ANC launch
calJlp ign
SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA _
Th African N tiona! Con
recently launched i "m ac-
tion" campaign to p the the
government into con ions in
deadloc ed con titutional
talks. Workers stayed off job
to hold peace rallie ,but at least
19 people were killed in
township.
LA get
promises
job ,
LOS ANGELES - Housing
Secretary Jack Kemp and
Mayor Tom Bradley, attending
a youth conference in a Watts
neighborhood, promised last
week to bring jobs and minority
contracts to the inner city.
While the conference was
set to promote brighter futures
for Black children in the
notorious Nickerson Garden
housing project, Kemp and
Bradley spoke mostly to adults
in the crowd, promising work to
people in a community where
about half of the male popula­
tion is unemployed,
In order to keep money in
the community, Kemp
promised minori ty contracts
-and pledged support for
enterprise-zone legislation in
Congress, which would guaran­
tee lower interest rates for those
willing to invest in the inner
City.
And be owed that much of
the money needed to create
such zones would come from
the president,
Though Rebuilt LA has
given out few minority con­
tracts 0 far, Bradley told the
audience that Watts residents
will be hired for construction
jobs.
Death rates high
for ederly patients
In urban areas'
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ac­
cording to a recent government
report, over 100 U.S. hospital
were found to have significant­
ly higher death rates in fiscal
1990 for elderly patients than
would be expected. Of the 102
hospi tats on the lis t, many are in
inner-city areas or the rural
South. In contrast, only 59
hospital has lower-than-ex­
pected mortality rates for elder­
ly patients.
Many of the hospitals with
consistently higher-than ex­
pected mortality rate serve
urban populations. Harlem
Hospital Center in New York
Ci ty and Martin Luther King Jr.
General Hospital Los Angeles,
for example, were among the
22 hospitals that significantly
exceeded predicted mortality
rates three years in a row. And
six of the 22 hospitals were in
Puerto Rico.
The figures were contained in
55 volumes of mortality data
for Medicare patients in nearly
6,000 hospitals in the U.S. and
its territories. At a news con­
ference late week to release the
report, HHS officials repeated­
ly stressed that the stattstics
aren't a definitive measure of a
hospital's quality, but they said
the numbers do raise concerns.
Marshall to receive
Philadelphia
Liberty Medal
Ritired u.s. Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall nas
been named the recipient of the
Philadelphia Liberty Medal.
Marshall will receive the
$100,000 award during
Philadelphia's July 4 celebra­
tion, according to the election
commissiOn.
BY STEVEN DRU 0 D
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DETROIT (AP) -While much of
the talk this political year centers on
angry voters rebelling against in­
cumbent ,expert y minority
voters may show their frustration by
not voting at all.
A analy is of minority voting
precincts by The Grand Rapids Press
showed tho e precincts fell well
below voter turnout citywide, which
was a mere 21 percent.
And while statistics weren't im­
mediately available for the rest of the
state, political experts agree that
minority voters nationwide have
been expressing their disaffection by
simply not showing up to vote.
"I don't think there's any ques­
tion about it, you have to look at the
Significant dropoff in voter turnout
between 1988 and this year," aid
Ronald Walters, chair of the political
science department at Howard
University in Washington, D.C., and
the author of the book, "Black
Presidential Poli tics in America'". "
"BlACK VOTERS ARE not
hearing very much about their is-
ue ." he aid. Many BI c and
ether minority voters believe the
Democratic p rty, in going a er
middl�cl voters, forgotten
them, Walte . d.
"Th e are people that if they
don't have a pecific rget in the
electorate, they don't how up."
Maurice Edwards, 31, of Grand
Rapids bas never voted.
"If you saw your brothers and
intervie
P
th The Grand pi
The ne p per' urvey found
that few of the city' 18 minority
precinc came even clo to the
citywide vera e.
Fifteen d turnou of 15 percent
one higher than 18
PRECINCT BAD voter
"tt you aw your brother. and
sisters getting killed, if you aw
Black unemployment 0 high, if you
saw you were only 10 perc nt of the
workers in every corporation ...
would you vote?" -Maurice Edward
sisters getting killed, if you s w
Black unemployment so high, if you
saw you were only 10 percent of the
workers in every corporation ...
would you vote?" he ked in an
turnout of just four percent,
Low turnouts aren't limited to
minority precinc , and the tudy
found that 20 white precincts _­
mo t in lower income areas --also
had tumou of 15 percent or I
DELTA HONOREES - The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority's New York Alumnae Chapter presented Its
prestigious Jewel Award to three prominent New Yorkers. The award recipients are Allene Roberts, third
from right, public programs manager for a tobacco company; Carol Jenkins, second from left, TV
correspondent, and Ruby Dee, third from left, noted actress and author. Looking on are, from 18ft: Amy
Johnson-Ferdinand, president, Delta Sigma Theta New York Alumnae Chapter; Dr. Jeanne Noble,.past
National president, Delta Sigma Theta; Roz Abrams, Denise Palmer-Glaude, dinner co-Chair. and
Wilhelmina Holiday, deputy commissioner, Community Affairs, New York City Police Department.
"WE'VE DONE a lot of things
insofar' a programs like
child-abuse prevention and
victims' rights," said O'Hair, 62,
who has served as prosecutor for
two four-year terms,
Both candidate have strong
opinions about the need for crime
prevention, and how the criminal
justice system could deal with it.
"The delivery of services in state
government hould be brought to
bear on distressed families. I'd like
10 see a whole new concept in
government service to families,"
Smith said, adding that this is how
government could become
involved in crime prevention.
O'Hairsaid, "We have to look at
the entire approach to criminal
justice. We need to work with
prevention. ·rr illiteracy is the b is
for omeone going into committing
criminal acts, then we need to
promote literacy. And we already
have diversion programs. The
criminal justice system bas a role in
being cooperative with and.
upportive of the community, but it
is not the entire answer to the crime
problem."
AT THE opposite end of crime
prevention are those who have
committed crime and been
through the prison system.
, "Some people come out of
prison worse than when they went
in," o 'Hair said. "About 60 percent
of the people who come into the
criminal justice system have been
there before. The criminal justice
system had never been meant to
change behavior. It was meant to
hold people. We simply, have not
turned them around."
"I think the prosecutor's office
bas a role in working with the social
elfare network in turning people
around, " d Smi th.
Beverly Drake, executive director of
the Are Community Service
Employment and Training Council,
aid those fi may point to a
di turbin I c of understanding
bout the imp ct of the electoral
process on minority .
"People need to know that
(voting) is necessary, and it does
make a difference," he told the
P . "Thedilemmai ,How do you
get to the people who are hardened,.
who are angry?"
Jim Chalmer ,an s ociate
profe or of political cience at
Wayne State Universlty in Detroit,
ay he doesn't know whether the
results in Grand Rapids would match
those in other cities.
He noted, however, that while
ome angry white voters have found
an outlet for their frustration in the
candidacy of Texas billionaire Ro
Perot, minority voters may not ve
such an outlet,
"IF THERE'S AN outlet for
alienation, Perot is not as good an
outlet fur blacks apparently as for
whites," he said.
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Bill Ballenger, editor and pub- "
Hsher of a ne letter, Inside t' :
Michipn Politi aped. ..'. -
Arkansa Gov. Bill Clinton,'
"basically the guy ho mo eel'
in from the beginning and conalleel
the minority vote," be said.
"But the problem they went tQ
him in mall numbers," Ballen t
said.
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"You can see it in tate after ta�
after state, minority turnout is way .\; ,
do�" :, •
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Some of that may stem from � ... , "
'.!,
built-in tendency in lower inco�,
precincts to undCl'State vo�r turnoUl;
aid MaIle Grebner, partner in PmCo'
tical Political Consultin& an East
Lansing firm pecializing in analysis. .
of voter records.
.
"Looking at turnout figures u a. �.
percentage of registered voters al- �
waYs makes low-income and �
ient areas look like they have loW'·.'
"he ·d ' .
. tumou , 11 • .. .
VoteJS move away, or die, aDd,,'.
remain on the rolls in greater num- ,
bers in those areas, he said.
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Olivet hires first
Black faculty ,
,.
member after brawl'
OUVBT. Midi. (AP) -A liberal
arts college where Black and white
students brawled earlier this year has
hired its first Black faculty member
since the rumpus, a school official
said.
Hubert Toney Jr. was hired at the
700 tudent Olivet College an as­
sistant professor of music. He will
start in August, said Jerry Rashid, a
college spokesman.
"He's the first African­
American to be hired this serne ter,'
Academic Dean Lee Cooper said
today. "He is not the first Black
professor at Olivet College. I came
here in 1986 and since then there
have been three fulltime Black
profe ors and three part-timers on
the teaching staff."
However, there were no Blacks
on staff at the college during the
spring semester when racial
problems came to a head.
About 35 of Olivet' 50African
American students Jeft the campus in
April, after about 70 Black and whi te
students fought inside a dormitory.
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Students aid after the brawl that ra­
cial tensions had been building for
weeks. Black tudents pre ented
demand for African American
faculty, support services and studen\
ecuri ty at the campus, about 2S.
miles southweat of Lanllng.
The college I continuing to inter-, ,
view people to flIl other teaching and' . :.
coaching post tiona, Rabid &lId ,
Thursday. "
Toney holds a bachelor', degree
in music education from Florida
State University and a muter's from
the University of Michigan.
The April 2 fight began after �. '
white couple argued, and the man :
returned to the woman's dormitory .:
room with two Black friends, police
said at the time.
The woman called a mostly
white fraternity for help. and several
fraternity members confronted the
men. Others joined the melee until
about 70 students wound up brawl­
ing. Two students uffered minor in­
juries. No arrests were made.
him.
"One pan of the survey wu
quite tellin& " Smith added. "It said
that in a 21-month period 9,024
criminal cases went to trial aDd only
43.7 percent were won. They're
losing a lot of cases. "
pro
Candidates
concerned about
reform, race issues
By LEAH SAMUEL
sr." Writer
State Senator Virgil Smith
(D-2nd Dist.), is running against
incumbent John O'Hair to become
Wayne County's prosecutor.
Both candidates agree that the
criminal justice y tem needs to be
reformed, and each say that he has
made progress in that area.
"If you. look at my record,
changes in the courts made in the
last ten years I have brought about,"
said Smith, 44, who had served in
the state House for 12 years before
being elected to the Senate in 1988.
"We brought the Wayne County
court ystem into the 20th century."
O'Hair feels confident about the
election because of his record of
service.
"I WILL WIN this election
because I am committed to this
community," he said. "I've tried to
develop fairnes . The great
percentage of people in this
community want a place where
they can live. They want a strong
prosecutor. They want strong law
enforcement, and they want it fair
and with equality. "
Smith was critical of O'Hair's
handling of the prosecutor's office.
"I surely can doa betterjob from
an organizational tandpoint,"
Smith said. "In a report prepared by
the Pro ecutors Coordinating
Council, which evaluate the
prosecutor's office, I found that
morale in the Wayne County
Prosecutor's Office wa low.
(01hir' ) own istants criticized
SMITH WAS also aitica1 of
the number of Blacb O'Hair baa
hired.
"Ofl40 lawyers be 21 Black
females and seven Black males, aDd
only one Black person in a
policy-making po ition," Smith
said.
According to O'Hair'a
dministrative aide Carole May,
the number of minoritiel-whicb
includes Blacks, Hiapanica,
and Native Americana-iD
O'Hair's office increased from
eight at the time O'Hair took otftce.,
S eCOUNTY,A