BLACKS MUST ROLL UP THEIR POLITICAL SLEEVES

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• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: February 6, 1993
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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GA6E t
LEVEL t - 2 i~f 95 5TOR3E5
Copyright t993 The Washington Past
The ~lashington Past
February 6, 1993, 5aturdayx final Edition
SE0T303~: 1'1?TfiU; PAGE ~i; DDRi}3HY GILLiAf1
LEN6TH: 758 words
HEaULINE: Slacks Must Roll ilp Their Pa~liti.cal Sleeves
SERIES: Occasiona3
BYLINE. DQRQTHY GiLLIAH
1yUI1Y
In this town, everyone is elated av?r the number of black appointees isz..the
Clinton ad~n~inistratinn. Yut now is the time to make them cork for African
Ame ric~ns.
Those appointees must assume a double burden. for while they were chosen far.
sterlictg qua3.itigs that supersede race, they also sere chosen to balance out the
racial diversity flf the pres.ident's team. ghat means a special accountability to
African A+nericans.
Too often, blacks don't halo black appointed officials accountahle t.or
elected ones ei'tl~er, far that matteri .
"~i'he black community roiled over acid played dead for i 2 years," one black
I;ush appointee toad me. "That's a big mistaken
Over tt~e last two decades, for example.,. key Republican leaders made a
covenant with black kepublicans in whici~ they pranised economic development,
black capitalism and entrepreneurship far African Americatts. Republicans. later
broke that pledge and wiped out many programs.
What helped Make their reneging possible? The silence of blacks.
Iut, you say, blacks didn't expect .anytfting from ~tepublicans because of heir
anti-civil rights policies. Right. But there`s mace to this problem than that.
The African Aau'rican caaataunity as a whole is sti13 a relative novice at i3.S.
politics. It`s only been in the last 3(3 years that blacks have held iatpartant
government Jobs, iihile some African Ar~ericans still are learning about hoop the
appointment process works, others sometimes get mesn~e~rized by just having t~lack
appointees in p'ositinns artd tend to celebrate the position itself.
Historically, blacks- hate shied away from exerting pressure on black
appointees out of a desire not to embarrass the appointee before a;tites.
This made it easy far an ambitious appain.tee -- viewing his ar her showcase'
Jab.as a stepping stone and enJayir~g the g3amour and prestige -- to get iota a
"don't make o~aves" mindset.. This translates into not railing issues critical to
the African American community.
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The ~3ashing tan Post, f ebruary b, t 4~'3
Thus, many black appointees can lank powerful while actually they are caught
in a trap of tokenism. "it~at trap consists afi being lvya3 to tie bass and getting
ahead, ors one hand, yet feeling a sense of responsibility to advance equal
rigt7t~, cn "the other.
Ta turn this around, the African American community must~not sit back and
trust "the process.fl 3t has to exert pressure an appointees and ~lecter3
of cicials, and hold them accountable an the issues seriously bedeviling the
black community.
I'm not talking about accountability far. a black agenda that is counter tc1 a'
national agenda, but about making certain that the national agenda is inclusive
of the interests of African Americans.
Outside pressure actua32y helps black appointees; it forces them to refilect
that pressure baci~ to the ~lhite House ar the Cabinet secretary. Keeping African
American cams~~tnity neeas and Concerns (rant and Center helps appointees avvics
being trapped in the tokenism zone.
The Clinton administration is particularly open to feedback. Strang public
pressure is the reason he abandoned Zoe E. laird ~sha was up far attorney
general, and the. reason he hacked off tampering with social security. And his
willingness to go to the~tnat to repeal the ban an homosexuals in the military is
in resganse to gay votes, mobilization and pressure.
Even though Clintfln could not have won 'without the averwhelmirrg support of
blacks, sa far he's already fired two shots that have angered many. One was his
geClslan to temporarily maiiftain tine ~3uati adtaini3tra'tion policy of suss~marily
Ce turning Haltlan5 picked up at Sea. Another 1.S his Republican-like Steps to
"end welfare as ae know it? by pushing people frogs the rolls after twt~ years.
Many blacks believs= the real answer is to provide employment opportunities and
affordab3e health and Child care, not "to set arbitrary cutoff dates.
I f Af r i can Asner~i cans want to e f feet change in problems that
a~isproportionately plague their Community -- unemployment, little ecflnoc~ic
develapsnen t and poor education and housing, to name a few -- they are going to
have to be diligent and watchful...
Certainly, pressure can be exerted through Churches, arga~nizatians and
regular leadership channels. Eut individuals also must take the activist,
au [spoken approach of writing, telephoning and faxing the White House, Congress
and federal agencies.
Republicans got away scot-frEe because [slacks assumed they wouldn't do the
right thing. It would be a shave if 'the Lesnacrats got away scat-free because
blacks assume they wiLl.~do the right thing.
iJithout pressure? I don't think sa..
TYNE: CUt_LlMN
SUBJECT: Et_ACKS; APPOINTED S0Vl`RNMENT OFI:ICIALS; POIiTICS
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LEVEL 1 - ~d I3F 5S 5T Uft I E 5
Copyright 1943 The Washington Post
The b3ashington Fast
,ianuary 30, 9993, Saturday, Final Edition
SECT I DN : ftETRU; FAGS 9;1; i3(3RttTH~ 6ILLI Afi
LEfi1GTN: b82 cords
HEADLINE: A UniYersal $ench~ark
SEk1E5: Ciccasional
D~YLIf1E: DaR07NY 61LLIR~
Eit3BY
Taa rarely does an AniQrican institution recognize a~n African American as an
authority on matters that affiect~a33 aur.lives. Nore often, his ar her
perspective is sought on issues celate~d to blacks: civil rights and race.
5o when a District resident ca"sled me early this week upset about the
"diminishing" af? the late Supreme Court ,3ustice Thurgaad Marshall, i knew what
he acs ta3king about.
He was referring to thane stories that, while well-displayed ar pramin.ently
aired --~anayhe e~ren sell-intentioned -- still described the great jurist
primarily in terms of his contribution to African Americans.
Explosively, the ca33er railed: "He was sa asuch mare than, than"
Indeed, he was. Tttu.rgoad Marshall never saw a right he didn't vindicate --
whether it was far women, gays, prisoners. A fierce proponent ofi individual
rights, h8 supported anyone who was oppressed, disadvantaged ar downtrodden,
uit~ia~acely transforming the :gay the law apsra"ted for them.
Even when he fought to extend equal rights to African Americans, to rake the
pra~sises of equa3 protection a 3iYing rea3.ity, Marshall defined the rights afi
citizenship far a31 A~aericans. indeed, to some blacks, the narrow descriptions
of Marshall fel"t' a3ncast 3ike a racial put-down.
By midweek, Marshall hegatz to get his just due as mare i:haught:ful
commentators orere heard from and t3ieir appreciat-icn of the broariness rsf his
views emerged.
At his impressive funeral an Thursday, an audience that included President
C3inton, the Z2 living sitting and rstireo justices and thousands of peap3e of .
all races and stations gave Marshall a monumental expression of appreciation.
Bost important, hg began to receive the context, perspective and histarica3
significance that he deserved.
Chief .justice bii3.l.iaac H_ Rehnquist noted that Marshall wrote more 'than 3CiQ
w~ajar opinions, and he called him an advocate of "civil rights for minorities
and civil liberties for all."
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The iJashington host, January 30, t9r13
Referring to the inscciption on the Supreme Court building, "Equal Justice
tinder Law," he said, '"Surely no one individual did +norQ 'to make these words a
reality than Thurgoad Marshall."
Forrtter secretary of transportation William T. Coleman Jr.. noted Marshall's
legal revolution, much ofi which "had nothing to do with race," with regard tc
women's rightsz forced confession, improper police practice, right to privacy
and habeas carpus.
Building on the legacy of Charles Houstan,.~his teacher at the Howard
llniversity School of i.aw and iVAACP partner, larshall furthered this nation of
solving social problems using the Saw and it formed the basis for many of the
other 'transformations ofi Saws that occurred in the' l~btJs and 197f3s.
It's important to note Marshall's contributions to the whole of Aaterica,.
because he, like a13 blacks, is connected to the wht~le.
It is u~fien people are able to view ethers as separate and apart that it
becomes easier to dehus~a?szg 'them and ignore the issues that affect thens, and tv
be numb or blind to what happens to~ them and how that ultimately affQ~cts
everyone.
?hurgaad Marshall understflod that fact, and he used his Iegal brilliance to
snake "egua3 justice under the laws mare nearly a reality far all.
At his funeral, they bade us to live his 3egacy. ~I hope that the nation has
the will and moral courage to finish Lhgse two giants' iLincoln and ila rsha113
unfinished business," Coleman said. .
Une important part.af that legacy is~ to rid ourselves of the nations that
African Americans have limits ott what they can contribute to Asserica, 'that their
scholarship and adilltIeS are measured by the Calor'Of thElr skin and not by the
depth of~their minds, courage, grace and fortitude,
'as an instrument of justice and tran~sfortaation.
Putting Marshall on a par aith Abcaha~n Lincoln, he said. Marshall "gave cloth
and linen to the asark that at Abraham .Lincoln's Qgath was left undone."
In her rQfecence to Marshall's "vision of law as an agent of social change,"
former Marshall Saw clerk xaren Hastie ~Illlam5 touched on another unigtse and
rarely mentioned Marshall contribution: an approach to laa in which it is used
t Y F+E : COLt3MfV
S1.IRJECT: JllBGES; fllNERALS ANB MEfitQRiAL SERVICE5
NAMEi3-~ERSC3N5: THI7fcl;UUFs MARSHALL
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LEVEL 1 - ~ OF 9~ S~{~k]E5
Copyright 3443 The btashirrgton Post
3'he Washington past
January 23, 1943,. Saturday., Final Edition
S?C'~'Iisfii~ }iETf;U~ pA6E Zf; ~30T2DT}~'Y 6ILLIAN
LENGTH: 71]2 wards
HEADLINE= A Zoast To America's Stately Host
5Ek3E5: Occasiattal
~YL1NE: Dorothy Gilliam
~;UT3Y
Washing ton, you did good. _
You can be proud of the way you handled President Clinton's inaugural
spectacular -- the biggest inauguration celebration in the country's history.
You worked hard at being a good host during. the four-day celebration in which
an estimated 80D,D00 showed up far b~ednesday's swearing-in and parade, and
7x,000 to 80,Cl00 attended balls,
You surprised a lot of people who clait~ed you were violent and frightening --
the nation's"murder capital." fiuring the year 1 3ived in filew Ynrk, some peap3.e
wnu.ld shake their heads and fear would appear in their eyes when i told them i
was from Washington.
P~aut, hundreds of ti~ousands of people will ga home with the image of the
Washington we know.
I saw numerous courtesies volunteers wearing "D.C. Host" buttons. patiently
giving taurists~retra routes, walking pattErtts, tMe names of law-cast
restaurants .
llnlike what President Kennedy once said -- that we are "a. city o.f. Northern
chart and Southern efficiency" -- we showed we can be a town of significant
charm and efficiency.
The Department of Pub3.ic Works guickly cleaned up the parade route. The
efficiency ~of Mayor Sharon Pratt ~i~elly's office, which p~rt3vided overa3l
caordination,~ was retna.rkable to evQn some of our residents. The Metro, which
labored under a major burden, provt=d alrAOSt up to the task.
Even the criminals took a holiday.
D.C. policQ said? they marvt=_led at the small number of serious offenses during
Inauguration Week. Three hansicides were reparteti betoseen f ridgy, Jatt. 95 and
Inauguration Day -- considered. a low number by police .?
"It's been amazing how sntoDthly things have run," D.C. po3.ice Capt. Sonya T.
Proctor said an Wednesday.~Proctor heads the unit that assists the Secret
ServicE with presidential securi"ty. "Evt=rytrady seems to Ire caught up 'in what's
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. The ZJashingtan host, January 13, 1993
happening. There have been no problems."
One police sergeant,~nating the slowdown in crime, said: "lt makes ygu w"ss h
we could have some.thing~ like this every week."
?hose oho came in with fear a?d trepidation went Name knowing that, r3urir~g
the entire weekx there were fewer crimes Isere thaft in many of their home toans,~
One person who's lived in New YoriC, Los Angeles and i~ashingfion remarked on
the professionalism of our police aff~icQrs~ who da oat have the arrogance she
associates with Los Angeles police or the sarcasm of New York caps.
ThE credit for such a saaoth show goes to national officials as well as local
ones such as 5asn Jordan, deputy director of the city's C~~ffics of Emergency
Preparedness, A veteran of seven inaugnratianss he oversaw logistics for the
District Inaugural Committee and caordis~ated activities of city agencies with
federal ones.
"Jordan's insfii.tutional ro~emary was verX valuable ttt us, so we did oat do
things improperly," said Debbie 3~ltlhite, director of events for tf';e
inauguration. "The city adjusted a~ell to our vision of the inacsgural and helped
us pul3 off some .pretty remarkable logistical feats throughout filte week-'~
but Jordan is only one of the many city and fEderal em?layees and
representative groups -- such as fi;~e ~tashi~ngton Committee tmaae up of people
from the city's public acid private sectarsl -- oho put out a aelcflming hand to
the rest of the country.
At an.e ball, the U.C.-N.Y. inaugural Dali at the D.C. Armory, the at%asghere
was definitely congratulatory, with District fa3~cs gracefully taking the credit
hgapQd an them by the Neap York celebrants.
If 'there were ever any doubts that the District of Columbia is a ma3or-league
town entitled to statehood, thQy had to be softened by the city's performance
this week.
Part of the goodwill undoubtedly catae From sa many residents who are
convinced that Clintfln and the Democratic-controlled Congress will indeed sake
goad on their promise of statehood for the Bistrict. Here and there throughout
the parade, and even~the balls, one could spot the buttons that said "D.C.
5ta~tehaad Noss" or lust "51 .,'
There was a reason those buttons sere worn sa prominently this seek. The
president is moving fast on some of his`pramises. One promise we expect him fifl
move an is statehaad~,~
I've nEYEC been mare ?raud af~the District as a host. city.
Nett time around, 1 want usta be a host state.
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She Zdashingl:an Posi, .3attuary ~3, 1443
SUEJEC7: II15TRICT Of CQLUMbIA; INAUGURA~IUN; U.S. PRESIDENT
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LEVEL 1 - 7 Uf 9~ STi3RiE5
Copyright 1993 The Washington Post
She >aa.shington Post
January tb, 1993., Saturday, Final Edition
Si:CT1{3N: ME7Rti; PAGE fat ; if(3R~TN'Y bILLIAM
lEP1t;TH: 777 asords
HEADLIKE: The Dceam Is Falling O.n i~eaf Ears
Si~t1E5: Qccasional
B'Yi.1NE: A4ROTHY 6iLLIAM
};t~UY
Wha, to sa many of our deeply troubled yautht is ftartin Luther King .i~.3
i'he answers, firo~n some, rip my heart:
"He is history." "Malcolm X means mare beCdUSe we identify with his anger."
uiie's a passive dreamer."
I pratest~
This man -- whose message can stil3 move me to tears, whose courage impelled
nsy generation to hera~ic action -- was no passive dreamer. t3ear King throwing
down the gauntlet to violently segregated America:
i.e't us make our intentions dear. We must and we dill be free_ b3e want
freedom.naw. We da nflt want freedom fed to us in teaspoons aver another t50
years.
These are not empty words. This young generation that neither f2ar5 death nor
3oves life, to whom a rebuff or perceived sligfi~t is just cause to .faits a 3ife,
needs to hear them. Yet nnnvialen.ce appears meaningless to the far too many _
young h3ack men in Washington and Ealtimore rho are in the criminal justice
System.
Listen to ilon harks, a 'tt-year-aYd federal emplayee~, speatc ahnut the meaning
i~is~g holds ~to some members of his generation: "His purpose is lost. They feel we
already have our freedom. .~ All they worr~r about today is making nraney and
surviving. The message of king's nvnvialence is being lost because they don't
understand it,"
1t is time to translate and rE-teach sting's messagQ to meEt the needs of such
a lost popu3ati~n. '
We live in a period where changes are taking place and' there is stil3. the
voice crying through the vista of time saying, 'behold, 3. make all thit,gs nea,
farmer things are passed away.'
"These are very complex t.i~nes," said Al Freeman Jr.,~ head of iiauard
13niversity's theater arts department and tt~e actor who played Nation of Islam
leader Eli1ah Kuhammad in "Malcaia~ X."
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The Washington Post, January 16, 195+3
"I'm not sure these young people deal in concepts and abstract ideas. They
want something immediately. Trey want i t naw. Some of tine rhetoric na longer
applies," he said.. "They are impatient... They turn on themselves."
~ reeman, who read movingly frog King's speeches on Monday at the Kennedy
Center, added: Ui'm thinking We have to call same people home; some people who
marched with Martin and now are very comfortable 'and-don 't see 'the need far
change. Have their turned their backs an some of the issues that still beset our
communities? Where are they? it sees~s to me our young people need same
leadership."
King was a man who aa5 willing to stand up for, even die for,? his beliefs.
The "Malcolm X" fllm dellver5 'the message that people can change bEhavior~anci
make themselves mare useful to others,
fsath aspects require a cflmmittinent to a different lif~e.style, said civil rights
leader Jesse L. Jackson. Tct make that point, Jackson went to Cardaza High School
on Wednesday to appeal to young people. He told them that black-an-black crime
is a greater threat than the Ku ~3ux Klan. And if they Want to follow Martin and
Malcolm, he said,? they must pledge nat~ta make babies and take no cespansibility
for them, not to pick up guns, not to se13 drugs.
Jackson said many students cous4itted themselves to a different lifestyle. He
3ater took the same message to Lorton prison and the U.C. jail.
I;ut ~larksx one of scares of young people who. picketed the National stifle
Assaci,atian yesterday in honor of ring, isn't sure such p3.edges c~i13 be
eftective asith troubled young people.
"They are going to have to want to c~-ange. Sa nEany are addicted to moneys the
g:tamour of hustling_ Add to that the .polder that having a gun gives th~st. Just
having a gun heightens a person's ego he pulls out a. gun and hE
automatically gets respect. He hasn't tried doing the right thing and the n
respe-ct that comes from that automatically. He wants to go the easiest way.
I;ut perhaps the biggest hurdle is that many young people don' t see t'y're job
opportunities and access that King's dream .envisioned.
l~hen young 'peagie grans up in War zones with friends being slain, body bags
and constant gunfire, in neighborhoods where there are mare liquor stores than
grocery stares, Where guns are cheap and easi3y available, it's easy to see why
King's dream can Seem irrelevant to them.
-"Something has to be done to make young people here realize that things WiIJ.
be better," Marks said .? "Isut it''s going to take a long while, a lot of hard cork
an the part of everybody." ?
If the spiral of despair -- homicides, drugs, lost economic and educational.
opportunities -- is loan to be slowed, if King'S dream is ever t:a bg fu3fi33ed~,
wE had better start naw.
Once. again, it is King who reminds us Why we need to act=
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single
garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
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Tate Washington Past, January 3b, X493
GkaPHiC: PHGTQ= THE REY,~ MARTIN LUTHEk KIPl6 JR.
TYPE: CaLUMN
SU~sJECT: MARTIN LUTHER KiNG..lR. BAY; ~LACKSi CiV1L RIGHTS
NAMED-PERSONS: MARTIN LUTI~ER i~iNf JR.
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LEVEL t - 8 OF 9~ STURIES
Copyright t95+'L. ~~he Washington Post
The Washington Post
December Z.b, iy92, Saturday, final Edition
SECTION: ME3D0; PAGE ~t ; T3t3DQTHY 6ILLIAei
LENGTH: 625 wards
HEABLIi~E: Declaiming A Holy Image
SERIES: occasional
ftltt.iNE: ttQRt)TNY t;iLL 1 Ali
f;UDY
On the aall flf the Rev. Wallace Charles Smith's church study is. a painting of
a .3esus with darts skin, African features and wool3.y hair.
bad called his son out flf Egypt, which is an African country, explained the
pastor of 5hilflh Baptist Church in the I33strict. "It's absurd to thintc i7e had
long,-flawing bland hair and blue eyes."
for many theolflgians, historians 'and Christians of all races, this is oat a
blasphemous distortion of history.
in a nsulticultural age alien feminists and people af~ color are challenging old
concepts, blacks watt 'to reestablish Africa and her descendants as cEnters of
value. They want to dfl this, they say, without demeaning other people's
contributions to world civilization.
"Ey modern Western standards, the earliest biblical people afluld have~tfl be
classified as blacks," said Cain Hope Felder, professor of New Testament
language and literature at the Howard I~niversity Schnnl of Divinity.
feller said new studies of ancient iconography and of 'the importance of
Egyptian and Ethiopiac~ civi~lizatians in the shaping of the biblical world are
providing substantive challenges ~to many notions, inc3uciing that Hary, the
another of ,iesus, was European.
"bast ahit:e scholars aauid have to admit that .les.us is a persan of color,"
said Felder, author of "Troubling Riitlical haters," s~hich stresses the lcib3e's
a~u3ticulturaiisQ. "This does not a+ean t.hac He aas from the Conga, but that He
had African biflfld."
Everette 6aodwin,~ pastor of predominantly ahz_t2 First Baptist Church in the
Tiistrict, said i~t is difficult for white people to accept an ilRage flf ,3esu5 ,as .a
persan flf~ solar.
"Every freckle-faced kid gcaws up thinking .ies.us laaics Anglo-5axfln. He may
get to the paint to say Ne looks SemltiC. fiat it gets tflugh ~tfl say NF was more
black ar more Asian. Since there are no photographs, ail of the above are
possible, but it's difficult."
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She f~tashington host, Dece~sber 2b, t992
To Sdy .ie5us Was SemiC1C, OF' .1t=wi~h,? dues not di3pute 4~is tsl~ckness, i'aldar
Said. 'The term, wh1Ch was ttot even Invt=.nted until the i9th century, refers not
ko a racial type, but to a family of languages, including bath Hebrew attd
Ethiopic," he said.
Naw, thEn, d?id Jesus become Whiter over the years?
flack sci~olars notQ that the increasingly white depictson flf Jesus began vaften
medieval. and Renaissance artists chose to represent biblical characters in stays
favorable to peoplQ of Eurzapean descent, fiQllyarood's "T3se Greatest Story Inver
Told" and "The Rube" further etched those images in stone.
Increasing numbers of black churches, both ~traditiotta3 and nontraditional,
have begun to incorporate African biblical images into their warship and
imagery.
"W8 don't make a big fuss,." said Smith, of Shiloh. "We hold (Jp pa51t1YE-
Afrocentric images and heap people understattd geography. And reasonable people
will begin making up their awn minds."
IJishop George A. Stallings -- Who three years ago brake from the ~tatican and
founded imani Temple, a Catholic congregation with an emphasis an African
culture -- recently announced a nationwide campaign to promote the use of black
images of Jesus in black churches.
"swie are talking about the issue of power anti the Way religion has used a
white Jesus to keep a people subserviettt and oppressed by subliminally conveying
the ~aessage that the God of Salvation is White," Stallings said..
linage is power. How empa~cering it could be for African American chi3.dren to
know that Jesus was of their save blood and stock. And haw much tolerance white
children could learn by understanding that a ,Jesus who did not lflak like them
had wisdoms fnr all the world to share.
And if there's anything we should knout this Christmas season, it is that Kis
message of lave, forgiveness and tolerance should be lifted up, not distorted.
TY P~ : COLUt1N
SUE JE C3 : FtEL I G I UN; I;L,~ yuS
NAMED-PERSQNS: CAIt1 HOPE f ELDER
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