25
VOL VIII NO. 16
RCH 16 • 22, 1 86
On the 40th Anniversary of
the p g of the Full Employ-
ment ct of 1946, John E.
J cob Pre . dent of the ational
rb Le gue, decl red in W sh­
in on, D.C. on Thur day,
6 1986, th t th pro­
contained in that ct
'have come to nothing' and
prom s of the Humphrey­
� ....... a;ii.u Full Employment ct
ant Inclalr
hlngton Po t
corro PLANT,Ark.-A
dozen farmers re gather d in
th c paciou machin hed on
the farm that Houston Tyler
and his 0 so oper te, and
the talk i much the same that'
heard eve rywhe r 10 price,
hi debt, dead end
But there i difference.
The are Black farmer,
m mb r of a v rushing breed
ho days may be numb t d.
If the lurchin farm economy
do not fini h them the
i ht of hi tory po ibly ill,
for th BI c f rm r' fast
comin a t tistical nonen­
tity in America
of 1978 have been betrayed."
Speaking at a symposium on
full employment ponsored by
the ational Committee on
Full Employment, r. Jacob
pointed out that there are one­
third more people in poverty
today than there were in 1979,
the income gap between the
top fifth of the population
and the bottom fifth h
r
I there really a
man- 0 an
i the Blae
community?
-p 9
BE TO HARBOR:
P rpl eart
inner laid
to re t -Pag 3
to the point h re thi country
has the mo t unequal distribut­
ion of income in the industrial
world, and BI c unemployment
is some 15% hile Blac youth
unemployment i over 400c .
'Some peopl think e have
full employment becau over a
hundred million American are
at work. But fifth of them
and
than poverty 1 vel age ...
You can't define full employ­
ment by white male alone...
Full employment is what it
say it is - a decent job at a
decent wage for all Americans
who. want to work, , he declared.
Surveying the overall employ­
ment picture Mr. Jacob said
that over the past . years
America ha lost 1.6 million
factory jobs it incurred a
trade deficit in rnanuf ctured
goods of S 112 billion in 1985,
and while three out of five hite
workers found new jobs, only
two out of five displaced Black
worker did likewi .
Contlnu d on Page 3
•
HISTORIC
of
Alllan, nted Ontario' a Lt. Go ernor Lincoln AI xan­
d with a bOok during th B trip to Toronto. AI xander
I. th firSt Blae appointed by e Qu n of England to th .
po t, the BSA I th first group from th U.S.A. to be ent r­
taln d by Alexand r.
Story on P g 4.
•
I
There i disa reernent over the
statistics, but censu t er who
reported there ere 57,000
Black-owned farms in 1978
identified only 33,000 mong
the nation's 2.4 million f rms in
1982. In contr t, there were
926,000 Blac -operated farms
in 1920.
The ne economic pre-
ssures on farmer are ju t the
late t in Ion trin of events
that have pushed Black off th
land. Re trictiv prop rty tax
and inheritance la , th mi r -
tion of rur I BI cks to the
or h cheme of I cal
overnmen t and rival 1 ndo -
n r th t he ted 0 0 r nd
heir, th unavail bilty of
cr dit, m chanization and .0
r niz d
th n 100
counti in i ht uthern
Continu d on P 9 7
A 19 2 tudy by th U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights,
which found the rate of decline
of Black-op rated farm 2 �
time greater than that of
hit run fi rrn , pr dieted that
there ould be fewer than
10,000 Blac farmers by the
end of this century unle the
trend changed.
"The urgency of thi itu­
tion i accentuated by the vir­
tual irr ver ibility of Blac land
10 , tt the comrni ion aid.
"Today, only tho e who inherit
land or ho have other non­
farm ource of income can
afford to purcha e and oper te
farm ... The need for [federal]
int rv ntion i immediat ."
Four year after the cornmis-
a
sion issued its report, therei no
ign that the trend has changed.
And fe of the Agriculture
Dep rtment and Farmer
Home Administration (FmHA)
policy chan es urged by the
commi ion to ep Blacks on
the land hav been carried
out.
"The current decline in the
farm economy is having the
most dramatic effect on Blac
land owner hip, tt Y Calvin H.
King, director of the Arka
Land & Farm 0 velopment
Corp., a rural elf-help or
ganization that coun el Black
on ay to retain their 1 nd.
The story i much th me
th South, wh re th
of Black farm are.
