Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PAGE n THE MERCER CLUSTER MAY n, lfn SCLC Conference; An Age Of Revolution by Katie Cantwell. Carloa Johnson. and Beverly HarriMw Nine Mercer students attended the Student Conference spon sored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) at State University which is the third oldest black school in the country (oldest in the South) on May 11, 12, 13. The students who attended were Leon Larke, Beverly Harrison. Deliah Harris, Joe W. Davis, Carlos Johnson, Nathaniel Glover, Judy Williams Wyonna Sharpe, and Katie Cantwell, representing two of Mercer's organizations, the Black Students Alliance and the 9GA. The purpose of the conference was to “take an indepth look at the existing world situation; where experts would come with an indepth analysis and in formation ; where we would chart a course to make our government serve the needs of the people.’’ This is not necessarily what happened, however... Despite a few difficulties such as misleading publicity, bad lining and just plain bad organization, the conference was very useful and fruitful. One of the main criticisms of the organisers is that we were told Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy would be in at tendance. Jackson's name didn’t even appear on the program, and Abernathy didn’t get any further north than Atlanta. However, after the conference got un derway, whatever knowledge and wisdom these two men might have brought to Shaw was more than compensated for by the presence of Jack O’Dell who is a professor of education at Antioch College and Associate Editor of FREEDOMWAYS MAGAZINE, Rev. C. T. Vivian, Bernard Scott Lee who is an executive of SCLC, and Chief Howard Broftks of the Tuscarora Indians in N. C. All of these men were extremely im pressive and wise. Listening to them talk was like listening to the collective wisdom of an age—an age of revolution. The majority of people in at tendance at the Conference were black, since most of the letters thtft were sent out to the 250 schools were black schools. Therskwas a small minority of Tuscarora Indians and not quite a handful of white students present also. Seeing as there were many speakers and students from different schools and all had varied opinions and ideas regarding social reform and revolution. But after two days of an interchange of these ideas and thoughts, four main themes emerged from the conference. (1) For any kind of effective act'on, we must begin to form coalitions among minority a coalition being a group of people coming together to work to change a common condition, but maintaining their uniqu identities in the process. Tt)p advancement of rights of rights and op portunities will mean the ad vancement of rights and op portunities of every minority...For the black man, it is not the poor white or the Chicano or the Native American who is his enemy, but rather the % system, with its institutionalized prejudices and discriminatory practices that is the real enemy. (2) For these groups to work together, there must be an elimination of prejudices and misconceptions between the Blacks, Chicanos, poor Whites and native Americans. This can only be brought about by education and communication. (3) The efforts and action of the coalition groups must be systemetized. In other words, the workers in any movement must be disciplined in what they are doing so that they will be able to handle the responsibility of the positions and offices, as gains are made. After all, what good is it if we take over jobs if we are too ignorant to do them well? (4) The efforts of the movement must be made towards developing a new kind of economic system, that is neither capitalistic, socialistic, fascistic, or whatever. It is impossible to have true equality under any of the existing economic systems. Jack O'Dell, the first speaker, talked of revolution and counter revolution With every revolution there is a counter-revolution, and the counter-revolution may not necessarily be blatantly noticeable. Its workings may be subtle in nature. O'Dell says the evidence of this subtle revdution can be seen in the school crises, employment practices and in stitutional red-tape. The beginnings of the counter revolution can be found in the joining together of the southern problem of racism with the application of northern solutions to this problem. Since then the counter-resolution has set in and sets in deeper and deeper. A good example of the manifestation of the counter-revolution is the Poverty Program. It Is O'Dell's contention that the only thing the Poverty Program has done, is to move “the movement" out of the streets and institutionalized it. Because the movement could not be stopped abruptly, due to the momentum, it was cultivated into our existing political system and various institutions. O'Dell says that the counter-revolution is building up even though “the movement’’ is forcing con cessions. O'Dell also calls for a phasing out of the present capitalistic system and the present education system which is necessary before any kind of real progress can be made. Larry Bullock, a State Health Lobbyist, spoke of federal revenue sharing and how this could be used for the citizens' benefit. What federal revenue sharing is. is the returning of federal money to state and local government. This money is supposed to be spent in the priority areas, the priority being deckled by the local decision makers But this has not been the case in the past. This is where the citizen conies in. The citizens' neglect results in the robbing of the public treasury. A report of how the money is to be spent must be submitted to the office, stating the areas where the money will bo spent and it must be in conjunction with equal opportunity and civil rights provisions. The local government must then report in more than one newspaper (at least one being a minority paper) of where the money will be spent. What can the citizen, specifically the student, do? Bullock says they can do two things: (1) Find sensitive local decision-makers and create a local decision monitoring board. The purpose of this board would be to utilize citizen input and prevent misuse of public funds. (2) Students can halp arrange town hall ac- countibility meetings where citizens would be able to question the local decision makers of tax expenditures, local government policies, etc. Bullock finished his discuasion on revenue-sharing with the quote “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” One of the Planned Sessions was a student panel discussion period. Several points were brought out in this session. That for the blacks, in looking for solutions to their problems, their efforts must be centered around definite issues, not attitudes, that ethnocentrism (dealing only with one’s own group) must end. Hie black people must be willing to include other groups in on their planning stages to find out how others feel, at least to know who their enemies are and who their friends are The question was raised as to what kind of response aid per group pressure would be present at each particular school, when the black students went back to report this type of thinking to their fellow students. Would the peer pressure be so great and the trend of practicing enthnocentrism so great that this type of thinking would have to be (topped? No one really knew what the consequences of this would be. They would just have to wail and to find out. An interesting point was brought out in this session. Jack O'Dell said that Ford Foundation Had decided that 12 black iruversities would survive the present problems all schools face in university financial sigjpcrt The Ford Foundation has specific criterion that it follows in g grantirg aid to universities and the federal government adopts this criterion as its own. If a university is truly concerned with education of Us students, (him the student will be learning things that may be harmful to “the system.” This is not in the interest of Ford Foundation, therefore it will only give grants to 12 universities and then the federal government will follow Ford’s lead, thereby Ford Foundation insuring the survival of only 12 black universities. It was brought out that Shaw University was not one ot these, mainly because it bolds such conferences as the one this past weekend., and was where such organizations as SNCC were born. Late Saturday night we broke ig) into discussion groups. We had an opportunity to put the ideas we were discussing into some con crete programs. One discussion group came up with four definite things that need to be done. (1) There must be altitudinal changes, In other wards our attitudes towards others who are different must be examined and if there are any hidden prejudices, they must be worked an to be eradicated. (2) Com munication can bring about these changes. (3) One positive way of educating people is to use newspapers to let people know what other BS.THER BSA's organizations, etc. are doing along the Pates of social reforms. (4) Research should be un dertaken to find other passible areas of coalition (besides the Native Americans of Robeson County, N. C. and the blacks of SCLC). The other discussion group dealt mainly with education, specifically education in terms of ‘classrooms without walls,’’ using every thing that is available in the community to educate not only university students, but to educate children of all ages and adults As s result of the discussion, some of the students from Mercer will be looking into ways to implement adult education and “classrooms without walls” at Mercer, perhaps as an extension of the preachool progran\. The Rev. C. T. Vivian gave a very impressive speech em phasizing a New World Order. If being equal means exploiting the poor for personal gains, or being responsible for institutional prejudices, or denying the manhood of an indivual. then he .doesn’t want any part of equality. Bernard Scott Lee aiao spoke of a New Order, this New Order not based on socialism, capitalism or communism, but something of a New Jerusalem. He ended to say some of his friends refer to this a anarchism—he calk it Love. Come In.... .... and meet our new campus representatives our new selection of full dress and sportswear.... Specializing in the layered look in tops and bottoms. Choose from brand names you know best * GANT *IZOD * CANTERBURY * ASHER * JANTZEN * PURITAN * LONDON FOG *NUNN BUSH * GOLD CUP JOSEPH N. NEEL 456-474 CHERRY STREET PHONE 745-6151 THE MERCER CLUSTER Mercer Unlversifv Macon. Georgia Non Profit Organization Non-Profit Org U. S. Postage 14Cents PAID Permit No. 13 Macon. Ga. 31207