Job Sta
nowto nd
Some 87,000 General
A sist nee nd Job St rt
client will receive notice
in the mail e rly next wee
that the tate program to
si t welf re recipients
back into the work world is
another victim of Gov.
, John Engler' budget axe.
The job-training and
education program for
healthy 18 to 25-year olds
was launched in 1990 in six
counties: Wayne, Oakland,
Genesee, Ingham,
Kalamazoo nd Mus-
kegon.
, State Rep. David Hol­
lister, D-Lansing, who
chairs the House Ap­
propriations subcommittee
on social services, said the
program was in effect
killed when the House
Speaker greed to give
Engler line item veto
power the $230 million
DSS budget.
State pend
choal money
LANSING- A $400,000
state grant to fund Michigan
Education Trust COllege tui­
tion scholar hips for poor
children has been spent by the
Engler administration, accord­
ing to a Free Press report.
The money was to have
been matched by private dona­
tions so that MET could be
bought for underprivileged
kids.
A MET Contract guaran­
tee up to four years' tuition at
a state college or university.
Under attack because the pro­
gram was affordable only to
up�r middle class familie ,
the Blanchard administration
which dreamed up the idea, set
aside the $400,000 to allow
participation by some poor
families.
,
"The out-migration of Blac
from agriculture happened when they
... were looking elsewhere, not see­
ing a future in gricu1ture," King
id.
The decline of Blae in farming
reOcctcd the nationwide drop
in the agriculture population.
The number of farms overall has
fallen because of increased opportu­
nities in urban areas, especially for
Blacks, aid Gale Johnson, professor
of economics and an agricultural
economics expert at the University
of Chicago.
.... The large reduction in the
number of farms and more opportu­
nity in the cities has really pulled
. Blacks out of farming, ft Johnson said.
.... A large part of the reduction
came in the '50s and '60s, because
there was a more satisfactory life­
style in the city." Blacks farms
loday are small and rarely produce a'
living for their owners.
The federal government lists in­
dividuals as farmers if they sell at
least $'1,000 in products annually.
Less than 30 percent of Black
farmers in Michigan sold more than
$10,000 in products last year, Beal
said. Just 60 Blacks in Michigan list
farming as their main occupation.
WATKINS IS one of a dwin­
dling number of Blae farmers, aid
CalvinBeal, demographer with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Economic Research Service based
in Washington, D.C.
Blac owned and operated
900,000 farms nationwide before
World War I Today, that number
has plummeted to 23,000 according
to Census Bureau statistics. Some
54,000 farmers live in Michigan;
171 are Black.
The Ceosm Bureau lists five Black
farmers in Saginaw County, but nei­
ther the Cooperative Extension Serv­
ice nor the Saginaw County Agricul­
tural Stabilization and Conservation
Service w able to name any.
THE FALL OF BLACKS in ag­
riculture started when Blacks mi­
grated north 30 to 40 years ago in
search of a better life, said Frank
King, a spokesman for the American
Farm Bureau in Park Ridge, Ill.
.... Bl ' opportuniti to adv
in agriculture have been I than
those forwhitcs," Johnson 'd. "That
means increasing the ize of their
farms bas been more difficult.
.... They hav I to (fi-
nancial) credit and have been 1
educated. Commercial farmers tend
to be more educated."
Blacks also find it difficult to
break into farming because farm land
is passed down through families, said
Dennis Curtiss, executive director of
the Saginaw County Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation Serv­
ice.
.... LAND IS OFfEN passed down
through tradition," he said ..... Large
farmers have often had that land in
their families f�r generations."
The decline in the number of
Black farmers will continue because
of a lack of interest in agriculture by
young Blacks, and the advancing
ages of current black farmers, Beal
aid. The average age of a Black
farmer now is 60, he said.
.... There is a hortage of younger
farmers," Beal said. , .. Blacks in the
South move to the city. They associ­
ate farming with the poverty of their
parents and the suppression of Bla;ks."
Detroit Free Press, the police in Ma­
comb County said Neal and three
other Black youth were "taunted"
and "pursued" by 20 whites. Two o.f
the Black yout fired warning hots
into the air while they fled, but the
group of whites did not give up the
chase.
AT SOME POINT, Neal report- .
edly scaled a fence and tried to es­
cape through a trailer park. Heydal­
legedly followed, w hot and died
at St. Joseph Hospital in Mt. Cle­
mens.
Macomb County, to say the least,
is complex in its residential layout
and racial makeup. According to the
1990 ceDSUS count, Richmood's 4,141
residents are white. And Lenox
Tow hip, including New eo-
hich lies in cl e proximity to
Richmond-bad census count of
5,400, the report said. 703 of those
citizens are Black.
However, Police Chief Ron
Burton said that he has been in the
area for 20 years and they "never had
a racial-type problem."
.
NEITimR TIlE MOTHER of the
victim nor the suspect could be
reached for comment. However, Earl
Rickman, president of Macomb
County's chapter of the NAACP said
that, from information gathered
through the NAACP' initial investi­
gation, there appears to not have
been any racial overtures leading up
to the confrontation which claimed
one life, has one youth in a youth
home without bond and another under
a "$25,000 bond for felonious
ult."
But unlike Burton, Rickmansaid
" . m" and" aevere probletm"
do exist in Macomb County.
"Macomb County is probably one
THE BETTERMENT OF THE WHOLE - Rally's Hamburgen ribbon cutting
ceremony, atteaded by approximately 60 people, had its share of dipltarle . From
(l-r), DEVO President, Harriet B. Sape tela, Ryan Regional Correctional Faclllty
Deputy Warden, Andrew J. Jackson, H.P. Mayor Martha G. .Scett and-the arden
of Ryan Regional Correctional Facility, Sherry L .. Burt. (pboto by N. Scott)
. .
Racial over one que tioned in
hooting, d ath in Macomb Ooun y
of the most egregated places in
the country," Rickman said. "It is
highly segregated in this county."
Rickman is perturbed because
he feels that "somebody is holding
omething back." He believes that
the new media is getting infor­
mation that he and his colleagues
are not.
One of the principal problems
existing in Macomb county, as
Rickman sees it, is "sensitivity."
" ... A lot of folks have moved
here from Detroit to getaway from
crime" and other deviant life-styles
so pervasive in Detroit.
"ALWAYS." ALWAYS he
said, "Education ... is the element
that missing .... Bigotry i alive
and ell in Macomb County like
it is everywhere else. "
SINCE THE STUDY began in
th fallofl 9,MohaiandBunyan
Bryant have tudied populations
unounding the 16 oommercial haz­
ardous w te f iliti in comb,
Oakland and Wayn counti in
outh tern Michigan.
.... We've looked at the demo­
graphies to determin w�ther racial
and income bias were a factor in
where the ites occurred," Mohai
aid. Th analy is is incomplete
and the tudy isn't due out until
year' end. But preliminary resul
showed minoriti m up 48
percent of the population within
one mile of the 16 ites; 39 percent
of th population within 11/2 mil ;
and 18 percent beyond 1 miles.
There are 252 abandoned haz­
ardous waste sites in metropolitan
I
ByNA�NIELSCOTT
Staff Writer
DETROIT-Trouble is brewing
in Macomb County and depend­
ing on your news source, there
were, or were not, racial over­
tones in everus leading to the death
of a 20-year-old white youth and
the jailing of two teenage Blacks.
1HE INCIDENT, a shooting,
which took the life of Larry Joel­
Share Heyd, happened Sunday,
September 8 in Richmond. Ac­
cording to published accounts, the
victim's mother said she believes
her son's death happened the
. result of "trouble-seeking" and
"carrying guns. "
On the other band, the mother
of the accused, 16-year-old Jer­
ome eat, beUev her D
race-baited and "provoked."
According to a story in the
tion A ency.
LAST SEPTEMBER, Mobai
nd Bryant ere co ulted by
en offici ut w t er
minoriti receive equal protec­
tionon w til 'on other
liam Reilly d other offici to
di c polici e uring environ­
mental equality, Mohai said.
The 800 interview conducted
from April to September 1990 also
ought information on minorities'
aware 0 environmental· ucs .
.. , When it co to b ct i ucs
li depletion of the ozone layer,
glob arming, main rung pris­
tin nature areas, both blac and
whit thought there reason
for concern," Bryant id.
....BlTf ON QUALITY of life
ucs- talking about having tree
free of rodents and litter, the qual­
ity of drinking water - Blacks
tended to be more concerned, " he
aid. "Given the fact that often
Blacks find themselves in life­
threatening environmental . itu­
ations, that' not urprising."
chool launch novel
Engineering Program
EAST LANSING, Midaig - A
unique pilot program designed to
bring more economically disadvan­
taged, female and minority high,
schools into engineering gets under­
way this fall.
A collaborative effort by Michi­
gan State University, Lansing Com­
munity College and Lansing Public
Schools, the 2+2+2 Program will be
initiated with selection of 15 high
school tudents who will focus onan
engineering education during their
last two years in high school, the
next two years at LCC and the final
two years of their bachelor's degree
program at MSU.
This program is a major effort to
encourage youths who might not
otherwise consider or be able to af­
ford engineering as a career option.
Requiremen i..nclude completion
of required courses and a 3.0 grade
point average or better, intensive
tutorials, field trip and other special
activities.
STUDENTS WHO have demon­
strated high potential in mathemat­
ics and science will be considered
for the pI0g41UIl by the Lansing School
District. Financial aid or a scholar­
ship that covers tuition and books at
LCC and MSU will be available for
participants.
There' an underrepresentation
of women and minorities in the
engineering profession. This pro­
gram builds valuable human resources
as �ell supports technological
advances for America's economic
. competitive edge.
FATHER AND SON - Jo eph A ee aDd his two-year-old
on Jo eph junior enjoyed the Ingin of Reverend Robert
Smith junior a they aited for wife nd mother, Enlyn of
the Go pel warrlr ,to In t Ne tarll ht Baptl t Church,
unday, eptember . (pboto by N. cott)
•