AAS RAASARRERne eea» oe WeCredo of the Black PressThe Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from racialand natural antagonisms when tt accords to every person, regardless of race,color or creed, full human rights. Hating no person, fearing no person in thefirm belief that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.Not Enough Kids In Prison? |The release of the prototype Sen--ate Bill 10 just recently seems tohave caught quite a few Congress-watchers by surprise.Maybe it was the fact that the leg-islation was titled the oJuvenile Re-peat Offender Act.?Maybe itTs the fact that it was.pushed off the front pages by thecontinuing ocrisisTT of the PaulaJones/Monica Lewinsky saga.Maybe it was that the bill was in-troduced with such obvious prideand pomp by Senate Democrats whohad worked so hard on it.Whatever the cause, 8.10 seems tohave caught quite a few in the com-munity napping, until a careful pe-rusal of the fine print made them doa double-take and exclaim, oWhatthe hell are they thinking??We all knew, after all, where thebill had come from.Every day, our papers and elec-tronic media screamed with storiesof rosy-cheeked cherubs who hadperpetrated some ghastly mahyem.Couple that with the standard sto-ries about Youth Gangs Taking OverOur Cities, and you have an atmo-sphere ripe for the Congress to dosomething totally silly to deal with it.Ostensibly,.the bill was designedto deal with those hordes of hard-ened, career-criminal 13-year-oldsTthe media had assured us were readyto break in our doors and violate ourgrandmothers, and who had beenmollveoddled by the present system.Imagine our surprise, then, whenwe read that the bill would authorizestate authorities to house defendantsas young as 14 in the same jail facili-ties as the rest of the population.Contrary to the billTs fierce-sound-ing title, though, these youngstersdidnTt have to be hardened, repeatoffenders. They could be chargedFirst OneThis past week, an event happenedthat blacks should take note of.Sam Reese Sheppard presentedabsolute proof that his father, Dr.Sam Sheppard, had not killed hismother.It was 1959 when the youngerSheppardTs mother was savagelystabbed, to death in her Ohio home.Police said SheppardTs father did it,scoffing at his account of strugglingwith a mysterious obushy-hairedstranger.?If that scenario sounds familiar, itshould. It became the inspiration forthe hit TV series oThe Fugitive.?Dr. Sheppard was eventually re-leased, in 1964, and granted a newtrial. At that trial, he was found in-nocent in 1966.The story didnTt have a happy end-ing, however. The prosecutors andthe country at large remained con-vinced that Sheppard had ogottenaway with murder.? He died, brokenand consumed by alcoholism, in 1970.Convinced of his fatherTs inno-cence, young Sheppard began aquest in 1989 that led to last weekTsdramatic announcement.ThatTs nice, you say, but whyshould we care? None of the peopleinvolved were black.It is important because of the reac-tion of the Cuyahoga County pros-ecutor.Rejecting all of the evidence, thewith any offense, including ocrimes?such as running away or truancy.Charged, mind you. Not convicted.Add that to the provision mandat-ing (not allowing) that: schools expelstudents caught with weapons,drugs, alcohol, or tobacco on schoolproperty, and you have a picture of aCongress that appears to think thatthere just arenTt enough youngpeople in state custody.The billTs defenders insist thatwhat they are trying to do is create astrong, sure deterrent to steer youthonto the straight and narrow path.If that is true (see, weTre givingthem the benefit of the doubt) thenthe kindest thing one can say is thatperhaps they might go back to com-mittee and try again.It is another illustration of how farapart are the black community andthe national leadership.African-Americans are trying tostem the flow of our young peopleinto prisons and jails.But our congressional leaders ap-parently look at the horrific percent-ages of black teens incarcerated andsay to themselves, oJust think howmany dangerous, violent teens thatleaves out roaming the streets!?That may sound harsh and sarcas-tic, but what else can you call it whenyou talk about throwing first-time,petty offenders in with hardened ca-reer criminals, taking away any andall alternatives that may havesteered them away and virtually or-dering that they be thrown out ofschool?Tobacco?This bill goes far beyond just beinga danger to our community and ourfuture.ItTs just plain stupid.Call or write your Congresspersonand tell him (or her) so.To Crackprosecutor announced that he didnTtsee any reason to reopen theSheppard case. He questioned thereliability of the DNA results.It was a historic announcement,and one which we have predicted forseveral months now.DNA testing has opened a flood-gate of litigation in which people whohave been imprisoned for years forrape and/or murder have beenproven innocent.Very embarrassing for a law/jus-tice establishment that insists theblack community is paranoid for say-ing many of our black youth donTt be-long in prison.Something had to give, as we pre-dicted. They couldnTt let this keepgoing. Somebody had to crack.The Cuyahoga County prosecutorwas just the first one to flinch. Therewill be others. :You will see the argument refinedand elaborated on by other prosecu-tors in the near future.DNA testing was supposed to putmore people in jail, not let them out.If itTs not going to uphold their viewof reality, its credibility will simplyhave to be destroyed.Just like they do with people.When that happens, though, someof these law-and-order types shouldapologize to O.J. and black folks formaking fun of them during his trial.You think ?SupportBlack Press!** ¢4ww MeOther ViewpointsBLACK HISTORY MONTH: LEARNING FROM THEPASTBy Norman HillA Philip Randolph InstituteThere are many good reasons for studying history. Someexamine the past simply because they find it interesting.Others find it inspirational. They look back at the triumphsof their country, their religion, their race, their ethnic group,etc., and take pride in what they find. This is a perfectlylegitimate use of history, so long as the achievements ofoneTs own group are not used to demean others.For this Black History Month, however, I would like touse the past as a learning tool. At the A. Philip RandolphInstitute, the linchpin of the black-labor alliance, our goalsare racial equality and economic justice. We believe that bylooking at which strategies have moved us toward thoseends in the past, we can draw some conclusions about howbest to pursue them today.The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of1965 created a new reality for African Americans. TheydidnTt lift the burden of three centuries of racial oppressionovernight"nothing could do that. But they paved the wayfor progress by outlawing racial discrimination, putting seg-regationists on the defensive, and guaranteeing blacks theright to vote, giving African Americans serious politicalpower for the first time since Reconstruction. In sum, therights legislation of the 1960s has made it possible for manyAfrican-Americans to move from the margins of society andparticipate in the American mainstream.What made passage of civil rights legislation possible?First, we need to remember that it culminated a black-ledstruggle of many decades known as the civil rights move-ment. The immediate concentrated use of direct nonviolentactivities battle began in 1955, with the African-Americanboycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, led byMartin Luther King. The struggle was reignited by the 1960lunch counter sit-ins staged by black southern college stu-dents and perpetuated by various other forms of grassroots,black-led activism in the South. One lesson of that struggleis that oppressed people cannot wait for someone else toliberate them, they must take the initiative themselves. Or,as the great civil rights and labor leader, A. Philip Randolph,once said:Social history shows no instance of a group which pos-sesses power voluntarily surrendering said power over anypeople or thing for anything. Thus, freedom, equality, andjustice for any people at any time, anywhere, must either beceaselessly fought for or these conditions will not be won andenjoyed.Second, recall that the principle of nonviolence was anintegral part of the civil rights movement, not only becauseits leaders believed that violence was morally wrong, butbecause they understood it would alienate many of themovementTs supporters. A major factor in the movement'swinning the sympathy and support of the nation was itsrefusal to respond in kind to the violence of the Bull Connorsand Jim Clarks. On the other hand, civil disorder in North-ern ghettos during the mid-1960s contributed to big politicalgains for candidates unfriendly to the civil rights agenda,both in Congress and the White House. The consequencewas severe cutbacks in the War on Poverty and less strin-gent civil rights enforcement. Violence has even less rel-evance for blacks today. Since African-Americans securedthe right to vote, the use of nonviolent demonstrations tohighlight the continuing need to enforce and implement thelegal platform for racial equality and to address the eco-nomic and social injustice disproportionately affecting blacksneeded to be coupled with African-American political mobili-zation in coalition with compatible allies in the fight to im-prove the lives of all the countryTs have-nots and have-littlestThe mention of allies brings me to the third lesson, whichis that while African-Americans must take the lead in free-ing themselves, as a minority group we can more effectivelyaddress economic and social problems by forging a majoritycoalition. The successful civil rights coalition of the 1960sincluded other mistreated minorities, religious organiza-tions, progressive intellectuals, and most importantly, orga-nized labor, the most powerful American institution fightingfor the rights of the poor and oppressed.The success of this coalition stands in stark contrast tothe failure of strategies that isolate blacks from the rest ofsociety. The demand for reparations is one example, It hasijoBACKLEADERSHIP AAB The thins been\ hk re ;is since |GN \ Frcend ot he CIVIL |not and will not make progress because it pits an African-American minority against a much larger non black major-ity. The pursuit of a separate black economy is also doomedto failure. At the Randolph Institute, we support the spreadof black-owned business. In fact, we recently helped to createan employee-owned black enterprise that is providing workopportunities for African-American craftsmen and women,and we expect to create more. But we also understand thatthe black community does not have the investment capital tocreate an alternative economy that could employ anywherenear a majority of African-Americans. Blacks, the strong ma-jority of whom are and will remain workers, will succeedwithin the mainstream economy in alliance with the tradeunion movement, which fights for the rights of all workers.The Randolph Institute is using the lessons of the pasttoday. We are working with the AFL-CIO to organize blackworkers, realizing that as the most exploited members of thelabor force, African-Americans gain most from unionization.We conduct voter participation campaigns that bringinghundreds of thousands of new black voters to the polls. Of-ten, our drives have helped elect candidates friendly to theagenda of blacks and organized labor. We are especiallyproud of our intensive work in Louisiana in the early 1990s.The black vote was critical in the defeat of racist DavidDukeTs bid to become governor of that state. This year, wewill be focusing on Congressional districts with a history ofclose elections increasing the likelihood of the end of right-wing control of the House of Representatives.In addition to electoral work we are, in concert with theAFL-CIO, lobbying and conducting public relations cam-paigns to promote enactment of a progressive agenda includ-ing job training and, if necessary, jobs programs, to enableeveryone who needs work to earn a living; a minimum wagehigh enough so that every worker can support a family; adecent education for all so that African-American youngsterswill, along with other children, be able to compete in aneconomy requiring ever more skills and education; and de-cent and affordable health-care coverage for all. These arepractical proposals because although they would help blacksmost, they would benefit Americans of all racial and ethnicgroups. Therefore, they can win broad public support.These are some of the things that the APRI does. Theyconstitute hard work on behalf of a progressive, realisticagenda, and we believe it is what black America needs"notidle posturing and sloganeering, not, divisive demonstra-tions which vent anger but lack a focused, constructive pro-gram. Nor, for that matter, do African-Americans need thehands-off, free-market nostrums that black conservativessay will lift up African Americans, but which actually willhelp the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor andpowerless. So we at the APRI will continue what we havebeen doing, with greater commitment and vigor, confidentthat the strategies we employ will, as they have in the past,move us towards a time when racism is a bad memory andblacks along with all other Americans live at a level of digni-fied economic decency.WHY MIDDLE SCHOOLS NEED SCHOOL RESOURCEOFFICERSDennis A. WickerNorth Carolina Lieutenant GovernorWhen a 13-year-old boy physically assaulted a Charlotte-Mecklenburg classroom teacher last year, it was just anotherpainful reminder that juvenile crime is a growing problem atthe middle school level.Remember when chewing gum in class or smoking ciga-rettes in the bathroom were the big discipline problems?Today itTs drugs, weapons and assaults. And what you maynot know is that more of that frightening activity is actuallyoccurring on our middle school campuses than anywhere elseaccording to a study by the North Carolina Center for thePrevention of School Violence.In fact, during the 1995-96 school year, the Center re-ports that North Carolina middle schools accounted for ap-proximately one third of all drug possession incidents, onehalf of all weapon possession incidents, and one half of allassaults on school employees.ItTs obvious that too many of our young teens are gettinginto serious trouble in the middle school years. These areyoung people who are vulnerable and impressionable. Theyneed guidance to stay on the right path, otherwise it can betoo late to oreach them? by the time they are of high schoolage.So what can we do? I believe one of the most importantand effective steps we can take is to put a School ResourceOfficer on every middle school campus across the state,North Carolina already provides funding for SRO's to ev-ery high school campus. It is time we do the same for middleschools.4 ¢o*besos escooscosces cosccocscsssossessooc