ener ener een A A oeCredo of the Black PressThe Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from racialand natural antagonisms when it 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..History: Five Black U.S. Presidents..!?by Leroy Vaughn, MDJoel A. Rogers and Dr. Auset Bakhufu have both written books documenting at least five former presidentsof the United States had black people among their ancestors. If one considers the fact that European men faroutnumbered European women during the founding of this country and that the rape and impregnation of anAfrican female slave was not considered a crime, it is even more surprising that these two authors could not document black ancestors among an even larger number of former presidents. The presidents they name includeThomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.The best case for black ancestry is for Warren G. Harding, our 29th president from 1921 until 1923. Hardinghimself never denied his ancestry. When republican leaders called on Harding to deny the "Negro" history, hesaid. "How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence." William Chancellor,a white professor of economics and politics at Wooster College in Ohio, wrote a book on the Harding familygenealogy and identified black ancestors among both parents of President Harding. Justice Department agentsallegedly bought and destroyed all copies of this book. Chancellor also said that Harding's only academiccredentials included education at Iberia College which was founded in order to educate fugitive slaves.Andrew Jackson was our seventh president from 1829 to 1837. The Virginia Magazine of History Volume29 says that Jackson was the son of a white woman from Ireland who had intermarried with a Negro. Themagazine also said that his eldest brother had been sold as a slave in Carolina. Joel Rogers says that AndrewJackson, Sr., died long before President Andrew Jackson, Jr.. was born. He says the president's mother then wentto live on the Crawford farm where there were Negro slaves and that one of these men was Andrew Junior'sfather. Another account of the "brother sold into slavery story" can be found in David Coyles book entitled "Ordealof the Presidency" (1960).Thomas Jefferson was our third president from 1801 to 1809. The chief attack on Jefferson was in a bookwritten by Thomas Hazard in 1867 called "The Johnny Cake Papers." Hazard interviewed Paris Gardiner whosaid he was present during the 1796 presidential campaign when one speaker stated Thomas Jefferson was amean-spirited son of a half-breed Indian squaw sired by a Virginia mulatto father. In his book entitled "The SlaveChildren of Thomas Jefferson." Samuel Sloan wrote that Jefferson destroyed all of the papers, portraits, andpersonal effects of his mother Jane Randolph Jefferson when she died on March 31.1776. He even wrote lettersto every person who had ever received a letter from his mother asking them to return that letter. Sloan says,"There is something strange and even psychopathic about the lengths to which Thomas Jefferson went to destroyall remembrances of his mother, while saving over 18,000 copies of his own letters and other documents forposterity. ?One must ask. "What is it he was trying to hide?"Abraham Lincoln was our 16th president from 1861 to 1865. J.A-Rogers quotes Lincoln's mother, NancyHanks, as saying that Abraham Lincoln was the illegitimate son of an African man. William Herndon, Lincoln'slaw partner, said that Lincoln had very dark skin and coarse hair and that his mother was from an Ethiopiantribe. In Herndon's book entitled "The Hidden Lincoln", he says that Thomas Lincoln could not have beenAbraham Lincoln's father because he was sterile from childhood mumps and was later castrated. Lincoln'spresidential opponents made cartoon drawings depicting him as a Negro and nicknamed him "AbrahamAfricanus the First."V V5 Coolidge was our 30th president and he succeeded William Harding. He proudlyadmitted that his mother was dark because of mixed Indian ancestry. However. Dr. Bakhufu says that by 1800the New England Indian was hardly any longer pure Indian because they had mixed so often with blacks. CalvinCoolidge's mother's maiden name was Moor. In Europe the name Moor was given to all black people just as thename Negro was used in America.All of the presidents mentioned were able to pass for white and never acknowledged their black ancestry.Millions of other children who were descendants of former slaves have also been able to pass for white. Americansociety has had so much interracial mixing that books such as "The Bell Curve" discussing IQ evaluations basedsolely on race are totally unrealistic. ,Are So Few White Males Behind Bars?Ofari HutchinsonByFor the last few years the Sentencing Project, Washington, D.C.-based public advocacy group, has issued areport on crime and punishment in America. It's findings are well-known and predictable. Nearly one out of threeyoung Black males are in prison, on parole or on probation. And they make up nearly half of those incarceratedin America's prisons. The response to the report is just as predictable. Many Blacks and liberal critics of thecriminal justice system say Blacks are jailed in huge numbers because of racially biased judges, juries, andprosecutors, discrimination in the enforcement of drug laws, poverty, lack of education, and the prisonconstruction boom.Many conservatives, and law enforcement officials say it's because young Blacks commit more crime thanWhites: their crimes are more violent and that much of the public, including many Blacks, demand that they belocked up. While both sides debate the issue of why so many Black males are behind bars they don't ask why somany White males who commit crimes aren't. The recent shoot-out between the LAPD and two young Whitebank robbers in North Hollywood makes this more of a crucial question than ever.Few would argue that the two would-be hold up men were dangerous criminals. One of the bandits had threearrests and two felony convictions. One of the convictions was for a weapons violation in L.A. The other was afelony conviction for real estate fraud in Denver. After pleading guilty to the charge in Denver he fled the stateto avoid sentencing. The other bandit had a felony conviction for the weapons charge. Yet the fact that the pairwere on the streets of North Hollywood and not behind bars raises the following questions about the workings ofthe criminal justice system. .*When they were stopped in Los Angeles in 1993 with what one expert called a "bank robbers kit" of legaland illegal weapons and military equipment in their car and arrested, did authorities thoroughly check todetermine if they were wanted for crimes in other states? Did they discover that one was a wanted felon? If so,why wasn't he extradited to Colorado for sentencing? Did the Denver police send notices about his flight to theFBI and local police agencies nationally?- *When they were released from jail why were some of theirordered by the court to return them. But the presiding judge inauthorized release of their weapons only after the district attorney "agreed" to the releaseobjection" to their release. So who did what? And why?*When other White males are arrested on weapons charges and police confiscate their banned firearms, whatcharges are filed against them? How vigorously are they prosecuted? If the charges are subsequently dropped, aretheir guns returned to them?*When young White males who are repeat offenders are arrested and again convicted of serious crimes, howmany actually receive and serve their prison sentences? How many are allowed to plea bargain lesser sentences,receive probation, community service, are fined and make restitution, are referred to diversion or rehabilitationprograms, or are placed under house monitoring? aThe North Hollywood bandits are probably not the exception. In 1990, 32,000 more young White juvenileswere arrested for murder, forcible rape, robbery and assault than young Blacks. Yet more Blacks than Whiteswere imprisoned and more Blacks than Whites were tried as adults.In 1991, more than 70 percent of males arrested were White, and 25 percent were Black. But between arrest,trial and prison many seemed to disappear from the system. Only 35 percent of Whites were held in custody while44 percent of the Blacks were held.According to annual FBI Uniform Crime Reports since 1991, more Whites are arrested for murder, rape,robbery, assault and drug related crimes than Blacks, but they are less likely to be imprisoned than Blacks. Thegaping disparity between arrest and imprisonment is greatest in California. Although Blacks are seven percentof the population, they account for 20 percent of felony arrests, and 31 percent of those imprisoned. By contrastWhites are 53 percent of the population and account for 33 percent of felony arrests, but only 29.5 percent ofthose are imprisoned. Blacks are 4.7 times likelier to be arrested than Whites and 7.8 times more likely to beincarcerated.Even if we accept the argument that Blacks disproportionately commit more crimes than Whites, and avoidmuddying the issue by claiming a racial taint to the enforcement of California's three strikes law, it still does notexplain why so many fewer Whites that are convicted of felony crimes are imprisoned than Blacks who commitIf the answer is legal incompetence, official indifference or racism, we should say so. As the tragic eventsin North Hollywood proved, when violent offenders no matter what their color are allowed to slide through thelegal cracks, we all pay a heavy and deadly price. 7wa Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of The Assassination of the Black Male Image and Beyond O.J.:weapons returned? The police said they werethe case disputed that. He indicated that heand the police had "noRace, Sex and Class: Lessons for America.*fie,-Minority Business: America's CompetitiveAdvantage...By William Reed , Business ExchangeLike so many of her fellow African-Americans in the workplace, Joan Parrott-Fonseca is in a job that ishere today but could be gone tomorrow. Parrott-Fonseca is director of the Minority Business Development Agency(MBDA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and like many other programs in Washington. D.C. designed tohelp minorities get a leg up in American society. the MBDA is in constant danger of elimination by a Congressthat's had enough of such assistance programs.But that threat did not stop Ms. Parrott-Fonseca from convening the 14th annual observance of MinorityEnterprise Development (MED) Week this past September. "MED Week is a time to celebrate the manyachievements of America's minority business community. This year's theme, "Minority Business: America'sCompetitive Advantage." is most appropriate as we prepare to enter the global economy of the Ist Century," saysParrott-Fonseca, whose job is to direct MBDA's minority business development initiatives through the agency'sfunded network of community-based technical assistance centers throughout the U.S.MED Week is a yearly conference held in Washington and is co-sponsored by the MBDA and the SmallBusiness Administration (SBA). It is the culmination of many federal. state and local MED Week events heldthroughout the previous month. The conference provides opportunities to learn how minority firms contribute tothe economic prosperity of the U.S. by capitalizing on diversity and innovation in marketplaces. The conferenceactivities included an awards banquet which honored government agencies, corporations and advocates dedicatedto the cause of minority business development and successful minority business enterprises. It incorporated twodifferent trade fairs, one for corporations and government to display their opportunities for minority contractingand suppliers, and one for minority vendors to display their wares to potential buyers. Discussions includedupdates on legislative items, national issues and government programs and regulations. Attendees got anopportunity to meet and talk with members of both houses of Congress, while seminars featured experts in vitalbusiness areas of: information technology, domestic and international market development. governmentregulations, capital access, bonding, procurement, contracting and insurance.To bring corporations and minority businesspeople to the table, Joan Parrott-Fonseca got two top-flightAfrican-Americans to co-chair the MED Week Public-Private Sector Committee. Joy Crichlow director of NewYork-based ConEdison's minority business program and James McGhee an Auburn, Washington minorityentrepreneur. "They bring many years of successful experience in minority business ownership and corporatemanagement of minority programs," says Parrott-Fonseca. Corporate executive Crichlow said, "It is significantthat I am co-chairing this event with a minority entrepreneur. As we move towards the year 2000, it is importantthat more events and efforts are typified by such unions. Joint ventures, second tiering and team projects willbecome the wave of the future in the minority/small business arena. In addition, it encourages the utilization ofthese valuable businesses and their services. "Teaming" helps us to overcome obstacles aimed at hindering theprogress of minority businesses."The MBDA and MED Week were initiated during the Richard Nixon presidency, whom many Blacks saywas the best presidential sponsor of Black enterprise. Currently, Black-owned enterprises have grown to over700,000 with business receipts totaling $34 billion a year. The majority of Black-owned firms, 54 percent, areconcentrated in service industries and account for 34 percent of business receipts. The retail trade industryaccounts for the next largest concentration of Black-owned firms at 14 percent of the firms and 22 percent of thereceipts. But, minority enterprise programs and legislation are under fire. The Small Business Administration's8A Program, a $6 billion set-aside program, is set to be abolished by Rep. Jan Meyers, chairwoman of the HouseCommittee on Small Business. Concern about the 8A program is based on figures that say the noncompetitivecontracts awarded to 8A companies are 20 to 25 percent above actual market value and costing Americantaxpayers up to $1.2 billion above market value for 8A contacts. And critics say 8A program contracts go to ahandful of well-positioned companies, more than $1 billion to 25 companies in the Washington, D.C.area whilemore than half of all 8A-registered firms receive no contracts.A strong minority business community is essential to the nation's ability to maintain its competitive posturein the global market, and it's essential that people like Parrott-Fonseca be in place to assure that minoritybusinesses are incorporated into the American enterprise mainstream. But, African-Americans have to supportpeople like Parrott-Fonseca while also taking more personal action toward their own economic development. Untilwe renew the fervor and vision that sustained us in our fight for political equality, we will not achieve our rightfulplace in the economic mainstream of this great nation.For information on MBDA programs contact them at: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 14th & ConstitutionAvenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230, (202) 482-4547 or (202) 482-4045.William Reed is publisher of Who's Who in Black Corporate America, 2054 National Press Bldg.,Washington, D.C. 20045, (202) 547-4125. :"First God made idiots," observed Mark Twain. "That was for practice. Then HE made school boards."From what I have read in the papers, learned from frustrated students, apprehensive teachers, inundated inschool administrators and angry parents, it appears we are in for another great experiment in education. Theseexperiments usually occur just before the public is so fed up that they are ready "to throw the bums out." .May I remind you that most of these experiments have happened before and failed. But just before thisonce crashes and burns, the superintendent will appear before the county commissioners, again, and explain,again, that what he needs to fix the problem, again, is 25-50 million more dollars.The state and federal programs are equally as bad. When the state funded the basic education programabout ten years ago, the public believed that at long last our students would have help with the three "R's."Sorry folks, not a penny out of beings.Does anyone remember the old 'McGuffey Reader? ? It taught phonics and children learned to read. Doesanyone really believe that, "Look Dick. Look Jane. See Spot Run" will hold any five or six years old attentionfor longer than three seconds. The "whole language ? doesn't work but is still the practice. Never mind thatPolly Williams, a politician, Marva Collins, Marcus Garbey, and the Ivy Leaf School and hundreds more haveproved that inner city poor kids can learn, Proof, we have the most successful criminal class since prohibition.Look folks, we can't blame GOD for this. We elected these people and put them in charge of our chil-dren's future. Probably the most important vote we cast every election is for the school board.The hospital board of trustees is appointed by our county commissioners and the UNC board ofGovernors. But, no, fellow citizens, we cannot shirk our responsibilities. We elected the county commissionerswho appoint them. We were inundated for 16 months by the monotonous chant "We will be in charge." Sorryfolks, we "ain't" and they "ain't." There were two "no" votes in raising prices at the hospital and the countyonly appointed one of these trustees. Where were the other ten? I distinctly remember a commissioner sayingthat if the hospital made $30 million last year, they were charging too much. Sorry, Mr. Commissioner, theydid. But you still gave them the hospital on June 1 and the trustees raised the prices on June 16. So much for"we will still be in charge."There are many boards which I shall cover later.I hope you will not consider this sacrilegious, but the Bible says "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord,"but will HE vote these people out or leave it to us, regular, ordinary, tax paying citizens, to practice goodsense.