.11
• It' not h rd to im ine
udent or ing diligently on
th probl m or doing
mputer wor .
Wh t m y be difficult i
im ginin this on Saturd y
mornin - typic lly time or
young t r to w tch cartoon
or play with frf nd . On top of
th t, th ir p rent ar ctivel y
p rticip ting.
, Wh t i 0 important that
m ny H rtford, Connecticut
p rent nd children give up
t�eir S turday morning ?
An innov live program
c lled S turday Ac de my i
the an w r. Saturday Academy
i a collaborative effort
between the Hartford Board 0
Education and Aetna Life &
Ca ualty. The Aetna Institute
for Corporate Education run
thi program specifically for
Hartford' young ters. The
f mily, chool and corporation
are involved in an important
partner hip to prepare their
children for life.
THE PROGRAM is offered
to seventh grade student and
their parents. Teachers select
participants based on their
motivation to learn, ability to
maintain grades, and parental
cfm�itment to attend half the
S Ions.
Hundreds of youngsters
h ve participated throughout
t�e Saturday Academy's even
y ar hi tory. They receive
(jath, cience, oral
cbmmunicatton and computer
�stru ion. There is
portunity for more
e-on-one teacher-student
ihteraction.
• Saturday Academy's
nine-week program has won
the support numerous critics.
The participants rave about the
program. Many appreciate the
opportuni ty for extra
instruction.
At first, some expressed
concern about waking early on
Saturday, but as one student
said, "Once I saw how great
the Saturday Academy was, it
was easy."
Parent are enthusiastic. "I
feel that by coming to the
Academy. my son and the
other kids now have greater
hopes and goals in their minds
and heart ." said Dorothy
Jenkins. "It is a special ,
program of a group of special
kids where a time and place is
set aside just for their learning.
AETNA INSTITUTE
President Badi Foster firmly
believes the program goes
beyond educational
achievement. ' "It's feeling
good about yourself." says Dr.
roster. "You are somebody.
�how them that you can
• hieve ,"
• One young girl who
<leveloped self-confidence
with the program, aid "I feel
taat I have become a better
lferson since I started the
Saturday Academy program."
; Saturday Academy's
• rength is its emphasis on
�arental involvement. Parents
dttend group sessions to
d;scus teenage sex and drug
abuse and parental
responsibility. They can also
see their children first-hand
working on computer or
demonstrating active
classroom participation, which
helps parents better understand
their children's educational
experience.
It is exciting to learn about
communi ty partnership
working effectively on behalf
of. children. Everyone has a
responsibility in our
educational system -
educators, parents,
corporation, community
leader, politicians and others.
We cannot deny a ingle child
the opportunity to enrich hi or
her educational experience.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president of the children'
Defense Fund.
n
VIEWS
I
p
•
or
•
I
·never
By NORMAN HILL
Fifty years ago this summer, on
June 25, 1941, A. Philip Randolph
won Executive Order No. 8802 from
President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. This Executive Order
banned employment discrimination
by the federal government or by
defense industries.
• Randolph won this concession
from Roo evelt by threatening to
march 100,000 Blacks and other
civil rights advocates down Pennsyl­
vania Avenue in D.C.,' another un­
heard f proposition at that time.
Much can be learned by examin­
ing the historical significance of Ex­
ecutive Order 8802 and reviewing
the current status of civil and
economic rights in �erica from the
per pective of Randolph's life
achievements' and values: As a his­
torical benchmark, Executive Order
8802 legitimated Randolph's
strategy of democratic mass action to
achieve social change, and validated
the principle that political freedom
requires an economic and social ba e
(in Randolph's case, the trade union
movement).
In a similar vein, the Order made
po ible the expansion of the Black
middle class (by opening up public
sector and defense industry employ­
ment) that would play uch a crucial
role in future civil rights achieve­
ments. Finally, th order was the
first significant breakthrough against
Ie gal ly- anctioned Jim Crow
segregation ince the days of
Reconstruction, and wa institution­
alized in the formation of the first
historic Fair Employment Practice
Commission.
in making decisions and taking life
into one' bands.
Empowerment is imultaneously
economic, social, psychological and
political, the quest to free oneself
from the shackles of dependency to
achieve greater independence.
Thousand of African-Americans
during the era of racial egregation
e tablished "mom and pop"
enterprises, providing good and er­
vices to the masses of Blacks who
were locked out of th larger white
leaders acros
w e of the m dem Civil
Rights movem nt, th focus ofBI c
leadership hifted from de egrega­
tion, th di mantling of th legal ap­
paratus of Jim Crow, to the
. integration of African-Americans
into th mainstream of government
and society.
Integrationi t politic sumed
that th deci ive aren ofBlac inter­
vention would be within politics and
government. By increa ing the
numbers of African-Americans
mayors, Congre persons and state
legislators, Blac would b posi­
tioned to exercise greater power
dom
lnal
r
1991. our ocio-cconornic context
demand higher level of education
and skills training, include a grow­
ing ervice sector and demographic
changes promi ing to make
America's workforce compo ed of a
majority of minoritie and women.
THis MEANS THAT the civil
rights movement must tackle the in­
terrelated problems of continuing
discrimination, historically unequal
access to education for American
Blacks, and the difficulty of union
organizing in the disproportionately­
Black service sector.
By emphasizing i ue of socio­
economic context, we do not explain
away in some crude fashion the
moral and phi osophical underpin­
nings of civil ghts activism; rather,
we highlight the ubtle synergistic
interplay between the spiritual and
the material.
To ensure faimes for America's
rapidly diversifying workforce and
to help fulfill the potential of the
America's changing society, we
must pa s the trongest Civil Rights
Act that is politically pos ible this
year. While we welcome Senator
Danforth's movement towards
bipartisan compromise, we also
deplore those elements in his current
propo al that restrict and limit civil
right protections for women, the
di abled, and the religious diversity
of America, given that such restric­
tion will al 0 con trict the'
economic, let alone spiritual, growth
of our nation.
Futh rmore, after we pass the
critical Civil Rights Act of 1991, we
must move on to a broader agenda of
(Part I)
eve I wee
ity of Te at A
nnu em n Sw tt tum
on Civil Right , on the topic of
UBI c Sel f- elp nd Entrepre ur­
hip."
Thi ympo ium brought to ether
range of chol and civic I ders,
both cons rv tiv nd lib ral, to di - , r------------__.
C th current problems and future
of BI ck economic development.
Th m [or p r w obert L.
00 on, Pr ident of th ational
Center for eighborhood Ent rpri e
and am [or conservative critic ofth
civil righ tablishment.
Woodson and other conservative
advocate of Blac enterpri e t nd to
minimize the role of institutional
raci m a a barrier to African­
Am rican dvancement, and place
great faith in the ability of capitalism
to re olve Blacks' economic
problems.
AhTHOUGH WOOD 0 And
I clearly were at odds on politics, we
found common ground in our mutual
support for the values of excellence,
individual initiative, and group
economic mobilization. My own ap­
preciation of the struggles of Black
. small businesspeople comes from
my own family's history.
SO WHAT DOES this history
have to do with civil rights struggles
today? First of all, there are the ob­
vious ironies: fifty years later, con­
crete gains have been made, but the
underclass persists or even expands,
and Bush's veto intransigence vs. the
Civil Rights Act of 1991 can be
flavorfully contra ted with
Roosevelt's leadership.
There is also a subtle tactical les­
son to be gained by historical
perspective, specifically the impor­
tance of making pecificconce ions
to gain larger objectives: Randolph
acrificed going through with hi
planned march (which is why many
readers may not have been aware of
a 1941 March), thus avoiding an em­
barrassment to FDR, and won in ex­
change the above breakthroughs.
On the other hand, while the cur­
rent Civil Rights Act will probably
require some compromise, we will
continue to organize and agitate so
that future points of compromise will
be clo er down the road towards our
goal of full racial equality and
economic justice for all.
The mo t important Ie on to be
learned. however, relates to the
broader ocio-economic context of
civil rights activisrrn The struggle
• for legal civil rights must be viewed
as part of the overall long-range
project of fulfilling the growth
potential, both piritual and material,
of American ociety and the
American economy.
In 1941, the context for
Randolph's civil rights achievement
was the shift of Black population
from rural South to urban North and
from agriculture to industry. No, in
ALa G
TH
COLOR
LINE
, in-
tegrationist trategy relied h vily
on the power of government to force
open opportunities for priv te ctor /
development. Even thought the
Blac private ector grew in ize,
re ching 339,000 Black-owned
firm by 19 2, the economic
viability of rno t enterpri e w
limited at b t.
Dr. Manning Marabel is Profes­
sor of Political Science and History,
Univer ity of Colorado, Boulder.
POEM
DANNY R. COOKS
A I dge'Of
mpowermen
Tad I in a new life-long quest for only
good habits-the key to, my uccess.
I will greet this day and all In It with love In
my heart, as much a will fit.
My tyle of dress folks may reject; my peecn
habits might be lacking Etiquette; my reasoning ,
may be unsound; and my face might make
some folks frown but the love In my heart,
starting today, like the sun, It will
warm the coldest clay.
I'll love the sun for the warmth it brings and
yet love the rain for keeping my world clean.
I'll love the light that brightens the day and
yet love darkness for showing me the Milky
Way.
I'll welcome happiness as a constant goal yet
endure sadness because it opens up my soul.
I'll accept any attention as life's greatest
reward and greet the challenges of obstacles
wlthout'belng scared or bored.
I will salute my enemies and make them all
my friends; embrace my losses, and downplay
my wins.
I will love EVERYONE, all ladles and men for
each has admirable qualities, though hidden.
For my failures I will never blame someone
and when I'm tempted to criticize, I'll bite my
tongue .
I will love the proud for their sense of self;
and love the humble for their moral wealth;
I will love the rich, for it's lonely at the top
and love poor folks cause their losses never
stop. ,
I will love the ambitious for their "get up and
go, " and those who are, failures and unashamed
to let·lt show.
I will love the young for the faith that they
hold and love my elders, cause there's wisdom
In the old.
I will love ugly people for their personality
and love the beautiful for suffering other's
Jealousy and long before I ever attempt any of
this I got to start by loving me or the mark I
shall miss.
Now, this doesn't mean th,at I must ecquiesce
to Indulgent requests of my flesh.
My body, mind, and soul I vow to cherish In
, moderation and cleanliness.
This Is the reason I truly feel blessed to begin
II new life-long quest for only good habits-the
key to any success.
human needs and economic justice
in America. After challenging the
immediate blatant barriers of
workplace discrimination, we must
challenge the subtler, more complex
hackels on economic opportunity
and worker dignity.
Our alliance must be b ed on
class, not race, because thi will
more likely develop a majoritarian
coalition ba e by avoiding preferen­
tial treatment or the appearance of
uch treatment, and by po ing a more
preci e and effective challenge
against basic problems of privilege
and inequality.
LABOR LAW R F RM (e.g.
the pending anti- trikebreaker legi -
lation banning the use of o-called
"permanent rcplacem nts") i a criti
al comp nent of the ivil righu
truggle today.
In the w rd of the great Ran-.
d Iph: "Salvation m t com from
within. Freedom inver granted; it·
i won. Freedom nd justice m t
. trug led f r by the ppre d of all
land • cIa c. nd race . and th
struggle m t be continuous, for
freedom i never a final fact, but an:
volvin proce to higher and'
hi h r lev I' of human, octal,
e onomic political, nd piritu I
relationship ."