Lessons from Black History:
Benton Harbor Mayor Emma Hull (center)' with city employee Steve Archibald (lett). wei com s
community activist Sandra Dudley to a historic buslne. gathering ho ted by th So�hwe tern
Michigan city last week. Story i on page 86. (Bernice Brown photo)
VOL. XVI NO.1 '- An tntot mcd People Is A F,c£' People FEBRUARY 20 - 26. 1994
State, County set to okay
Citizens charge environmental racism
8y RON SEIGEL .
IA/chlg.n Cltlan
WGHLAND PARK - Both the
Wayne County Health Depart­
ment and the Michigan Depart­
ment of Natural Resources are
in the p of approving a
permit which will allow a St.
Clair busin man to build a
meda,c· .1 mi·U
in Highland Par
Local den charge uch
facility can ca cancer, birth
defects, and w kening of the
body sy tems protecting people
from disease, in ways similar to
the AIDS virus.
A local organization called
Citizens Empowerment For a
Clean Environment (CECE),
quo studies that show those
who live near incinerators have
BLACK PANTHERS 1994
This Side
of Glory
By JERYL BARGINEAR •
Michl .n CItizen
During the 1960s, a volatile
period where protest was preva­
lent and the Vietnam War was
in full bloom, when free love was
in the air and the baby-boomers
produced a new breed, came th
birth of a revolutionary move­
ment, The Black Panther Party.
David Hilliard, activist and
author, was recently in Detroit
promoting his new book This
Side of Glory, a vivid account of
his life and times as a Panther
member.
During an extensive inter­
view, Mr. Hilliard was asked,
DAVID HIUJARD
"What was it lik being a Black
Panther?" Hilliard explains: "It
was the great thing that hap­
pen to me in my whole life.
don't think I've ever felt so much
See GLORY, A7
• I
Panthers explai .... �
goals to students
, By ESllIER WALLEN
c. 1t • ..!_New. Serv�<:!_
EAST LANSING - Th
Black Panther Party of the
19605 wa created as a
"lookout" force against police
harassment of Bla citizens
- not as a group of racists,
said two former members of
he r volutionary
organization
To an audience of more
than 500 peopl at Michigan
Stat Univer ity, Bobby
Seale, found r of the
org nization, and former
mem er Eldridg Cleaver
said the group's emphasis on
Black empowerment-was not
an attempt to conquer white
government, but to encourage
Black people to fight against
injustice.
"We weren't trying to run
whites into the sea, but we
wanted to get them off of our
backs," Cleaver said. .
Seale told the audience of
the significance of the
panther, which once backed
into a corner with no escape
will attack its aggressor:
With guns strapped to their
sides and knowledge of their
See GOALS, A8
higher levels of cancer, miscar­
riages, birth defects, skin dis­
, mental retardation and
other problems with the central
nervous system.
CECE, together with the
Blac Summit, a national Afri­
can American environmental or­
ganization upporting CECE's
OIJI_ltk)'n. cna.r&e pu'�t\n�
ity in ghland ar · an
p of" viro
cism." Th term w coined by
NAACP Pr ident Benjamin
Chavis, to describe how things
dangerous to health and safety
are located in areas with high
Blac and minority populations
or low income people.
ented proce ea, the facility
would have an improved techn0-
logical �tem of environmental
controls in burning uch tee
and would rep nt no probl
to public h lth.
The environment 1 groups
di mi this 88 a false attempt to
improve the com . and
1*C)Dl�.t,
CECE OFFICIAL Jiuimie
McLean tated his organization'
wants to top the approval proc- I
ass by getting the Highland
Park mayor and city council to
pass a law banning incinerators' •
wi thin city boundaries.
HOWEVER, THE PRESI­
DENT of the corporation' plan­
ning the facility, Highland
Co-Gen, insists it is not an incin­
erator, but a "solid waste boiler. "
Highland Co-Oen President
William Boyd qf St. Clair Michi­
gan, states that because of pat-
S WASTE.AS
Blae
leader,
who peak
he best?
Mlch el Fo ter - "I beli ve
Dr. Martin luther King was a
dynamic speaker because he
died for what he believed in.·
Louis
Farrakhan speaks best
because he stirs up a lot of
'controversy which makes
Black people want to stand up
and do sometninq.'