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GRASS ROOTS BLACKS STOP THE BUS— Norfolk, Va., is the scene of the most intense and bit
ter revolt of poor inner-city Black parents in the nation. With all of the earmarks of social-class warfare, the
Parental Involvement Network(PlN), a maverick grass roots group, is confronting the city’s established Black
leadership over the controversial issue of busing for racial mixture. The dissident Black voices are led by PIN
Chairman Earlene White, a housewife, and her husband Nelson, a 44-year-old house painter. The Whites, seen
above, have 5 children in the public schools and believe that the children are “victims of racial politics” in
which an insensitive Black middle class is using the busing issue for political gain at the expense of the poor.
This program examining busing and revellion, called “Their Feet Hurt,” will be aired int his area on public
television (PBS) on WCES-20 at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4.
Grass roots Blacks stop the bus
It’s back to school for the 30,000
students in the Norfolk, Virginia
public school system, but the new
school year marks the renewed
revolt of poor inner-city Black
parents against busing for racial
integration and a return to Black
social class warfare.
This red-hot issue of to bus or
not to bus has the Blacks choosing
sides between the pro-busing
traditional Black middle-class
established leadership (Coalition
for Quality Public Education) and
a spontaneous organization of
parents who oppose continued
cross-town busing for elementary
school children, the Parental In
bolvement Network (PIN).
This conflict represents,
perhaps, the most intense Black
on-Black class struggle in the
nation and a symbol of a possible
erosion of support for a
integration remedy considered a
major civil rights achievement.
While opinion poll results show
that only 38 perscent of Blacks in
the country favor busing for in
tegration, the Black middle-class
leadership in Norfolk is solildly
behind the idea.
Journalist Tony Brown was in
vited to Norfolk by the PIN paren
ts and found, in addition to the
classic busing debate, a rebellion
of poor grass roots Blacks against
their middle-class leadership.
Brown returns to this Virginia
community to profile this revolt on
his top-rated television series.
Cheng to present
research findings
jar" ■
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Dr. Wu Chien Cheng
The American Association of
Physics Teachers has recently in
vited Dr. Wu Chien Cheng,
Associate Professor of Chemistry
and Physics at Paine College, to
present his research findings at the
fall meeting of the Southern Atlan
tic Coast section, to be held at the
University of South Carolina in
Columbia at the end of this month.
His paper, entitled “Multi
photon lonization of Nitric
Oxide with Two Laser Beams” is
the result of experiments he con
ducted during this past summer
,-jnder the supervision of John C.
Miller at the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee. His
presentation will include a com
parison of his findings with predic
tions from Einstein’s photoelectric
equation.
Dr. Cheng participated in the
faculty summer research program
at Oak Ridge sponsored by the
Department of Energy.
He compares this grass roots
movement to Rosa Parks’ refusal
to surrender her seat on a bus to a
White man and Alabama Jim
Crow laws. She resisted because
her feet were tired, but her in
nocent bravery fueled the famous
Montgomery bus boycott and the
civil rights movement of the 60’s.
Tony Brown draws an analogy
between this spark of rebellion and
the poor Black parents of Norfolk
as he calls this program, “Their
Feet Hurt.”
This examination of busing and
rebellion will be seen on TONY
BROWN’S JOURNAL. Televised
nationally on public television,
consecutive years. It will be seen in
this area on WCES-20 at 7:30 p.m.
on Tues., Dec. 4.
The maverick parental group is
led by Mrs. Earlean White, the 33-
year old mother of five children,
all of whom are in the Norfolk
public school system where 70 per
cent of the students are Black, and
her husband Nelson, a 44-year-old
house painter.
The whites, attacked by their
critics as selling out the Black
community, believe that the
problem is an insensitive Black
middle class using the busing issue
for political gain at the expense of
the poor. “Our children are the
victims of racial politics. They bear
the burden of long bus rides away
from familiar surroundings, frien
dly faces, out of easy reach for
parents without second cars,”
PlN’s cshairman Earlean White
responds.
Mrs. White went from door to
door in the lower-income housing
projects to collect 1,200 signatures
on petitions from Black parents.
She said about these dissident
Black voices: “We feel like we
have sacrificed 11 years of
children, because Black children
have regressed badly. We’re not
willing to sacrifice any more Black
children, be they mine or anybody
else’s”.
The pro-busing coaliton of mid-
Students react to hunger
Students from Morehouse
College in Atlanta wil help Oxfam
America—a world food relief
agency—raise funds to feed the
world’s starving people.
Morehouse students will join
thousands of other schools, church
groups and community
associations in Oxfam America’s
11th “Fast for a World Harvest.”
The nationwide fast effort, this
year on Nov. 15, raises con
sciousness about the hunger as well
as money to feed them.
Each year, so far, the fast has
annually raised nearly $500,000 to
contribute to self-help projects in
Africa, Asia and Central and
South America.
Two years ago, Morehouse
students collected more funds on
campus and donated more money
to Oxfam America than any
college in the history of the fast.
Student government president,
Keith Perry said, “This year, we’re
determined to break our own old
record.”
The fast on college campuses en
courages students to give up one or
all their meals on the fast day ana
donate their ususal food money to
Oxfam America.
dle income leaders claims more
than 150 community organizations
as members and rejects PlN’s
charge that its members do not
speak for the “Black masses”.
Instead, Mr. King Davis,
spokesman for the integration for
ces who defend busing largely as a
symbolic, but hard won Black vic
tory, is quoted as saying that he
has “seen no evidence” that Xhere
is any widespread support for
PlN’s position. But the debatge is
not without some empirical and
documented evidence.
A review of busing for in
tegration in Norfolk was ordered
by Mrs. Lucy Wilson, one of three
Black school board members and a
pro-busing supporter, “to be
useful in resolving the busing
dilemma.”
The study was expected to find
“that Black children involved in
busing would show improved
achievement in relation to Black
children not involved in busing...”
Instead, this independent study
concluded the exact opposite:
“Between 1978-79 and 1980-81,
the non-bused group gained 30
points (from 26 to 56) and the
bused group gained 7 points (from
30 to 37).”
Moreover, in the most recent
period studied, 1980-81, Black
students who were bused for racial
mixture scored 19 points lower
than Black students who were not
bused. Mrs. Wilson’s study also
found than non-bused Black pupils
have a better self-image of them
selves and their abilities than Black
children who were bused for
raciaql integration.
The members of the parent’s
network point to these conclusions
of a study commissioned by a pro
busing advocate as proof that
quality education is being achieved
in Black neighborhood schools.
PlN’s leaders, therefore, want
substantial improvements in these
neighborhood schools with effec
tive parent-teacher-community
relationships.
At Morehouse, students who
usually eat in the cafeteria, have
made sure money saved by the
food service that day is donated to
Oxfam.
Morehouse College’s fast
organizer is Freddie Asinor, a
senior political science major from
Ghana who has visited some of
Oxfam’s projects in the Sahel region
of Atnca. Said Asinor: “At
Morehouse, I have tried to be ac
tive in Oxfam America’s efforts
myself.”
Other activities planned by
churches and civic groups include
prayer vigils, group fasts, and
“hunger banquets.”
Oxfam America says more
national attention should be paid
to the drought-related famine now
severely affecting 30 countries in
Africa; where nearly 5 million
people may soon starve.
Oxfam America is a private non
profit agency based in Boston that
encourages and supprots develop
ment projects and disaster relief in
Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Sponsors include Richard Pryor,
Alice Walker, Barbara Jordan and
Julian Bond.
Carter
re-elected
president
Mr. James E. Carter, 111,
Assistant Director of the Division
of Student Affairs at the Medical
College of Georgia, was re-elected
President of the National
Association of Medical Minority
Educators at its recent meeting in
Los Angeles.
This organization has more than
four hundred members. The goals
are to involve more minorities in
health care institutions, and to in
crease the number of health care
professionals in minority com
munities.
The membership is composed of
individuals who are administrators
and faculty at health professional
schools as well as colleges and
universities throughout the coun
try.
The health fields represented
are Meidcine, Dentistry, Phar
macy, Podiatry, Osteopathy, Op
tometry, Public Health and
Veterinary Medicine. He formerly
served as President of the Southern
Region for four years.
He is active in many local civic
activities and the Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity. He has received many
awards and citations for his con-
Augustan
named to
Who’s Who
LORMAN, MlSS.—Michael
Tanksley, a junior music major
from Augusta, was among thirty
nine students at Alcorn State
University, who will be included
in the 1985 edition of Who’s
Who Among Students In
American Universities and
The students were selected based
on their academic achievement,
service to the community, leader
ship in extracurricular activities,
and potential for continued suc
cess.
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I'&TBIBIL
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ftributions to health education.
He is a graduate of Lucy Laney
High School, Paine College and
South Carolina State College. He
is an active member of the Christ
Presbyterian Church where he ser
ves as a Ruling Elder.
He is married to Dr. Judy L.
Carter, Associate Professor of
Education and Chairperson,
Divison of Education, Paine
College, Augusta, and the father
of two sons, James IV, a second
year dental student at the Medical
College of Georgia and Mason,
111, a first year medical student at
Morehouse School of Medicine,
Atlanta.
He is the son of Dr. and Mrs.
James E. Carter, Jr. and a lifelong
James E. Carter 111 resident of the City of Augusta.
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