By Susie Clemons .
GREENVILLE, NC - The Pentecostal Clergy and
the Rev. Eugene Rivers III, founder of the Seymour
lnstitute of Advanced Christian Studies, held a Na-

(enna tional Press Club conference
mid-July 2005, in Washington
D.C, to discuss the release of
their report, “God’s Gift: A
Christian Vision of Marriage
and the Black Family.” The re-
port maintains “the important
answer to the crisis in the Black
family is the Black church re-
turning to its leading role as an
example for the national Black
community and speaking out
against social ills and immoral-

 

Clemons

It A “g

The Seymour Institute of Advanced Christian Stud-
ies has authored a forceful and detailed assessment based
on statistical data, reminiscent of “The Negro Family:
The Case for National Action,” a report written in 1965
by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then
hailed as both historic and controversial for its exami-
nation of the unusual and perplexing familial circum-
stances of the Black family. -

The Seymour Institute proposes, “through the
release of God’s Gift, the Institute has set forth a
challenge for the Black church and Black clergy to
recognize this crisis and to take a strong unmistak-
able position on the sanctity and meaning of mar-
riage and begin the process of teaching Black men
anc women to reverse self-defeating and destructive
social behavioral patterns through a Christian vision

Marcu on WASHINGTON
FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM

 

On 28 August 1963, more than two hundred |. .

thousand demonstrators athered at the Lincoln
Memorial to take part in the March on Washington
for Jobs and predon A coalition of civil rights or-
ganizations planned the march to demonstrate to the
entire nation that a gap existed between the tenets
of American democracy and the everyday experience
of black Americans. During this march, Martin
Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream”
speech. The march was successful in pressuring the
Kennedy administration to commit to passing fed-
eral legislation. |

In the summer of 1941, A. Philip Aandolph,
founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,
called for a march on Washington because \the eco-
nomic opportunities of the War years did nt afford

economic progress for.the black commitiity: The: |
threat of 100,000,.magchers in, Washingtdn D.C. Oe

pushed Roosevelt to. issue executive or er’ #8802,
desegregating the defense industries, and Randolph
cancelled plans for the march in response.

By 1962, the goals of the original march on Wash-_

ington movement, jobs and freedom, had still not
been realized. The turmoil of the South, the high
levels of unemployment and the absence of

franchisement for many blacks, prompted Randolph |

to call for a new march “for jobs and freedom.”
Working with Bayard Rustin and other civil rights
activists—from the NAACP, the National Urban
League, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), the National Catholic Conference for In-
terracial Justice, the National Council of Churches,
the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) —
Randolph pursued plans for a new march. The pro-
posed march caused great concern within the
Kennedy administration. Kennedy believed that the
march had the potential to undermine efforts being
made to secure civil rights legislation and would dam.
age the image of the United States internationally.
He also believed that it might further aggravate ra-
cial tensions in America. ennedy called Martin
Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders to the
White-House in late June 1962 But was unable to
persuade the leadership to cancel the march.

A flyer produced by the National Office of the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom articu-
lated the six goals of the protest as: “meaningful civil
rights laws, a massive federal works program, full
and fair employment, decent housing, the right to
vote, and adequate integrated education.” In the wake
of Kenriedy’s announced proposal for federal legisla-
tion after the campaign in Birmingham, the goal of
the march increasingly turned toward passing the bill.
The purpose of the march transcended these tan.
gible goals in providin visibility to the struggle for
civil rights. “The March on Washington established
visibility in this nation. It showed the struggle was
nearing a close, that people were comin together,
that all the organizations could stand roget er,” Ralph
Abernathy wrote of the march. “It made it clear that
we did not have to use violence to achieve the goals
which we-were. seeking.”

The Kennedy administration, politicians and
southern segregationists were not the only entities:
initially opposing the March. Malcolm X and the
Nation of Tslam condemned the march as well, with
Malcolm continually referring to it as the “farce on
Washington.” Any member of the Nation who at-
tended the march was subject to a ninety day sus-
pension from the organization. The National Coun-
cil of the AFL-CIO chose not to support the march,
adopting a position of neutrality. a

However, a number of international unions in-
dependently declared their support, and were present
in substantial numbers; and hundreds of local unions
fully supported the effort. Further, the presenters and
performers at the march represented the diversity of
the marchers in race and creed. They included Marian
Anderson, Daisy Lee Bates, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, John
Lewis, Odetta, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Rabbi Joachim
Prinz, A, Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Bayard
Rustin, Roy Wilkins, and Whitn Young, Jt.

After the march, King and other civil rights lead-
ers met with President John F. Kennedy and Vice-

resident Lyndon B, i nson at the White House.
Feeling the pressure of 200,000 Ameticans, Kennedy
told them that he intended to throw his whole weight
behind civil rights legislation.

for marriage and family.”

The Rev. Eugene Rivers III, who is Black, is’

pointing the finger at the Black church for rene ing
on its Sell advocacy of the sanctity of the Black

family union, an action upheld by its “okie-doke”

on trends of infidelity, extra-marital sex, and out-of.
wedlock childbirth. These conditions result in em.
bittered relations between Black men and women,
both married and unmarried.”

Moreover that members of the Black Clergy are
increasingly found guilty of their own excursions of
infidelity, out of wedlock meddling, as well as em-
bezzlement is unacceptable as it invites negative pub-

licity to their ranks.
Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Washington Corte-

spondent, cited in a recent article the statistical data
of the report issued. by the Seymour Institute, which
stated Blacks were 38.6 percent less likely than Whites
to be married at a rate of 35 percent to that of Whites
57 percent.” .

That in mind, the late Senator Patrick Moynihan,

 

during an interview with Ben Wattenburg of the then
PBS series, The First Measured Century, was quick

to point out that he, as lead man for the Bureau of
Labor and Statistics, was not looking at oF measur-
ing data on Black families as a basis for a report, his
team was investigating unemployment data across the
board.

In an unusual twist, the early 60’s produced data
that showed the unemployment rate going down for
both Blacks and Whites, however welfare rates con-
tinued to rise. Moynihan’s group made a connection
between high unemployment rates and absent fathers
and broken homes.

The phenomena thus became the known as “A
New Social Circumstance”. Moynihan, in his in-
terview, confessed that ‘he was no closer to under-
standing the data thirty-five years after the fact than
he did when it landed in his lap.

The day after the Watts riots,
writers Bob Novak and‘ Rowland Evans-
words- linked the riot in Watts to the

the team of
in a play of
illegitimacy

 

   

 

 

  

THE MARCHED ON WASHINGTON

August 18 - 24, 2005 The Minotity Voice Newspaper Page 3

Because w« Ih

fate of Blacks as a causal Solr;

'Ciencies, it is but once again a cha

 

c¢

NS to America

 

and called it
“the Moynihan teport”, later labeled anti-Black by
many. |

_However anti-Black the Moynihan Report,
it gave tise to dialog while also challenging Black
adults to look at their conditions of living and of -
family. . Likewise, the Seymour Institute report,
should it also be concluded as anti-Black in its pub-
lic announcement of the Black Clergy’s moral defj-

lienge of intro-

spection to Black adults.

Yet, should the Black Church fail to rise to the
called self correcting message, will Black men and
women have. the courage to claim individual respon-
sibility for their destructive actions or will the Black
Church go'down in modern history as understand-
ing God's plan for divine family living the least- since
slavery? .

Susie Clemons is a staff writer for the M-Voice
Newspaper. Questions or comments may be directed
to: opinionsandtalk@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

President John E. Kennedy
ers of the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963 to
observe Martin Luther King Jr. call for equality in his
‘Il Have a Dream’ speech and
; SALE EE

      

  

   
 

 

 

  

tions megt in New York’s Hotel Roosevelt
1963 to plan a civil rights March on Washington.
From left
dent Non-Violence Coordinating Committee;
Whitney Young,
League; A. Philip Randolph, president of the Ne-
gro American Labor Council; Dr. Martin Luther
ing Jr., president of the Southern Christian Lead-
ership Conference; James Farmer, Congress of
Racial Equality director; and Roy Wilkins, execu-
tive secretary of the
Advancement of Colored People.

 

 

  

Constitution Avenue is fill
rying placards,

 

as civil rights demonstrators walk

Memorial for the March on Washington, August
28, 1963. ,

An aerial view from a helicopter shows the March on
Washington at the Lincoln Memotial in Washington,
D.C. on August 28, 1963. Over 250,000 people fight-
ing for aay civil rights law®; such as desegrega-
tion, gathered at the Lincoln Memorial after a sign-
catrying parade from the Washington Monument
grounds,

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“The struggle continues..."

  

edy poses with a group of lead-

the historic March. ©

Six leaders of the nation’s largest Negro ie a
uly 2,

are: John Lewis, chairman of the Stu-

national director of the Urban - '

National Association for the .

ed with marchers, car- ©

from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
 
 
  
  
 

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Sitting on his placard with his shoes off, a civil ¢i
marcher cools off his bare foot on the carlare 7a the
reflecting pool near the Lifcali memorial following
the March on Washington, August 28, 1963,

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