On ,mllllon­
for King
LO ANGEL ,CA-Al­
though his attorney rejected the
city'. initial offer, develop­
me last week uggest that
Black motorist Rodney King
wm receive t lemt $1 million
• • result of his brutal beat­
,ins--aptured on videotape-
by four white Los Angeles
pollee officers I t March.
The virtual exoneration of
thole 0 CCIS by a jury which
iDeluded no Blacks set off this
plSt April's rio An­
Fla. In his civil suit, King had
been seeking $6 million in
cIamaFa, but the city offered
Sl.2S million.
,MICHIGAN
,CITIZEN
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MeadData Cemra;
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•
WORLD NATION
iden .
On Jan. 29, 1 1, in th fi
o hi econd rm, Whi
the floor of th Ho ed
bout th end of an era. "This, Mr.
Chairman, i perh p the egroes'
temporary farewell to the American
Congress," White aid. "But let me
y, Phoenix-like h will ri e up
om d y and come g in.
These parting words are in behalf
of an outraged, heartbroken, brui ed
nd bleeding, but God-fearing
people, faithful, industrious, loyal
p ople - rising people, full of
potential force."
White could not have known how
long that "temporary" farewell
would be.
It was 30 years before another
Bl ck - Otto DePriest of Chicago
w seated in Congres .It took more
than 70 years for another Black from
the South to be elected. Next
January, North Carolina will again
send a Black member to Congress.
The new 12th District, stretching'
from Gastonia to Durham, i
virtually assured of electing a Black
person to Congres since the
candidates of both major parties -
Democrat Mel Watt and Republican
Barbara Gore Washington - are
Black.
THE REDRAWN 1st District
could add another Black member of
Congress if Democrat Eva Oayton
defeats white Republican Ted Tyler
of Rich Square.
A Bladen County native, White
graduated with honors from Howard
r 0
only BI c mem r of Con
Gear e ite w little future for
bl in orth rolina politi .
But wh n h I ft office d the
t te in 1 01, the rboro
RepubJi could not h ve known
that it would take the tate 92 years
to return bl member to
Congre .
"He left North Carolin
man, " aid Jerome Rbees, retired
hi tory profe or from Eliz beth
City who researched White' life
graduate tudent in 1967. "It was
obvio th t he c r.ried lot of
bitterne s bout the way thing
turned out,"
In one of hi I st recorded
comments in th state, White told a
gathering in Edgecombe County that
if Blacks were deprived of their
rights nd could get no justice in state
courts, there would be little
alternative but to say, "May God
'damn North Carolina, the state of my
birth. "
WHITE'S CLIMB UP the
political I dder included terms in the
tate House and state Senate, along
with eight years as the prosecutor for
several of the state's eastern
counties.
But the climb came to an abrupt
halt in 1901 after white backlash to
Reconstruction brought a state
consti tutional amendment
restricting the voting rights of black
Attorney files plan to tax
Kansas City residents
for desegregation
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -
Kansas City residents should pay
a larger portion of the cost of
school desegregation, says an at­
torney representing school­
children. Arthur A. Benson II, the
attorney for plaintiff school­
children in a years-old desegrega­
tion case, proposed Monday that
taxes be raised in the Kansas City
School District.
Benson did not specify how
much local taxes should be raised,
but he said district residents now
pay only about 8' percent of the
cost of dese.gregation. The
district's share is supposed to be
25 percent under terms of a court
order mandating desegregation of
. the Kansas c;ity School District.
The state, which was ordered
to pay 75 percent of the costs, has
been paying more than 90 per­
cent, Benson aid.
The tate's larger share has
caused increasing hostility from
state taxpayers toward Kansas
- City residents and the desegrega­
tion plan.
AS A WAY to increase the
district's share, Benson proposed
the state amend the constitution to
permit the Kansas City School
Board to implement "a tax or'
taxes, from a mix that includes
sales, earnings and/or property
taxes within reasonable limits in
amounts to meet its share of
desegregation expenses."
The taxes should not be so
high as to punish the district or its
taxpayers or to harm the city
economically, he added. "We
have not tried to propose a mix of
taxes that hould be imposed,"
Benson said. "That 'sa legislative
function. "
As an incentive to the state to
adopt such a provision, Benson
suggested U.S. District Judge
Russell G. Clark reduce the
state's obligation to 70 percent or
even 65 percent if the tate
authorizes the chcolboard to im­
po e a sufficient mix of taxe .
As istant Attorney General
Michael Fields, who handles the
desegregation law uit for the
state, said he had reviewed the
proposal only briefly and bad not
formed an opinion of it.
School boatd President Julia
Hill said he had not seen
Benson' propo al.
nd
Both
brot r-in-t
Henry P. Cheatbam,
for Con re t the Republic n
di trict conv ntion in
1 4.
hite qu tion d th tin of
del t at th convention, but th
ational R publican Congre io I
Committee idedwithCh t m.He
10 t th el tion to Democ t,
Fred ric Woodard.
In 1 hit won th
Repu lican nomination for th 2nd
District and went on to defe t
Woodard nd Populi t Party
candidate D. S huyl r Mo .
In both hi terms in Congrcs ,
White w the only Black member.
Th t distinction, Rhee aid, made
White an impas ion d peaker for
hi race.
While Whi te won re-election in
1898, Democrats carried orth
Carolina on a white supremacy
platform. He returned for th final
days of Congres in 1898 knowing
that hi econd term would be his
last.
"It was
obvious that
he carried a
/otof
bitterness
about the
way things
turned out. II
That time w not to come in
White' life. At noon on March 4,
1901, when th new Congres was
being eated in Washington, state
Rep. A.D. Watts of Iredell County
stood in the state Legislature to
spea on a matter of personal
privilege.
"George H. White, the insolent
Negro who ha so long
misrepresented the proud people of
North Carolina in the Congress of
the United States; has retired from
office forever," Watts said. "We
have a white man's government in
every part of the old state in the
council chambers of our nation. For
these mercies, thank God."
-J romeRhe
Elizabeth City, NC
In 1879 he was licensed as a
lawyer by the state Supreme Court.
And in 1881 he was elected as a
Republican to the state House. He
was seated in the state Senate in
January 1885. From 1886 to 1894 he
was a prosecutor in a judicial district
that included Bertie, Craven,
Ed�ecombe, Halifax, Northampton ,
"lOW YOU will pardon me
if I do not address myself to the
ques tion before us when you
recollect that I am the only
representative on this floor of 10
"To discriminate against girls in education is the biggest mistake of all. The education of women
usually brings with it the confidence to adopt new ways, more use of social services, better child
care and nutrition, fewer child deaths, family planning, smaller family size, and higher incomes"-'
UNICEF. (phao I::¥ Jorgen Schytte)
CARE plants the most
wonderful seeds on earth.
1-800-S21-CARE