This Week In Black History
2nd - Lawd Today. 3rd - Twenty-two.
4th - Forty tons. 5th -- Sixty-one.
6th - Harry Belafonte. 7th - Panama.
8th - Aaron Douglas.
JANUARY 4, 1971 - Congr ional Black Caucu w
organized. r. M lvi • Ev became fi t elected governor
of U.S. Virgin Islands. 1977 - Marl Anderson was hon­
ored by a Carnegie Hall concert on her 75th birthday. 1826-
Edward Jon ( he t) and John Ru no ( ow­
doin) wer the first Black college gradua
What was the weight limit for ships transporting laves
between American ports?
JANUARY 5,1933 -Thurgood Mar h II graduated first
in his class at Howarrd Law School. 1943 - Georg W h­
Ington Carver died.
How many patents were issued to Frederick McKinley Jones?
JANUARY 6, 1831 - The World Anti-Slavery Convention
opened in London. 1966 - Harold R. Perry became second
Black Roman Catholic Bishop in U.S. History. 1991- Ro oe
Lee Browne tarred in the Alley Theater's production of
August Wilson' Joe Turner's Come and Gone, in Houston.
1897 -Alexander Crumwell organized the American Negro
Academy to encourage intellectual excellence. 1969 - Charle
Evers was elected Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi.
What Black actor starred in the movie, "The World, The
Fksh, and The Devil"?
JANUARY 7, 1955 -Marian Anderson debut as first Black
singer at Metropolitan Opera House. 1876-1950 - Carter G .
• Jr�nJ' educator, \\t • . ned the ti ". ther of N gro
istory." l_8�o. - W.B. Purvi patent fou i pen.
Where was Rod Carew born?
JANUARY 8, 1815 - More than 500 Blacks participated in
. the Battle of New Orleans. 1960 - Th first challenge to de
facto school segregation came in a lawsuit filed in New Ro­
chelle, N.Y. 1891 - Dr.Daniel Hale William established
first training hospital for Black doctors and nurses in Chicago.
1811 - Charles Deslandes lead slave revolt in Louisiana.
Who was leading painter' of the "Negro Renaissance"?
Answers
no
iter wrote mont
port of th
h ir equi upon the
irma in uity reflected by t
District Attorney' effor to
blam t four BI ck men for, in
en , parking th 1992 L.A.
rio ,and treating them as sym­
bol r ther than living beings,
expo ing th m to draconian lif
n e if convicted.
So one could not help but be
amused wh n a multicultural
jury r ndered its own brand of
justice by a equitting Watson and
Williams of most charges, while
panking th prosecution.
There is a kind of poetic jus­
tice in what this multicultural
jury did following one of Amer­
ica's first multicultural rebel-
n
dem nor.
Although th nny d fen-
dan re 0 n compared to th
King cop-defendan ,th re a
everal point which h tter
such an e y, unexamined rom­
pari on.
Initially, none of the co
were ver even charged with t­
tempted murder, e n though a
hardwood or metallic baton, in
th hands of a trained prof -
sional, used against the head,
can certainly inflict death, surer'
than a brick. ,
Secondly, both men, arrested
in a media- taged, front page
tyle, police ault, fronted by
former L.A police chief Daryl
_-_.-
--�
-
_-- .... -
---.....__ _--._
-- __ ..
--------------- --------
-._:::::-� -=-::::-- ------
---- � •• ---- _ L,.....-�
- ---
o
a
By Dr. Manning Marable
I was sitting in my study, and
the music from the bedroom of
my younger daughter, descend­
ed down the s ps. Ov r the dull
hum of my electric typewriter, I,
could hear the menacing words
of the popular rap artist Dr. Dre:
"Rat-a-tat nd a tat like
that/N ever he itate to put a
nigga on his b ck." In other
words, the lyric urged young 4f-
1990) the number of juvenile
homicide arrests n arly tripled.
Within elements of the popular
culture of our young p ople,
there is a dange u glorifica-
tion of violence. . ·
According to h Bur uofAl­
cohol, Tobacco and Fir arms,
ther are more than 280 million
guns in America; 2.5 million
we pu�chased last year Ion
Over the next six years, more Black
men will be murdered by other Black
men than the total number of U.S.
troops killed in Vietnam. That's
nothing short of a war
This is th central reason why
firearms are the leading cause of
death for Black men between 15
to 24 years.
rican Americans to murder each
other.
That's exactly what' happen­
ing to our young people through­
out Am rica. "Gangsta" -
Snoop Doggy gg, Dr. Dre and
company-only articulate the
epidemic of violence rap in our
streets, schools and neighbor­
hoods. In predominately-Black
Washington, D.C., for example,
iu a three year period (1988-
OVER THE sixy rs,
more Black men will be mur­
dered by other Black men than
the total number of American
troops killed in Vietnam. That'
nothing short of war.
But this proliferation of vio­
lence is not just a Black phe­
nomenon-it affects whites,
Latino, Asian-Americans and
othe . The number of juvenile
murd rs has lmost doubled
over the p t decade, and th
rat of juvenile violent crime
ro during the sam time by
over 40 percent. According to th
National Center for Juvenil
Justice, a Pittsburgh based re­
search institute, the murder ar-
t rate mong all children be­
twe n th ages of t nand
seventeen more than doubled,
from 5.4 SITe ts per 100,000 to
12.7 per 100,000.
In 1991, 5,356 young people
under a 19 were killed by fire­
arms, or n rly fifteen ach day.
Tho nds more are wounded
by fi arm.
What are th economic costs
for thi epidemic of violence? Ac­
cording to the National Associa­
tion of Children' Hospitals and
Relat d Institutions, it costs
mor than 14,400 to t t ch
child s ruck down by gunfire
of 1 91. That's more than hat
it costs to pay for tuition at a
typical four-y r private colle .
,'THAT' HUNDREDS of
,
. millions of dolla not counting
the emotional and social devas­
tation to tens of thousands of
families.
Our fed ral and s te govern­
ments have r pond to this
cri is by add ing th symp­
toms, rather than the root
caus ,.ofyouth viole
La t month, th Senate
p ssed a crime bill providing
$8.9 billion for one hundred
thousand new police officers
ov r th next five years. The
S n bill ext nded the death
penalty to co r fifty-two new
offenses.
At the state level, th laws
h ve been chang d to judg
youth viol n by adult stand­
ards.
Thi fall, legislators in Flor­
ida, Colorado and Utah initiated
laws to prosecute teenagers as
young as age 14 as dults.
COt State
mbly now has a bill before it
to lower th age which person
can be tried an adult from 16
to 14 yea .
But changing these Ia , and
building more priso , and hir­
ing thousands of additional po-
Consid r it from this pe
tive; Williams f , for convic­
tions of mayhem and
misdemeanor assault, a mid-
range of time (10 y ) that w
given to the 2 cops convicted of
2nd deiJW murder of Detroit
motorist Malice G n (roughly
rom
h
o
C> 1993 11 right r s rved
G.J.HARRIS PROD.(312)288-8382
a
tao
lice, won't halt the violence.
Violence is only p rtially a
question of values.
We have to find creative ways
to get our children and young
people to r olve their differ-
en in nonviolent ways.
We have to t young peopl
to th msel , to realize
that when people of color murder
and maim each 0 h r that only
our opp ors' inte ts are ad­
vanced.
But that is not enough.
TIlER LATINO , nor
African-Americans, nor poor
people, produce or profit from
th proliferation of firearms in
our communiti . '
We don't own or reap the bulk
of the massive profi from th
international drug traffic, ti­
mated to b worth more than
150 billion annually.
Violence is a by-product ofth
illegal drug economy.
We n to cru d for dru
zon in our eommuniti ,
chools and workpl
We must target the collusion
and complicity of t police in
the ronomics of drugs against
people of color. And e must
a
Along ttl'
Color
Line
condemn the false assertion that
the racist death penalty in any
way add th crisis of crime
and violence in urban America.
As Marian Wright Ed 1m n,
leader of the Children's Defe
Fund, has 0 erved: "the deadly
combination of guns, gangs,
drugs, poverty, trauma, and
hopeless youth is turning many
of our inner cities into zon of
d truction and d pair." She
adds, "I promise you that many
of those yo ths will be shooting
at us tomorrow. No gate will be
high enough to protect us."
Dr. Manning Marab� is Pmfp or of
11 L ry and Political a ce, and Vi o­
torof tM Africnn AmuicoIl tudie In'.
CUt at Columbia Unioe-. 'ty. N Yo"
City. ·AIong tM ColCT Line" app«U'8 in
ooer 250 publication. and i.6 broadaut by
75 radio IIUltion. intvnationaUy