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MUCH TOO 0 , the NAACP been portrayed in this media
being out of date, and out of tep with day' world. Conversely, it
been the Black Press that has understood what we have been bout.
IX! brought to i readers a more accurate rendering of our teward hip
of thi venerated institution.
In So doing, the Black Press 11m kept alive th noble tradition, begun
with the first Black newspaper, Freedom' Journal in 1927, when i
editor set fonhits purpose as providing a medium for African Americans
to tell their own tory, not leaving this tmk to the often unfriendly haOOs
of others. '
Thl purpo e remains valid alX! needed ever been. A
telling example of why thi is so can be found in a public opinion poll
taken several months go by a daily new paper chain.
After sampling well over a thousand adults on a nationwide b is, it
used screaming headlines to trumpet its alleged discovery that the
NAACP had run out of team alX! fallen into di favor among its
co titeents, who had lost the faith.
"The Black Press has kept
alive the noble tradition,
begun with the first Black
newspaper, Freedom's Journal
in 1927,' when its editor set
• fourth its p , ,pro -ding.
a medium fJ eric�l"&.liitl
to tell their own story. "
HOWEVER, ONCE A reader got past the negative headlines aoo
looked at he results of the poll it was apparent that an entirely false
impression had been conveyed ..
Whc:n the responden were asked to Ii, t the rno t effective institu­
tions within their communities, the Black Church and the NAACP were
lied for first place with an 87 percent approval rating.
That is hardly the mark of an institution that has 10 t ground, or is in
any way irrelevant to the needs of the African Americans.
Over the past decade and a half, the NAACP, your NAACP, 11m
chieved a truly amazing number of legislative and judicial 'victories,
fought raci m and discrimination on every front, pioneered with new
imovative programs aimed at correcting octal problems affecting our
communities, made it po ible for billions of dollars of fr h economic
benefits to be channeled into the pockets of African American. and
fostered educational excellence and pride among our young people.
For 12 of the years I have erved as the NAACP s executive di rector,
we have a ho tile White House under Reagan and Bush; a radically
conservative Suprem Court chompi ng at the bit to tum ba k the clock;
and the ominous growtn of a particular ugly brand of raci m centered
on attacks on affi rmative action and oth r efforts to redress past racial
wrongs.
U H ARRA Y of foe would surely have taxed the patience of
Job, but despite the odd against us, the victories of the AACP, often
in collaboration with other group, have been many including the Civil
Rights Bill of 1991, the Fair Housing Amendm nts, the South African
Sanctions Bill the Civil Rights Restoration Act, the Martin Luther King
Holiday Bill among others.
Through our membership of over 5 ,000 and our network of some
1,800 adult branc ,college chapters and youth councils, the NAACP
has b n engaged in a daily battle on the front lines to protect and defend
the rights aoo b t i nteres of Afncan Americans.
Hundred 0 local programs have been put in pi ce to address uch
ping i ues as teenage pregnancy, crime, education, health and
ub tance abuse. ,
Our Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olym­
pics (ACf-SO) each year enroll more than 50,000 high sch I young-
ters from all aero the country in a program to encourage their
academic ulfillment.
Through our Youth and College Divi ion, we can bo t of the largest
organized contingent of Black youngsters ( orne 60, ) outside the
Black Church.
I period. our Fair Share Program, which has
developed agreern n with more than 50 major corporations has been
responsible for 1 million in contributions to African American organi­
zations; S10 illion in the purchase of good and eIVI from minority
entrepren urs; 1.2 billion depo ited in Afncan American banking
I titutions; 75 million xpcnded In adverti ing in African American
media; billion in msuran pi red with African American insurance
firms; 2 illron 10 constru non contr to Afncan American firms;
and trarctuse/deatersnip or di tn utorship .
irnpr ive the pr cdin cnan ns are, they rep es nt only a
very mall part of what th AACP h a mpli hed over the past
decade and a half, With th A ncan Arneri an community nd that
urcdlyemb e the BI Pr
I leave tlu beloved rgaruz non ith our finan well m order,
many program 10 pI a permanent headquarters nd a committed
board and tafL To my uc or, R . Chavi I wi h him th great t
po ible ucce .
In South Afri
commander of t 'military win
the African tio J Con w
brut ly gunned down by a m mb r
of a whi right-wing organization.
From South Central to South
ri African peopl were on edg .
In South Central Los An el the
on I and order nd
." Every majorna­
tional new t and every major net­
wor new program from Larry King
Live to ighUin w preoccupied
with what might happ n in Los An­
geles.
DAY I day out, the nation
was treated to th seen 0 the train­
ing and preparation of the police and
t National Guard and the mobiliza­
tion of m iv force to prevent the
recurrence of a rebellion in th CI ty
World@
Iy
•
J
o � Y th rebel-
lion in South Central, a 11 bcllion
here young mili tants in th tree
gained inspiration from the truggle
of Blac people in South Africa,
where the nation wondered aloud
whether the econd verdict in the
Rodney King beating case would
park another rebellion.
In South Africa the respons to
Le ter'
irritant, appar ntly touched off a
firestorm which consumed over 80
men, women and babies at the ne.
Even before the fire had fini hed
burning the White Ho i ued a
tatement determining uicide as the
ca e of death of the 80 people-be­
fore a moment' investigation! .
THER ' ,AN OLD Chine e
sayin : "No inv tigation--no ri ht
to speak!"
Under uch an adage. the White
Hou e hould've been silent-at
least until a full, fair, impartial i nv -
tigatiop was conducted.
The only urce uggesting B.D.
people killed themselve was the FBI
itself, hardly an impartial uroe. The
firestorm in Waco, Tex , which
nuffed out an estimated liv
shares eerily remini cent preeeden
with the police bombing of MOVE
people on May 13th, 1 5, in Phila­
delphia, P A.
Both cen 0{ carnage were' pre­
ceded by government/medi de­
monization campaigns that portray d
the people under government ie e
insane for daring to r i t th .tate.
By contrast, the ovemment i.e.,
th police) i alway een re on-
able. I
In Philadelphia, where the n-
tras were even harper due to race
cl and politic, the int ntion I
m murd r 0 MOVE men, wom n
THE THINKERS: One Does the Other Doesn't.
v
and children was justified by the gov­
ernment. MOVE, they reasoned
See DEJA VU, B8
RO
DANIELS
VANTAGE
POINT
office uil ty and two effie not
guilty.
The verdict e med uffici nt to
fo tall th pro pee of th fire thi ' .
time. And 0 a community and
nation could 0 back to bu i
usual; peace withoutju ti e.
othin h chang d in South
Central in 1 t April. Indeed
. nothing h changed in South Cen-
tral i the Wat � Ilionofl 5.
And Wat and South Central are but '
a m re microcosm of th injustice .
which vi tirni BI k poor and
working pcopl through ut thi n­
tion,
In South Africa a white minority
. till cling to power determined that
iftherei tobea"new"SouthAfrican
government dominated by "Bla
elected officials," it will be wi thin the
framework of a ystem where the
"rights of the minority" are scrupu­
lously protected.
In real ity thi means that wbi tes
will maintain control over the prioci­
pal sectors of th economy.
Nelson Mandela may become the
new President, but DeBeers will till
control the diamond mines .. Every­
thing will change and yet nothing
will change. J t will be business
usual.
AND, A IN TIl United States,
a few Black fa , even a multitude
of Black faces will replace white
faces in old pI . But this will not
transla into a fu menta ch �
life f m ' w
i we 0 0 South nca.
A white edifice of injustice will be
preserved wi th a Bla k veneer, a
white cak wi th h col ate icin .
Chri Ham w a voice that the
young Black militants hoped could
check the kind of conre ions irWhe
negotiations for a new government
. that would ulti mately ell out and
frustrate their pi rations.
With hi death their best hope was
, silenced .. But these young militant
will not be ilent. Nor will the young
militants in the South Centrals of
America be silent.
From South Central to South At-
, rica there i no justice for African
people. Hence, there will be a fire
next time; a fire who e flam wiJl
bum again and again until justice
indeed do "raj n down I ike a m igbty
stream;" a fire which will cleanse the
South Central' and Soweto of ra­
cism and economic exploitation; a
fire which can onJy be finally extin-
, guished by ape built on an im­
pregnable edifice of justice.
From South Central to South Af­
rica th truggle must continu .
FROM
DEATH
ROW
Ron Daniel s r a President
of th Institu for Community Or­
ganization and D lopment in
Young town,. Ohio. H may b con­
tacted at (216) 746· 747.
State Rep_ Harrison
objects to ProposalA
There are reasons why I voted against legi lation which would cut
property taxes and rai the tate ales tax, or 'P� po at A'.
True the plan approved by the Michig n Le i lature which will go
before voter June 2,1993, would cut property tax in Pontia from the
current 42.6 mill levy to 21.25 mill n xt year. But what i the tradeoff?
I too, a property ow ner, am all for me rei i f to I en th burden
of the taxes 1 pay. But, there i m re t thi plan than a prop rty tax
break: Everyone in the tate whether they can affl rd it r not would be
paying ubstantially more in al tax in ex han e for that reak, to
the tune of $1. billion.
In Pontiac, however, tud nts would r cive nly 150 mor per
tudent our of that dditional revenue. Hardly a de I when our citizens
wouldb payin a sizeable portion of that 1. billion rn incr cd al
tax.
Th re r other thi n
income
rnillton t
roup.
And let' n t overt ok th fact that th
pls e th ulk of the 0 t ot edu 'attn our .hildr n on mdividual .
WhJI they would incur ,an ov rail tax In .r a! ,MI 'hi Jan
many of which uld ford a hi her tax burden, re
tax cut.
MUMIA
ABU
JAMAL
AfterS1 days of remarkable relig­
ious resistance, the U.S. Government
eliminated over 80 members of the
Branch Davidian sect near Waco,
Texas.
The sect, an offshoot of the 7th
Day Adventists, had been held up at'
their Mt. Carmel headquarters after
an armed and, botched Alcohol, To­
bacco and Firearms (A TF) raid,
which left four government agents
and an undetermined number of
Davidians dead from a brief but
fierce fi refight. Throughout the 51-
day tandoff, the government ught
daily to demonize the Branch
Davidian leader David Koresh as a
pedophile, a false prophet and a psy­
chopath.
The U.S. government, i ants'
egos aburst after 51 day with no
"progr " (i .e., urrender), pursued a
da rous campaign of d truction
of the front of th building for
"CS/tear g insertion, "and after the
thorough di tribution of the air orne
I,
I