Newspaper Page Text
News-Review December 2, 1971
j itWalking |l
ll With |7
m I Dignity I
■by Al Irb
(“INASMUCH AS YOU DID IT TO THELEASTOF THESE MY
BRETHREN, YOU DID IT UNTO ME”) MATTHEW 25:40)
The Broadway smash hit “Jesus Christ Superstar” has already
had the Broadway treatment. Critics are divided in their
accolades, pro and con. Some say it is a vivid 20th Century
revelation that has aroused the new generation to new directives.
This creation happens along just when there is a merger of the
still potent appeal of hard rock and the socalled “Jesus People”
among the young. Just maybe these youngsters will put spiritual
manifestation into the abused “Blessed Evangel.” Because the
adults for 20 centuries have made a fraudulent travesty of Jesus’s
mission.
The basic ideology of the Nazarene transcends the petty ethnic
lines of secular demarcations. The songwriter was so right when
he said in Christ there is no North, no South, no East or West.
When St. Paul heard the voice bidding him to come to
Thessalonia, no doubt he had misgivings, because with his keen
intellect he knew that Occidental minds were not susceptible to
Christ’s mission of Love.
This Broadway interpretation is a popular phenomenon of pop
records and under-ground concert performances. It is sure to
offend the hypocritical sensibilities ot the so-called Bible Belt.
But it is nonetheless a soul-searching story of the lonely Nazareth
Carpenter’s Passion and all abiding Love.
There is Judas in a frenzied dance with his private demons, and
finally rising skyward, alone, at the end of a hanging rope while a
chorus sings softly, “so long Judas." Then there is a mean old
impious Herod, rising from his licentious couch to abuse Jesus.
There was Jesus representing the world’s poor and
under-priviledged, overwhelmed by tortured souls, wrapped in
ropes and rags, asking to be healed.
Symbols are the play, each vividly tells an age old story of
man’s injustice to man, hate and greed, and the thirst for worldly
power.
Jesus first appears rising out of huge silver chalice, the Holy
grail, no doubt. The high priests came down in a bower of
prehistoric bones, surely suggesting the hypocritical priests were
reactionary. An image on the backdrop that is obvious
throughout in various transformations seems to be the omniscient
eyes of God.
Dispite the variety of images, the show avoids frenetic. Its
changes of scenes are divided into clear-cut parts, with a
deliberate change of pace and intensity. Tire words of the
production can be easily understood; and the simplicity of poetic
quality endears it to the young generation.
The opera is the work of two young Englishmen, 23 year old
Andrew Lloyd Webber, who composed it, and 26 year-old Tim
Rice, who wrote the lyrics. The music rivals the best of the rock
tunes, displaying a virtuosity equaling the famed Beatles.
Mr. Rice and Mr. Webber, two young millionaires in the
making have succeeded in getting their title song of the opera
recorded. It was a smash hit from the beginning, two years ago in
England. It was followed up with an album of the work. It was
also a terrific hit in albums in the U.S., where some 2 and a half
million copies have been sold. The concerts have been equally
successful and the advance ticket sale for the Broadway
production is already a phenominal one million dollars plus.
The concept of the role of Jesus tend to be personal as well as
religious so it will always be difficult for any actor to satisfy
everyone. There is always a certain risk in staging a theological
subject. There are honest objections from religious groups that
the opera is distortive or that it raises, like some passion plays of
the past, perilous issues of anti-Semitism.
This Christ story adapted a powerful religious and cultural
emotion of a vigorous musical idiom. It is new in a historical
sense and adds an unknown dimension to the theater, arts and
dance.
I will leave the opera for now on this note. GO LANEY’S
WILDCATS, GO ALL THE WAY. The entire black community is
pulling for coach Dupree’s fighting stalwarts. They will be playing
their hearts out way down in South Georgia; but they will not be
alone, thousands of soulful prayers will be offered to sustain
them.
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Page 2
r LETTERS TO EDITOR |
Letters Editor
Sunday Chronicle-Herald
Sir:
(The following is a letter sent
to the Sunday Chronicle
-Herald with a copy to the
News-Review)
Reference is made to a letter
from Guy R. Hurlbutt,
published by you last Sunday,
21 November, titled “Counters
discrimination charge directedj
at Richmond’s schools,” May I
request that you print ml
reply in full as it is importanl
that the general public heal
both sides of the allegation!
raised by my friend Mil
Hurlbutt? I
No one knows better than I
that the character an!
integrity of Mr. Hurlbutt are cl
the very highest, nor than th;l
he has more vigor and joy <■
life than most men one thi®
his age. But almost eve®
assertion was eith®
incomplete, irrelevant ■
mistaken. One might t heroic®
conclude the following: alnfst
all of us eventually identify the
institution to which we devote
our life with ourselves. We feel
any ci racism of that institution
as an attack on our own person
- which perhaps explains why
he felt it necessary in his reply
to include a very personal
attack on me and my children.
But it is as true today as in
Bible times that so few of us
are able to correct our
institutions from the inside
the most trenchant
observations still come from
“outside the establishment.” It
is still most difficult for most
parsons (including myself) to
see what is wrong with the
denominational institutions,
for most educators to critically
observe the scholastic
structure, etc., etc.
Item one: He says,” ...for at
least seven years from S.C., and
this year as an Augusta citizen
(he) has sent and sends his bwn
to a private school on the Hill.
He is sufficiently affluent...
etc. The reality: My elder
daughter is now at Augusta
College. Last spring she was
graduated from Richmond.
Before that she was a student
at North Augusta Senior High,
and before that at Paul Knox
Junior High. Through the
generosity of unnamed persons
outside my family (Mr.
Hurlbutt knows that I do not
fund it) my youngest daughter
is attending a private school
beyond Martinez in Columbia
County -- hardly “on the Hill”
toward helping her enter one
of the “seven sisters” colleges.
Mr. Hurlbutt himself has
opined to me that this school is
superior to anything in
Richmond County.
Item two: He says there is a
60-40 white to black teacher
ratio maintained in every
school. What does this have to
do with the assertion that the
better and more experienced
teachers go to school in the
more affluent and
predominantly white
neighborhoods? As Mr. Al Irby
has said, black people have just
about given up on integration,
they want quality education so
as to have equal opportunity.
Here are the words of Mr.
James M. Hinton, Jr.: “Court
ordered transfer of teachers to
achieve racial balance for
1970-1971, though never
achieved, resulted in white
teachers with the least number
of years of teaching experience
being assigned to
predominantly black schools
while black teachers with
considerable years of teaching
experience were assigned to
predominantly white schools.
A random sample of four
predominantly black schools
reveal that 82 black teachers
with a total of 980 years of
teaching experience were
assigned to predominantly
white schools, while 108 white
teachers with a total of 269
years of teaching experience
were assigned to these four
predominantly black schools.”
Mr. Hinton also said, “In late
September 1970 students
attended 39 predominantly
white schools with teacher
vacancies totalling 7, while
teacher vacancies in 17
predominantly black schools
totalled 39.” Etc., etc.
Item three: Mr. Hurlbutt
says he visited “three
predominantly black schools,
whose principals all feel that
by and large fairness has been
the rule.” Does not he
Bob Valder, Regional Director
of the Legal Defense Fund of
the NAACP. “.... Then on
Friday morning, May 28
(1971), I spoke by telephone
to Mr. Williams. He advised me
that he did not have the
authority to provide copies of
said documents to me. He
further advised me that I
needed to talk with Mr. Roy
Rollins, Superintendent of that
system, in order to secure
same. Accordingly, I went to
Mr. Rollins’ office on that
morning. I told Mr. Rollins
who I was, that I was a staff
member of the Legal Defense
Fund, that I was attempting to
obtain copies of certain Title 1
documents and that I had
indicated same in a
handwritten letter to Mr.
Williams on the previous day.
Mr. Rollins asked if I worked
for the I
responded in the negative and
he told me that I would not get
anything from his office
concerning any Title 1 matters.
I reminded him that this
information was available to
any member of the public and
he stated, ‘I don’t care, you’re
not getting anything.’ I asked
him if I could use his telephone
in order to call Title 1 officials
in Washington that said
officials could persuade Mr.
Rollins to obey the law. He
gave me his telephone, put on
his coat, and as he rapidly left
the office he turned out his
office light. In view' of this
arrogant, rude and abusive
treatment, and in view of Mr.
Rollins’ absence I then
cancelled the phone call.”
Item five: Mrs. Hurlbutt says
that a federal investigation of
Title 1 funds was initiated and
done, that no unfairness turned
up, that allotment of federal
funds was also roughly on a
60-40 basis, the larger amount
going to black schools. He does
not appear to have been
informed that Title 1 funds are
supposed to be based, not on
race, but on income level. Here
is the reality in the words of
Mr. Valder: The
compliance review conducted
by the Office of Education was
joint review (his underline)
with the Georgia State
Department of Education.
Since the complaint I filed was
directed specifically at both
the State Department of
Education and at the
Richmond County Board of
Education, and since my
complaint specifically
requested that the State
Department be involved in
neither an investigation of their
own operation nor in an
investigation of the District,
I’m wondering why this joint
review occurred. I had
anticipated that the Office of
Education would conduct a
unilateral review of both the
State Department and this
District.” Another request for
a federal-only review is now in
the works.
My friend might be
interested to know that I have
<1 TO BE
1 EQUAL KJKI
4 * ►
Verno n E. Jordan, Jr.
THE LEAD POISON EPIDEMIC
Lead poisoning is a childhood disease that reaches epidemic
But that’s just the beginning. In its more advanced stages, lead
poisoning results in learning defects, behavior disorders,
convulsions, brain damage including retardation and cerebral
palsy, blindness, and even death.
How many victims does a disease have to claim before it’s
recognized as an epidemic? It’s been estimated that 400,000
children are poisoned each year, 6 to 8,000 suffer permanent
damage, and 200 of them die. Is the national indifference to this
epidemic due to the fact that its victims are the poor, the black,
and other minorities?
The tragedy is deepened by the fact that it is so easily
preventable. Parent education is one step -- people have to be
made aware of the fact that this potential killer is present in their
homes and to be on the lookout for telltale signs that their
children are eating paint flakes.
Doctors and health workers too, have to be educated to the
danger. In this disease, as in others, they are too often unaware of
the special effects of slum life on the health of their patients.
Health workers should be at the forefront of mass screening and
testing programs to head off the killer before it can strike.
But the real answer to this epidemic lies in social reforms.
Housing code enforcement is non-existent in most places, yet a
program to eliminate excessive quantities of lead in today’s wall
paints and to remove the older lead-based paints from the walls is
urgent. Ultimately, new and better housing for low-income
families will not only do away with the lead-based paint disease,
but also end the hundreds of other indignities forced upon
slumdwellers.
The meaning of this epidemic to the medical profession is that
it can no longer treat illness in a vacuum, The real cause of this,
and other diseases, is poverty, and doctors and other health
workers must realize that the health problems of poor people
demand more than treatment after it is too late. Preventive
medicine in the slums must shift into high gear, with
neighborhood health teams working on a block-by-block basis to
prevent as well as cure, sickness.
This is also a civil rights issue. The old struggle to sit at the
lunch counter has been replaced in the seventies by the fight to
remove the disadvantages of race and poverty. The black and
other minority youngsters maimed and killed by lead-based
poisons are in effect, selected for their fate by discrimination and
poverty.
The black community can no longer take part in a dialogue
about abstract rights while our children are dying from the
concrete realities of racially-based disadvantage.
done a great deal of research,
viz. The following black
schools eligible for Title 1
funds in 1969-70 were not
eligible in 1970-71: Laney.
Hornsby, Sand Bar Ferry,
Telfair, Weed and Graham.
They had a total of 3,297
students who were 86 percent
black and 35 percent average,
Title 1 income level. But the
following white schools were
declared eligible in 1970-71:
Tutt, Reynolds, Tubman,
Evans, Lamar, Gracewood and
Hephzibah. They had a total of
3,834 students who were 84
percent white but only 27
average percent Title 1 income
level on the application blank.
The complaint now before
the federal Office of Education
alleges that Title 1 equipment
expenditures were made to the
tune of $132,616.79 in the
period 1966-69, in non-eligible
Title 1 schools. That in 1970 it
is alleged that nearly all Title 1
purchased equipment went to
Josey High School to equip
that school’s entire shop at a
cost of $28,052.94, but that
Josey a black school, is the
only one of two high schools in
the system that did not have its
shop equipped by non-Title 1
monies, and the other school
has no shop. Also, it is alleged
that the school district hopes
to equip the shop of another
black school, Sand Bar Ferry,
in the present school year with
Title 1 funds, applying in
August. But that all other
junior high schools now have
shops equipped by non-Title 1
monies. There are many, many
pages of allegations. They
require serious consideration,
not to present under-the-rug or
white-wash attitude.
The thesis still stands:
Mandatory school busing is
inconvenient for everyone.
However, what other legitimate
means is available to achieve
quality education for all
children in Richmond county,
for both rich and poor, for
both black and white? Are not
those clubs which hear
ant'i-biising speakers, but not
pro-busing speakers, showing
prejudice in not giving equal
time to competent pro
speakers before passing anti
resolutions? Let’s have fair
play and and honest
investigation of Title 1 fund
expenditures.
David C. Streett
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II "GOING f
I PLACES” I
■ With Philip Waring
i "*C '
(My column today contains exerpts from last Sunday’s N.Y.
Times)
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college, entering professions®
harply.
Most Black
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economy and educational sy®
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society. These facts also prov®
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childhood malnutrition.
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headed by women, which
percent while remaining unchanged at 9 percent
families. This correlates with a continued decline in the number
of Negro children living with both parents. Indisputably, children
in female-headed families in an urban setting are more vulnerable
to adverse events and influences than those growing up in families
where a father is also present.
Urban League Study On Family Life
An Urban League study, “The Strength of Black Families,
places these factors in a large contex by stressing the many sound
aspects of Negro family life, including the strength of the kinship
system, the positive attitudes toward work, the desire for
education and the stabilizing influence of religious values.
These positive influences suggest that work-incentive programs
aimed at welfare mothers are less important than jobs for Negro
fathers and young men. If the ecomonic opportunities exist, there
will be many such men eager to take advantage of them and, in so
doing, gradually to stabilize their own family relationships. H.R.
1, the welfare reform bill, which brings assistance to the working
poor and which provides incentives for unemployed fathers to
stay with their families, is an essential component of any program
for economic recovery and social stability.
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