y 0
, ho m
i ir.rit· ti r h
co out of roit.
Und r th bl I hip of
the Rev. Wendell Anthony, the
dynamic P . dent of the 50,000
member rongNAACP Chapter
in that city, 500,000 been
collected in money, ten , blan­
kets, mediein , foodstuff and
other entia I uppli .
By the time this articl is pub­
lished, Rev. Anthony and a dele­
gation of African American
leaders and activist from Detroit
will ha landed in Zaire with a
whole plan load of uppli to
relieve the plight of the refugees
from Rwanda.
FINALLY, WHILE these
bort term relief efforts are un­
derway, Kermit Eady, President
of the New Yor Black United
Fund, is pr ing ahead with
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Due t unfo n cheduling conflicts of key
participant'), th ept mber 9-10 RCFA
por s nf r nc in hicago will rescheduled
[or a later date to be an nou need .
CONNECT WITH US
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By -James E. Alsbrook
plans to organize a permanent
African Relief Fund (212-234-
1695) to enable .African in
America to pond to cri on
the continent on a more consi -
tent basis.
Brother Eady' goal is to insti­
tutionalize our capacity to re­
spond to crises in Africa and to
mov beyond relief efforts to fo­
cus on development initiatives
and projects.
Brother Eady is currently ne­
gotiating with major league
baseball to hold a series of all
star games to benefit the African
Relief Fund. The Players Ass0-
ciation has already agreed to
support the project. It appears
that the effort to cr te an Afri­
can Relief Fund is off to a good
start .
From my vantage point as a
longtime pan-afrieanist, there is
nothing more important than
developing the attitude and
practice of self-support, self-de­
velopment and self-reliance .
This does not mean that Afri­
. n Am . ca should not seek
"�MlI!k{1:)y'�,taJen� U.S.
a>�NI��t toward Af­
rica. We pay taxes and we should
demand, as other groups do, that
substantial aid and assistance
be allocated for the uplift of our
homeland.
IN ALL OF ITS dimensions,
however, Africans "at home and
abroad" must take the primary
responsibility for the uplife of
mother Africa. The response to
the crisis in Rwanda demon­
strates that Africans in America.
are making progress in under­
standing the need to be our sis­
ters and brothers k pers. I'm
sure that Marcus Garvey ap­
plauds our efforts.
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on
bar examination in 1972, when
he was only 24-years-old.
Identified as a liberal Rocke­
feller Republican, Parsons re­
mained with Rockefeller in
Albany for two years while sniff­
ing the air for bigger game. But
when Nixon. resigned in the
wake of Watergate, Gerald Ford
became president and selected
Rockefeller to be vice president.
Parsons w nt with Rockefel­
ler to Washington and was
named d puty counsel and th n
general counsel to the Vice
President. He rose successively
to become associate general
counsel and then gen ral coun­
sel in th White House when t
liberal Ford was president. He
1 ft th White House aura in
1977, when Ford and Ro efel­
ler lost th presidency to Carter
and Mondale.
By th n, Parsons, who is not
allergic to powerful people or big
money, knew which buttons to
push and which ropes to pull. He
became a partn r in the law firm
of Patterson, Belknap, Webb
and Tyler where his Washington
connections were useful. He re­
mained there for about a year
before taking the job of president
and chief operations officer of
the Dime Savings Bank. He re­
mained in that position for 11
years, displaying competence
and savy in the ebbs and flows of
Big Apply finance and politics.
In 1988 he advanced to the
chairmanship of the Dime Ban­
corp Board of Directors and
Chief Executive Officer.
HIS EXPERTI E A D
prestige brought him to mem­
bership on the board of directors
of the National Federal Mort­
gage oc:iation in 1989, while
he retained his leadership of th
Dime Bancorp in New York.
Parsons is a board member of
various companies and institu­
tions including Howard Univer-
ity, Tim-Warner, Philip Morris,
the Metropolitan Museum bf art
and others. He is also a trustee
of the Rockefeller Brother
Fund.
In the hurly-burly of New
Yor politics, Parsons has been
attacked for his Republican con­
nections. He became a Rockefel­
ler Republican and protege
when leaving law school in Al­
bany and looking for wor . But
hi "liberal" age nd posture
Ron Executure Di-
r tor of he Center for Con ututional
Rights in York City. He may be
conuused at (718) 898·3753.
manto
Coa
have caused some national con­
servative Republicans to wince.
Some Black Democrats did
not appreciate Parsons' support
for white NYC Mayor Giuliani
over Black Democratic Mayor
David Dinkins, but others say
that at least Parsons is liberal
dedicated to th improvement of
the climat in which Black New
Yorkers live and work.
Parsons married when he was
20 years old and has thr chil­
dren.
We usually think of Bl ck role
models as either his oric h r
or as contemporari who dis­
play excellence conspicuously in
sports or nt r inm nt and
m to proje r acoom lish-
ment v n 1 gain. But
with en ugh opl lik Richard
Pa ons, the image of h BI ck
male will chan m ny fa of
the total society, thus improving
public perception and th per­
sonal performan of the la
mal .
Then, the playing field for
BI c will com mor 1 vel
arid th stacked d k will con­
tain more heroic bla nd
black kings.
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If you know a brilliant Black
man who heads a popular $10
billion bank and is quickly dou­
bling that figure to· $20 billion,
you must know Richard D n
Parsons. He is one of a kind.
This 46-year-old lawyer,
banker nd native New Yorker
heads the Dime Baneorp, a sav­
ings institution that is absorbing
its rival, th big and powerful
Anchor Bancorp also of N w
York City.
The combination will make
Parsons h d of the bigge t av­
ings b nk on the E t Coas and
the fourth biggest in he United
State.
P rsons will hold th titl
chairman of th ard of di
to nd chief ex cutiv offic r.
. This Black man kn w from
the beginning how the gam of
upward mobility is play .
T GOT his coil ge
education (Union University in
Albany, N.Y.). Living n ar th
New York Sta capitol in Al­
bany, th youngjob-s king Par­
sons got himself appointed to
Governor Nelson Rockefeller's
staff as first assistant counselor
even before he passed the state