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VOL XI.' tJO " .i.. . 'I i n c! I ",,'.'\ I", .'" I , 1,'.rJlJI\HY \ q lC)(n
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A. 1 c man i still not legally
cons ered a man, ccording to the language
o U.S. Constitution. It is this reality that
m ke Alvin J. Baronet que tion the
ponsiblity of descendcn of laves to p y
tax 'on payroll. If anything, Barnett
re oned, African-Americans deserve to be
compe atCd for 400 years of unpaid labor ..
"We ere DOt, and till have not, been
d�larcdmen. Wewerc la so e're not
bound by this law that pi ces a tax on
yro11," Barnett ·d.
This rationale is the force behind
Barnett's $124 million la uit against the
first mis w dmi tting hi guilt by
ignmg a tatement agreeing to p y!be IRS
$1 a month until the amount w paid in fulL
Barnett's ituation grabbed the at ntion
of 1..0 Angeles attorney Robert Brock,. a
66-ye r-old activi t dedicated to the
n tional campaign for reparation for
African-Americans for 400 years of forced,
uncompensated labor during lavc;;y.
"The government, "Brock ys, "owes
money on a number of different, fronts: for
time, for labor, for loss of culture and of
humanity."
Brock, on behalf of Barnett, filed a
law uit in the District Court of Oklahoma '
County Tulsa, Oaklahoma to gain relief for
injuries and damages willfully committed
.
o G ALLY G $580 a
certified welder, Bame t 'd th IRS began
taking $430 per ee for 0 mon . Had
Barnett not anticipated thi mov ,be ,and
family would ve been forced to live on
$150wcc
"I'd been ving my money in e of
omething like this," b . d. This the
government' attempt to try d destroy me
and my family."
Just before tb IRS w ble to collect all .
S LAWSUIT, A7
)
IRS seeking dama for multiple cts of
unl wful conve . on nd willful viol tion of
due process.
ACCOrding to Barnett, garnishment of his
wag by the IRS to collect back taxes to the
um of $4,760 w in violation 0 the law.
Barnett began to enforce his beliefb c
in 1980 by refusing to have payroll tax
withheld from his weekly wag • Feeling it
wasn't the proper thing to do since the
government lready take too large a
percentage of the 'Orking public' wages,
Barnett aid his motive behind the move w
the fact that he needed every pcpny he had
to take of his family.
7 percent comes out of your dollar. You're
for g and c thing. That's on top of
what '. en out your pay. The Bible
ays give God a tenth. Nowhere in the Bible
docs it Y to give to anyone el " be said.
After ten years ofBamett exocrcising his
right of refusing relinquish paytoll tax, the
" . . IRS contacted Barnett regarding money
EACH TIME YOU pay for groceries, owed to the government. Barnett said his
I.
ov
Kwame Kenyatta, new Detroit Board' of Education member, takes the Monday at the Museum of African American History. Kenyatta is the first
.Oath of office from' Chokwe Lumumba during InstaJ�on Ceremonies �nown Pan-Africanist to be elected to a major urban post.
ByRON EIGEL
Corr.!pond.nt '0./
HIGHLA A K-Community
organizations and churches arc com­
ing together in a Committee for the
Survival of Highland Park Com­
ty Cotlege (HPCC), protesting
cutoffs of state aid and a Detroit Ne
editorial calling for the elimination of
HPCC altogether:
Currently the committee ,is con­
cerned with rumors that the Governor
is going to' close the COllege, some­
thing defiled both by state officials and
HPCC administrators alike.
ever, it is feared that if students believe
these rumors, they will nt>t register and
thiS in itself could make it ha for the
COllege to operate.
HPCC officials state that there will
be complete . ng of cl and
an expansion r tudent cl opdoDl.
Whil Y y the college' oot
going 0 close, they charge there is a
behind-the-scenes attempt to destroy
the college in the long run by making
it po ible to operate.
MMITrEE· MEMBERS Y
that continued existence of the college
is necessary to give young. low-in­
come African-Americans a chance for
education and economic opportunity
and necessary for the survival of the
City of Highland Park itself.
What prompted the immedi to
crisis is the cutoff of $2.2 million in
state aid to HPCC. HPCC has held on
because of loans taken out by the­
kindergarten through 12th grade (K-
12) section of the Highland Park
Public School System
The State Department of Education
tafImcmbers say state moneyw cut
offbecauseofthc failure of the college
to meet the state rcquiremen of filing ,
audits for 1990-91 and 1991-92.
Some charge that this window
dressing for an attempt by Michigan .
Governor John Engler to hut down
the whole COllege.
However, former HPCC President
Comer Heath, who VI dismissed in
late 1990 by the Highland Park School
Board, which also serves the HPCC
Board of Trustee , charge bo . rd
waste and mismanagement is really to
C 0
I
(
By NICHOLAS M. COQUIUARD
C!pI # N.w. S.rvlc.
on a tudy published in "The State of
Black Michigan: 1992."
The Michigan State
Universi ty-sponsored report,
published annually inee 1984, tries
to assess inequalities between the
Black and white races.
Bates' study, entitled The Extent
of School Desegregation in
Metropolitan Areas 9f Michigan,"
investigated three generations of
desegregation efforts from 1976 to
1990 in order to judge their uccess.
After studying these efforts Bites
concluded:
- The_distribution of Michigan'
Black tudents reveals significant
and persistent racial isolation.
-More than half 'Of all Black
students in Michigan attend intensel y
segregated school, tho e
compromised' of more tlran 90-
percent minority tudents.
- Only 22 percen� of Black
students in Michigan attended
schools that were predominately'
white in 1989-90-virtuallythesame.
percentage as in 1976. ,.
_: In 1989-90, 94 percent of all
BJac students in Michigan attended
chool in 40 out 0 the total 530
school districts. .
LANSlNG--BI ck children remain
segregated in urban scbool districts
wi th low white enrollment, a
University of Michigan professor
said in a recent study.
Petey Bates, a U-M professor,
said. racial 'isolation in Michigan
schools remained virtuall y
unchanged from 1976 to 1989, based
ACCORDING T 'THE report,
these 4esegregation efforts included
attempts to end physical segregation,
attack racially-related inequities
within . cbOol and to chieve equal
learning outcomes for aJJ tudents
regardin test scores and teachers'
,e�1ations �f all students.
e SCHOOLS, A7
.Q.
Whafisyour
opinion of the
. pres; ent's
r�nt pardon'
of key figures in
the.lran-Contra
deal?
CL VOE DOTSON: -I think its
wrong. He did that to save
himsetf.-
ELSIE COOKE: -I think that
there are certain people who
are protecting him. This
trickled down from Regan.·
