VIEWS OPINIONS
However, if there is on
major criticism that I have about
the African-American p , it is
that � outstanding roles of i
tar writers are often ignored or
downplayed.
11IIS DO� NOT negate
the overall positive nature of the
African press. At the same time,
. these journalists need to be.
saluted every charce the African
p a body OOIlVeIa.
Tbese writers work for rural
well es urban publications.
For example, in my opinion, one
of the best young writelS/feature
editors in the press presides right
here in the InlaOO Empire.
Not Los Angeles, not
Olicago, not New York, but the
Inland Empire.
The National Newspaper
PublishelS Association, the W t
O>ast Blae Publishers Associa­
tion and other trade associations
serving as 1ldvoca tes now need to
pick up the ball.
For the last two years at the
WestCoastBlackPubli hers As-
ociation Conventions (Las
Vegas am Los Angeles), I have
put forward a workshop entitled,
"How Higher Education is
portrayed in the African­
American Newspaper Press."
During this time, I have also
stated that time also needs to be
<levoted to presenting writers and
staff with awards at this am the
NNP A convention,
,
THE FOLLOWING are
just some of the writers making
an impact.
This is not the entire list.
Space does not allow me to in­
clude everyone. This will rot be
the lest time that I will tip my hat
to these am otbers.
Patricia Rogers Gordon, Ron
Dainels, Tony Brown, Lenora
Pulani, Charles Faulkner. Cop­
rad Worrill, Michael St. John's
AI Sharpton, M. Lee Stanley,
Matthew Stelly, Rudolph Harris,
Eva Doyle, William Reed, Usa
Collins, Manning Marable,
Marian Wright Edelman, Ben
Chavis, John Jacob, Bob
Rodgers, Billy Rowe, Mable
Finney, and Jesse Jackson are
justa few.
They represent the profes­
sorial of the African Press. �y
represent quality in the African
American Press.
, Although numerous tudics
have been done am there is con­
siderable evidence that many in­
d�tIy standatY.ls of newspaper
excellence are empirically
biesed in favor of larger daily
newspapers, the fact still remains
that dailies are losing readers
while weeklies are gaining.
Every African-American
newspaper is a weekly with the
exception of three.
HILTON: HIGHER
EDUCA110N is designedtocre­
«e dialogue with college and
world reJJders. Education is on­
going andcertainly not limitedto.
classroom study. Let's talk.
(114) 899.()650.
ADVERTISE
But Buchan n'
nti tabll hIDent challenge .
trivial. It' very e ective m by
hichwhiteethnicvote areforeing
their reactionary agend into the
White Ho and the Republican
Party.
Blae voters need to learn from
thi e mple. In 1992 the
African-American community m t
use my nti-e tabli ment
independent pre idential campaign
to end our me ge to the
Demoaatic Party: "It's not enough
to give a few Bla faces in high
places - we demand that the Black
Loui
Farrakhan, a Bl c m , flew to ew
Yor to endo e my independent
gubern torial camp ign.
Throughout the country Bl c men
have tepped 'out to build the
independent politic 1 movement
under my leader hip. When I
criticize Je e nd other Bl ck
Democra , I am not b hing Bl c
men. I'm b hing white politi and
tho who peddl uch politi in the
Bl community.
Such attac on me are bogus.
There purpo . to di credit what I
om
ro
J TOallo me
to peak at recent c ndid t '
breakf t ponsored by the Rainbow
Coalition in Wa hington,' DC.
When he came into ew Yor
during the height of the controve y
over my challenge to Paul Tsong ,
right to be on the primary ballot -
challenge to the ovetprivileged rich
white men who think they can
subvert the democratic process and
uno
t
ill lead to the
dren. Did
eep my mouth hut
Dr. Lenora Fulani is the
chairperson of 1M New AllUurce
Party and a practicing social
therapist ill HarlDrL SM can be
c01lJQcted at the New AlliDnce Party,
2032 Fifth Avenue, New Yor!; NY
10035 and at r212) 996-4700.
I
on'
By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
To put it mildly, 1991 was not a
good year for acclaimed Black
political pri oner, former Black
Panther L.A. Defense Minister,
Geronimo ji-Jaga.
On Aug. 15, 1991, a U.S. District
Court judge in Los Angeles
dismissed Geronimo's 284-page
petition for a new trial, terming it
"without meri t." Judge G.
Klausner's decision arne just one
day after the petition was filed.
On August 9, a San Francisco
federal judge refu ed to order
Geronimo released from "the hole"
at Tehachapi prison, where ji-Jaga
prepared for a new trial. On
December 4, parole was, for the tenth
time, denied.
But 1992 promises to be a better
year.
The filst week in January, 1992,
marked an unprecedented and
historic convergence of forces
designed to free Geromino, now and
forevermore, from the hellish
20-year nightmare that has
dominated his days and nights.
FIVE FORMER top-level
Panther officials went public,
breaking a deafening ilence of 21
years, to say what FBI officials had
long known: that Geromino was
totally innocent, as he was in a bitter
meeting with leading Panthers in
Northern California, whete Panther
headquarters were located, at 'the
very time a 1968 murder was
committed in Santa Monica, in
suthem California-a distance of
some 400 miles!
On January 2, ex-party Chief of
Staff David Hilliard told reporters
,
that Geronimo, and other party
leaders, were at a meeting of the BPP
Central Committee in his Oakland
home the day two men committed a
robbery and killed a Santa Monica
housewife and schoolteacher.
Present at the p conference
were Emory Douglu, one-time
Minister of Culture, former
Communication Secretary
Kathleen Cleaver, John Seale,
brother of former Chairmen Bobby
Seale, and also ex-Central
Commi ttee members Landon
Williams and Harvey McCendon,
who affirmed Hilliard's ccount.
Shortly before Geronimo' arrest,
he w expelled from the party
part of the bi tter Eat-West factional
split that ripped the party asunder,
caused, in part, by the vicious and
underhanded FBI campaign to plit
and undermine the party. When
Geronimo went to trial, no one from
the West Coast, except Kathleen,
allied with the eastern faction, came
to stand with the then-discredited,
expelled Panther, and the tate
promptly gave him a life sentence.
Mrs. Cleaver flew in from exile in
Algeria to te tify for the fallen
comrade, but without corroboration
from others at the meeting, it w
child's play for the tate to trot out a
parade of paid snitches, and snatch
20 ears from the life of a committed
Black Revoluntionary.
TODAY, THE TABLES are
turning and Geronimo continues to
wage a righteous and spirited
compaign for his just due-freedom.
trong mottoe
•
win
Your efforts now in support of this
noble fight are needed to transform
opportunity into reality. The call
must echo from 00 t to coast:
Free Geronimo Now!
For info: International Campaign
to Free Geronimo ji-Jga Pratt, Box
3585 (c/o M. Shakir), Oakland, CA
94609
Partisan Defense Committee
Box 77462 (c/o V. West, Esq.)
San Francisco, CA 94107
slaves' problems and. their
-long-lasting damages were shown
by Dr. Kenneth Clark, the famed
psychologist who produced the doll
experiments ,with Black children
Thurgood Marshall used to win the
1954 school desegregation ruling in
the U.S. Superme Court.
Dr, Cark found essentially, that
Black children attending
egregated schools and living in a
segregating, discriminating
America picked white dolls over
Black dolls as prettier, more
intelligent and -nore desirable
imply because, they were white
and represented white people.
PSYCHOLOGICAL damage
to the Black child�n was extensive,
causing them to experience a wrong
and unjustified feeling of
inferiority and the white children to
experience a wrong and unjusulied
feeling of superiori ty.
Jackson and Ali knew Black
people ell enough to understand
that they suffered from the same
feelings and problems the' tested
childIen had. The children and
"many Black adult in the
segregated American society are
victimized by a mindset that
cripples their mental and emotional
processes and preven� them from
functioning at full potential.
Both Ali and Jackson overcame
this problem and their succe
shows it
Some thought Ali w bragging
w hen he said, "I'm the greatest,"
but a little bragging goes a long way
when it builds confidence and �lps
counteract negative messages that
have aippled Blacks for tudes.
When Jackson hiS Black
audiences to repeat "I m
somebody," he is teally king
people to have confidence in
themselves, ,to walk and talk with
pride and dignity and to break
through the negative mindaet that
has imprisoned so many Black
people ho feel hopele. ne ,
dispair, failure and depression.
Jackson and Ali are absolutely
correct Please listen to all three of
the words each speab.
You are really bener and more
competent than you think you are!
By JAMES E. ALSBROOK
. The greatness of Muhammad
Ali and Jesse Jackson are not fully
appreciated today, but eventually
history will praise them not only for
what they have done, but for the
new horizons raised by their
responses to their problems as
Black Americans.
Each used three simple words to
shield himself from the blizzard of
negativism Black Americans face
and to unlock mental prisons that
could have frustrated them just
these pri oDS frustrated millions of
Blae .
You already know these ords.
Ali's three liberating words are
"I'm the greatest!" Jackson's three
liberating word are "I am
somebody!"
BOT MEN REALIZED the
urgent Deed to reject the dominant,
pervasive and discouraging
messages with which they and
other Black people are bombarded
second by second by the larger
society. Both know about the
double standard Black people
rr�Au..H�, ,
fA\)kT. ) "
always face.
But one big difference separates
them from the great masses of
Blacks: they did not accept or
believe the degrading, humiliating
messages and signals delivered by
segregation, discrimination,
intimidation and a dominating
climate of white superiority.
They simply did not accept the
negative messages from a society
that forced other Blacks into
hopelessness, barne, self-hatred,
and other anti-social feelings that
bring on anti-social behavior.
Al! and Jackson are the same,
but yet they are different. They are
the same in that they know pride,
.confidence and bard work bring
succeu.
, What are the differences?
,Whereas Ali rejected
Christianity and became a Muslim,
Jackson embraced Christianity -
the creed of hi target audience­
and became its advocate and
minister.
and challenged draft laws and other
rulings he thought degrading,
Jackson obeyed all laws, except in
civil rights protests, and has used
the political system to enhance
hlmself and gain political power
and millions of followers.
And whereas Jackson accepts
the idea of a whi�faced Jesus and
the wHite-faced Santa Caus, Ali
objec� to both and, along with his
Mus.lim friends, he claims that
these two white role models and
authority figures have been used to
perpetuate feelings of inferiority
among Blacks because Blacks
cannot identify racially with
whites.
, But, Jackson has built on an
existing structure - � rellgio
beliefs of millions of Blacks who
were stripped or robbed of
whatever religion they brought
from Africa. These Africans
enslaved in America, however
were ble to find some comfort
while believing in a better hereafter
through Jesus an escape from the
injustice and humiliation of
Slavery.
The nature and severity. of, the
..
AND WHEREAS Ali refused
to be inducted into the U.S. Ariny