BY TlNA SUS A
The council, known as th TEC, is
part of the n gotiated settlement in
me
ince colonial
n
•
•
THE ET G took place next to
parliament, in the Old President'
Council building.
A right-wing politician said th pro­
ceedings were a travesty.
-We do not regard the institution as
legal. We do not regard it as a legal
process. Therefore we won't obey any
regulation or whatever they decid ,"
said Willie Snyman, deputy parlia-
Con­
gress, th country' lar t Black-l
organization, will pl y a major role on
the council, which h s one repre-
ntative from e ch of 19 parti . Most
are Black-led groups. But bite-led
parties uch th ational Party nd
the Democratic P rty are participants,
as well as Indian parti align to the
ANC. The council could gro if oth r
parties agree to join. .
The council began work this morn­
ing with a moment of prayer.
"This day marks the beginning of
the end of minority rule," said ANC
Part of America's past becomes a stamp of tomorrow
A 29-cent Buffalo Soldier stamp, r�calling the Srack cavalry that served on the Western
, frontier, Is scheduled for release In April. William Harrington of Salina, Kan., center, and Mark
Matthews of Wa�hington, behind Mr. Harrington, two urviving member of that unit, help d
unveil the new tamp in Washington. They later joined a group of Buffalo oldier as they
visited Pre ident Clinton.
At 99,
to e ad
SAUNA, KAN. (AP) - The day
has finally arrived for William
Harrington, one of the few sur­
viving Buffalo Soldiers, the
Army's all-Black, frontier-era
cavalry.
Harrington, who turned 99
last month, was in Washington
last week to help unveil a post­
age stamp commemorating the
segregated regiments.
"I've been looking forward to BORN IN TLA TA in
his day for a long time," said 1894, Harrington's Army career
Harrington, of Salina. "It's b gan with the l Oth Horse Cav­
something that's been over- alry in 1913. He retired as a
looked for the last 25 years." sergeant major in 1943 at Fort
Harrington is cheduled to par- SI'11 Okl
, a.
ticipate in the fternoon cere- Harrington's e cort for the
mony at the U.S. Postal, postal ceremony was to be
Museum in Washington. James Madison of Kansas City,
Six segregated regiments for Mo., who is president of the
Black enlisted men, known as Greater Kansas City-Leaven­
Buffalo Soldiers, were organized worth Area Buffalo Soldiers.
by the Army in 1866, including Membership includ about 35
the 10th Horse Cavalry sta- veterans who served with Buf­
tioned at Fort Leavenworth in falo Soldier units until 1952
. ,
northeast Kansas. when the armed rvices were
fully integrated.
"These are American heroes,
not just Black heroes," aid
avy Cmdr. Carlton Philpot,
chairman of the Buffalo Soldier
Ed ucational and Historical
Committee, headquartered at
Fort L€avenworth.
Philpot said Friday he hopes
Americans will buy 500 million
of the new Buffalo Soldier
stamps, which will go on sale
next year ..
"We've always been in the
corner of society" Harrington
said. "But you can't bury the
truth."
While in Washington, Har­
rington also will visit the White .
House, where his photo will be
taken with President Clinton.
"I pray for the president twice
a day," he said.
MILITARY TO· .. ·· ......... ·,
believe Plains Indians first ap-
plied th name Buffalo Soldiers
to the regim n because of the
cavalrymen's hair.
A· $500,000 Buffalo Soldier
monument was dedicated at
Fort Leavenworth in 1992, ana
Harrington mad v ral cross­
country trips raising money on
behalf of that proj ct honoring
Black Americans.
Assisting Harrington at the
unveiling was Mark Matthews,'
98, of Washington, D.C. Mat­
thews is also a 30-year Army
veteran.
ite
jee ed fo
'acting Blac
•
a ion
ALTIIOUGHTIIE council was en­
acted by parliament, which remai
all-white, right-winge claim the
council' an illegal takeover of power
and a declaration of civil ar,
to
o
It's now listed on the National
Register of Historic Places and
used to teach Black residents
about preserving their commu­
nity.
The Old Rosenwald School in
York County was built bout 1920
to help educate descendants of
slaves. It is an example of South­
ern schools assisted by the Julius
Rosenwald Fund which until
1932 was the largest private
SO\11'OO of money for Black schools
in South Carolina.
The building is now deterio­
rated and used for hay storage.
ARNETT HALL at' Allen
University in Columbia is the old-
ay
d voted mainly to
, such as nominating
vera! sub-councils,
,
OOLUMBIA, c. (AP) - The his­
tory South Carolina's Blacks left
behind is slowly being lost, says a
new council aimed at identifying
and -. h . d
historic landmarks.
'"S b l\frica-
American and South Carolina
history is on the verge of being
lost because it is not being pre­
served and still more has not been
identified, " said Elizabeth Alston,
chairwoman of the state African-
American Heritage Council. '
For two centuries, Blacks were
a powerless majority, outnumber­
ing whites in South Carolina. but
unable to vote. History, as written
by whites, tended to ignore Black
contributions, and the new ooun­
cil aims to tum that around.
"People don't seem to realize
that there are many unrecog­
nized places in history that Black
people have had a very big im­
pact," said Rob Weyeneth, a Uni­
versity of South Carolina history
professor. .
The 15-member council of com­
munity activists, museum direc­
tors and Black historians and
professors has a list of about 15
historic places it would like to see
preserved.
, SOME ARE ALREADY lost,
like the Mather Academy in Cam­
den, built in 1887 to educate the
children of former slaves. It was
tom down last month after Global
Ministries for the United Method­
ist Church decided needed re­
pairs were too expensive.
Other buildings include The
Penh Center in Beaufort County,
founded in 1862 as the South's
first school to educate former
slaves freed by Union soldiers and
once used as a retreat by Dr. Mar-'
tin Luther King Jr.
Teens ent to
prison for burning
Blac churche
JACKSON, MISS - Three
white teen-agers who shouted
racial epithets as they set fire to
two Black churches were sen­
tenced to three to four years in
Federal prison and ordered to
write 10-page reports on the
civil rights movement.
Also, Judge Tom S. Lee of
Federal District Court here or­
dered the three to pay restitu­
tion totaling 138,000. The fir
took place near Summit, Mis .,
on April 4, the anniversary of
the 1968 assassination of the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On Oct. 1 they pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to violate the civil
rights of the churches' members.
ory
.c.
est building on the campus of the
first private school founded and
operated by Blacks in South
Carolina.
The building's cornerstone
laid in 1891. ThOugn list.OO n
N atio 1 . of H' c
Places, the building is vacant and
deteriorated
Similar groups are trying to
protect buildings that mark Black
history in Georgia and Alabama
"Of all the Southern states, it's
likely that Blacks have had a big­
ger influence on South Carolina
than any other state except possi­
bly Louisiana," said Ted Hem­
mingway, a Florida A&M
University history professor.
no
•
A 1957 "letter of documenta­
tion" provided by Federal Bu­
reau of Investigation to former
Ku Klux Klan member has been
the topic of much controversy
within the bureau the past year.
Disclosure of the letter suggests
a possible cover-up for the KKK
murder of a Black man and has
prompted an internal investiga­
tion of the F.B.I.
The agents, who's nam are
withheld, were accused of
"swaying" pr ecuting attorney,
Bill Baxley of Alabama, by
pleading on behalf of an accused
murderer and ex-Klan memb r
In 1976 - 19 years after the
crime - a break in the case led
to the state indictment of Mr.
Alexander and two other accom­
plices ut the case was thrown
out of court because by the time
the body of the victim was recov­
ered from the river, it was too
badly decomposed to determine
the actual cause of death.
It was at that' point that Alex­
ander's attorney, Joe Espy, de­
livered the controversial F.B.I.
document to Mr. Baxley, then
Attorney General of Alabama.
Baxley admits having spoken
with F.B.I. agents and that their
Agents arc cleared of
preventing a trial in a
murder case ..
saying he was one of their top
informers on Klan activity.
The story made headlines
last ummer when th us ,
Henry S. Al xander, admitted to
his wife whil on his death bed
that he and th 0 h r Klan
members for a young Black
man, Wille �dwards Jr .. , tojump
from 50 ft.. bridge under du­
ress, just out id Alabama,
1957, without ever being
charged. The widow went public
wi th this information.
pleading convinced him that
pursuing the case any further
would be pointl
This rev ling link between
th F.B.I. and Mr. Alexander is
wh prompted F.B.I. Director,
Louis Freeh, to order an internal
inv tigation in September. Ac­
cording to th findings, none of
th gen could recall m ing
wi h Mr. Baxley, however, one
did remember the letter.
ORO CO, I D. - A nearly
all-white rural school has been
rife with tension over white girls
wearing baggy clothes, braids
and other fashions usually asso­
ciated with young Blacks.
Since mid-November, at least
five girls have withdrawn from
North Newton Junior-Senior
High after being jeered and spit
on by boys accusing them of "act­
ing Black." "It's gotten to the
point where you can't thmk in
your classes because all you can
think about is what they are go­
ing to do to you in the halls," said
Alizabeth Grzych, 15, who with­
drew after being harass for
h r "hip-hop" look.
One of the two Black students
at th 50- tudent school also
drop ou last month, 13 day
fter enrolling. The boy, whos
mother is white and father is
black. id he was punched and
called racial slurs. The police are
investigating.