ItIrtDr setioas DC8Oti1ltiolli to
eid ., So th
Afriaa, of A&ican
A ericaDS co ti ue to
• te,
All across America a
• . ofra� -
sa It is being unlea hed
aga· t Blac people at all
leve. e drug crisis has'
provided veil legitimacy for
growiag police harassment, ter­
ror ad urder in African
American' communities.
Racial iDcidents on college
campuses are mounting. andra­
cial attacks of the kind which
oeearred Howard Beach aDd
BeDSODhurst are becoming iD­
ae-singly more commonplace.
This alarming resurgence of
racism and racial violence is un- ,
folding within a climate where
affirmative action and the gains
of the sixties are also under at­
tack.
From the Supreme Court to
the halls of congress there are
forces at work which are deter­
mined to tum back the clock.
There appears to be a prevail­
ing view in white American that
African Americans, with all
their. elected officials,
prominent television per-
naliti ctors, athletes and
corporate executives have
made' As a consequent of this
misperception, there i a
decided ck of national will to
fo d·th national
civil righ d human rights
neJa. ;
There are inaeasing signs,
ho ever, that African
AmericaDs do not intend to be­
eo ive victims of this
latest outbrea of anti-B ck
_ . t anlagon' m. A growing
, African American revolt
. t racism ppear to be
revol
America was ,aIIDiI.
t the kind of tokenism
become the pattern at
coUeges aDd � in the
UnitedSta
Supreme Court Decisions
over the past decade have
erved to undermine affirm­
ative action and lessen an al­
ready feeble commitment on
the part of many universities to
implem nt strong affirmative
action pelici "
, In taking his stand, Prof. Bell
. in effect risking occupational
death. His career' on the line.
But Prof. Bell declared that, "I.
cannot continue to urge stu­
dents to ta e risks for what they
believe if I do not practice my
own precepts". ,
It ,is precisely this type of
courage which is required by
Black men and omen to in­
spire our people to fight back
against racism and the blatant
attempts to beat back Blac
progress.
Though Prof. Bell's stance
received national notice,
other action by Black stu­
dents at Temple Uni ersity did
not make national headlines.
During the last week of April
a late evening melee erupted at
Temple wh n some white mem­
bers of fraternity falsely ac­
cused group of Blac students
of kicking in the do r to their
fr ternity house. The white stu­
dents attacked the Black stu­
dents with baseball bats and 2"
by 4 plants. When the campus
police arrrived the Black stu­
dents re hit with billy clubs
- and herded into paddy wagons
as if they were the ones guilty of
precepitating the incident
Five white students were
eventually arrested, but no e of
them ere subjected to beat­
ings with billy clubs, handcuffed
or thrown into p ddy wagons. A
few of the Black students h d to
be treated for cracked ribs and
broken arms.
�
Black students organizations
and leaders came together in a
united front to demand an apol­
ogy from the UDiYersity and fur­
ther th t dw be brought
agaiDst the police officers for '
police brutality.
From
•
,VI
i s Harvard;
ada grievaJl­
ces aIIO· WbeD the
Pre ideat of the naiver ity
refused to meet . them or
respond to their the
Blac studeat aad some
. Latino, 'd white sup-
porters too to the streets, more
than 1,000 stroDg. They blocked
every major a road to the
uniYersity • act of
civil disobedience. With this
courageo d, the dents
t Temp UDiYenityjoined the
growing revo ainst ra • I
oppression.
Though the 0 come of the
struggles at Harvard and
Temple is uncertain as of this
writing. hat tter is that
African Americans are rUking
careers, acade ic standing,
and putting their lives on the
to· a detenDiDation
tbat our civil· and ic
r�ts hUDWl beings must
and will be respected.
This is indeed a opeful
sighn. African Americans must
be forever mindful of the ad­
monition of the great Black
Abolitioni t leader Frederi
Douglass 0 . d on A 4,
1957 ... "Po :r conced noth­
ing witho a demand 'It ne�r
has and it never will Find out
just what people will submit to
and you hay found' out the
exact amount of the injustice
and wrong which will be im­
posed upon them; and these will
continue until they are resisted
with either words or blows or
both. The limits of tyrants are
prescribed by the endurance of
th se whom they oppress,"
Head Start graduates
now serve others
We know th t Head Start
prepares children to ucceed in
, school and increases their chan­
ces of succeeding in life. In tal -
ing with young adults who '
attend Head Start as
childre , I've been truc by
�no her apparent long-term ef­
fect of the He d Start ex­
perience: It seems to encourag
a strong commitment to service,
es pecially to children and
adolescents. Repeatedly Heat
Start graduates have said to me
in one way or another, "Head
Start gave me so much; in
return, I want to give something
to others. Often these Head
Start gradu tes work in Head
Start programs unpaid volun­
teers.
Susan Lindsey, for example,
has been volunteering at Head
tart in her home town of Moor­
head, 10 d, si ce she was a col­
lege student. She ttended
Head Start in Moohead in 1969-
70. "I tarted volunteering be­
cause I anted to give back
some of t I 8 "she ys.
Lindsey recently too a day off
from her job a a church
secretary in. suburb of Omaha,
ebraska, .to train a Head Start
e retary to use a computer
word processing program.
She also volunteers in the
Head Start classroom and says
she has thought bout training
to be a He d Start teacher.
Lindsey ys he ,will always
maintain her associatio with
Head Start, bu her inYO�men
with young peop , 't stop
there. In college Lindsey
started serving a church
youth coordinator, a job she
holds no in her church, and
she plans to return to school for
a teaching degree. ·A commit­
ment to serving children and
youth run trong in me,"
,I
Lind ey says. "I kn it come
from Head Starl."
Mary Lou Pur i ul wa a
Head Start student in 1969-70 in
Barbourvill , Kentucky. After
graduating from colleg
funded the Black Mountain
Impr vement A ociati n, a
nonprofit organization that
pro i e tutoring, mentoring,
individual cou lin nd ex­
tracurricular trip and a ivitics
for minority tudent in grad
one through 12. "He d tart is a
large part of the re on I tarted
the program," says Pur iful. �l
couldn't think of a better w.ay to
give something bac to the com­
munity."
. Pursiful says Head tart gave
her a en e of belonging and ac­
ceptance that many black
children do not develop. 0 ra­
cial distinctions were ever mad
at Head Start," says Pursiful, "so
I learned as a young child how it
feels to be totally accepted by
groups of peer ." Pursiful 15
th t feeling of belonging was
sometimes hard to hold onto
growing up in a predominantly
white community, but the lf�
confidence Head Start nur­
tured in her helped her cope­
with the racial i ues sh later
(; ced. And it fostered a deter­
mination to do what she could
to nurture th self-esteem and
serf-confidence of blac
children.
Betsy Wright, who attended
Head Start n r Chattanoog
T nnessee, in 1973-75, is now a
junior t Judson College in
Marion, Alabama. he has been
volunteering t Head t rt
since she wa in high chool.
Last year sh volunteered 100
hours during her school breaks.
'She is studying psychology and
wants to wor with what he
c lis challenged" children,
VANTAGE'
OINT
As. confront the dangers
of this e citing crisis of
racUm, racial attacks and as­
saul on Black interests, our
watch words must be . . . no
struggle, no progress.
Ron Daniels serves as Presi- ,
dent of the Institute for Com­
munity Organization and
Development in Youngstown,
Ohio. He may be contacted at
(216) 746-5747.
tho e who cope with peci 1
physical, em tional, or intell .
tu I chall ng . he "0 thing
of becoming a child adv t in
the juvenile court system. .
Th goal of f st ring a com-'
mitmcnt to service probablyw
not among th explicit aims of
He d tart' founders. But it is
not urpri ing that many He d
St rt graduates h ve a d sire t
help improve the live f other .
When children re treated with
comp ion nd under tanding
they are' likely to gro up feel­
ing compassion for other .
Wh n they receive help that .
genuine and useful, they ar
likely to want to help others. ,
Partly by precept and partly
by example, Head tart
lea her and staff instill in their
student the values of t rt
children carry these valu v with
them they grow up. And a
good many Head Start
'graduates, it ems, decide as
young adults to put these value
into practice by making ervic
an important part of their lives.
Marian Wright Edelman is
.president of the Children's
Defense Fund.