
result in many instances where individuals
need professional help.
Psychiatrists play a major role in
determining the placement of children
with special needs, in forensic programs,
and direct psychiatric departments in
community general hospitals. Such
hospitals control large budgets, jobs for
new professionals, and often decide in a
given community who is “mad” and who
is “bad”, and who will get what kind of
help or treatment.
Help has to come from professionals
with a sympathetic understanding of the
social roots of personal mental health
problems. In most instances, a Black
psychiatrist who has faced similar social
and racial stresses, is better able to help.
At the same time, there has to be
greater efforts made in psychiatric
training to acquaint professionals with
tile special problems faced by Blacks and
other minorities. The Black Psychiatrists
of America have helped develop a
curriculum of Black psychiatry that
includes studies of the Black family,
Black culture and other areas that impact
on the Black psyche.
This is a development that should not
be limited to centers of Black medical
education, but should be adopted by
predominantly white training centers,
whose graduates will be dealing with
minority patients in a variety' of settings,
from office consultation to institutional
-To be
Role for Black
phychiatrists
By Vernon E. Jordan Jr,
Nazi National’ Front that thrives on it.
The last time such a warning was issued
was during the hayday of Adolf Hitler in
the late thirties.
Even the world famous humor
magazine “Punch” felt the need to launch
an attack on the National Front and
racism and made made this via a cartoon
on its front cover.
Throughout Britain educational
authorities are also alarmed by the spread
of racist reading materials into the
classroom. A national conference is being
called to combat this menance.
The British Nazi like National Front is
increasingly bold in its public, provacative
appeals to racism. In a recent electoral
campaign for Parliament the National
Front posters showed a dark face
drenched in blood soiling the British flag
with the caption “This is your > as *
chance, vote for a white Britain.”
In recent weeks the National Front has
staged marches thru some of Britains
worst slums and high unemployment
areas openly seeking to attack minority
residents and to provoke their white
neighbors into doing the same. So far
serious incidents have been avoided, but
nobody is willing to bet how long this
will last.
Across Britain bookstores in minority
residential areas have come under attack
from the racists. These attacks have
included fire bombings breaking of
windows and doors and the destruction
of books, magazines and newspapers. The
owners of the bookstores have accused
the police of collusion with the racists
and have appealed to the government for
protection. Invariably the bookstores are
smeared with slogans such as “KICK”
“Niggers Out” and White Power.”
The racist National Front menance has
reached alarming proportions. At the
recently concluded Labor Party
Conference, the British Prime Minister
Callaghan roundly denounced the
National Front as a real threat to Britains
freedom. At the Conservative Party
Conference the positions taken were
much milder but were nevertheless,
anti-National Front.
There can be no doubt that Andy
Young spoke some harsh truths about
European racism which some had tried to
hide behind the facade of democratic
structures. In piercing the facade he
touched the throbbing cancer of racism
and fascism.
care.
Developing more Black psychiatrists
and sensitizing white professionals to the
special problems faced by Blacks will also
impact on the educational system. This
was brought home by a recent court case
in San Francisco that seeks to bar the use
of IQ tests to place children in classes for
the mentally retarded.
The suit was brought on behalf of 6
Black children who scored 75 or less on
the standardized IQ test. Such tests
purport to measure intelligence. In
actuality they only measure cultural and
language experiences. That’s why middle
class white children tend to score higher
on IQ tests than do minority children.
When the six were retested by Black
psychologists who reworded the tests to
reflect the children’s cultural and
language experience, they scored from 17
to 38 points higher.
Those kids should never have been
stigmatized as retarded, and the work of
committed Black professionals
established both the bankruptcy of the
tests and the need for an expanded role
for Black mental hygiene personnel.
People in our society are labelled and
categorized through IQ tests and similar
culturally-biased scientific means tnat are
really ways of legitimizing racial
discrimination and supportive of the
myths of white supremacy.
The San Francisco case illustrates the
need for a double effort - to increase the
numbers of Black mental hygiene
professionals and to reform medical
education so that all doctors and
psychiatrists are more sensitive to Black
patients and to issues affecting the mental
health of minorities.
That also cuts across the board to
other professions as well. Our society
operates on the split level assumption
that it is color blind while at the same
time continuing to discriminate against
Blacks and other minorities.
With so few Blacks in professions like
psychiatry, minorities are forced to
depend on white professionals who may
not fully understand their needs. We see
this principle operation in education, law
and other fields as well as medicine. So
long as there is a crucial shortage of Black
professionals the Black community will
be underserved and subjected to abuses.