Ne
c , d the Democratic cau
the Ho e of ep ent tiv .
BUD TI
o
R
by only vot.
Emboldened by numbers, th
roup become much more inde-
pendent and ertive, challenging
not only th House leadership but
their long await d Democratic presi-
dent well.
"It not an dversarial role by
d ign," ay caucus chairman
Kweisi Mfume of Maryland. Rather,
h explains, from a Black law­
mer's perspective Clinton' first
Community Trailblazers
mat r. BI m mbers re threaten-
II Black Democrats matter most when
Republicans are a solid wall of
opposition and other Democrats are-­
divided among themselves. "
ing to wi thhold upport from the final
budget package if they think their
concerns have been ignored. And
that's not an idle threat, considering
the original version passed the House
few months have been about as bad
as possible.
Clinton's first alienating move
was to decide that Hai tian refugees
should be returned to their country, a
policy he had strongly criticized dur­
ing his campaign. Then his job crea­
tion bill went down the tub in a
legislative Waterloo many blamed
on faulty White House trategy.
Meanwhile, tb administration
was formulating its deficit reduction
package and managed to offend the
caucus there, too. Were they not con­
sulted enough?
II 4N .. OU
ay Mfume."W
GTO -In city wher
clou t i often d termined by numbe
and eniority, Bl lawm ers have
rrived.
Their di tric
th ir country i in d bt and their
p id nt i trying to app anything
but lib ral. But t Congr ional
Bla k Cauc uddenly h 39 m m­
b rs, up from 25 last year. In th
fractious 4 5-memb r Hous , that
amounts to om r I barg inin
power.
From fr trade t R ian aid,
(rom Haiti to budget cuts to th lin
i tern veto, the ov rwh lmingly lib­
eral group i takin tand and
pres ing for con i ns. R
far ar mixed, but attention i
paid.
"Thi year th Congr sional
Black Caucus is entirely different
from what it's ever been before,"
say analyst David Bo itis of th
Joint Center for Political Studies, a
Black think tank. "It has become
quite po sibly the single mo t influ-
• ential bl ck in the Democratic cau-
Archie WIlliam dl
Based on their community service and leadership, the National Council of Negro Women
Detroit Section honored Eddi Allen-William (2nd-left) and Britt Woolen (2nd-right) during
its fir t annual -Tribute to Black Women Community Leader • breakfast. Joining the local
winners were (left to right) Jacquelyn Parket, executive board m mber, NCNW; r::ddi
Allen-Williams, local winner and Britt Woolen, student winner.
,-
NCOBRA Commi ion i led by Fred
Parham pr ident of the Prairie View
(Texa ) Unive ity Chapter and
Cleveland' Omar Ali Bey. An archi­
tect of the Omaha Summit, Mr. Ali
Bey pledged that the 5 t youth
involved in the "truce" will not only
eek econ mic developm nt but will
b rcgi tering to v te. They plan t
make reparations a leading i ue in
their new a tivi: m and direction.
Al 0 elected t the NCOBRA na­
tional Board were Atty. AdJ Aiye­
toro national director of the National
Conference Bla k wye, Ms.
Peggy Bookter 0 Baton Rou e, M.<'.
Latricia Glenn f Austin Mr. Sulai­
man Mahdi 0 Atlanta, Colonel H. L.
Maxwell of San Diego, and Me.
Chimba Omari of Detroit. The Elders'
Board includ Dr. Ch bee Mcln­
tyr of ew York' M. Nia Kuumba
of Was hington, D.C.; Mr. Chn topher
Al ton of Detroit, and Mr. Alejo
Ade balola H371 hurst, Mi is-
ippi.
The Convention opened on Friday
with a holocaust memorial program,
recalling and hon ring t 1 -mil­
lion Afrikans 10 t in th centuri -
long war against Afrika known
euphemi tically the" lave trade."
Their bo , Dr .. Luther Stewart, a
Baton Rouge phy i ian, put it, litter
the tl roth Atlantic Ocean. Dr.
Stewart delivered a riveting holocaust
add , challenging Black people to
realize that "it is clear their choice for
u will be anru hi lario n." M .
Geneviev tew art w al n th
program. h ondu an immensely
pular morning. how n radio which
generat , cntical thinking acro
uthem Loui iana, dealing unflin h-
In Y with ra and uch i u
health, politi and government eco­
�omi ,education, and reparati ns.
ac work r
honored for work
on Alean Hi hway
WIN TON LEM-Hayward Oubre n ver imagined anyone would
remember his brief military service.
• But Oubre and the other Black soldiers who helped build the AJcan
Highway connecting Alaska and the mainland United StateS are being
recognized in a traveling exhibition on di play through December at thee
Pentagon.
The Mil t Miles exhibit corsi ting of photographs and documents .
collected from veterans, was compiled by La I Morgan a journali m
prof or at the University of aska at Fairb nks.
Morgan di covered that Black oldiers had worked on the AJcan
Highway while researching an article about the highway for National
Geographic in 19 9.
ALTHOUGH M THAN a third of the 10,607 men who worked
on th highway were Bla k the contributions 0 th all-Black 97th
Regirn nt Corp of Engineers and four ther all-Bl k units were nearly
written o'!t of the hi tory books, Morgan aid.
A retired chairman of the Winston- al m State Unive ity art depart­
ment Oubre was drafted in 1 41. He w a technical ergeant with the
97th, which built the Alask n cction 0 the hi hway in 1 42.
"I r member th 7th En lnecrs mott : 'The diffi ult we do immedi­
ately; the impo ible takes a little Ion er'," he id. "It ounded fooli h,
but the Alcan Highway made it tru ."
Ms. Morgan aid the highway compares as an engineering feat to the
Panama Canal.
"A lot 0 people said it couldn't be d ne," he aid. "It went through
parts of AI ka that no on h d ever bothered to map."
ARM I HAD 41\IL .. D twice befor to build the
highway, but with the beginnin of World War II the n d for th land
link to Alaska bccam a pnority, Ms. Morg n aid.
Th military Cared Japanese hip tationed in th n rthem Pacific
might hinder U.S. upply hips traveling up the Al lean co t.
The oldiers working n the highway, many of whom were from the
uth, endured ne f the cold t winters on reo rd 10 AI lea, with
t mperatu dr ppin t 70 below z ro, h aid.
Ou re id th men inally had to i· p work and wait f r warmer
weather. "Th bu 1 would blow us ut 10 th morning but we'd be up to
ur hip In now '0 they topped," he aid. "We h d to urvive, We had
to find wood ... becau e we'd all freeze t d th."
But th summer rought i n probl m , Oubre said.
ct
we not co u1 t U."
The coup de Cinton'.
dec ion to drop Le.ni Ouinier'.
nomi tion to the country' top civil
rigb po t. Mfume 'd Bl I
m ers felt angry and betrayed,
t u turned down dinton'
vitation to th Whit Ho e.
"I don't now wh t he could ve
Id th t would m e me feel any
better," aid Rep. Juli n Dixon, 0-
Calif. He aid cauc members'
would h ve emerged from a meeti
di ppoi nted, and th tion in
orne quarters would ve been
"good for Clinton-he' kicking the
Black u in th t th."
Said D' on: "I didn't want to id
and abel that"
Clinton has talked to orne mem­
bers by phon since en and h 'd
I t month that "over the long run, the
Blac caucus and the Clinton d­
minis tration will continue to be very
clo e."
Archie William in the 1930' .
N FRAN I co-Archie
Williams destroyed Hitler's bope
of using the gam to bowcase
Aryan atble in 1936 by winning
the gold medal at the Bertin Olyrn­
pi . Williams died J� 24 at hjs
home in Fairfax, Calitbrnia. He
78 years old.
Williams earned a degree in
rnecbanical engineering in 1939
from the University of California­
Berkeley, yet w unable to me it
because of the limitations placed
on Blacks. WilliaJm then pursued
a pilot' license and, for the noel 22
years traired pilo at the '1\5-
kegeeinstituteandintheArmy Air
O>�.
It � I recall, when I came back
home, .. peopJe ked me, 'How did
t dirty Nazis treat you?' To
which I always replied, 4 Well, over
there at least we didn t have to ride
in the back of the bus " Williams
said in all interview.
Williams said the Germans
were. unaccustomed to eeing
Bl
"I think theyw nted to if the
, Black would come off it they
rubbed our kin J Owcns
might have een nubbed by
Hitler, buthcw aherointheeyes
o the Germans. They followed
him around the trees 100 he W(5
the Pied Piper."
NYpre�cher
protests rap lyrics
NoIY RK, -Rev.Qllvin
Butts, p tor fAy inian Baptist
Church in w York, ha
launched an attl k against explicit
lyri in rap music, Rev. Bu had
hcdulcd a d sm nstrati n that
would h ld irxk and: ut-
d< ,.t whi h ta would
tearnroUcd and dropped in front
ot ny M I 0 rporation
a
1-
�-----------------------
continued from Page 1
M . Johnita Obadele of Baton
ouge, the convention co-chair, w
elected the other nati nal co-chair.
DR. PAUlA New orne of Char­
lotte, North Carolina, w chosen
treasurer and Mr. Kenneth Small, of
New Y rk, a Nation 1 Urban Lcagu
aide, was elected secretary.
Dr. Ronald Walters, chairperson
ofth Political Science Department at
Howard Univ rsity, reported on th
Afrikan r�p rations conference held
recently in Nigeria. He w elected to
NCOBRA' nati nal Elde ' Advi­
sory Board.
The venerable Qu en Mother
Moor of ew York and Dr. Imari A.
Obadclc, c -auth r REPARA­
TIONS Y !. Pram View (Texas)
Uruvcrsny prof or and m mb r of
the National Conference of Bla k Po­
liti al Scicnti 1S, w re elected to
Emeritus and Ex 0 ficio po itions on
the Bard.
Mr. Raymond Jenki of D troit,
wh with M . D r thy Lcwi of
Maryland, received COBRA' fi t
achievement awar . w al 0 elected
to th Elders' A�Vl ory ard.
1m
Testimonial
slated
T P ID T I CLOSE
personally to certain ilXtividuals, but
others ay their relations are cordial
and no more.
"There are those who still feel
very loyal to the president. I don't
criticize th m for that," aid Dixon.·
"He can call in some people in a tight
vote who will give him the benefit of
the doubt."
On loyalist is Rep. John Lewis,
D-Ga, a member of the House lead­
ership team and a longtime Qinton
upporter. "We are all Democrats ex­
cept on , and we're not .going to
leave thi president hanging out
there," he says.
