Black Journal; 26

[silence] [beeping] [music] The following program is from MET. [music] On this edition of Black Journal, Soul City rises at the site of a former plantation. Alice Coltrane,

widow of the great John Coltrane, carries on his work. Ambassadors of African countries tell us if naturals and dashikis are enough. And a cross-country march to the United Nations; a group charges America with genocide. What caused the shootings in New Orleans between police and the committee to combat fascism? Two prestige schools, Penn State and Georgia Tech have brothers as quarterbacks. Brothers and sisters, last month you saw your new Black Journal, and you let us know what you thought in your letters. We are very pleased that you're pleased, and we'll read some of your comments later in the show. One letter, however, raised the point of philosophy that I would like to deal with. A man from LA who identified himself as white said he admired and respected Black Journal, but he knew that because of his race that we couldn't care less. We don't feel it necessary to be anti-white to be pro-black because blackness is. Black racism would be as sick as white racism here. We will continue

after this black commercial. [music playing] [music playing] [overlapping chatter] I'm glad I came back.

The black man thought that he could go to the city and would be accepted with open arms, because the slogan has been "go north." This is where the opportunities were. So he left the farming area, and he went north, and he found that if he went bad in great numbers that the white people really didn't want him, and actually white people moved out to the suburbs, and now the cities have become all black. And so black people have been running and chasing whites from one locality to the other. I think it's time that we quit chasing whites; quit trying to be like whites; come right back to the land where we started from and really start building and build an economy. We can build an economy on this land. [singing] It looks as if it's business as usual in the old South. A plantation, a decaying old mansion. Harvesting

time in the tobacco fields. But now, there's a difference. Amid these reminders of another age, there is a drastic change underway on this land. This is to be the site of a bold, new experiment. On this property, formerly a plantation, a new city will rise; a city inspired and controlled by blacks. It is Soul City, situated in Warren County, North Carolina. [singing] [singing] The guiding light behind the project is Floyd McKissick, well known nationally for his years of struggle in the civil rights movement. This is Soul City. We own approximately twenty- five hundred acres of land here. This is the old

big house. In slavery times, the slaves lived in these quarters. As far as you can see around here, we own it. This where Soul City will rise into its own. Right now, we got a population of fifty-six people; we started out in January with one. In about 17 years, fifty thousand people will live in this town, and we'll have industry, medical services, we'll have anything comparable to what other cities have, without the manifest problems that the major metropolitan areas have today. The truth of the matter is, the problem starts here, and the problem is merely identified by a process of migration to the big urban centers in New York, Boston, Chicago, and etc. But this is the highest point of migration in North Carolina to the city.

And until we say, "look, we gonna start solving the problem here," then we'll never solve the problems in the cities. George Arrington lives in Warren County, and like many young men from the rural South migrated north right after high school, and now he has returned, disillusioned. I got out of school, man, and went North, got a job as an animal technician in a lab, got into this drug thing, this hustling thing, and like most of the young guys from this area, I guess- that's what's in their head right now, man, you know, for this cit- to get into this city thing, and like the city thing, it's no- it's no- it's no thing, man. Once you get into yourself, man, you into...that's it. You into life, once you get into yourself. There's no big thing in the city you can grab and come back with. But work is hard to come by in Warren County. This was, at one time, the center of a thriving tobacco belt. Now, most farmers can no longer make a living from the soil. The average income in the area is less than two thousand dollars per family. William Plummer, who owns sixty acres, describes their plight.

?inaudible? I can sell about 42 hundred pounds of tobacco, where if you look for a 60 cent average, you can multiply; you'll see what it is. It'll be- be- you said about $2500 a year. That's the gross; that's not the net. If you take out all the bills: fertilizer bill, insecticides, and labor. Well, you see where it brings from $2500. Yes- yes, sir. You can't survive. You've got to find other means to try to make it. [Interviewer]: Are there no other means because- [William]: There's no other means because there's nowhere to go. Soul City, I believe, is the only hope. Most of them are very excited about it because it's something different than, you know, we never had around here to say, "build a city." Because usually the other cities, they're just extending them. I was here in Soul City. I am- came from New York; I was living in a very crowded apartment, a "prison in the sky" what they called em, the projects, and I came here with my five children and I enjoy it tremendously. It's much better for me economically, physically, and mentally. I love it. Fantastic. I think it's terrific,

you know, that we've got- we've got a piece of land like this. You know, I've been here something like six to eight weeks and I've been looking at the site and i think we got a goldmine in terms of developing a city. Harvey Gant, in charge of designing Soul City, is an architect and city planner. We have an opportunity not to desecrate hillside here, but to put houses on the hills because they gently slope. We've got streams that run in and around. We can build roads that wrap around these gently rolling hills. Can you imagine, then, townhouses on these slopes? Can you imagine, then, uh, the greenways that run along where you see now, these trees. But it's a long way from the architect's conception to the actual construction of a city. No one has ever tried to build a city completely from scratch before. For one thing, it will take two hundred and fifty million dollars from land development costs and major industries needed to provide jobs.

We asked McKissick about the problems he faces. Well, ah, the number one problem is finance. Uh, that is, we gotta bring together the federal government- funds from the federal government, funds from the state government. Our second problem is attracting industry, and uh, our third problem was concerned with relationships between the people here, and of course, people on a statewide and countywide basis. McKissick has assembled a staff of four top executives to help him carry out his ambitious plans. They are: W.D. McNeill, Director of Planning and overall project co-manager; Skip Talbot, Chief Financial Officer, formerly an officer with First National City Bank of New York; Gordon Cary, project co-manager, who is now working on attracting industry into Soul City; and Chief Planner Harvey Gantt. Gantt, an MIT graduate in architecture and city planning, feels the community itself should help in the planning of Soul City. So periodically, he calls in residents from the surrounding area to

get their views in meetings like this one. Like many who have heard about Soul City, they wanted to know why it takes so long to start the actual building. A lot of things that- that we want to do here is to allow the people a chance to participate. So what we're doing is broadening the base of planning; we were involving a lot more planners than is normally done, and to do that takes time. That's why we haven't started construction. The government, under the New Communities Act of 1968, says that they will back any new community project, up to as much as ninety percent of the total development costs. That means that, uh, we can go out- once the government guarantees our project, we can go out and borrow money with a great deal more ease than we now can, because everybody knows that the full faith and credit of the United States government is behind our project. That is, if we default, the government pays up to ninety percent. So that's important before we can really move on. Then Gantt asked the group if they thought the new city should express a special black

lifestyle. That led to a discussion about recreation, and inevitably talk turned to a subject close to black people; the church. Well, what do you think might happen if there's a policy that says that, you know, "we're not gonna accept churches in Soul City if they, uh, financially in the red, or they have only fifty members." Do you think that might be a good thing, or you think you may be damaging one segment of the population? What, in fact, we might be saying is that we're forcing people to consolidate, you know, get together and, you know, they may not like this kind- you know, there all sorts of reasons that church congregations split off. Isn't that right, reverend? Well, I don't think it would go so well. It probably would be an advantage in one way, but there are numbers of ways it probably wouldn't. Well, can you sort of cite some of these- these ways that might be disadvantaging? If you have about ten thousand people here in Soul City, and we have churches already built or ran,

we are certainly going to try to get at least three thousand over at Snow Hill. Vail Ridgeway across the hill is going to try to get as many as they can. In other words, what you gotta do is really try to proselytize and get the people who are living in Soul City to come to your churches outside of Soul City. We're gonna try to captivate every creature who needs a churchtop. If enough people came into Soul City and they wanted to establish a church, those people would establish a church. So I think that the whole thing would be, is just- build a city! Let the people come. If they want to build a city, you say, "we at church, we have the land, we'll sell you the land and let you build yourself a church." I think this would be the answer to the whole thing. There are no churches on Soul City property, yet, but there is an ancient graveyard which speaks of the horrors of slavery. I'm standing on the site of a pre-revolutionary cemetery that we expect to preserve and

use as one of the quiet, open spaces of Soul City. Most of the gravestones you see here are- are obviously, by looking at the tombstones, the graves of white people, or the shall we say, the masters of the plantation. Along the back, or the back end of the graveyard, we can see the graves of our brothers. And they're easily identifiable also, because they only have first names; they never had last names, and they don't know when those slaves were born. We think that this kind of historical setting is something that ought to be remembered, ought to be catalogued for future generations. McKissick has established the Soul City Foundation to deal with social welfare for the new community. They will be concerned with education, health, and training of residents and they have already made an auspicious start. This summer, they fed one hundred children from the area with two hot meals a day. When the children were unable to come to the big house because they were harvesting the crops, Soul City brought the food to them,

setting up tables near the fields. They also provided medical and dental exams and organized a head start program. The children learned about the history of soul city and studied black culture through African dance and art. It is a first step to prepare these children for the transition from rural life to life in a cosmopolitan city. [drums] We have to stop and quit philosophizing sometimes and really get down to the hard work where you aren't gonna have a whole lot of people seein' you, you're gonna perspire and you're gonna sweat and it's not going to be glamorous and nobody gives a hoot about what you're doin', and this is what we got to do now, we really got to get down and build a nation for black people. And you cannot have a nation without an economy. If someone else controls your economy you are a colony, and black people in the United States, no matter what part of the United States they're in, they're still in ghettos, and ghettos are colonies, because the economy is controlled by other forces. [children singing]

[children singing] [instrumental music] Next time someone says the black woman is domineering, remind them how gentle her strength. He was a giant among music greats, a genius of improvisation, and although John Coltrane, distinguished tenor saxophonist, has been dead for over three

years, much of the man still lives on. Those who worked with Trane respected and even worshiped him. They say he was a quiet, deep thinker, and his music reflects such profound thoughts. The golden sax, which led a relentless search for a universal sound, has been silent for three years now. However, Trane has left more than a legend behind. There are his sons his daughter, and carrying on the work and spirit of John Coltrane is his wife, Alice. [Alice]: The sole influence was so I'd call him a very spiritual man. He believed in the universality of religion, and the fact that there was a sameness, a oneness, like one creator, creator of all people. And, uh, he had his own rules that if you

wanna call it a religion, he had certain things that he observed, certain, um, things in his diet, he was a vegetarian. Uh, he had certain hours for meditation, uh, during the day and night. Uh, and he had his ideas of how he wanted his children brought up, y'know. He didn't want to- to uh, direct their, uh, their thoughts when it came to what they would like to choose, y'know. [street noise] I feel the same way as John does, the same way he felt about religion. I don't have a set religion to speak of or religious faith,

you know to say that I belong to this faith or this churchor so forth, y'know, but I know that I am a spiritual being, I can say that today, I am a spiritual being. John was my direction, I feel that that- this is the way that I had to go in life because I accept uh, the music from him, you know, accept the things that he- that he did. And it seems to be exactly what I wanna do because if only things that he did in music, I would've done the same way myself, it was always, when he played, that expression that came out of it was really what was inside. You know, whatever was real, whatever was truth this is what came out of John when he played. [harp music] [harp music] [harp music]

[music] many jeannine kenney we'll have to leave

it and while the ability to have to leave my children to go to work and so they go to person and if i do get cancer act into work and quality and that would take away that tax and how i could be home and then i can go to fire a team down is six rallies and this year that is less than that either late in the world that can really add to meet gravel or because i didn't do anything over this year's thank you very much and they can see that we played at home one thing than that was the fact that there are usually so

many children chatter and music they unwind and the idea behind it is sort of the sharing you know with him being with him on the platform for me and i don't feel that i can contribute anything but anti syrian

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weakened i would like to say the fate of his time that there were days that i know that they spent more than twenty hours and meditation and there were periods of can that last well liane what the human can't be as lincoln meditation in la i found out much about myself and about people found it one of the questions concerning live events in the future will pay out a lot and then ghost moose day and a meditation let me face to face with the

hand in hand heart to heart attacks and i was to the point he was mean i was a i guess a go and amaze me dimeo tiffany away from you know at one point i was away from everything music family out because the sacrifice had to be within an inch of my almost literally and i fear that he christened was such a high price at now i guess is the highest prices below christ because that was the life you know online at like you know but i've been very close to in that i can feel it don't have been given a free and i can i can act i can be i can live

as i want to and the thinking was no claim no one can find me on this no action after piano commons today ai a campaign and their own names on it de la

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been this is npr there is a new interest and awareness in the history and culture of the mother country but

these demonstrations of nationalism and african as mr sometimes doesn't anybody would have worn as you do you know as the recent interest of black americans and african countries succeeded in changing america's foreign policy toward africa black journal asked a cross section of african ambassadors and black government officials for their views on you feel about the political ties between africans black americans to have and for this particular question because that's important to get rid of that and i think of the generations but people from europe who have come to this country and the opportunism that had exposed the culture of this country and i think you know people like wendy and india is the lack of a pretty

important export to this country and that we come to this city to have his fifties sixties and seventies thank you shorter words board members country gonna is rich in african culture in his home is typical of african expressions that you show what did you find beautiful paintings that he has witnessed which is the symbol of the party now has been tracy jordan portraying the chief and this is an american

problem most interesting to you the pipe ambassador deborah feels that in a day of demonstrations of cultural identity political and economic ties are necessary ambassador a couple reasons between synagogue available also a little squiggle during the two years that he has been ambassador to the united states but he has hope to see black americans used their political power to increase us tornado african countries but he has placed great in congress he feels the relations between black americans and africans may have been not favorably and that we are all

brothers american likes came originally from africa at black americans' he insists cannot forget africa zombie is ambassador jonah has seen little political awareness on the part of american blacks you know the jewish people have some porno a country out what this drone cut your ties we fed aired the week with you i'm the indians the idea for example you know i see that you know is the village away you do all your dozens of control i'm proud to think that did you know the person who'll sorkin always bail defense from it doesn't come from the va has a reason to become has been going on is that an employee says just not sure that even we ourselves month links with the black americans here that they should be proud of a bigger tradition there's a lot that

he's old enough i myself come from epa and whenever i talk to people in the book who is your life immediately dr cosgrove and the way we leave and it's i like to know a fictional is fascinating in such a way that i think government and she really all about the traditional will leaving select weekend adopted a website a long time no small communication between black africa and brick american image in the united states i came into college and it was a difficult to have any meaningful they point out the big american flag waving campaign put an interview that being big was nothing to be ashamed of you something to be proud of these days i find that that is very encouraging to beat you deliver on it it doesn't exist and that is does the united states or to that we have shared values they shed their cultural ties or pastry a culture of government suffering and i'd be on the middle of course of

human development and human welfare black american we explained in kenya's ambassador black americans were developing some political power that is one aspect i find that as a more on that he's dead didn't feel it was a fatty meal that become arrogant young and this is a very important constituency was the agency that that will be a very strong lobbying the ambassador's beyond the political action is a necessary component to a country and psychological identity with africa any more like that about half of them running around with it he bought wearing employers because in some parts of africa in nairobi he looked around and you saw the brothers where a number of the other suits and they were wearing not talking mary american voting that

was three years ago last member of then the risk that we visited nine countries are not and we were very amazed to discover the rich roll beauty of that but we also realize that applies for this country's foreign policy is concerned there is what is called a ruler can only ten african countries can receive major aid at any one time so going beyond stimulating of color to awareness in my community as well as archive by historical ties back i think we have to wake up to the political realities of african nations do not have a constituency here as latin america as white kia soul black americans will have to become very much aware of at a of a necessity than any developing nations of that congress limits eight to ten african countries at any one time last year it was a hundred and fifty million dollars about the average for a single country in latin america receiving e and less than the amount we spend and the man in a month well our readers so

thrust was to expose the effects of american foreign policy with respect try to build up some kinds of pressure for change and there was more black american talked out of africa because many black americans and distortions of art the concerns oh many decades about the alleged crimes of the country where they have a new appreciation for the value of resources and resourcefulness of africans we need to tune to activate a black person and the black media for example in order to it's a more positive stories to whatever that's one of our our feelings toward african pastors concern here in the united

states generally in order to help effectually change poses no question that that american foreign policy in many instances is based upon certain kinds of political pressures and there are concerns about apple kohlrabi editor the list the large and all of our national organization in the policing piece on me and the black panthers in addition to all their demands of optimistic situation often demanding change american foreign policy toward africa working to reverse america's declining aid to africa is former us ambassadors sam adams well we think that we have vis the chairman at at this current good that the amount of aid with the july through africa tended to go up and visit germany which have been going down and a sense of fiscal year sixty

seven that we have been very fortunate in that the boss secretary of state has repeatedly indicated that he hopes that the mississippi to do more for africa they will benefit by his attention is also true that we have exit kind of cooperation on the part of africans themselves date on and i'm going to that you have that you're looking at which you know tonight and thirty eight when and say you're working at a voter and yuval levin london ron paul he did that and you're looking at a few that moment meant that the free along with any halibut people i think the rhythm and the little comma and ep and the fall of the other day that leaving and the unborn will unite to do that is for a shrine dina was talking about the shortage of a nation battered innovation before he declared it's all the time people tended to be taught the show blake monopoly they travel history nor qatar know you do you know if you feel that that wally and people are

all activities stand that unite and beautiful contrives in his gray income on in music and the dots any technology you know that was reviewed the outcome of formality preview the conflict you're trying to a white man you don't have to a white man you only get a look at all the quality teachers to cede the va cultural nationalism as a foundation for pan africanist question of african brotherhood who have practical value without the realities of economic and political awareness freedom will remain a song and a dream things

it's big he's unique it's through family essential moment to united nations a poison er is all wrong all of them as a man all walking man on making a nation is comprised of a core group of about twenty five thousand citizens were going on and i was in the civil rights movement particularly with the southern christian leadership conference is among them also the mentally ill and eleven games the genocide is defined by the un treaties action and mass murderer to are the donations that agreement and sat down with intent to destroy in hold on our national racial or religious

group and you know the genocide conviction treaty between members of a race is unicef instance the month became we think systematically and deliberately go up causing serious bodily harm to members of the group that is subordinate group to alter with ferocious week such as a lack of a plan has been put through passages in tbilisi he was put through in the fall mid levels been killed in mississippi are forcing a race of people live in conditions made to destroy them and colin plot the united states cautiously approaches i think if they are going to be struggling and progressive network is only country are look upon as a lesbian a liability rather than an asset and see them as jews and jamie and cannot employ them and put them back in the cotton fields and become very japanese imperialism in a

bank and i think that in a country that it took away from where they are it's allowed in the country have a surplus of blue and nobody has done that in the ocean racing to sign a search the outcome of man's confrontation at the united nations the question of genocide in his paternal aunt says the racism must be dealt with by people of the world with separate by non white people since history and why that racism and journalists are all caucasian attitude with the historical roots was reporting from baghdad that housing project in wallace was the scene of recent confrontation between the police and the national committee to combat that says i'm a that they're recruiting organization sprawling public housing complexes now unlike other neighborhoods around the country where the sec have and the panthers have focused colonizing activities going to a recent report on the area ten thousand five hundred and ninety four people are packed into this guy's few acres a thousand three hundred and twelve under twenty one years

of age sixty one percent of the family's power and less than three thousand dollars annually you know support services are less than adequate the social maladies which read violence and all before revolutionary struggle definitely exist here besides you know the conditions that he says he's going to be talking about poverty racism and exploitation is as unique and if they're getting you know it's a city within a city and their access to and from his community a very limited train tracks don't expressways that disappears so impression and the feeling you get into a new person that you know everybody's looking in loans they've been conditioned into that the old bearable as you look around as you feed the donkey see the railroad track you see the craig is the ceo for search and broken drains are we have an overcrowded area we're isolated from any of our wichita lot here is that the city this is timothy craddock number of the national committee to combat vet

says timothy can you tell me a little bit about what happened on the night of september fourteen what the day at prevention of that ability and i must say the reason he did this because the people in his private property to tell the people and a lot of people think about anything it is the ultimate in protecting own crowds of our cause they both have incredible that it's as if people you love is as he often you're ready to take them what made you decide what and why the criteria and in his races oppressively system once a month over those self worth and in the hookup is in many ways the residents of desire in a violent confrontation every day of violence of existence in american cattle it seems rather clear now that as long as does that exists but that

this will also does is goes out in the laws of i get it lately community mike shuster in college football this year the brothers went to the port about business major whites go there were twenty five brother michael were twenty two year old native of harrisburg

pennsylvania is penn state's highest ranking woman three point three and shown your quarterback is currently leading georgia tech winning record he recently was named back to the weekend's southeastern conference your letters and a gate in a welding right on nina simone young gifted and black and jane weston's lift every voice and sing this is a sample of some of the male brother and sister rochester wrote that black journal gave them love unity and brotherhood since then san diego city gave her another opportunity to probably say i'm black i'm probably in the boxes to rope would rate and one of a feeling it is to see my people through the opposite black people sister thought in seattle said lift every voice in saying was like getting a spirited church <unk> michael butler said he needed by turning buttons at school because the brothers and sisters have to maintain the identification is goes on fox and what

and that is a model of integrity equality so the nelson it's not carry over the writer was extremely pleased and proud of which are putting down robert jackson a new orleans was forty one years old said the show was a means of uniting the youth in older generations you're reaching as loud and clear the first telecast about black people that oversee whether north carolina state college says you've proven that a dream i have can come true so sullivan at ps thirty six and sing always to your family has a sixth grade class wearing like throwing weapons but he's used in the show is a bassist plus jesse walker the amsterdam news writes my girl came back like before is one of their shows this couple things that show it's fantastic and likes the black marshals assess the right i just one complaint maddy is how common that appeared once a month now why don't write say is what a few programs i walk satellites can we start by clear answers

is strong right now suster who teaches at the university of california writes that the astrology segments holcomb and less and overall credibility abroad and sustained jacksonville florida wrote to help you expand your strout another sister question whether the astrology was necessary but says she secretly returns in the daily newspapers is that it doesn't do anyone in iraq so that was the provision that was challenged to go until the next barry's manage money wisely tarts consider new projects carefully you what i enjoy sudden popularity cancer do not take present moment for granted they'll bring new ideas and new faces into the picture will circulate widely on social setting libor prospects good but be realistic style public who do not lose your temper senator's friends help one's watching your ideas or not let ambitions dominate everything you do acquire is back up morale was best a dry eye sees some changes your advantage may be moving too far let's

remember to send you letters and requests from bumper stickers and buttons to buy belt in columbus circle in your requests for bumper stickers and buttons should be accompanied by snaps off in this bubble remember but solidarity they come on the reception in europe the festivities will be at the manhattan center probably the most moving letter we received was signed by fifty nine brothers they're in the manhattan house detention is that the college over stimulating informative and entertaining without distraction from the message we dedicate the black national anthem [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing]

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