Black Journal; 17

. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. John Bow, Asalaam Alaykum, Accuelo, that's Yoruba, brothers and sisters. I'm Lou Housifullian Gries welcoming you to another edition of Black Journal. This month, Black Journal takes a look at a growing change of attitudes within the black community. And the soulful Nina Simone sings and talks about these attitudes as an artist and a mama. Brother Bill? A significant number of black people are campaigning for state and municipal offices in the coming elections. Later in our program, we'll have a report on politics and the black community.

While Afro-Americans are running for and getting elected in office, many areas black people continue to be amused by people from the outside the inner city, the reservation, who belatedly discover that there are some burning issues within our communities where during need of much attention. Are you calling the fire department? Hey, we're giving to this and make who I'm calling. Come back. Now, look, you don't understand. There's smoke coming out of that building there. I think that I'm going to call a fire department. You're in the streets, maybe you're in your office, or wait your turn. You think you are a landlord or something? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Now, you one of your mind, look, there might be kids trapped in that building. Get off that phone. That's the man.

I'll be your kids. No, of course not. They're not. I mean, of course not. Well, I don't live here and besides, what difference is to make whose kids they are, it matters to me whose kids they are. It always matters whose kids you are. Your kids probably never came close to being in a burning house. I bet your house is actually proofed against fire. Oh, yeah, and I'm insured. But, look, give me that phone. Why? Why? Look, I'll spell it out for you, isn't it? You're the smoke coming out of that building. That's on fire, man. The kids up there, huh? I want to call a fire department. They'll send the truck and then they'll put out the fire. You dig? Yeah, I dig. You really worry about a man, you. Well, yeah, how long? What do you mean, how long? How long you've been worried about? Just now, I was passing by, I saw the smoke with it. Those kids just didn't pass by and get trapped in that fire. They may live with that garbage and naked wires for a long time. If you really want to help those kids, why didn't you do something so that fire wouldn't have got started in the place?

Oh, that's how my job? I'm not a city inspector. I'm a job for a building inspector. I'm going to call a car. What with? Look, I understand what you're saying. Doesn't matter to me, whether those kids are black or white or pink or blue. What do you mean, black? Now, who said they were black? Now, how do you know they were black? Well, it's a black neighborhood. It's right. So what are you doing here? I was driving through on my way down the office, which is in a white neighborhood, right? Oh, naturally. I don't work here. Look, I better save those kids. Oh, well, are you the white knight going to come up town and save us poor black folks, right? No. I mean, where were you and the rats came? Rats. What the hell the rats have to do with it? Rats, old buddy. They come around all the time. You're eating food right out of your ice box, crawling over the kid's faces at night when they are sleeping.

You know, bringing bubonic plague and cholera and typhoid, leaving their crap in the corners. OK. I'm sorry about the rats. I mean, I feel that rats are wrong, but right now we got to buy it. I didn't see you coming around here calling the health department when those kids were believing from rat by dinner. Well, no, I didn't know the curtain. I met that's wrong, but right now there's a fire and dinner. Yeah. There's one good thing about this fire. They'll get rid of them broken tenements in them rats. And then you wouldn't have to keep stopping on your way to the white neighborhood to save little black kids from burning their death in a fire. And you wouldn't have to keep trying to get the phone away from black folks. I wait a minute. I want you to understand something. I give it to him. I mean, I'm for urban renewal and I'm for black capitalism and education. I gave to the Negro College Fund and I think that there should be massive reconstruction of our ghettos now. When? Well, as soon as possible, how about tomorrow? Come on. I mean, if you promise it'll be tomorrow, I'll give you the phone. Don't be ridiculous.

It takes time. Day after tomorrow. Look, I don't bring politics into it. No, we get an emergency. What if I wanted to move to the suburbs, say to your neighborhood, and I'd be happy with one of those houses, which was by a proof that didn't have rats and had garbage collection every day. Well, come on. Now, why do you think I can have a house like that? I don't know. Money's tight. No, you can't get a mortgage. That's right. Money is tight. I don't understand. We want us to do. I mean, we'll do it. You don't want anything for us to tie to people and doing things for us. Oh, who's going to do something for those kids, huh? Yeah, the kids. Well, maybe they'll use the fire escape. Yeah. The fire escape. Yeah. But the junkies took a lot of last week. Damn junkies. But that's good, maybe those kids will show some initiative and some courage. Maybe they'll get a presidential award for bravery, you know, jumping out of six-door windows, and the blaze in the building.

Yeah. You do approve of awards, don't you? Oh, sure. But yeah, I thought you would. Maybe a mayor will come up trying to pin a medal on them while they're in the hospital. So if I let you call the fire department, you deprive those kids of their chances to get metal. I don't understand. I really don't. You don't want us to help you, but you won't help yourself. You won't help your own people, your own kind of trapped in that building. You'll lift your finger at all. I didn't spend a dime on it and call the fire department. Well, I give up. I've done everything I can. The fire department. They might be in time. Thank God somebody called him. Thank God somebody cared. Yeah. Somebody cared me, I called them. In many parts of the country, black Americans are looking to various self-help programs

as a way toward self-realization. Operation Bootstrap in South Central Los Angeles is one of these programs. And Bootstrap seems to be working. How can I be black in a capitalist? Because blackness says I love my brother, capitalism says screw your brother. Money makes money. People have nothing to do with it. You can be the biggest fool in the world and pop out of a rich tail and just invest your money and sit back and you got it. So you can be the smartest man on planet Earth. You can build the better mouse strap but you better have about $3 million to promote it. In the South Central Los Angeles area, Operation Bootstrap is uniting black men to function as human beings with dignity in this society. Its major goal is to find a way black men can survive within a system which often tries to destroy them.

Bootstrap has nine subsidiaries and the body and fenders shop, a service and training operation is one of them. Well, we can't fix the coffee, don't get the boat, though, and don't fix the thing, it's king. First thing, most time you got to do a Kyle fix it like the man hit it, hit it hard, you got to fix it hard, in most cases, that's the only way to do it. Hey, why you all have to bring that little thing that you pull off the battery with, it's a battery, pull the cable off, just to glue it on and pull the rat off. Well, that's the hand that can't do two, there's one look for it, you know how to use it. Operation Bootstrap started in 1965, we don't accept any government funds that's local, state or federal or any large foundation funds and the reason for this is that we wanted

it to be exactly what I've called it a self-help organization. We know by looking at what's happened to other projects and other organizations that when you get that large chunk of government funds or foundation funds that you run into all kind of hang-ups, you got people coming in and telling you how to do what to do, when to do it, where to do it and why they think that you should be doing it. And what's even worse than that, there have been a couple of times when the big money has come to a group or to an organization or whatever and they didn't really tell them what to do, but there was always that psychological thread hanging overhead that if they didn't do something white, the money could always go and even if they did do something right there was always the feeling that you never knew when for some reason whatever it might be that money could be chopped off in a period of, you know, two seconds flat and it's happened

in so many cases, we've seen organization after project, after program come into existence with money, I'm talking about millions of dollars, go through that money and go out of existence in the time that we have grown and developed from nothing to about a dozen project organization. Shindana Toys, a dollar factory, is the largest of the subsidiaries of Operation Bootstrap. Jim Tortley, sculptor for Shindana Toys, tells how white moulders continuously correct the features are black dials to conform to white racial characteristics. When we set the dial out, they lost the end of the nose and cut the lips down, they made them to Caucasian for us. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to fix it up, send it back to him, tell him to give me back the thing that I sent him originally. Yeah, that's fine, because

it's good. Well, you know, you got to stay on these guys because they'll change it, they'll make it white every time. Shindana, Shindana in Swahili means to compete, will probably fill orders amount into a quarter million dollars this fiscal year. Even so, Bootstrap contends that the factory is still a learning device where black Americans become familiar with the business of manufacturing while employing other blacks in the community. Well, Shindana Toys has been in existence since last October. The accomplishment that we have made has been that we have struck an identity in the black community since we are the only ones large so-called cooperation as far as producing sometimes will be good. We're not a service

outfit, we are producing that. We're in the bulk of the fields of market research and it has opened up jobs for young black men in Margaret. Here, Shindana, we have something like the 61 black employers now and I would go as far as to say as that three-fourths of them never would have been in the industry and this type of production or what? Shindana had its first dial on the market within six months after the idea was born, normally it takes a year to work out production problems. Shindana produced 13,000 dollars in 1968 and sold these in the state of California. Even at 60% production capacity, Shindana is producing $5,000 a week, that's roughly a thousand dollars per day. The growth rate is so staggering that is being studied by Mattel, the largest toy company in the world. Despite a rapid increase in sales, baby Nancy, largely marketed by white

sales organizations, is not reaching a black consumer in great numbers. We asked Herman Thompson, sales manager for Shindana toys about some of the special problems facing his organization. I don't think that all black dolls fall in one single category like most white salesmen probably do. In other words, I feel that each black doll that is now being manufactured falls in a category all by itself so consequently I feel that our approach can be more effective than a Mattel approach for an example. It is our aim to become allied with the other black manufacturers perhaps who are having the same type problems that we are having so far as distribution is concerned and perhaps we can pool our talent, perhaps we can pool our resources and going together. I feel as though that this aspect of our growth is tremendous. It's not only tremendous for Shindana toys and operation bootstrap, but it can be a tremendous thing for all

black manufacturers because herein lies a way within which their products can be displayed to both white and the black consumers. I bet you can't catch me around this way. Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha! What kind of doll you want? A black. A black. In which one the black dolls do you want? This one or this? This one? What kind of doll is this? Who's this? That's baby Dibi. Can you say that? Here. What kind of you want?

Want this one too? Oh, in what way are you like her? Close what? Why? Why do you have to like her? That's even her. Oh, and you're black, huh? So you and your baby just like her. The many people have been turned on in many ways. We've had nuns come down and get turned on and run into trouble with the church due to the fact that they begin to do some of the things

that supposedly Christians are supposed to do at this point now that they're really doing those things. They were in trouble with, you know, with the cats above them, with all those Jews, and the heads of the Catholic churches, and what have you. I don't know what the nakes are. But nuns, you know, come down and got taken part in those sessions who've gone out and really begun to be involved in their community with their parishioners and what have you. Bootstrap is a true grassroots project. Bob Hall and Lou Smith asked the people, both young and old, what was needed to improve the quality of life in their community, and then industries were created often to support cultural projects financially. A black doll has cultural and psychological value for a young black child so often a target of negative social experiences. Eleanor Child explains about the economic and cultural directions of Bootstrap. The economic development is something that came, um, it's an offshoot of what we started for. The reason we started Operation Bootstrap was to have job training, uh, educational development

of this type of thing. But what we found, which was inherent in the way we wanted to do things with the self-help philosophy, in order for us to help ourselves, we came back to that old thing of finances. How are we going to continue to help ourselves if we didn't have any bread? Does this meant that we had to go into an economic arena? So what we've done is develop certain businesses that will eventually, when they have what is known as profit, be able to filter back money to keep non-money making projects going, such as the job training center, uh, the welfare recipients union, the free dental clinic, and all the things that we have going and hope to expand and develop. So we had to move into that area of economics. We moved into the area of cultural development to do one main thing, and that is to develop a new lifestyle. Now, there's been conferences, a couple of things. One is bringing on aspects of

African culture and African heritage in order to give a pride and a dignity that black people need so desperately, so that we don't get hung up in just wearing African clothes and that whole thing, that we talk about developing a whole new way of being a way of living that encompasses a new morality. You see, this country is what I call a collision course. We're going toward the point where we could very possibly blow ourselves off the face of this earth. So we have to develop a type of a lifestyle that will allow us to live together on this earth. Now what we feel in relationship to bringing in some of the old African customs and what have you is that they had a lifestyle in the past part of the tribal lifestyle, which said that I was not my brother's keeper of anything or anything of that nature, but that I was my brother's brother that everyone

worked for all the enhancement and the continuation of the tribe. You drop all of the black folks off the face of the United States, white people would still be in trouble or drop all of the white people out of the United States. White people would still be in trouble and I think that's where I see the necessity to look into lifestyle and that whole thing. Well the friends of bootstrap are a group of white that live in the casinos in the woodland hills, the middle class white section. That came about throughout Thursday night seminar classes, which we would get whites and blacks to sit out and talk about the problems because we work at anything out. Now we feel that we have helped thousands of whites to understand blacks more than never had an opportunity to do it and also thousands of blacks that have never had an opportunity to talk to whites. But the friends of bootstrap now their job is strictly to raise money or to get us equipment or

anything else that we need without having an NSA and bootstrap of what we will do with it. We're looking for, I'm looking for meaning to my life and at this point I like to associate with people and I see that there is something to be done and there can only function at a limited level because of the other elements to my life. So on this limited basis, what can I do? I can go and I can meet these people and I can become involved. It started with fundraising. Okay, besides the fundraising, I now turn around and look at my life and say what happened? You know, where have I gone off the beaten track? I'm so far away from things that have meaning to me and so now I'm sitting back and I'm real evaluating just leaving the normal course in my life. I think that's done a lot for me. I may have gone through my life, just happily go lucky, shopping, eating, sleeping, having kids and everything and never even wondered if there was anything

deeper or anything more than I could bring into my life. Maybe I won't stay with bootstrap forever but it certainly has helped me look and open my eyes and see that there are other things to life besides when I'm used to. When somebody tells me that you lift yourself by your bootstrap in reality, that person just told me go to hell because they know it's impossible to lift yourself by your bootstraps. So when people would become hung up on the name itself tells me something's wrong. That means that then we'll go get our Indians and put them on reservations, we'll kill them, we'll say dollar bills are more important than people, we'll adapt all the lifestyles. I'll show you black power pimps that have already done it. It's called rugged individualism. Rugged individualism, you know what that means. If you got five dollars in your pocket and I got five in mind, if I get your five I'm successful and you aren't successful and the hell would hell I get it because after I get it then I make the laws that justify how you do it. That's all. We don't know how people relate to each other

to us as blacks it's important. We kind of relate tribally. So yeah, as far as opening blacks up to the technological world that they haven't been involved in, yes, that's our job. The show and gadgets there's better ways to use their talent than hustling on the corner. Yes, that's our job. With mounting support from across the country, bootstrap will continue to survive. It will thrive as growing unity of black folks radiates throughout its operations. Next week is election time in many cities across the country. More and more black candidates are running for public office. Most prominent are the candidates who are running in the wake of the mayoral victories of Richard Hatcher of Gary in the HANA and Carl Stokes of Cleveland, Ohio. Blacks are campaigning heavily for the mayor's office in at least four American cities.

Richard Austin is gaining support for the mayor's seat in Detroit, Michigan. Ambrose Lane is running for mayor in the city of Buffalo, New York. State representative Curtis Graves of Texas is running for the mayor's seat in the city of Houston and of course Carl Stokes is seeking reelection in Cleveland, Ohio. Mena Jackson running for Vice May in Atlanta, Georgia, won the primary by polling 58% of the total votes of that city. Last week, he won that election. Well, in fact, Bill, this year the elections point up major areas of concern to black people. Black people see that the American electoral process is still very much ethnically based. Now, whether the candidate is an Afro-American and Italian-American or Czech-American, he must start from a base of firm support in his own community if he wishes to gain a victory. For example, everyone is aware that Mayor Carl Stokes opponent in Cleveland has substantial support among his ethnic brothers, the Czech-American, who constitute 40% of the vote in the city. Now, the same is true or the mayor running for reelection against the black candidate,

Ambrose Lane in Buffalo, New York. The President Mayor has a firm Italian base. We must work that much harder to get the brothers to the polls when you agree. I would agree to that. And the rest lesson here is pretty clear. According to statistics, in our kind of society, white voters are less likely to vote for black candidates than black voters are to vote for whites. Atlanta is a clear example. While black people might like to think that race and ethnic origins are not important factors, many white voters still feel and vote that way. Well, you know, in fact, Bill, where black voters see a candidate pushing law and order, campaigning strong against crime on the streets, they know that this is a candidate who is appealing to the black lash vote. These phrases have come nice, polite synonyms for anti-black. You know, the term like, militant, have become a code phrase for a putty nigger. Such candidates seldom have ever talked about enforcing building code violations against absentee slum landlords or talk about changing brutal police practices in the black communities or community control of schools or for more jobs for blacks. Now, where black voters

see a candidate saying that there is no connection between the war in Vietnam and domestic problems, then we know that that candidate has no perception of the financial problem facing poor and black people in the country. Recently, in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Applied Research Center and its director, psychologist Kenneth Clark, sponsored a conference for over 400 black elected officials from around the country. At that conference, it became clear that the black elected official is pressured by opposing forces. On the one hand, he is caught between the needs of his constituency, often primarily black. On the other, he is frustrated by a federal administration, which to the black elected official is resolutely unresponsive to either the needs or the demands of the black electorate. Richard Millhouse Nixon is trying to strangle the short lives, second reconstruction, with a deal made in Miami Beach in a hotel in 1868. You can see a demonstrated when political candidates and city after city get elected because

they promise to put down crime in the streets. You can see it operating when the United States Department of Justice takes a back seat and the struggle for school integration. When the nine old men who used to be our last hope and last court of appeal are steadily whittled away, now if a new kind of movement, a black politically oriented movement, springs from the southern protest and organizing drives of the early 60s, it has to be several things. First and most importantly, it must be democratic, and that is with the lower case D. It has to extend every member of the black community, the opportunity to have a say in who gets how much of what from whom it has to cast its votes as a unit. It has to deal with problems on a local and a regional and a national and an international basis, and has to decide that freedoms which are not enjoyed in Watts or Sunflower County cannot be enjoyed in Westchester or Los Angeles County.

Washington DC, 400 of the nation's top black elected officials gather to chart political strategies for black America. Focusing on community political involvement and developing new leadership techniques, the conference consisted of a series of workshops and major addresses delivered by outstanding figures in American politics. And awful lot of the delegates here were very concerned about the whole issue of what has come to be known as the new federalism, the relationship of the national administration to the states and the local governments. Now it was very clear in panel after panel that the black delegates here are not interested in a relationship between the federal government and the states and the localities that's going to return power to the same hands that have oppressed

black people for so many years because that would be, as it was said, time and again, a retrenchment. It was a gentleman, a delegate from San Francisco the other day who said, why can't we talk about new relationships between the national government and the local communities, meaning in this instance black communities. The point here then is very simply that while it was not articulated in so many specific terms, a lot of these black elected officials, not naive, very sophisticated, are very much searching for, wholly new forms, which I shall call legitimate forms of decision making. Well, that's true. I think that the black politician is sadder with an almost insurmountable burden in that your dichotomy is correct. He must always address himself to the needs of black people. On the other hand, in order to be effective and a white man's legislature, he must learn

the game and play the rules so that he can get legislation passed, which will aid in a black people. So he's in that posture, which is uncomfortable at times, but I have resolved myself to the proposition that I must number one be an advocate for the needs of black people. And consequently, I think that to be effective, you must always let white people know that your number one concern is about the dressingists after the want to needs of black people. The second thing is, I think that the constituencies that all of us represent are much more aggressive now than they were formally, it may have been the case. Some years ago, when a black man was elected to any public office at his constituents said, this is great. He's black and he's there and that in itself is great. And now I think our constituents are likely to say, it's great that he's black, it's great that it's there. It'll also be great if he produce. And greatly, the people here think they will not be able to reduce unless they themselves become more aggressive. So I think that's part of it too.

Initially, it was designed only to improve a rigid hatcher of Gary in the Anna. Any black elected official has to understand that any power and any leverage that he may have necessarily comes from the people. If he does not continue to maintain a very close relationship with the people, particularly with black people, if he does not try to interpret and articulate their needs and desires and try to bring about those solutions that will that address themselves so their needs and desires, then he is really in trouble. And if he does that and does maintain that kind of close relationship with the people, then that support represents a kind of leverage for him in dealing with the power structure of the community, both economic and political. It is always there when he needs it. And for example, in going to a city council, attempting to get a program through a city council, if he has the right kind of relationship

with the people, he can always go to the people and bring the weight of their pressure to bear upon councilmen who perhaps otherwise might not give favorable consideration to that program. Health, education and welfare secretary Robert Finch came under fire for his defense of the administration's school desegregation and welfare policies. In working through the courts and the point has been made and I think validly that when a court issues an order, its own ego is involved and it will enforce that order. And that's what's happening in Louisiana where these districts are being recalcitrant, where we finally got in court orders. And they are bringing these people in under order to show cause proceedings and those orders are being compliant. So I think we're on the right route here and I think that by using the courts, by involving the communities, by having these preparatory sessions that we will do more in the next two years than we've seen in the last 15 years. My lasting impressions come from the

clear way that George Wiley was pointing out that and Mr. Nixon's August 8th domestic program that he unceded, there was virtually no consultation with black people prior to formulating and putting together that program. We have brought literally thousands of these violations to the attention of HEW and there had been no substantial action taken to correct them. Furthermore, I want to cite that Secretary Finch talked about working through the courts and working with the courts on these matters. We have proposed to HEW a number of steps short of cutting off federal assistance that could be done to the states to force compliance with their regulations and essentially none, zero,

of the recommendations that we made, reasonable recommendations like simply calling compliance hearings, actually holding a compliance hearing on whether a state is in compliance with their regulations, which is a major threat to the state where they will be concerned. Delegate, after delegate expressed their growing dissatisfaction with the nation's current political climate. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, of New York. That when the black people are in revolt or rebellion, then the students are rebelling on the care of the state because the students in spite of much of the behavior that I do not condone and you do not condone, these students believe they have a deeper sense of commitment to social justice in this land and their elders, much deeper sense of commitment and they are looking for a sense of direction from leaders who don't talk out of both sides of the amount of the same kind as the public. Although the average age of the delegates was 40 plus, younger activists

had made their prisons felt. Some of the youth, who visited us today, evolved on black legislators to make the total commitment to the efforts of relieving and ending repression coming from the white community. My impression is full of that. We, as elected like officials, can no longer go halfway. We're being demanded and challenged to take the full step, and we either going to have to make that commitment or go to the sidelines. A radical caucus is convened as a result of the prodding of the younger delegates. Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, comments. It arose out of a real necessity for some of the black elected officials to arrive

at some of the gut issues as they've been termed, but we're really not on the agenda. When we don't say this disrespectfully, there were a number of matters that had to be taken care of. I look at one, the Macaron Act, a repeal on it, which happens to be a measure that I've introduced to repeal this law. We have a number of other activities. We have objected to the foundations being prevented from helping with the registration activities that are going on throughout the South. A home rule in Washington, D.C. has a long overdue, well, it's far sickle now because all the Democrats are for it, all the Republicans are for it, all the presidential candidates have always said that they supported it, and yet we've never had it. We've never gotten close to it. And as we press for reforms, it seems to me that we must not lull the people

asleep. We must awaken them to the truth. As we demand more hospital rooms and doctors and better medical care, we must make it clear that the $32 billion that we are spending annually to napalm women and children could take care of our medical problems for the next half century. Eldridge Clevers said it, you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem, to which I would add that if we limit our role to that of the reformer, then we are most certainly part of the problem. And our black constituency ought to rise up and get rid of us in a hurry. Truth is king, truth is power, truth is everything. And the establishment, I think, understands this beautifully, and that is why it is trying to crush dissent and to eliminate dissenters because they speak the truth and are willing to act upon it. Malcolm X was a dissenter, and they killed him. Rapped Brown was a dissenter, and they put him in jail.

Muhammad Ali was a dissenter, and he doesn't fight anymore. And Eldridge Cleaver was a dissenter, and he's an exile. Then we have the white backlash, and suppose the white backlash does not come to its senses, or it moves in a more barbaric posture than it is now, what do we have then? I think we have the situation where a lot of the concentration camps are going to be operative. I think that that would be the Armageddon, that would be the point where this is then the larger decision-making structures the establishment will really have to opt for a clear decision, whether they want to repress totally the legitimate demands of black people because these demands are legitimate. Well, come to terms with them. If they opt for repression, then you've got your answer. I must say to you in the latter third of the 20th century, and we know this, that this country has the military wherewithal to do that. And I don't think there are any black people in this country who can be naive that this is not

an option. And I think that this country has to be very much aware of its internal policies in this regard. I think that it would suffer, and I'm not talking here just about, let's understand, I'm not talking here just about world public opinion and so forth. I'm talking about the possible change to configurations of power, take it in terms of decreasing markets and so forth. It may well be that if this country moves in a certain way domestically, this could have over a period of time serious international implications economically. We know that China, for instance, is making overtures in many ways to developing societies. This would be a very, very important negative result for this country. So it has these kinds

of implications for this country as well, as just simply world public opinion condemning the United States morally and so forth. I want to make that very clear. That seems to me a very serious point. I certainly believe that in terms of the developing black political strategy strategies over the next few years, it's not going to be something that is easily predictable. It's going to be something that will emerge out of the interrelationship of black people. It's going to be something that might not even be on the agenda of establishment oriented kinds of groups or people. That makes for the dynamism that we always talk about, you see, but that's surely going to be the case. So those people who have a notion about structuring meetings, I don't mean this one particularly, but structuring programs, structuring strategies, but a hang loose a little bit

because the forces, the voices are not about to be handed. And I think that it's going to require an ability to flex an ability to adapt and, certainly, an I as a kind of student of politics and a student of political science will conclude from the session. I've been the sessions I've been to here that if you think you can predict issues and leadership in the black community in the next few years, you should have been at this session. Nina Simone, one of our say-something singers, her music articulates the hopes and purposes of black people and black journal recently accompanied Nina Simone on a nationwide tour across the country. Let's dig it. When you hear her sing, and when you hear her talk, you begin to understand why Nina Simone is called

the high priestess of soul. There's a reason why I'm alive and on this particular planet, though I would not tell you that I came from here. I don't think I came from here at all. I really don't. And I hope to live long enough to substantiate that. I really mean it, so that my music to me is very important. Every song that I sing to me is important. That it communicates to something, to someone. It is not just a song. It's something that says something to someone. It's very much like poetry or a good play,

something that communicates and gets into the soul of people. That's why it's no important to me. An artist's duty is what I'm concerned is to reflect the times. I think that is true of our painters, sculptors, poets, musicians. It's what I'm concerned is that choice. But I choose to reflect the times and the situations in which I find myself. That to me is my duty. And at this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help or be involved. Young people black and white know this. That's why they're so involved in politics. We will shape and mold this country or we will not be molded and shaped it all anymore. So I don't think you have a choice. I can be an artist and not reflect the times. That to me is a definition of an artist. My music is addressed to my people, especially to you,

make them more curious about where they came from and their own identity and pride in that identity. Black is a color of light, true of his face, of soft, and wonder, say, I love the ground on where he stands. I love the ground on where he stands. I love the ground on where he stands.

I love my true roses. That's why my songs, I try to make them as powerful as possible, mostly just to make them curious about themselves. We don't know anything about ourselves. We don't even have the pride in the dignity of African people, but we can't even talk about where we came from. We don't know. It's like a lost race. And my songs are deliberately to provoke this feeling of like, oh, am I where I come from? Do I really like me? And why do I like me? And I can know if I am black and beautiful, I really am, and I know it, and I don't care who cares, says what. I love my lover and well, he knows. I love the ground on where he stands, and still I hope that the time will come.

When he and I will be his one, Lord, when he and I will be his one. I love my true roses. When I get moved on stage, moved to a point where I have to get away from the piano, and move to the rhythm, what comes out is what you see. It's relationship to Africa is the same as my relationship to Africa.

I can't define it. I have no name for the dance. I don't even know at the time what I'm doing. Oh, yes, yes, I remember. I got very carried away last night, and very carried away. I don't think I've ever done that. I don't think I've done that. When I'm finished working, as tired as I am, and my work completely takes over my energy, unfortunately.

But when there are kids who come backstage afterwards, who want to talk or move to the point, sometimes they move to tears. I want to know more about it and shake my hand, kiss me and they want to talk about their problems. I find the time to do so as much as I can. I discourage practices and speeches because I don't make speeches, but I will go out of my way in spite of the fact that I'm too tired to do it. To talk to them, at least for five minutes or so, to talk to them the same message that I just finished doing on stage. And perhaps to hear some of their grievances or just to make them feel that they are not alone. So when I come, I feel the responsibility. They're so glad to see me, because I represent something to them, and I can't give them enough. They need me. They need me. When I'm needed, I have to give.

And the most important thing is they are our future. It's an investment, it's what I am concerned. When I invest time in young people from colleges, I know that I'm going to get that bread back. You know, bread casts upon the water comes back. Because when I see them doing their thing one day and I'm too old to do anything but sit and look at them, I'm going to say, well, I was part of that. I never intend for my children to look at me and be ashamed and say, mama, why didn't you do something? I will have done mine. You are young, you did and glad. We must begin to tell how young. There's a world of girl waiting for you. Yours is not where that's just begun. So when we're feeling depressed, alienated and real love, that's a great truth that you should know.

Yours will be young, defeated and blessed. Yours will be high. Yours will be high. Yours will be high. Oh, feeling good now. To be young, gifted and blessed. Oh, how I long to know the truth. There are times when I look back and I am haunted by you. But my joy of today is that we can all be proud to say to be young, gifted and blessed.

Oh, it's where inside. It's where inside. It's where inside. It's where inside. It's where inside. It's where inside. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. Oh, no, hold on. Hold on.

Oh, no! Oh, no! Man! CHEERING Man! CHEERING CHEERING CHEERING CHEERING CHEERING CHEERING Miss Nina Simone, the High Priestess. Right on. On October 10th, All shields, night call. The only national call in show in the country was taken off the air. A lot of very important people feel that the loss of the show was a tragedy, and we agree. Night call was a major attempt to provide a means for blacks and whites to discuss together

issues of major import. That's where it's at. I guess that underscores where things seem to be going in this country today, Bill. And that ends another edition of Black Journal Brothers and Sisters, and I'm Lou Housard. William Greaves. O'Daro. That's Yoruba. For one case again, y'all. Y'all! You see it and black! Whoa! Is where inside! Is where inside! Is where inside! Is where inside! Is where inside! Is where inside! Is where inside!

Is where inside! Is where inside! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CHEERING AND APPLAUSE This is N-E-T, the public television network.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE