Black Journal; 5

The following program is from NET, the Public Television Network. The following program is from NET, the Public Television Network. Good evening, Jambo, Assalamu Alaykum brothers and sisters, I'm Lou Hous, and this is Black Journal Number 5.

For the fourth straight week, the area of Brooklyn, which is called Ocean Hill Brownsville, has been the center of a massive dispute among the United Federation of Teachers and the community governing board representing Ocean Hill Brownsville and the Board of Education. The dispute affects over 1 million children of the New York City school system, the largest school system in America, now closed by the third teacher's strike of the term. In 1966, some parents and teachers proposed the forming of an independent school board governed by the community of Ocean Hill Brownsville. The Board wanted the authority to determine curriculum and who should teach in the schools which were far behind the others in the system. The teacher's union opposed the board, complaining that civil service procedures and job security were being violated. The New York Civil Liberties Union, in a report on the Ocean Hill controversy, stated and I quote now, it is crucial to set the record straight regarding the causes of the chaos in Ocean Hill and Brownsville. Our examination of the record has persuaded us that the chaos was not a result of local community control. On the contrary, we are persuaded that the chaos

resulted from efforts to undermine local community control of the schools. Our research leads us to the following conclusions. One, that from the beginning, the central board of education attempted to scuddle the experiment in Ocean Hill Brownsville by consistently refusing to define the authority of the local governing board. Number two, that the United Federation of Teachers has used due process as a smoke screen to obscure its real goal which is to discredit decentralization and sabotage community control. In the spring of 1968, the Ocean Hill Brownsville governing board complained that some of the teachers tried to sabotage the operation and requested that the teachers be transferred out of the district, superintendent of schools done of an order of the teachers back, but the community did not allow them to enter the school. On May 21st, before the strike began, Albert Shanker, president of the United Federation of Teachers, along with 500 teachers, went

to the state legislature to lobby against a bill for massive school decentralization. Consequently, the bill was not passed. The UFT then stated that if the teachers were not returned, they would strike. Under police protection, the teachers were returned. Hundreds of police arrived in buses. They occupied the school yards around the neighborhood. Community people were forced to show identification upon entering the school area. The UFT was still not happy. They claimed that union teachers were being harassed and threatened by the community and non-union teachers. The UFT then called another strike. The teachers walked out. That is those teachers who did not strike. Those teachers who have been continually with the school, and what is becoming more and more apparent this

morning is that it's an absolutely untanable situation. The community refuses to accept it. Absolutely, and it's just not going to work unless something's done to get these teachers out of the community. You have a centralized system, for example, that gives a test every year, year after year, to record the same degree of failure. In other words, the kid fails in the third grade. He gets the test in the fourth grade. He fails it in the fourth grade. He gives it to him in the fifth, just completely reinforcing the fail. This then defeats the youngsters. With no real, shall I say, processes of addressing themselves to this kind of academic retardation. Ironically enough, although the public schools of New York City are closed, the school that is the center of the dispute is still operating. You're supposed to inbox number two, Gail. Inbox number two. Not this one. This one. Inbox number two. Circle the large number two. Here at the Ocean Hill Brownsville School District,

we have more than 9,000 students, 6,000 of whom are two to three years below level. It is our task to bring them up to par. It's interesting to note that at junior high school 271, where there has been so much controversy, that the reading level in that school is 73 percent below minimum competence. In arithmetic, they are 84 percent below minimum competence. These are the things that we have to confront and to work with and to bring up to level. There had been in this community a sense of apathy, a sense of rejection, lack of confidence. When people began to first hear that this move was underfoot to control their schools, many people thought it was a joke, many people thought that the white structure would still hold on to its controls, that this could not be possible. When they held the election on August 4, I think, there was approximately 1,200 people who came out and voted out of

approximately 1,500 who had registered. The teachers did not really relate to us, that is most of them. We had a growing problem of what we would call inside destruction, being done by teachers who did not approve of community control, who did not approve of decentralization, and they were doing everything they could to see it fail. One, we have 75 percent of our teachers are white teachers. Two, we have the racial composition of this neighborhood is approximately 65 percent Afro-American and 30 percent Puerto Rican. We were able to raise the reading levels from one to three levels. In other words, we have had children who were on the reading readiness level and their successes were almost immediate. The governing board and the community

are being drawn closer and closer together in this conflict, closer together with the wider community in New York City and in this country. The parents of this community are being drawn closer together and maybe for the first time, maybe in the history of education, we have such cooperation between parents and teachers and children, stand with our children and don't forsake them in this hour. Our children must have an education in order to face the problems of the future and the Board of Education is seeing to it that they do not have that education. We will not let this happen. This reminds me of Bull Connor who in Birmingham, when the federal courts ruled that the parks should be open to all people so that black people could sit down in those parks

rather than follow that law Bull Connor pulled up all the seats in the park so that no white people could sit down either. Shaker has done the very same thing and shutting up all the schools of the city penalizing white people all over the city just to get out a few black people. This is racism. This is racism. These children have a chance, a chance to learn and develop because they have teachers who believe they can. The parents have a new breath of air because of their interest and efforts and improvement can be made in the educational system. And most of all, the society will benefit the use of these minds that have been freed from the chains of ignorance. Last spring, IS 201 East Harlem was a school in the headlines. The scene of daily protest and counter protest over community control. Today, IS 201 focal point of New York City's first decentralization experiment is peaceful. Students, teachers, and parents are working together to create an atmosphere of learning, attempting to counteract the legacy of neglect and educational

deprivation which the black community has suffered at the hands of the educational establishment. By giving greater emphasis to black and Puerto Rican history and restructuring courses to relate directly to the specialized needs of Harlem's youth, IS 201 is proving that community control can be a sound educational concept. Its successes demonstrate that an aroused concern community working with teachers who care about children can take real and meaningful action to change a system which has miseducated and psychologically neglected our children for decades. And now, here's people on events in the news with William Grieves. Black communities across the country are becoming more aware of the imbalance between black and white in the quality of healthcare. In Chicago, a group of doctors and other professionals form the Council for Biomedical Careers of which my colleague, Lou Hauss, is Director. This is a nonprofit educational agency to recruit, interest, and motivate more youngsters from

low-income areas for pursuit of careers in health and science fields. A quick glance at one particular statistic shows that there is one white doctor for every 567 white persons. For blacks, it's one doctor for every 5,000 black persons. Dr. Arthur G. Falls, president of the CBMC, stated that to improve the situation, it will take recruitment, training, time, and money, and imagination far beyond anything done so far. Next month, black journal will explore this subject to see just what steps are being taken to correct the imbalance in healthcare for blacks and other minorities. Black actors and actresses and film technicians are still shouting praises to actor Brock Peters, who in his address at the motion picture unions tribute to New York City's Mayor Lindsay told it like it is. Peters was heckled by some of the unionists when he pointed out that despite the extremely large increase of feature films shot last summer in New York,

less than 2.8% of the production crew members were non-white. Several of the unionists had to be restrained forcibly from physically advancing on the rostrum from which Peters spoke. The 19th Olympiad in Mexico continues in the wake of the expulsion of metal winners Tommy Smith and John Collos from the United States team. The two sprinters were ordered from Olympic village after making a show of support for black power during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. Some athletes felt that the Olympic Committee, the American Olympic Committee, had overreacted to the sprinter's protest. The furor somewhat obscurely fantastic performances turned in by black athletes. In the men's track and field competition, black athletes have won seven of the 12 gold medals captured by the United States. In women's track, the story has been the same, with black speeches taking all three of the gold medals awarded to America. Blacks can also point with pride to the shattering, the record-shattering performances turned in by the team from Kenya. The Kenyans

captured three gold medals and clearly demonstrated that they are the greatest distance runners in the world. A poll taken by the United Auto Workers Union of 16,000 members at the Buet Works in Flint, Michigan, with more than 8,000 voting, 49% shows Mr. Wallace, 39% vice president Humphrey, and 12% voted for Richard Nixon. The Michigan Chronicle, warned us if the recent endorsement of Wallace by the Flint Local 326 is an indication of widespread pro-wala sentiment. Meanwhile, for the first time in the United Auto Workers' history, the UAW will not meet to endorse a presidential candidate despite the Union President Walter Ruth is announced support of Humphrey. UAW claimed that they don't have the money for such a convention. Just about 110 years ago, black America gained its freedom, with hard decisions to make, which involve voting rights for the black man and the election of forward-looking men to national office. Here, with the profile of the black vote, is Lou House.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered. The Civil War is over. The Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment became reality. They said blacks were free, free to learn, free to travel, presumably free to vote. Both the North and the South reacted, between 1865 and 1868, six Northern legislators defeated proposals to extend the vote to Friedman. Eight Southern states enacted the black codes, which required every black male to be in the service of white men and carry an official certificate showing lawful residents and a job. Vagrancy penalties were imposed on any black person who could not support himself and on blacks found unlawfully assembly. In reaction to the black codes, Congress passed over the veto of President Andrew Johnson, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which divided the former Confederate States into five military districts, ordered elections for constitutional conventions, and gave the vote to Friedman.

Under protection of federal troops, Southern blacks began to vote in 1867. We elected delegates to state constitutional conventions. We elected picnic-benton Stuart Pinchback, Governor of Louisiana. We elected Blanche Kelsen, Bruce, and Hiram Rebels, United States Senators from Mississippi. We also elected state treasurers, secretaries of state and superintendents of education in Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. From 1867 to 1877, black men served in the legislatures of every Southern state. In South Carolina, they had a majority in every session except one. A total of 20 black United States congressmen were elected between 1870 and 1901, but the reactions set in, and black people were driven from power by terror and fraud. The Ku Klark's clan terrorized black voters and their white supporters by violence, murder, and burnings. Voting booths were mysteriously moved on election day or guarded by masked riders. In the compromise of 1877, a coalition of Northern Republicans and Southern whites awarded

Rutherford Hayes the disputed electoral votes that gave him the presidency in exchange for the promise of the removal of federal troops and the return of Southern governments to the forces of reaction in the South. The return of these white governments brought the poll tax, Jim Crow laws, the grandfather clause, and the white primaries. Near the end of his second term, George H. White of North Carolina rose in Congress to bid his farewell. This Mr. Chairman is perhaps the Negro's temporary farewell to the American Congress, but let me say, Phoenix like he will rise up someday and come again. These parting words are on behalf of an outraged, heartbroken, bruised, and bleeding, but God-fearing people, faithful, industrious, loyal, rising people, full of potential force and power. The wave of the future, it may be a symbolic nomination tonight, but it may not be symbolic four years' hand. We offer a nomination with the greatest

pleasure, the name of Julian Bond. Julian Bond has emerged dramatically into the national scene at the Democratic Convention. He became the first black man to be nominated for Vice President and led his insurgent delegation to a stunning victory over the forces of Governor Malix. Julian Bond, a 28-year-old state legislator from Atlanta, is a central figure in the movement to reform American society, unlike his former SNCC co-workers, Rat Brown and Stokeley Carmichael. Bond has chosen to work within the political establishment. We asked him why. Well, first, because I can see two things. First, I know that being in the legislature in Georgia, and I'm just going to be a second-year second-term man this time, I'm not about by myself or even with the help of the other black legislators going to revolutionize Georgia. If I thought I was or if I told my constituents I was, I'd be kidding now, I'd be kidding myself. The other thing I know is that I can and I have

been of service to the people who sent me there. I've done things for them. Bond's role is broader than state legislator. He has been thrust into national politics now and must meet an incredibly rigorous speaking schedule all across the country. Here in New York, he'll appear with senatorial candidate Paul O'Duire. Monday in Boston, Tuesday in Boston, Wednesday in Philadelphia, Thursday, and Friday in Saturday in Atlanta, Sunday in Brunswick, Maine, Monday, Tuesday in Wednesday in upstate New York, Thursday morning in Pittsburgh, Thursday evening in Boston University, Friday morning in Worcester, Massachusetts, Friday evening in Lexington, Massachusetts. Nothing on Saturday, Atlanta on Sunday. In places where you're speaking for white candidates, why do you think they've asked you to speak for them? Why do they want to be associated with you and ask for your support? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they think I'll draw a big crowd or something. I don't know

why they asked me, but what's interesting to me is why I agree to do it. Now a guy like O'Duire, I've known him and seen him for a long time. I used to come up to New York two or three years ago to speak at very small gatherings, liberal groups, without much constituency, and he would always be there. You turn around there, he was white here. I think probably the most decent American politician on the scene today. What is your interest in this campaign? Why would you as a black brother campaign for this white man? From Georgia, I mean, and you know how it is. He has ran a campaign in Georgia, a black guy running against Herman Talmadge. The election was last Wednesday, the primary and he lost. So that means I'm stuck with Herman Talmadge and Richard Russell. That means it's no when. That means those are my senators from Georgia. Now when O'Duire gets in the Senate, I know he's going to represent you. I also think he's going to represent me, and I'd much rather have

him representing me than the two guys I'm stuck with now. So therefore you feel, well why why isn't there a black candidate? That's, you know, some for the people in New York. Occasionally, these appearances on behalf of white candidates offend black people, but his white liberal support in the north is growing rapidly. Next stop, a Westchester County political rally. In the state of Alabama, in the state of Tennessee, in the state of Carolina, both states, in the state of Georgia and the state of Mississippi, wherever the struggle for human rights was most intense, there could be found a slight young, cool, composed, articulate leader of young blacks and whites alike. The honorable Julian Bond from Georgia! That's very kind. It's, this is the first speech that I have made since we ran less

to mathematics out of Chicago. Place Scarsdale, one of America's richest suburbs. This is Julian Bond's dilemma. He enjoys widespread support from northern liberals because he has fought for civil rights and for de-escalation in Vietnam. But can he work for increasingly militant black goals and still continue to get the kind of white support he'll need to attain a position of national leadership? Certainly as all the qualities of leadership, a young white politician with his qualifications would have a bright future. Is this true for a black man? To understand Bond's political philosophy,

one was go to the source of his power, his constituency. Atlanta's 111th district. It used to be the three men represented this whole county in the state house of representatives, and now we've got 21 districts from which candidates run and three are still elected countywide. This district is about 93 or 94 percent black. It includes the schools of the Atlanta University Senate for public housing projects. The labor force is predominantly female, most of the women who work at domestic workers. The men are unskilled laborers with an occasional semi-skilled labor. Not employment among the male labor force is about 50 percent. Among the female section labor force is about 25 percent. This section here is what's called Bond City and really very depressed area, a lot of unemployment, delinquency, a lot of alcoholism.

This is Julian Bond's Atlanta. As a representative in the state house, he is almost powerless to pass legislation for his black constituents. White representatives outnumber black by 21, but he has been able to use his influence to improve basic city services for them. He is so popular that he is running unopposed in the November election. How can you direct your career so that you'll be in a position to really contribute meaningfully to these people's lives? Well a couple of ways I can stay in the state legislature here for 20 years until I get to be chairman of some committee in which case I will have some power, but even at that the legislative process is so slow. I mean even where the Georgia legislature are forward looking progressive by. The process itself is so slow. It takes many many years to affect meaningful change. That's number one. There's one thing I can do those stay there for a long period of time and hope to rise to a position of power and eminence. The other thing I can do is seek another elective office congress for instance,

in which case my powers would be increased, but perhaps not in so far as they affect the immediate daily lives of the people whom I now represent. The third thing I think I might be able to do is get out of politics and then go into some of the line of work where you help people immediately every single day of the year. I think for the president I want to stick with the job I have right now. In Atlanta, years of segregation ironically have given blacks a certain measure of self-determination. A segregation in a very weird way has been very good to black people in the south. It's caused us to become capitalist where we might not have done so. It caused us to employ ourselves where we might not have done so. It caused us to build up our own educational and religious institution where we not have done so. A segregation has done that for us. There are probably more black businesses in this city than there are in the city of New York and all of Harlem and Bedford styles. Another thing different about the north and south are more black run schools in the city of

Atlanta than there are in the whole city of New York. I know you got more black school principles in this city than you have in all of New York State. More black school teachers proportionately here than you've got in New York City and New York State. There's a further difference north and south. In my constituents I think a really integration minded. They see progress for them as getting their kids into a white school rather than improving the quality of education at the local black school. The reason they see that I think is because the local black schools not only sub-quality are below par but it's also so overcrowded that what they want is immediate relief. So here I'm an integrationist and I also try to encourage them however that their integrationist tendencies could best be served I think by them adopting some separate tendencies. That is a tendency to unite among themselves not just in my district because it's almost an all black district but citywide at black voters for instance have to be a

united group have to be separated from white people have to dissolve a coalition that's existed here for 20 years between all the blacks and some of the whites. Now that coalition has kept moderate city governments in office but it hasn't really served our interests. It's helped us without really helping us you know and I think that coalition ought to be designed and we ought to become a force of our own. A force of our own bond expresses the black mood from a southern point of view but he faces a real problem. Can he be his own man? Can he continue to express the will of black America and still attract support from the wider white American community? If he can't it will be one more important sign to black people that democracy in America does not work for them. There are other indicators in the 1968 presidential campaign that suggests that the democratic system isn't in tune with the needs of the black community. This does give some support to the contentious Malcolm X that democracy

in a racist society is fascism. This issue this year tend more to polarize than you night the two communities. None of the candidates have gone after the black vote as rigorously as in the past. Instead the campaign has been full of code words with strong racial overtones. Your home is your castle busing and the number one issue law and order. Here we're with an analysis of the 68 campaign and the candidates is Dr. Charles Hamilton chairman of the Department of Political Science at Roosevelt University in Chicago. The 1968 election campaign in regard to black Americans reflects the outcome of a national politics which has been crisis reacting. It took the dramatic events of a Birmingham and a Selma march to create concern from 1963 to 1965. It took the explosions in the black communities afterwards to focus attention on the oppressive economic and political conditions in the north. And now the major candidates appear to be courting the concerns of a vast white, fearful America for law and order. What these candidates

failed to understand is that black America too is concerned with law and order. But thus far the major emphasis seems to be on order. If the country were really concerned with law it would enforce the building codes against absentee slum lords. It would enforce the laws against exploitative merchants and against discriminatory real estate interests and employers and so forth. Failure to do this leads many black Americans to believe that the political concerns are largely with order. That is the status quo and only concerned with that law which cools things and which does not rock the boat. The Republican candidate speaks essentially in terms of black capitalism and many black Americans are fully aware that private industry probably does not have the willingness or the capacity to begin to solve most of the problems in the ghettos. And it is not nearly sufficient to think that we are approaching solutions by emphasizing simply the development of black entrepreneurs as important as that may be. In addition the Republican vice presidential

nominee has clearly stated that he does not believe in local people controlling community programs. Such a position is hardly calculated to win the support of many black people who sincerely see the necessity of blacks to control the institutions of decision making that affect their lives. These institutions are frequently in the hands of some whites who are unsympathetic to the interests of the black community. The Democratic nominee speaks in terms of community participation and of a domestic martial plan with the necessity for a massive injection of federal resources. This is crucial and important but the incoming Congress will probably be quite conservative and less willing to respond to these programs. Therefore for the success of a democratic administration in relation to these problems a sympathetic Congress is necessary that hardly seems likely and therefore a general feeling of cynicism and despair has set in. Both parties are experiencing the result of lack of legitimacy, a credibility gap and neither

major candidate seems able to do anything which leads to closing that gap. Since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 almost spectacular gains in voter registration have been made in the south. Today a record 3,112,000 blacks 62 percent are registered. The first significant gains since reconstruction have been made in the three southern states. In Mississippi the percentage of eligible blacks who registered has jumped from 6.7 percent in 1964 to 59.4 percent. In Alabama the percentage has more than doubled from 23 percent in 64 to 56.7 percent today and Louisiana had added 27 percent from 32 to 59.3 percent. Texas this year added 55,000 voters to bring its percentage from 57.7 to 83.1, 9 points higher than the 72.3 percent of white Texans registered. Another million blacks were registered in states outside of the south only about 35 percent of

the blacks are registered in the black communities of the north. And during the heyday of the reconstruction period blacks joined the Republican Party and the south had a two party system. They continued to vote Republican until Franklin Delano Roosevelt's kitchen cabinet focused the new deal's attention on their basic needs. There were defections to the Democrats in 1936 and 1940 but in 1944 the black vote became a balance of power. In 10 states it exceeded the number required to shift the state away from Thomas E. Dewey to the Roosevelt column. The black vote decided the Kennedy Nixon election in 1960. In an election where the white vote was evenly divided the large city Democratic black vote made the difference. In 1964 Lyndon Johnson's landslide left Republican Barry Goldwater with 4 percent of the black vote. Of the six southern states President Johnson carried four Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia would have gone to Goldwater without the black vote. In 1968 there is a third party candidate and three black

fourth party peace candidates Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver and the Communist Party candidate Charlene Mitchell are on the ballot in several states. The black power conference last month recommended that the black community either vote for a black candidate or register its protest by not voting at all. Interestingly however current polls indicate that between 80 and 90 percent of the black vote this year will go to Hubert Humphrey. Last week the all black national committee of inquiry a group of 100 prominent blacks organized last April to evaluate the candidates voted not to endorse vice president Humphrey. Congressman John Kanye's of Detroit explains their decision. The national committee of inquiry refuses to recommend that votes be cast for candidates who are not willing to respect it by speaking directly to the concerns of black people in a manner that will ensure them their rightful place as full participants in American society.

I don't preclude the possibility that the vice president could make a dramatic change in the direction that has been suggested by this national committee of inquiry. Nowhere in this statement and nowhere in our deliberations was there any intention to keep black voters away from the polls? I want to lay that to rest once and for all. Will the black vote be a balance of power this year Dr. Hamilton? It's quite clear that the black vote could operate as a balance of power if it would have turned out on election day. In the major northern industrial states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and California, the vote will be split between Nixon and Wallace. The Democratic vote, a combination of traditional hardcore whites and blacks could muster a plurality to take the state. This is of course conjecture. It's quite questionable whether the Democratic candidate will come out of the inner city with sufficient majorities to offset the clear Nixon

and Wallace votes coming from the outer city and the suburbs and down state. Voter turned out as the only procedure that could make this possible. A boycott of the election by black voters who would normally vote in this instance for Humphrey would certainly guarantee a Nixon victory or possibly with a large Wallace vote denied the necessary 270 electoral votes to any candidate. This is especially possible if Wallace carries as now expected several southern states. Again, if Nixon and Wallace engage in a close fight in the south, the black vote in some southern and border states could be important. A large number of black candidates are seeking public office and various local election contests. Louis Martin put the figure at close to 200. It's clear, however, that an overall boycott of the election for purposes of punishing the top of the ticket will seriously affect the efforts of these black candidates. A balance of power strategy can only work if the opposition splits its vote. Thus, if Nixon and Wallace fight it out with the assumption

being that most black people who voted would vote for Humphrey, there is the outside possibility that a heavy black turnout could conceivably influence the electoral college results. Here to discuss black politics with me on black journal is Dr. Hamilton from Chicago. And Mr. W.C. Patton, the Associate Director of Voter Education for the NAACP. How about the South itself? How do you think they will go as far as a black vote because you've had a large increase of voter registration there? Well, I think the South, as far as Negroes and Cousin, generally vote democratic and I think they're going to do so in this election. Well, now you mentioned a black out of the vote and I heard Professor Hamilton mention the same thing and I think I get back to you Dr. Hamilton, you mentioned this black out of vote too. What happens if black out the vote or if they do vote? Will there be any gains either way? Well, I think that it's very clear that on the local level where you have, especially where you have

black candidates running, it's very crucial as far as I'm concerned that black people vote. Now, it's very difficult to get this notion across to a number of people that probably the only way you're going to be able to affect electoral politics is by turning out. There is some notion that one can punish the party by refailing to vote for it but this is a very risky business when you're talking about electoral politics. Well, my point was though that if black vote turns out and in some instances become the balance of power or if they didn't vote the person going into office will that black voting constiction see get any more out of the office if they had voted or get any less if they don't vote? I just want to get less because the guy who gets in will owe them

nothing. Well, you made another interesting comment too early and that was about the Republican candidate and his wanting to do with local control but I also look at him as sort of a state's writer. How do you make that comparison there with his ideology? Yeah, I would let that candidate live with his inconsistency. I don't have any intention of trying to reconcile that. I know what he means though. I suspect he means very clearly that he's concerned with not so much federal or local but rather concerned with having power remain in the particular kinds of hands. You see when we talk today about community control especially in the north we have very clearly in mind the great need for black people to control their communities. You see and if you see a candidate talking against that he is essentially saying that he's not interested in having those federal resources come into the hands of local black people. Well, now if you're talking about these

blacks like you mentioned just now on the black community wanting to get their control. Now Mr. Patton in the south they've had a higher voter registration and in the north the registration for voters is lowest. Now how do you see this incompatibility or this comparison? Well, many of the Negroes who are living in the north now migrated from the south and they found conditions so different than until they have not concerned themselves to go vote and it's not a matter of apathy. It's a matter of being able to relate the battle with their bacon and egg with their everyday living. Well, we just got to mentioning if we turn out the vote in a black community where say as in South Chicago, Westside and Harlem, Watts and these other places wouldn't they have a semblance of a chance to getting their power control? Surely. Anytime a solidified Negro vote is a part of the election it tends to give them far more power because every candidate is concerned about getting those votes that are out there.

Let me mention one thing. Mr. Patton mentioned voter education also and I think that this is going to be a crucial factor. If not now, certainly in the long term, there has to be considerable emphasis put on voter education. It's not simply enough as I'm sure Mr. Patton would agree to get registered and even get out that vote on election day but that vote has to begin to vote its interests. Suddenly, I'd like to point out also that while there are a few people who are saying, let's set out this election, let's not go to the polls that we don't have anything to vote for, there's one thing sure that I have news for those folks that they may consider nothing to vote for but there's one thing they have a hell of a heap to vote against. Let's suppose that walls get selected. How do you think this will affect the war in Vietnam and also the black man who is going to go into the army to be fighting in Vietnam? I think the election of Wallace in this

country would only, we already in a revolution. The degree of a revolution, I will not say at this time but I think the, if Wallace was in the White House, we'd have suddenly a bloody revolution in this country, something similar to what you've never seen. Black people are not going to take what he's putting out this thing of law and order because when he talks about law and order, he's talking about Negroes. He's not talking about law, he's not talking about order, he's talking about Negroes. So this will also affect the black man going to the service to other people. Surely. I think that we'd better make it very clear, if it hasn't been made clear for your public already, that the war in Vietnam, no matter how it's viewed and in fact, no matter who is elected, is a liability, that we must stop this nonsense of guns and butter and having both. We've got to start talking in terms of getting out of that despicable, immoral, imprudent war and until we do, I'm going to suggest to no uncertain terms that there shall be no peace in this country. Americans must come to terms with that, if they haven't already.

I suspect a large portion have, you see, and I think that the election of a Wallace to follow your question, would sow the seeds of further frustration and explosions in this country on the part of blacks and whites. General, I'm going to have to bring it to a close, we've been talking with WC Patton, the Associate Director of Voter Education for the NAACP and Dr. Charles Hamilton, Professor of Political Science at Roosevelt University in Chicago, I want to thank you both. Africa, country of the black man's past, for several centuries the image of Africa has suffered as a result of misconceptions created by European exploitation. There have been frightening myths of the primitive savage African, the dark forbidding continent. Historical research is now revealing the civilizations which flourished long before Europeans arrived on its shores. Evidence points to an ancient Africa of majestic kingdoms, the kingdoms of Mali, Ghana, Ashanti, Dahome, Nork, Benin,

the Europe of States, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and the Manumatapa. These kingdoms generated creative achievements that only now Western man is beginning to grasp. African art, highly philosophical and abstract represents through visual symbols the values and beliefs of the people. African sculpture is characterized by its dynamism and vitality, hard, powerful lines and bold surfaces, conveying, conveying motion, or tension, communicating happiness, or sadness. These images reflect a tradition and provide a sense of continuity for all black men from their past, through the present, and future. Nigeria

Congo Ghana Ivory Coast Ghana At the African Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., Olujimi Deniel, a Nigerian lecturer, discusses African sculpture. The African artist or the African cover does not try to reproduce nature. We can, he does not want to reproduce nature because it is there what he wants to show in his art and his carving is to show you what is important, and therefore when he curves he tries to emphasize what is most important to him. Take the Ashanti doll for example, which has a very light head

compared with the rest of the body. The head is believed to be where the soul is, and therefore that makes the head more important than the rest of the body. Here we have the Ibeji figures, Ibeji, it is a Europe by many twins, if you have a side of twins and one of them dies, you more or less give this figure here, the same treatment that you've given the living twin. Traditional art deals exclusively with the people, with the religion of the people. It is something that you just carve because you feel like carving and therefore you want to sell to some tourists. It is something that you carve for religious ceremony for a, maybe for a naming ceremony, or for crowning ceremony, special ceremonies. Now this is traditional art, the not culture which existed in northern Nigeria. Until recently the not culture was a lost civilization, 3,000 years old. Here centuries before Christ, Africa, south of the Sahara emerged into an

era of metals, the Iron Age. Knock terracottas are the oldest known of the West African sculptures. The creative works of Thetha, the Greece of ancient Africa, and the Benin kingdom are now considered among the great masterpieces of the world. The first astonishing heads and busts brought to Europe were greeted with this belief. Steeped in their misconceptions of Africa, the Europeans could not believe that black Africans 2,000 years ago had created such works of art. The walls, the palace of the Benin king, the oba, were decorated with bronze borrow leaves. The oba wears the choker, or necklace, a symbol of royalty. Despite the artistic achievements of these ancient and medieval African kingdoms, even today their works and societies are still called primitive.

The term primitive art is a European word, it's an English word. The African, there is no African word for that, particularly art. There art to them is a religious thing. Therefore the time is very misleading. It gives the impression that this is something that has been created by people who have no civilization and probably varies from a low level of intelligence. At least we know it isn't true. As we have seen from this, not culture, for example. Long before Columbus came to America, people had been, there were cities in Africa. From the Congo, a mother child figure. The Paccango Power Figure. The Europe of Nigeria developed a style of enclosed and free space, squat heavy proportions, making use of vivid colors.

The Sagani Kuhn Mask from the Ivory Coast in Mali. Small brass Ashanti sculptures used in weighing goldest. Animal and human figures convey the religion and folklore of the people. The Gaban-Fang figures are known for their contained force and symmetry. Among the most abstract of African sculptures are the metal-covered Bacota figures, a mask from the Bobo people of Upper Volta. At the turn of the century, modern European artists discovered and acknowledged the universal significance of these products of African culture. They encountered in African sculpture a freedom from conventional form, a dynamic quality and power which unlocked their own imaginations.

And thus, African art has become a dominant influence in the art of the 20th century. A dog-armed figure from Mali. The Casos. Woman with towel. A bow-laid mask. A Modigliani painting. An Ashanti fertility doll. Clay's Senekio. A Congo mask. A mask from the Congo. A German expressionist's lithograph. We have a fundamental difference. Whereas here in Western art, they think, oh, this is a Picasso, for example, and so that's beautiful. This is in function of them.

Whereas in the art of the art, they think, oh, this is a Picasso, for example, and so that's beautiful. This is in function of them. Whereas in African art, everything that is done, that is carved in traditional, is functional. It is for definite purpose. Well, in fact, it isn't even thought of as art, really. It's a, it's a, it's part and parcel of their way of life. Recent discoveries of ancient African kingdoms, their cultures, and their art are exploding more familiar Western stereotypes of the savage African. And now part two of people on events in the news. Floyd B. McKissick, former National Director of Corps, announced the formation of Floyd B. McKissick Enterprises. He will be devoting his time to working as a consultant to Black businesses, and hopes to bring Black businessmen together to exchange information and ideas pertinent to Black economic growth.

On our last program, we reported that newly appointed Brigadier General Frederick Davidson said the army has made unbelievable progress toward eliminating segregation. Now from Saigon comes where that major level merit of Chicago issued an eight-page statement expressing disenchantment with the army, saying the Black military officer group is the largest collection of identifiable accommodationists, a code phrase for Uncle Tom's. After 20 years, Major Levelle Merritt said he was fed up and wants out. The Association for the Study of Negro Life in History held its 53rd annual conference on the Black Experience in America and other parts of the world. Most impressive was the particularly large number of young scholars and intellectuals present. The young people who attended expressed dissatisfaction with the conference. They felt that the organization, the oldest of its kind in the United States, was showing signs of age. They objected to the use of

the word negro in many of the papers and indeed in the title of the organization itself. A caucus led by young Chester Higgins searched for ways in which the organization could be put in step with the mood of Afro-Americans. As one young scholar put it, we would have liked to have heard more papers from such dedicated historians as Dr. Joseph Harris, Richard B. Moore, Dr. Vincent Harding, and John Clark. Some of the older people were equally annoyed when they found that the wealth of material on African history unearthed by the late Professor William Leo Hansbury had not found its way into the conference. The late Dr. Ernest Albert Houton, head of the Anthropology Department of Harvard University, said on turning down Professor Hansbury's application for a doctorate and I quote, Mr. Hansbury has made himself certainly the most confident authority on this subject. No present-day scholar has developed anything like the knowledge that Hansbury has on the subject. He has been unable to take the doctorate's

degree in his chosen subject here at Harvard or anywhere else because of a lack of proper persons to supervise his thesis and because there is nobody at the university and there is no university or institution so far as I know that has manifested a really profound interest in the subject. John Clark observed that the American educational system is so backward that not only was William Leo Hansbury unable to receive a doctorate in African history from Harvard, but many black scholars for years were obliged to labor on African and Afro-American history outside the education establishment. Many of these men know far more about African and Afro-American history than most officially trained historians in the United States. The Amsterdam news carried bold headlines of the Earl Curtis Deloche case as it is called by the FBI. Deloche's tortured body was found hanging by the heels in a schoolyard in Chickasaw Terrace, Alabama. Black people had

hoped that the barbaric lynching of blacks in America was something of the past. Unfortunately, it is not. Deloche's murder was one of the three lynchings reported in recent weeks and now Luhaus. At the United Nations Church Center in New York, the Mozambique Liberation Front Frelimo celebrated its fourth year in its struggle for independence from Portugal. We prefer to die by shot or by bombs or whatever those bosses could bring. It is preferable to die at once than to die slowly and smoothly working in the plantations in the mines for the profit of foreigners. This great historic day for the Mozambican people that has already cost some precious lives for good sons of Africa. In homage of those brave and heroic sons of Africa,

I would like very much to request you if you could stand for one minute in their memory. During the ceremony, the Frelimo representative Shafoudin Khan explained the driving force behind the movement and paid respects to those who lost their lives for it. Mozambique lies on the east coast of Africa, covering over 300,000 square miles with a population of more than 7 million. For many years it has been a Portuguese colony and in 1962, Frelimo was formed from a combination of three nationalist groups to fight for liberation. Incidentally, several Black U.S. groups, including the NAACP, sent the Frelimo gathering a telegram of support and pledges of financial aid.

These photographs, special to Black Journal, show guerrilla warfare activities that began in 1964. Frelimo's president, Dr. Eduardo Mondlane, says that he will settle for nothing less than total independence. And that's Black Journal 4 tonight, brothers and sisters. Black Journal No. 5. Here's a program note to remember. Black Journal will be seen on Mondays instead of Wednesdays. And that starts on Monday, November the 25th. A Leica, my salam, One gay Saga'y. A Leica, my salam, One gay Saga.

A Leica, my salam, One gay Saga. A Leica, my salam, One gay Saga. This is NET, the public television network.